Susan, grass roots?
I’ve flown young eagles, neighbors, friends and countless co-workers in my plane over the last 30 years and exactly zero have completed a private rating. We are a small community and are already all brought together as a family by overcoming the insanely high hurdles of aviation (medical, regulations, certifications, endorcements, flight reviews, currency, annuals, AD’s, weather, airspace). We’re all nuts because we stick to it even beyond reason; and that’s what makes us supportive of all of us who do.
Campy movies? Not so much. I just hopes it gives use a few new lines to quote. The “because I was inverted” is way long in the tooth.
There are numerous adjectives to describe what flying is like in our blood, and yet most not quite enough. That feeling is what unites us, who are really bit by the flying bug, in spite of all the hoops to jump through, and even if we have to stop flying for financial reasons, family obligation, or health…that feeling often lingers, as we look up hearing a plane passing overhead, or see anything aviation related.
Once I was at an event where the late Gene Cernan (last man on the moon) spoke after receiving an award. He said something that really resonated with us in attendance: “Let’s face it, we’re hear because we love flying. I just got lucky….the real heroes are those guys in the back (pointing to USAF Airmen who were there being recognized for above and beyond heroism).”
We stay because of the love affair with flight, in spite of it all.
And yes, with all the incentives from aviation scholarships of all kinds to intro flights, to Young Eagles, CAP, and many other programs, getting a ticket is not for everyone, not for most, but a seed was sown…a sample of the freedom of a bird in flight, a story they may share many times over…not always instant gratification or action…but I think we’ll keep trying.
Saw it today, 5/27, in a theater filled about 50%. The movie is not bad, keeping in mind strict “realism” is not necessarily required in an action/adventure movie. Make no mistake, that’s what this is. The good guys get into some tough scrapes, deal with thick-headed superiors, yada yada, pretty much the same plotline as any interchangeable Elvis movie with flying scenes instead of songs. I had not read the previous comment about editing & the first 15 minutes until after I saw the movie and that could explain why the first 15 minutes seemed a little slow and forced. It’s easy to poke holes in Hollywood depictions of aviation and it will be even easier if the next blockbuster (Do those even happen anymore?) happens to be about ballooning. All in all I enjoyed it, and you might too. The original “Top Gun” turned out to be an effective recruiting film for the USN, mostly due to the live-action footage of real Naval aviation ops. Maybe it will happen again, for the same reasons.
What a nightmare. I wonder if the FAA has some advice about how to avoid this problem? Is there a way to know if your DPE is going to have their ticket pulled? Perhaps video record your whole checkride to produce as evidence in the future that you actually did a solid checkride?
The short answer is no. And I don’t think video-recording the checkride would help, and it could potentially be used against you instead of for you. Let’s say a maneuver was performed borderline to the standards but the examiner passes you, perhaps because they felt everything else was one to standards, or perhaps they were just feeling generous that day. Now both you and the examiner are potentially in hot water.
As unfortunate this is for the affected pilots, I don’t think there’s really much that can be done to prevent this. And I’m not aware of there being many instances like this, so I don’t think it’s a rampant issue.
Recently retired DPE…totally feel for the pilots involved.
The FSDO conducts an annual observation for each DPE but that accomplishes nothing since DPE behavior is calibrated to match the inspector’s expectations. Surprise observations would help, but you run into W&B issues that can derail the checkride - you can’t defuel a 172. Video, with an audio feed? That would be very helpful, but that would require inspector time watching the video, which any ASI can tell you they don’t have. Also, it’s very difficult to evaluate “proper attitude” (see PP ACS for landings), as well as other subtle go/no go task elements by video.
DPE behavior being bad enough to warrant this kind of intervention is rare enough that nothing’s going to change unless the problem gets worse.
A class action against the DPE, regardless of the outcome, would put the fear of God in DPEs, and act as a deterrent. Probably more effective than the FAA merely yanking the DPE authorization…
I have a friend who had to take his A&P exams twice because of a similar event on the maintenance side. Then what happens to any aircraft owner who had an inspection performed by the individuals who are required to retest?
“The FSDO conducts an annual observation for each DPE but that accomplishes nothing since DPE behavior is calibrated to match the inspector’s expectations.”
Which at least in the case of one FSDO I know of, it pretty much means an automatic unsatisfactory. That hardly has the intended effect of ensuring that DPEs are testing properly.
Perhaps what is needed is an independent review board. Either for reviewing DPEs on a regular, unscheduled basis, and/or for reviewing cases where the FAA claims a DPE or pilot is not qualified.
Middle of winter, 25 days to get a check ride. Poor weather and a DPE shortage will end up unfairly grounding many. I guess the question to ask is is there a real identifiable safety issue or is this just a some i’s not dotted and t’s not crossed kind of thing. I think a fairer approach would be to have the affected pilots take a ride with an instructor, BFR or something similar to make sure they are okay and then give them 6 months or more to take another checkride if they deem it necessary. Seems to be the FAA is migrating back to being an overbearing, heavy handed organization again instead of one there to help pilots, committed to safety and promoting aviation.
We don’t know the circumstances of why this DPE had his privileges revoked. The talk of lawsuits is premature and I am sure there is very little in the way of flesh to take. The only people who would make out in that circumstance would be the lawyers. It could be a simple paperwork issue and an overzealous FAA, something we have seen time and time again.
Agreed, 25 days is nuts. I don’t know the DPE situation in Alaska, but in Colorado I regularly hear about students scheduling their checkrides months in advance.
The FAA has NEVER been known to be fair or compassionate! Whoever had the oversight of this DPE at the FAA should be fired instead! In my 40 years experience with the FAA the majority of the pilot administrators have some sort of chip on their shoulder. Most because they didn’t land a good pilot job with an airline. It’s not a joke that the biggest lie in commercial aviation is when the FAA inspector shows up and says “I’m just here to help”. I got to the point in my airline career when I had an air carrier inspector in the cockpit, that my briefing was “You don’t make small talk at any time, and you don’t speak unless you see a safety of flight issue.” They weren’t there to help, they were there to get cudos from the other guys back at the office for busting an airline pilot. Oh, and the chip on my shoulder isn’t from getting busted by a fed. I had a 30 year career with no violations. But I saw them hand out plenty of BS violations to others.
I’m going to be very intrigued to see what comes out about this. Simply put, the FAA has lost complete control of the DMS (Designee Management Systems) specialists. In New England, we lost three DPEs in one week after a rogue DMS Specialist came to town to “teach” the new local guy. Even though it’s clear that the DMS Specialist was not acting correctly, the FSDO manager just saluted and signed the terminations. This is less than a year after another DPE was terminated because the FAA issued him an authorization he wasn’t supposed to have AND multiple other inspectors failed to catch the error (same FSDO).
As you can imagine, there are long wait times for check rides in our little area, and prices have gone up a lot.
Perhaps a 3rd party contractor operating ‘under cover’ with ID and fake logbook to match. Oh, that might be entrapment! Seems like the FSDO has some flesh in the game because the FAA oversight was obviously inadequate. Maybe a trip into past practices and the FSDO does rechecks FOR FREE.
This has happened regularly over the years. The FAA doesn’t like DPE’s who have the reputation of being “easy”. They’ll pull tickets on a whim, without evidence or justification, causing a rippling mess. Welcome to Administrative Law. You have no rights.
