How many in this club?

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message

Just curious as to how many of us are in the "Flunked a Checkride" club.
It seems that the fail rate for the IFR checkride is more prevalent than
the Private.

I failed my Private because I used a private field as a waypoint in my
cross-country plan. I can claim in my defense that I was my instructor's
first student, and when we were prepping for the checkride and he had me do,
by coincidence, nearly the same cross-country plan, I used the field and he
said it was good.

Passed my IFR on the first try, in IMC, but I can't imagine how. I haven't
been that stressed out since Marine Corps OCS.

-c

"gatt" wrote

I failed my Private because I used a private field as a
waypoint in my cross-country plan.

WHATTT.... No way! You can use a tree as a waypoint as
long as it can be identified from the airplane in flight.
Maybe you failed because you could not identify the "grass"
field as a waypoint, not because it was a "private" field.

Bob Moore

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:16:43 GMT, Bob Moore
wrote:

"gatt" wrote

I failed my Private because I used a private field as a
waypoint in my cross-country plan.

WHATTT.... No way! You can use a tree as a waypoint as
long as it can be identified from the airplane in flight.
Maybe you failed because you could not identify the "grass"
field as a waypoint, not because it was a "private" field.

Bob Moore

My feelings exactly. I used private fields for my waypoints on
several cross countries WITH the CFI in the right seat. The only
point he made is that sometimes the private fields are hard to spot.

Corky Scott

On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 08:09:22 -0500, Corky Scott
wrote:

On Mon, 20 Dec 2004 20:16:43 GMT, Bob Moore
wrote:

"gatt" wrote

I failed my Private because I used a private field as a
waypoint in my cross-country plan.

WHATTT.... No way! You can use a tree as a waypoint as
long as it can be identified from the airplane in flight.
Maybe you failed because you could not identify the "grass"
field as a waypoint, not because it was a "private" field.

Bob Moore

My feelings exactly. I used private fields for my waypoints on
several cross countries WITH the CFI in the right seat. The only
point he made is that sometimes the private fields are hard to spot.

Hard to spot?
I took my check ride the morning after we had a couple inches of snow.
Almost all of my check points were invisible. I never did find most
of them, but by pointing to the map and finding other references I was
able to show I was where I thought I was.

The only reason I could find the Pinconing airstrip was two airplanes
parked outside and it took a relatively low pass to identify those.
The examiner was happy.

Roger Halstead (K8RI & ARRL life member)
(N833R, S# CD-2 Worlds oldest Debonair)
www.rogerhalstead.com

Corky Scott

"gatt" wrote

I failed my Private because I used a private field as a
waypoint in my cross-country plan.

"Private" does not necessarily mean "Grass". Just north of
my location in Tarpon Springs, FL, there were two private
airports, both with 3-4,000' of paved runway. Hidden Lake
and TampaBay Exec which has just recently closed.

Bob Moore

"Bob Moore" wrote in message

I failed my Private because I used a private field as a
waypoint in my cross-country plan.

WHATTT.... No way! You can use a tree as a waypoint as
long as it can be identified from the airplane in flight.
Maybe you failed because you could not identify the "grass"
field as a waypoint, not because it was a "private" field.

Specifically, the DE knew the owner of the private field. There was an
airstrip that was UNMARKED across a little creek from a field. My
instructor and I incorrectly assumed that the paved strip was the private
airfield on the section. It turns out otherwise; the actual airstrip was
simply a field; when the farmer wanted to fly, he put up his windsock and
mowed himself a runway in the appropriate direction. Because I
misidentified the airport by thinking the strip across the street was
[whatever the private field was called], he busted me.

-c

"gatt" wrote in message
...
[...] Because I
misidentified the airport by thinking the strip across the street was
[whatever the private field was called], he busted me.

Well, to be fair, that's different than you first described it. You failed
your checkride because you misidentified a waypoint. Not "because [you]
used a private field as a waypoint".

You just as easily could have misidentified a public airport, or you could
have passed your checkride had you correctly identified the private airport.
The choice of a waypoint you had difficulty identifying might have led to
the bust, but the mere choice of a private field didn't directly lead to
failing the checkride.

It's a good lesson though: waypoints should be easily identifiable. Two
similar airports right next to each other would not qualify. For sure, if
you ARE going to use an airport as a waypoint, you need to learn enough
about the airport to know whether you are looking at it or not when you
arrive. Including knowing whether it's paved or not.

Sounds like a fair bust to me. I'll bet you learned your lesson from that
though, and I'll bet there are some pilots who passed their checkride on the
first try who still need to learn that lesson.

Pete

Peter Duniho wrote:

"gatt" wrote in message
...
[...] Because I
misidentified the airport by thinking the strip across the street was
[whatever the private field was called], he busted me.

Well, to be fair, that's different than you first described it. You
failed
your checkride because you misidentified a waypoint. Not "because [you]
used a private field as a waypoint".

Hmm. I don't see it quite this way. He called the waypoint the wrong
thing, but that's not a lot different than the "onion fields" north of CDW
that might in fact be tomatoe, grapes, or who knows what else.

He should have called it "road across street from farm with transient
runway", I suppose, but if he did spot the road, does it matter what it was
called?

- Andrew

"Peter Duniho" wrote in message

Well, to be fair, that's different than you first described it. You
failed
your checkride because you misidentified a waypoint. Not "because [you]
used a private field as a waypoint".

Sort of. Specifically, he told me not to use a private field as a waypoint.
Whether it or the other is what he based the failure on, I don't really
know. Went I went back for the retest, I used a VOR intersection and that
settled it. In fact, we didn't even go all the way to the waypoint.

Sounds like a fair bust to me.

I agree. My instructor didn't. That's when I discovered I was his first
student since he graduated from flight school, so I think it hurt his pride
a little, and embarrassed him because he approved of a checkpoint that the
examiner didn't.

-c

gatt wrote :
I failed my Private because I used a private field as a waypoint in my
cross-country plan.

Eh? There is no requirement for a waypoint, other than it had
better be something you can identify enroute. There has to be more to
this story.

John Galban=====N4BQ (PA28-180)