I suspect my situation might be extreme but not completely unheard of. I'm in my late fifties, work in financial services, with plenty of time in the back of business jets and millions of miles in commercial aviation travel. I've always wanted to fly but early on, the economics didn't square with starting a family, then a business, a later, the time commitments of being a senior businessman precluded the commitment required.
So finally in 2013 with the kids out of the house, and some business stability, I figured I'd just start taking lessons whenever possible, first in a 172, then in a DA40. It was a battle carving out time, but over the next four years I managed to accumulate, as of last week, 174 hours, with >45 hours solo. I've had five separate sign-offs for my checkride, three cancelled, once for business reasons, once for weather, once for equipment. The two tests I did take were failures; the first last summer when I unwisely tried to take it at an unfamiliar airport during an incredibly stressful span of time (immediately prior to both moving, and changing jobs) where the DPE basically said take me back after I fumbled my lost procedure. The second was last week which I took in a DA20. (the DA40 was down for service for 3 weeks and counting with no end in sight)
I aced the oral portion, messed up the practical pretty severely, and don't fault the DPE's decision in the least.
I could point to multiple reasons for this second failure, but rather than sound like I'm making excuses, would like to pose the the community the question: what would you do in my situation to wrap this up? Money is not a constraint, but time sure is. The flight school community is populated by some really great, committed, hard working people who love flying, but peel back the incentives and the reality is: what school operators want most is selling flight hours to help amortize their equipment fixed costs, and what CFIs want most is to build hours on someone else's dime so they can get a job with an airline. (which describes my last three)
Realistically, there just isn't anyone in the system who really wants to take ownership of the outcome for me.
I've seen American Flyers and a few other groups who offer 'finishing' programs that sound a lot like what I might need, so maybe I should bite the bullet, take a week off and camp at some stable-wx zipcode and practice maneuvers 5 hours a day? Another alternative might be to shop around for a 'private' CFI as their sole student with the single goal of getting me through my test. If such a thing exists?
Anyhow, I'm pretty frustrated, really want to pass this test, and curious to hear what others think...
