Examiner "Distractions" During Checkride

On Apr 29, 10:39*pm, wrote:
Once in a
gider he popped open the airbrakes and then said "hey, what does this
do"

Seriously?! I've only had two lessons, but I know those things stay
closed and locked until the PIC deems them appropriate in a landing
pattern!

Actually, I've seen some reports on the web that when doing the
preflight one should consider the Examiner a "unfamiliar passenger"
and give her or him some form of "don't touch this...don't touch that"
talk. Is this good advice?

--Michael

On Apr 29, 10:16*pm, Michael wrote:
On Apr 29, 10:39*pm, wrote:

Once in a
gider he popped open the airbrakes and then said "hey, what does this
do"

Seriously?! *I've only had two lessons, but I know those things stay
closed and locked until the PIC deems them appropriate in a landing
pattern!

Actually, I've seen some reports on the web that when doing the
preflight one should consider the Examiner a "unfamiliar passenger"
and give her or him some form of "don't touch this...don't touch that"
talk. *Is this good advice?

--Michael

seriously yes. It was my commercial checkride. It was a nice reminder
to brief the customer. It was fine. He held them open, I did an
abbreviated pattern. We landed, we fley some more, I passed and
learned another great lesson.

BTW, I'm not an instructor, but there a plenty of times when the PIC
might want or need to open the brakes before entering the pattern.
Keep your options open and use all the tools you have when you need
them.

"Michael" wrote in message
...
On Apr 29, 10:39 pm, wrote:
Once in a
gider he popped open the airbrakes and then said "hey, what does this
do"

Seriously?! I've only had two lessons, but I know those things stay
closed and locked until the PIC deems them appropriate in a landing
pattern!

Actually, I've seen some reports on the web that when doing the
preflight one should consider the Examiner a "unfamiliar passenger"
and give her or him some form of "don't touch this...don't touch that"
talk. Is this good advice?

--Michael

Actually those things should be checked for proper operation during the
prelanding check list, before entering the traffic pattern.
BT

In article
,
Michael wrote:

On Apr 29, 10:39*pm, wrote:
Once in a
gider he popped open the airbrakes and then said "hey, what does this
do"

Seriously?! I've only had two lessons, but I know those things stay
closed and locked until the PIC deems them appropriate in a landing
pattern!

Those pesky passengers can do all sorts of crazy things, and simulating
various failures and emergencies is certainly in the cards. He'll
definitely be fiddling with your release knob at an inconveniently (but
not dangerously!) low altitude, and spoilers are fair game too.

Actually, I've seen some reports on the web that when doing the
preflight one should consider the Examiner a "unfamiliar passenger"
and give her or him some form of "don't touch this...don't touch that"
talk. Is this good advice?

Definitely treat him as a passenger. He *is* a passenger, both legally
and in reality.

That doesn't mean you have to treat him like an idiot, though. He's an
experienced, knowledgeable pilot, and you can treat him as such. Make
sure he knows the basics, but you don't need the "this is the stick,
when you move it like this the plane does that" or the "these are the
spoilers, they'll make a bang when they're unlocked, don't be afraid,
it's normal" speeches that you might give to someone who never saw a
glider in the flesh before that day.

For my distraction, my examiner somehow managed to cause some rain to
disrupt the airfoil on the horizontal stabilizer of the Grob 103 we were
flying, making it so I couldn't hold anything under 55 knots during our
last flight of the exam. Clever fellow! Still don't know how he did it.


Asking for unsafe maneuvers seems to be a common theme. One of my fellow
club members had the examiner asking strange, complicated questions
until he was down to pattern altitude, at which point he asked the
examiner to please stay quiet until they were on the ground, and he'd be
happy to answer any further questions then.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

At 04:16 30 April 2009, Michael wrote:

Seriously?! I've only had two lessons, but I know those things stay
closed and locked until the PIC deems them appropriate in a landing
pattern!

Doing something odd like that might be more appropriate during a
commercial rating ride, but still you should be able to handle the landing
either way, spoilers completely open, or held closed all the way. The
examiner at my field seems to enjoy the no-spoilers landing pattern.

During my PPSEL ride, the examiner started asking aerodynamic questions
while I was doing turns around a point: What makes the airplane turn? I
was slow in answering, but I think it was obvious that answering his
question was the lowest task on my priority list at the time. I suppose
if I had said that it was the rudder, he'd have failed me, but I'm not
that dumb. Close, maybe, but not that bad.

Jim Beckman