Jon Kraus wrote:
Just curious as to how many of us are in the "Flunked a Checkride"
club.

Count me in too. I flunked my private checkride in 2002 on the first
try.

I and my instructor had no doubt that I was ready even with only about
40.5 total hours. The oral portion went splendidly, and I was having a
mostly fun and easy time with the flight portion also when I found
myself suddenly unable to make a 45-degree steep turn (in a Cessna 152)
without gaining 400 to 500 feet of altitude. I later figured that this
equates to about a 5000 F. P. M. climb. Those of you familiar with the
C152 know that a 5000 F. P. M. climb is not typically in the repertoir,
particularly with 45 degrees of bank. Did I mention that I took the
checkride in late June in Phoenix? I now know that I was in a big-time
thermal and mother nature was adding a bunch of external energy to my
carefully planned system. The amount of power reduction and nose-down
pitch that would have been required to stay within the P. T. S. would
have been very counter-intuituve in a steep turn and unlike anything I
had seen in a steep turn up to that point. The D. E. didn't really say
anything, we just went about completing the rest of the maneuvers. I
actually meant to come back to the steep turn later and make another
attempt, and I suspect the D. E. would have allowed me to do that, but
by the time we were ready to head back toward the airport and make some
landings my mind was on about a million other things and I forgot.

The D. E. didn't give me any indication as to my passing or failing as
we tied down the airplane but by then I had remembered that I never
sucessfully completed that steep turn. In fact, the D. E. called me a
prodigy during the de-briefing with my C. F. I. The exam was on a
Wednesday, and early on we had discussed the fact that the examiner
would be available on Friday if we had needed a continuance or a
re-test. In the de-brief, I made the mistake of asking the leading
question "So, do you want to see me on Friday?" instead of "So, did I
pass?" and I got the answer I was dreading. I logged about .6 hours
with my instructor on Thursday trying a few steep turns and about .6
with the examiner on Friday doing a single normal take-off, a steep
turn to the left, a steep turn to the right, and a normal landing, this
time at about 7:30 a.m. instead of 1 p.m. Pass.

In hindsight, I know the examiner knew I was safe enough to be worthy
of a licence to learn after the first test. I think she was looking
for a demonstration of confidence as well as a demonstration of
competence and that if I had phrased my simple question differently the
outcome might have been different. The fact that she also knew I was a
weekend/hobby type pilot with no real career aspirations to be damaged
by a failed checkride might have also played a role. The additional
$150 might also have. I beat myself up pretty good for those two days
between tests, but the rewards of the 150 hours of flying (all in
C152/C150's) in the two years since have been so great that they far
outweigh any grief caused by that minor hiccup.

-R