While we're on this subject, a friend of mine who has failed several checkrides was told by his father who happens to be an FAA check airmen that he should lie about his busts when applying to the airlines. The reason being that the FAA does not yet have the logistical capacity to keep track of everyone who has busted a ride. I have tried to persuade him to be frank about it as there is no guarantee that something WON'T appear on his record when they look. No matter what I tell him, he thinks that he can lie and get away with it. Does anyone know how I might persuade him otherwise?
Uhm, they do - it's called IACRA. A computer makes it easy to keep track of things like who busted what.
And getting pulled out of class when his PRIA stuff comes back - for it will come back ("You. Grab your bag and your badge, and come with me.") - will likely adjust his attitude--somewhat embarrassing. And I wouldn't hire or fly with someone like that.
It may or may not have been the custom (circa 1990) that when you took the recheck, the pink slip simply disappeared. This is no longer the case.
A written isn't a check ride. Why bring it up?
That's pretty precise parsing. Is the question "have you EVER failed a training event?" And there might be a record of it somewhere. In fact, I'm pretty sure there
is (although I don't recall if a retrain is necessary after busting FOI/CFI-A, and I suspect you'd have to have some sort of endorsement - "Hey, what is this?").
Our AQP initial written test for the aircraft's systems are PRIA events, so if you bust one, something goes in your file.
My advice is
don't try to lawyer - leave it to the lawyers - and err on the side of disclosure.
A written failure does not constitute a check-ride failure... As others have said though, honesty is best. That is one thing I love about this industry, it demands integrity. That is a rare thing in other industries, but more abundant and required in aviation.
Sure.
But again, it depends on how you parse the question.
I failed my private oral as well as my initial 135 oral. I knew the 135 pink slip was on my record when I went to my 121 interview but I wasn't sure about the private one (that was way back in 2000). Anyway, I disclosed both failures and tried to emphasize what I had learned from each experience.
Obviously the honesty thing is huge for a 121 pilot position since character is supposed to be part of the criteria for ATPs (right?). But another aspect to consider is your employment history since that failure. Sounds like you built time in some commercial flying in between that failure and the interview and I think most people realize that counts for quite a bit.
Everyone has a bad day. Some of us have a bad day on test day. How you react to personal failures and the path you pave from that point is very telling about the kind of person/employee you are and can be.
Yes, see, you don't have a
history of marching in and failing training events. I haven't busted a training event yet (which is credit to the training I've received, truly), but I probably will at some point in my career. I expect to learn a lot from it.
The Captain of Colgan Air 3407, on the other hand, did - in fact, he was disapproved for:
* initial instrument airplane (ATC clearance/compliance, partial panel, VOR approach, NDB approach, not all of which was disclosed to Colgan)
* initial commercial SEL (takeoffs and landings, go-arounds, performance maneuvers - not reported to Colgan)
* initial commercial MEL (entire flight unsat - not reported to Colgan)
* initial ATP-Saab 340 (single-engine approach and landing - this happened at Colgan, so presumably someone knew about it and cared)
And the Captain received additional training while employed by Colgan on:
* SF340 PC ("train to proficiency")
* Recurrent SF340 PC (RTO, circling, oral, non-precision approach)
* Upgrade SF340 PC (see above ATP disapproval)
There's not a direct correlation between your training record and the odds of you becoming a smoking crater, but after a certain point, you have to wonder - and that's why the Company wants to know.