Five months waiting for a checkride

mtaylor

mtaylor

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Washington, Utah
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mtaylor
Since I was a little boy I have wanted to fly. Either I didn't have the money or the time. At age 55 I finally had both the money and the time. The only thing left is a checkride. As the title says I have been waiting 5 months for a checkride. Finally yesterday I told my CFI and the school that I quit. Was tired of the wait and constantly studying. At my 47th flight hour I and my CFI felt that I was ready. During the wait I decided to keep flying to stay current and be ready. I now have 70 hours and feel that I am wasting time and money. The flight examiner just keeps blowing me off. What should I do? Contact the FAA, FSDO, or AOPA? Should I find another CFI or school?

Mark
 
denverpilot said:
Every FSDO/region has multiple examiners. What is this “the” examiner junk? Pick another examiner.
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I'm only a student pilot looking for advise. My former school gave me only one examiner phone number. If you know of another examiner please let me know. I am willing to travel anywhere in Utah, Las Vegas or Southern California.
 
Mark Taylor said:
I'm only a student pilot looking for advise. My former school gave me only one examiner phone number. If you know of another examiner please let me know. I am willing to travel anywhere in Utah, Las Vegas or Southern California.
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Understand.

When you say your “CFI felt you were ready” have they signed off on a checkride endorsement in your logbook? How long ago? There’s a time limit on those, as I’m sure you’re aware if you have looked at the requirements for your certificate and checkride.

Why aren’t they assisting you in finding a different examiner?

I’m just asking because a school saying there’s only one examiner, is not normal at all. Even if they have to sign you off to fly solo to a different airport, there’s multiple examiners in a FSDO region.
 
Yes, I have all the necessary endorsements in my logbook. My 90 day solo endorsement expires tomorrow. Not sure why my former school never helping me find a different examiner. My school, CFI and myself have gone in different directions. That is why I am reaching out to this forum.
 
I guess to answer my own question I need to do the following: Find another CFI/School with a good working relationship with several examiners. That would require me to travel to either Provo, Utah, North Las Vegas, NV or Henderson, NV.
 
Or call the local FSDO and ask for a list of local examiners.
 
Where are you, Mark?
 
I live in St. George, Utah. Southwest part of Utah. Less than 2 hours drive from Las Vegas, Nevada.
 
Don't forget that you need 2 hours of training "in preparation for the practical test" within the last two months. Its appalling that your flight school is not assisting you this process.
 
Also, you will need a sign off to fly to the DPE if that is a requirement.
 
BrianNC said:
$$$$
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Brian, now that I think about it I think you are right. The CFI called from the school the other day. I though it was odd that he called. Usually he only sends a text. I think the school had him call because I quit renting the plane. I thought I was smarter that this. The school only wants to rent the airplane to make money and the instructors are only in it for the time.
 
I dunno about the money thing. If you got your license you'd still likely rent from them (if they weren't being douches). More likely laziness and apathy.
 
I also wouldn’t assume it’s about money, but that’s because we can’t get both sides of the story from here.

At this point you’re going to need a CFI who’ll sign off on checkride prep within the preceding 60 days and that’s going to require flight time.

You need to talk to a CFI who’s willing to see where your skill set is at, polish up anything you’ve gotten rusty on, they’ll likely sign off again on the ride and the ride prep, if you change CFIs.

You’ll also want to ask the CFI how they’ll handle it if the local examiner is AWOL on you. How will they assist in finding or going to another examiner.

Flying to another airport for the checkride is possible and they can either go with you or sign you off to solo over to the checkride airport. Plenty of options.

Find out what the plan will be up front before plunking down more money, just in case it’s a money thing. I suspect it isn’t a skill thing if you already had the ride endorsements done, but if you haven’t flown in a while you’re probably not “checkride ready” so make sure you are.

Lots of examiners are booked solid with all sorts of folks upgrading and chasing various commercial flying openings these days. Maybe your local examiner is just slammed with applicants. We are seeing bookings running more than a month out here at times, but not as long as yours.

Some examiners also have other flying jobs and travel for those, so that can affect things when there’s only one in a close in area, so you may have to branch out a ways to find another examiner.
 
Take the initiative to tell the CFI that you need to finish up and ask what they can do to help. If they can't provide information to get it done then they are definitely not looking out for you.
 
denverpilot said:
I also wouldn’t assume it’s about money, but that’s because we can’t get both sides of the story from here.

At this point you’re going to need a CFI who’ll sign off on checkride prep within the preceding 60 days and that’s going to require flight time.

You need to talk to a CFI who’s willing to see where your skill set is at, polish up anything you’ve gotten rusty on, they’ll likely sign off again on the ride and the ride prep, if you change CFIs.

You’ll also want to ask the CFI how they’ll handle it if the local examiner is AWOL on you. How will they assist in finding or going to another examiner.

Flying to another airport for the checkride is possible and they can either go with you or sign you off to solo over to the checkride airport. Plenty of options.

Find out what the plan will be up front before plunking down more money, just in case it’s a money thing. I suspect it isn’t a skill thing if you already had the ride endorsements done, but if you haven’t flown in a while you’re probably not “checkride ready” so make sure you are.

Lots of examiners are booked solid with all sorts of folks upgrading and chasing various commercial flying openings these days. Maybe your local examiner is just slammed with applicants. We are seeing bookings running more than a month out here at times, but not as long as yours.

Some examiners also have other flying jobs and travel for those, so that can affect things when there’s only one in a close in area, so you may have to branch out a ways to find another examiner.
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Well said. I need to start looking for a CFI that has good relationships with more than one examiner. There are no examiners in my area that I know of so I will have to travel. My former CFI said he has another examiner and said he will give me the examiners number.
 
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

I think in this case it's probably more like apathy, but in any case the result is that IMHO you should take charge of getting the checkride scheduled with a DPE and not expect your CFI to take care of everything. There's nothing preventing you from contacting a DPE and scheduling it directly yourself. However many CFIs and flight clubs have preferred DPEs so you should at least ask your CFI which DPE(s) they like to work with and then you could contact them directly.

It seems like half of what you learn in pilot training is that you're in charge and need to be responsible for everything required to safely complete a flight. It took a while to wean myself of the CFI sitting next to me on every flight telling me what to do (or at least being there to answer if I asked what to do). The same thing should apply when it comes to responsibility for scheduling your checkride. I had to schedule mine a couple months in advance but it only took a couple days to actually put down a deposit and lock in a date. I also reserved the date before I was actually ready for it because I knew there would be a delay (good DPEs around here are pretty busy). Now I just need to finish training before then and actually pass it :)

Congrats on being ready in so few hours though. I'm going for the record for the greatest number of hours before the checkride :) I've managed to hit almost everything that can slow the process down... switching planes (Cessna to Cirrus), instructors, flight schools, problems scheduling more than one lesson per week for a while, injury that grounded me for two months, huge delay getting my medical certificate, and just plain old being slow to pick up some of the stick and rudder skills.
 
Steve Kanefsky said:
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

I think in this case it's probably more like apathy, but in any case the result is that IMHO you should take charge of getting the checkride scheduled with a DPE and not expect your CFI to take care of everything. There's nothing preventing you from contacting a DPE and scheduling it directly yourself. However many CFIs and flight clubs have preferred DPEs so you should at least ask your CFI which DPE(s) they like to work with and then you could contact them directly.

It seems like half of what you learn in pilot training is that you're in charge and need to be responsible for everything required to safely complete a flight. It took a while to wean myself of the CFI sitting next to me on every flight telling me what to do (or at least being there to answer if I asked what to do). The same thing should apply when it comes to responsibility for scheduling your checkride. I had to schedule mine a couple months in advance but it only took a couple days to actually put down a deposit and lock in a date. I also reserved the date before I was actually ready for it because I knew there would be a delay (good DPEs around here are pretty busy). Now I just need to finish training before then and actually pass it :)

Congrats on being ready in so few hours though. I'm going for the record for the greatest number of hours before the checkride :) I've managed to hit almost everything that can slow the process down... switching planes (Cessna to Cirrus), instructors, flight schools, problems scheduling more than one lesson per week for a while, injury that grounded me for two months, huge delay getting my medical certificate, and just plain old being slow to pick up some of the stick and rudder skills.
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Another great post.
 
Mark Taylor said:
Yes, IACRA is done. Today my 90 day solo endorsement expires.
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You also need a "Checkride ready" endorsement. It's separate from the solo endorsement. And 3 hours of check ride prep dual in the preceding 30 days. (I think it's 30. I'm no CFI.)
 
Mark Taylor said:
Yes, IACRA is done. Today my 90 day solo endorsement expires.
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That isn’t a checkride endorsement. Or the “I have given checkride prep” endorsement.

You need both of those from your previous instructor, or another CFI.

If you go with another CFI, don’t be too surprised if they want to fly at least a little bit with you perhaps more than just a mock checkride and “prep” because they’re not going to put their ticket on the line and sign you off for a checkride unless they’ve seen you do all of the required items.

Your cheapest route is to work with your existing CFI and respectfully and forcefully ask for a real finish up plan. But if that relationship is too burned, expect some more flying. Find a CFI who’ll sit down and make a finish up plan with you.

Technically the CFI doesn’t NEED (but might WANT) to have a “relationship” with different DPEs. You’re either ready for the ride or you aren’t. But it’s good to have the CFI engaged with the selection process for any DPE as they may need to talk to them about the logistics if they’re going to have to sign you off (again under their ticket) to fly somewhere else to take the ride.
 
FYI one of the FAA Inspectors at the local FSDO can give you your check ride for free. Long story but when I took my PPL check ride years ago there was a problem with the "recommended" DPE at my local airport. I took my ride with an FAA inspector instead. Did not find it any more difficult than any of the rides I've taken since, it didn't cost me any money and I avoided the crook, I mean DPE that was screwing students at the airport.
 
Marshall R. Naquin said:
FYI one of the FAA Inspectors at the local FSDO can give you your check ride for free. Long story but when I took my PPL check ride years ago there was a problem with the "recommended" DPE at my local airport. I took my ride with an FAA inspector instead. Did not find it any more difficult than any of the rides I've taken since, it didn't cost me any money and I avoided the crook, I mean DPE that was screwing students at the airport.
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Most FSDOs are not doing rides these days.

This advice may or may hot work depending on the FSDO but the general feel and supposed “guidance” is to let Designees handle all rides other than initial CFI, and even those are all being farmed out “randomly” to local DPEs here out of our FSDO, after you call and ask for a date. They’ll assign a DPE for 99.9999% of them.
 
Lynn French DPE, also, I believe the manager of the Crawford (99V) CO airport, nice guy.
970.921.7700
Crawford is in Western CO., not far from the Utah border.
 
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First let me thank all those that have responded! After reading and re-reading the responses and putting myself in the examiners, CFI, and schools shoes. Also, pending hours of thinking about my situation of what I should do I came up with the following plan: In a few weeks after I have had a chance to cool down I plan to patch my relationship with the school and CFI. My plans are to quit studying and flying. Only until I get an appointment for a check ride will I resume flying and studying. I plan on living as if my check ride is not until November.
 
Luigi said:
Lynn French DPE, also, I believe the manager of the Crawford (99V) CO airport, nice guy.
970.921.7700
Crawford is in Western CO., not far from the Utah border.
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Luigi, One of my goals after getting my certificate was to fly to Teluride, Colorado. I am seriously considering flying to Crawford for my checkride. Teluride is only 30NM from Crawford. I am going to patch my relationship with the school and CFI first.
 
Mark Taylor said:
First let me thank all those that have responded! After reading and re-reading the responses and putting myself in the examiners, CFI, and schools shoes. Also, pending hours of thinking about my situation of what I should do I came up with the following plan: In a few weeks after I have had a chance to cool down I plan to patch my relationship with the school and CFI. My plans are to quit studying and flying. Only until I get an appointment for a check ride will I resume flying and studying. I plan on living as if my check ride is not until November.
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If you stop you’ll get rusty and it’ll take a lot more hours to do checkride prep and be back up to the minimum standards.
 
Don't do it.. Take a break that is..

You don't have to mend any relationship.. Step one, call all of the local dpe's to check their availability and the logistics of doing the ride with them. Second, go to the school you have already invested your time and money with and tell them the date of the ride and setup all of the appointments your going to need to be ready. Then take and pass the test and start flying around as a private pilot. All of this is under your control.

Good luck!
 
May I suggest that DPEs are also Flight Instructors. Call all of those who are on your list and explain that your solo endorsement has expired and you need (x) hours of instruction before you can take a checkride and that you have been ready for quite some time. Then ask the DPE to instruct you for those hours or to suggest a CFI you can use nearby to the DPE. With an sympathetic DPE, you should be able to schedule both the (x) hours and the checkride for the same day.

You can still patch up your relationship with your CFI/school, but get busy creating a relationship with DPEs, too. Ask your CFI for that endorsement (or reasons why) after every flight. As a student, especially one who has nearly completed his requirements, you should be totally aware of what you still need to do to get that endorsement. You are the commander. Git 'er done.
 
AuntPeggy said:
May I suggest that DPEs are also Flight Instructors. Call all of those who are on your list and explain that your solo endorsement has expired and you need (x) hours of instruction before you can take a checkride and that you have been ready for quite some time. Then ask the DPE to instruct you for those hours or to suggest a CFI you can use nearby to the DPE. With an sympathetic DPE, you should be able to schedule both the (x) hours and the checkride for the same day.

You can still patch up your relationship with your CFI/school, but get busy creating a relationship with DPEs, too. Ask your CFI for that endorsement (or reasons why) after every flight. As a student, especially one who has nearly completed his requirements, you should be totally aware of what you still need to do to get that endorsement. You are the commander. Git 'er done.
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It doesn't hurt to at least call the FSDO and explain your situation. They might have other suggestions. I called the FSDO one time for a different purpose (which is 50 miles away), and the guy I spoke to said he'll be at my local airport the following week, so lets meet there and get it done. Not all FAA folks are bureaucrats who sit at a desk.
 
AuntPeggy said:
May I suggest that DPEs are also Flight Instructors. Call all of those who are on your list and explain that your solo endorsement has expired and you need (x) hours of instruction before you can take a checkride and that you have been ready for quite some time. Then ask the DPE to instruct you for those hours or to suggest a CFI you can use nearby to the DPE. With an sympathetic DPE, you should be able to schedule both the (x) hours and the checkride for the same day.

.
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It would have to be a referral from the DPE to another CFI. DPEs can not sign off a student under their CFI ticket to take the checkride with themselves, as far as I can remember. Too much opportunity for fraud that way. FAA no likey.
 
denverpilot said:
It would have to be a referral from the DPE to another CFI. DPEs can not sign off a student under their CFI ticket to take the checkride with themselves, as far as I can remember. Too much opportunity for fraud that way. FAA no likey.
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Agreed. There must be at least 2 people involved. I guess I explained myself poorly. A DPE can recommend a CFI to do the training and endorsement or he can do the training and endorsement and recommend another DPE for the checkride.

In any case, the student is not bound to the school and its policies or maneuvering. He can reach out, himself, to accomplish his goals. On the other hand, I've seen times when the student thought s/he (I) was completely prepared for a checkride but still needed more work before the checkride.
 
You can pick any DPE you want. Don’t stop studying, you can slow down the flying, don’t just stop. I think the school is giving you the shaft. Even if you have to find a DPE that is an hour flight away, it’s worth it.
 
Mark Taylor said:
Since I was a little boy I have wanted to fly. Either I didn't have the money or the time. At age 55 I finally had both the money and the time. The only thing left is a checkride. As the title says I have been waiting 5 months for a checkride. Finally yesterday I told my CFI and the school that I quit. Was tired of the wait and constantly studying. At my 47th flight hour I and my CFI felt that I was ready. During the wait I decided to keep flying to stay current and be ready. I now have 70 hours and feel that I am wasting time and money. The flight examiner just keeps blowing me off. What should I do? Contact the FAA, FSDO, or AOPA? Should I find another CFI or school?

Mark
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Hey Mark, Luis here,

I am from Miami, FL.
So, I found your post googling "waiting months for my check ride", to see If I could find someone in the same situation as me or someone who had the same issue and found a great and easy solution... long story short, I am in the exact same position as you, and judging by what you wrote, I can tell you I feel exactly the same as you do; I have been waiting for 4 months for my PPL check ride, I also felt cheated by my school and tried to change schools but It was so difficult that I ended up patching my relationship with the school, and now I'm flying once, twice a month (I'm a medical resident so not much funding left here) just to keep flying you know...

Well, I just wanted to say something after reading your post, please if you don't mind, keep me in the loop, I will try to do the same. If you find an FAA pilot examiner or something you think may be useful let me know.

Best of luck! Hope you will get this done sooner than later.

Best,

LE.
 
Definitely don't be afraid to use the designee database online (as previously mentioned) and also, if you're still having problems with DPE availability, contact your local FSDO and express your concerns. The FSDO maintains their designee roster according to public demand. When they receive complaints about lack of examiner availability, these are recorded -- and with enough of those, eventually a new designee will be added.
 
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