On Fri, 04 Jan 2008 14:46:30 GMT, Steve Foley wrote:

I'll disagree with you. It shows how the student reacts when something
unexpected happens.

But if the student didn't react well to the trick, would that be grounds to
bust the checkride?

Asking a candidate to come up with a ground frequency while in a stressful
situation falls under "Cockpit Management" and is a DPE checklist item.

Looking through the PTS, I don't see anything on the examiner's test
checklist that requires the student to be tested or pass something like
this.

Most candidates don't get a lot of sleep before exam day and to start off
the flight with a sneaky trick like this could have the poor fellow
completely distracted waiting for the next trick. This one just seems
outside the boundaries of fairness and it could jeopardize the candidate's
checkride over an issue that is not required by the PTS.


--
Dallas