August1999
Checkride-itis
Real or Imagined?
heckride-itis, real or imagined? The an-
swer? Probably true to both, but there are
ways to make it a little less hecticand they
seemtowork.
As a flight instructor, I never pass up
achancefor another flight instructorto fly
withmystudents.Itservesseveralpur-
poses at the same time. First, theygetto
see whatother instructorssayanddoin
similar situations, andtheybecome used
toadifferentfaceandvoiceinflight.
Second, they hear the same questions asked
a differentwayandsometimestheyget
new answers tothe questions.
I reallywonder ifitisthetestthey
fear or the fear of failure itself. The test,
from the Practical Test Standards, can be
givenover and over againfromdayone
by anyone so that the answers can become
secondnature. Soitmustbe theperson
doingthetestingg—therawpowerthat
theyhavewithwhichtofailyouatthe
drop of a hat.
It’s kind of scary now that you men-
tionit. I have never seenthe necessity of
frighteningsomeonesobadlythatthey
couldnotperformnormally,norhaveI
ever found that to bethe reason behind the
PTSortestingingeneral.Powerdoes
strange things to some people, and a lot of
them would be better off without it. I have
severalexaminerstochoose from inmy
area, and I refuse to use an examiner who
curses my students or beats them upver-
bally simply because they have the power
to pass or fail them. What makes them so
superior anyway?Isitbecause theycan
fly an aircraftandthisguy or girl can’t?
I’ve watched check rides deteriorate
over the years simplybecause the exam-
iner didnot have any people skillswhat-
soever, and then I have seenother exam-
into a successful test-taker. Some of the
reasons given to me over the years for
failure include the examiner having the
power to fail you, the right of youto fail,
being nervous because it is all finally
coming to a head, the misuse of position
somewhere else. They have taken so many
teststhat the mysteryhasbeen removed.
Theyunderstand a testis nota measure-
ment of what you know. It is simply a test
tosee what you remember about the sub-
ject matter you are being tested on today,
whichisa big difference.
Careful preparation bythe flight in-
structor in finding examiners who comple-
ment the candidate, having mock exami-
nationsthroughoutyourtrainingsylla-
bus,andgettingreadyfor this testfar in
advance can help insure no complications
arise. Prepare your student for better and
worse and be there for the start and finish
of the checkride. Actually, I’ve never met
an examiner or an inspector that killed the
victim on the spot and ate them, although
I have heard of it happening.
If this testingwere notnecessaryto
keep those fatalities down each and every
year, it wouldhave beendone awaywith
long ago. Seldom do we hear ofthe person
that simply cannot pass an FAAcheckride,
butwhenwe dohearaboutone,we are
glad tosee themweededout before they
cando any damage.
These tests are really not all that hard
topass as long as the student is prepared.
Justlook—youandI passed, didn’twe?
I’ll see youon the launch field!
Jim Trusty is the 1997 National Flight
Instructor of the Year, the number 1 FAA
Aviation Safety Counselor in Nashville,
Tennessee, and is a member of the Na-
tional Association of Flight Instructors
(NAFI). He welcomes your comments.
You can reach him at 103 Highland Drive,
Old Hickory, TN 37138-1617, or 615-
758-8434.
by the flight instruc-
tor in finding exam-
iners who comple-
ment the candidate,
having mock exami-
nations throughout
your training sylla-
bus, and getting
ready for this test far
in advance can help
insure no complica-
tions arise.
theexaminer,thestudentbeingim-
properly prepared, poor instruction on the
part of the instructor, and just the fact that
twostrangersaremeetingforthefirst
time.
Mostoftenwefindthattheperson
taking the test is just not a goodtest taker
at this point in their life because they have
nottakenenoughtests.Soundsgoofy, I
know, but give it some thought. The best
test takers you have ever seen took a lot of
