Halfway there

[Khirsah13]

You're looking at America's newest proud owner of a Letter of Discontinuance. Passed the oral with flying colors, but when my examiner got covered in snow walking from his car to the FBO, he decided to cancel the flight portion. Thanks to all who rooted for me. I'm halfway there!

-Khir
PPL Student
"When logic and proportion
have fallen sloppy dead,
and the White Knight is talking backwards,
and the Red Queen's 'Off with her head!'
Remember what the dormouse said:
'Feed your head. Feed your head.'"
-Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...cb1725e477.jpg

[Stratus_Fractus]

Good luck on the flying! :-)



http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...853b22ca5c.jpg

"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk
the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you
have been, and there you will always long to return." - Leonardo da Vinci

[gaafanatic]

Please pardon my ignorance, but what is a "letter of discontinuance"?

[Khirsah13]

A letter of discontinuance is a document filled out by your examiner that indicates what portions of the practical exam you have successfully completed if you are unable to complete the entire exam. It allows you to postpone a portion of the exam due to unfavorable weather, injury, family emergencies, and failure of a portion of the exam without having to retake the entire thing.

Mine says, "On this date, 11/30/2002, you successfully completed a portion of the Private ASEL practical test. This practical test was discontinued because of unfavorable weather. If application is made by 2-28-2003, this letter may be used to show the following portions of the practical test which have been completed satisfactorily: Area of Operation I. After 2-28-2003, you must repeat the entire test."

Before letters of discontinuance, if you, say, broke a leg during preflight you would have to retake the entire exam instead of just taking the portions of the exam that you missed.

-Khir
PPL Student
"When logic and proportion
have fallen sloppy dead,
and the White Knight is talking backwards,
and the Red Queen's 'Off with her head!'
Remember what the dormouse said:
'Feed your head. Feed your head.'"
-Jefferson Airplane, White Rabbit
http://www.flightsim.com/dcforum/Use...cb1725e477.jpg

[jwenting]

Hmm, wonder if we have something like that here... given that they make a lot of money from exam fees, probably not...

Congratulations on getting the hard part over with at least :-lol
From what I hear 10 times more people fail on the oral than do on the actual checkride.

[a href="http://www.tradewind.org"]http://www.hornet.demon.nl/sigfile.jpg[/a]

[flyinggriffin]

In the U.S. if you bust the checkride, no matter what portion, it counts against your instructor. Too many busts and he gets called in to explain why and possibly have to take a checkride himself. Every time he signs you off, he puts his professional reputation and job on the line.
The FAA or designated examiners go into a flight test with the attitude that you have been properly trained and all you have to do is show your stuff. Both examiners I have had for the primary and instrument have said that the majority of the time they can tell if a student is going to pass before he actually takes off.
The biggest mistake that people make on the oral is getting a case of motor mouth. They don't know when to shut up and sooner or later they are going to expose some area that they are not familar with.

[gaafanatic]

Thanks for sharing that!

[jwenting]

I hope it's the same here. But if they're like our examinors for driving tests I don't have high hopes.
Had several of those who seemed intent on sinking as many candidates as possible (in fact, with 2 of them my instructor more or less told me in advance I'd probably not pass. He knew the guys and their reputations).

Basically the only thing as far as I've been able to find out so far that's at stake here (apart from the student pilot's money of course) is the reputation of the instructor/school. If they have a high failure rate word will spread and students run elsewhere.

[a href="http://www.tradewind.org"]http://www.hornet.demon.nl/sigfile.jpg[/a]

[KenG01]

Don't worry. The hard part is over. I went through the same thing. I took my oral and the weather prevented the flight portion. I got my letter and sat and waited for 2 weeks until I could schedule another attempt.

I was so much more worried about the oral than the flight portion. Having it behind me on the day of the flight test actually made things easier.

-----
Ken G:-wave

[flyinggriffin]

I am suprised that the examiners are doing that again. For a while, the word was that the FAA was cracking down and wanted them to do the whole thing in one day or not at all. The idea was to keep it fair for all applicants. Some examiners would do a much longer oral if they knew the flying was out of the question. Some of the designated examiners do like to talk.