Checkrides

[Theodore Martin]

I'm in agreement with the others. I greatly enjoy getting that surprise in the form of a checkride. It provides a little excitement (yeah I know...get a life ) in the simming game. Also the checkrides are different from real world in that you get them and can practice until you feel you are ready. It's not like in a RW checkride where you learn exactly what is expected from you during the checkride. And getting a checkride turned down is not a big issue here, you actually learn a little something extra and just do it again.

[Todd Meek]

I'm with the rest of you guys, keep them a secret. I also like getting the checkride packet, reading through it to see what is required then hit the sim and give it a few tries. Sure my first few I would never record and send in, but I just keep doing them and recording all of them until I have one that I'm satisfied with and I send it in.

[Greg Gemelli]

I think Wayne summed it up very well and I agree with keeping the checkride details under wraps. I understand where Don is coming from though and seeking guidance in area's of focus on the AAV checkrides is a valid suggestion. Having a PTS for each of our checkrides wouldn't actually be a big benefit. The tasks that you are graded on are fairly consistent for each checkride as Wayne explained. In the real world at the airlines we have documentation covering the points of our recurrent checks but these are very extensive and last 3 days (at least thats the way it is at my airline). The process here at AAV is very simplified and the directions for the checkride rarely need more than 1 page. This is not to say the checkrides are easy, it's more to say that the instructions are meant to be as simple as possible. Do they require preparation? Absolutely. Study? For most, yes. The assigned aircraft and routing are consistent with the position you are taking the checkride for; there really are no surprises or gotchas.

Don if you hold yourself to FAA Instrument PTS standards and are proficient with the tasks in that handbook you'll be good to go. Trust me!

Cheers

[Harold Henderson]

Don, you do get to use more features of the a/p as you progress through the checkrides.

[Arturo Carvajal]

You are right Steve!!!

First law to follow:

Flight straight and level manualy if AP does not work!! As soon you recover control try to engage AP again.

[Harold Henderson]

Very good and informative discussion. AAV at it's usual best!

[Michael Blakely]

We have several special endorsements (Retro, Euro1, Euro2). This conversations makes me think it would be fun to add an AP endorsement. Program the FMC correctly, fly a complex route, flight level changes, direct to route changes, add a hold, top it off with an autoland. Have it done in a sufficiently complex aircraft. Maybe even add a Retro-AP in the RFP 747-200 with the CIVA INS.

[Greg Gemelli]

The biggest limiting factor in writing some absolutely realistic and challenging checkrides is the ability to control realtime failures/scenarios and have them be a surprise. About 6 yrs ago when I was still very active flying at AAV I had looked into doing this with the Level-D using the "saved flight" option. The idea was that along with the checkride PDF the candidate would also get a "saved flight" file. When they were ready to take the checkride they would load the "saved flight" and it would load up cold and dark at the gate of the departure airport. The problem I kept running into was having specific failures occur at a specified time or at a specified location. I wanted to do a checkride that started in JFK and was bound for Europe. Full of fuel and during climb out experiences the loss of the #1 engine due to fire and has to return to the field. Pretty basic but I could not get the desired results to occur at a specific point unless I did it manually (basically eliminating the surprise). So I scrapped the idea. Add to the programming problems that obviously this would have only been available to members who owned the Level-D.

Are there any programs that would allow for a realtime checkride? Basically having an examiner and the candidate logged into a server and the examiner able to have control over failures, play the role of ATC and assign random tasks? Or would allow for triggering failures are specified points and/or altitudes in a manner that it would be surprising to the pilot taking the checkride? If so the opportunities for increasing the realism of our check rides is ripe

Cheers

[Wayne Pierce]

Are there any programs that would allow for a realtime checkride? Basically having an examiner and the candidate logged into a server and the examiner able to have control over failures, play the role of ATC and assign random tasks? Or would allow for triggering failures are specified points and/or altitudes in a manner that it would be surprising to the pilot taking the checkride? If so the opportunities for increasing the realism of our check rides is ripe :)Cheers

I had joined a VA where we fly only the DC3. DCAirways. They had an in-cockpit training program whereon two persons would fly in the same plane as pilot and a copilot respectively. You had to have a program which would log onto the aircraft and you use yours at your computer and the other would fly along in theirs as your copilot. The testor computer had to have a payware program to use, with connection to a server, and the testee used a downloaded program from the testor. With this the testor could watch you fly online realtime while you did the course. I don't know if this is even available anymore. I had purchased it with other ideas in mind but I never used it. I don't even know if the service and server you had to go through is still around.

I never did that checkride as they then offered " on your honor trainee flights".

WLP