I just failed my PPL checkride on the oral portion… I honestly thought I was ready, the week leading up didn’t go as planned, the check ride day didn’t go as planned, my DPE was 4 hours late on top of it for whatever reason I’m not sure. I don’t think I’ve ever been so embarrassed and angry at myself but is this going to negatively affect my career? I’m going to learn from it and go back through to access where I need to improve and improve study habits but right now it’s kinda hard to find any good from this. I’m assuming with one check ride fail already I need to have zero fails throughout my training which just adds more stress and worry to my career. Thanks.
Dylan,
Any checkride failures are unfortunate but one will not affect your career. Obviously it’s not something you want to make a habit of. Biggest thing now is as you said to learn from it and MOVE ON. You cannot let it hang over you like the Grim Reeper. It happened and you can’t go back and un-fail it. Just know this feeling you have right now you don’t want to feel again and make certain you do everything you can to make sure that you don’t.
Adam
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Dylan,
Private is probably the most inconsequential checkride to fail. It still is on your record but many people do fail it because of the “first time nerves” and not knowing what to expect. Now you do, the important part is to learn from it and make sure it doesn’t happen again. Figure out what the weakness was and how you missed it in your preparation. When asked in the future about it, they will simply want to know what you learned from it to make you a better Pilot today.
-Hannah
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Dylan,
This is not the end of world, even though it might seem like it to you. Just be sure to learn from this moving forward. Of course we encourage people to try to be as successful as possible, but one or even two failures is not going to be a career ender. Try to put this behind you and focus on learning the material.
Chris
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Dylan,
Just want to comment on one part of your post.
The DPE was 4 HOURS late?!?!? This in my opinion is unacceptable. A disregard for your time, and his for that matter. I’m assuming you didn’t take this ride at ATP? ATP school only gives you 3 hours for a checkride and the plane is used by others after you so a 4 hour delay would ruin everyone’s schedule.
Others have given great advice, and you know what you have to do, but that DPE shouldn’t make you wait a half day.
Lucas
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Dylan,
You will be fine. I have two checkride failures, one being my PPL. I know the feeling that you are experiencing right now. It’s hard to accept the failure when you feel so confident. Just like you said, just learn from it and move on.
Really the only time that this will ever come up again is during an interview. When it does, just stick to the facts. Own up to the failure. I wouldn’t even bother mentioning that the DPE was late. The interview panel will just want to see that you can take responsibility, learn from your mistakes and that you are striving to be your best.
You know what you need to work on. You will do better next time. Most people usually do. Soon this will be behind you.
Tory
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Thank you everyone for the encouraging responses, I really appreciate it.
Yeah I’m not sure what happened. I heard he showed up 2 hours late to his first check ride, that check ride went extra long which delayed me even more. Scheduled to start at 1 and began the check ride at exactly 5, nobody seemed surprised and every CFI I talked to before hand could guess exactly what DPE it was. Seemed unprofessional to me as well but maybe it was just a crazy day.
Dylan,
I’m with Tory on this one. I don’t know the DPE or the circumstances of the day but you def need to move away from his being late as the reason for your failure.
Airline Interview:
Panel: tell us about this bust
You: well first off the examiner was 4hrs late
Panel: so?
You: well I think that was very unprofessional
Panel: soooo you were ready and able to pass at 1pm but by 5 the window had closed?
Def not a rabbit hole you want to go down.
Adam
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