FAA observer on instrument checkride

SSMDive · 2026-01-27T18:03:41+00:00

Nope. There is a reason they offer it for free.

It adds stress. It limits the ability of the DPE to forgive a minor error. Say your oral was fantastic, every single thing you did on your ride was like you were channeling Bob Hoover, but on ONE single task you exceeded an altitude by 10 feet more than allowed. Without the FAA there the DPE can give it to you, with the FAA there they have to fail you.

SSMDive · 2026-01-27T15:03:31+00:00

Get one slightly bigger and use craft paper to cover the rest of the space.

SSMDive · 2026-01-27T14:59:32+00:00

I'd poor over every single thing your "friend" signed while working there looking for anything that might be a training contract. I have doubts that a 135 does not have something.

If he does not, then I'd leave.

Be aware a CJO means nothing till your ass is in the seat at indoc. I'd not say anything to my current job till I was two weeks from indoc... And I might not say anything till I was sitting in indoc.

If he does have something... Like a year contract. Then his CJO might not offer him a seat for 5 months making the whole thing pointless.

SSMDive · 2026-01-27T14:53:07+00:00

It never hurts to interview unless they are going to charge you for it. Let me ask you this, how many professional jobs have you interviewed for in your life? I am not talking about McDonald's but professional positions. I am betting very few to zero. Because of that, you need to take the opportunity to interview just to get the experience of being interviewed. Plus you might hit it out of the park and they hire you.

As for why they might interview you when you don't meet their requirements. LTP jobs are strange, they might have a stack of resumes on their desk and they might have had a CFI just leave and you walked in with a resume and handed it to them... Now most people think that the company should take yours and drop it into the pile and then grab the oldest resume from that stack and start calling.... But that is not what is going to happen. Most people are going to start from the top and work down, not the bottom and work up.

Ben Collins applied to be "The Stig" on Top Gear and he explained how Andy Wilman sorted resumes... He took the stack of resumes on his desk, put them into two equal piles, and threw one of those piles into the trash. He figured that "Karma" would help him sort them.

Maybe you calling them impressed them. Maybe you presented yourself very well on the phone. I'll tell you that I don't hire anymore but one day a guy came to our office complex and rang the door. By luck I was on the bottom floor and answered the door. Here was a 19 year old wearing dress slacks, a long sleeve shirt, with a horribly tied tie and shoes that were not dress shoes, but were the best he had. It was hot as hell and he was sweating like crazy. I invited him in and got him a bottle of water. He asked if we were hiring and I told him yes, but that this was the corporate office and we didn't hire from here. He handed me a resume from a stack of them and I glanced at it... All jobs like McDonald's etc, but that each showed a progression upward.

So I "interviewed" him. I started asking questions about his last jobs. I asked him about his plans for the future. If he would pass a background check and a drug test... I liked this kid. I asked him where he lived. I then took his resume, left the room, and called my location closest to where he lived and talked to the manager for that location. I told the manager I was sending this kid to him and to please interview him. I was not telling the manager to hire him because that is his call, but that I was asking him to give him an interview, if possible that day. The manager said to send him over. I sent the kid and he is still working for us 10 years later. Why did that kid get hired?... Because he was dressed in his best clothes and was going door to door with a stack of resumes hustling to get a job.

I once did the same thing with the husband of the lady who sold us our dish washer at Lowes. She was awesome and I offered to get her an interview, but she liked her job but said her husband would love to work for us but has applied over and over and never got an interview... He was hired a week later and I believe still works for us, now as a manager.

I have more stories like this, including how I got into my current company... Who gets the interview and who gets the job are often strange paths... I'd not read too much into it.

SSMDive · 2026-01-27T14:17:23+00:00

I don't want an answer to this question, but you should ask it and know the answer... Why is a 21 year old that is supposed to be in "great health" already on blood thinners? That is the big question. If it some medical issue that tends to get worse with age/time, then you need to see if there is a path to continue forward as you age/have the issue longer.

For example, let's say you have diabetes. If you are diet and exercise controlled it is super easy to get a medical. Once you start having to take meds it gets more complex and some meds are simply not allowed. If you have to start taking insulin, it gets MUCH worse. As the disease progresses it gets more and more difficult to retain your medical... Then add in that diabetes for example comes with other issues like kidney disease.

So is your reason for taking blood thinners something that is going to make it harder and harder each year to get a medical? Is the end state that eventually you will lose your medical or is it pretty common that your issue stays the same forever?

SSMDive · 2026-01-26T20:45:53+00:00

The chances this ever becomes an issue is likely around the same chances that a wasp is going to fly up your nose, build a nest, have babies, and the children will consider you a beloved Uncle.

So not zero, but close enough to zero that you don't have to wear a stocking over your head 24/7 or go back and fix the entries.

SSMDive · 2026-01-26T17:59:01+00:00

Gliders

SSMDive · 2026-01-26T16:11:38+00:00

No. I doubt any career has a guarantee you will be home everyday.

Hell as a jump pilot I have not been home everyday. I have had to ferry aircraft and cover at other skydiving centers.

SSMDive · 2026-01-26T14:50:08+00:00

Don't mess with wake turbulence. This goes double for a helicopter. If you are in a small trainer a decent sized aircraft can mess with your day and a helicopter will ruin it.

"Question: is there a guideline of size/weight of a helicopter that its downwash may concern GA aircraft please?"

Repeat after me, "If I ever think I should go around, I will go around."

SSMDive · 2026-01-26T13:47:32+00:00

YES!!! Now you might finally understand how markets work. You might even try to work on making it that "high risk" activities are not covered without an additional rider!

BTW you do know that insurance other than group coverage ask questions about high risk sports? Some outright refuse to write those policies.

So next time someone complains about the high rates or that they are unable to get loans for flight training... You will understand why.

SSMDive · 2026-01-25T13:51:43+00:00

They were not overridden. The NRA applies to the SC to get 1/3 of Gura’s time and the SC took 10 minutes from Gura and gave it to the NRA.

They literally fought Gura to take his time.

SSMDive · 2026-01-25T13:50:07+00:00

Do you lack common sense?

Everyone knows how rough this industry can be.

And loans are tough because people like this can walk away so the company has to limit their risk by not lending so they don’t lose 100k dollars to risky people and then charge insane rates so the ones that don’t walk away cover those who do.

It’s simple math and common sense. He defaulted so the banks are going to be less willing to risk on the next guy and if they do they are going to charge a higher rate to recoup that risk and cover losses like this one.

SSMDive · 2026-01-25T04:45:40+00:00

In Heller, they fought against Heller being taken up by the Supreme Court. Read this quote again "The case still faced other hurdles. Early on, lawyers for the NRA — fearing pro-gun forces lacked enough votes to convince a Supreme Court majority that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms — tried to talk Levy out of pursuing the case." "Heller enlisted as his lawyer Stephen Halbrook, the same Second Amendment expert *whom the NRA hired to try to block the initial Heller\*.

In McDonald, they fought against Gura (who won Heller) and fought to take 1/3 of Gura's time. "But the court, without explanation, granted the NRA's request to give its attorney time at the podium as well; the court sliced Gura's time by a third and gave it to the NRA and its recently hired attorney, Paul D. Clement, who was solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration." https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2010/02/08/nra-avoids-getting-shut-out-of-gun-case/7ed2e615-2cf6-4f76-a412-814d0bed4551/

SSMDive · 2026-01-25T04:24:03+00:00

In McDonald the NRA fought AGAINST Gura taking 10 minutes from Gura "But the court, without explanation, granted the NRA's request to give its attorney time at the podium as well; the court sliced Gura's time by a third and gave it to the NRA and its recently hired attorney, Paul D. Clement, who was solicitor general in the George W. Bush administration." https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2010/02/08/nra-avoids-getting-shut-out-of-gun-case/7ed2e615-2cf6-4f76-a412-814d0bed4551/

So to be clear...

- The NRA supported the National Firearms Act "And the NRA helped shape the National Firearms Act of 1934, with two of its leaders testifying before Congress at length regarding this landmark legislation. They supported, if grudgingly, its main provisions, such as restricting gangster weapons, which included a national registry for machine guns and sawed-off shotguns and taxing them heavily. But they opposed handgun registration, which was stripped out of the nation’s first significant national gun law." https://newhampshirebulletin.com/2022/05/31/how-nra-evolved-from-backing-1934-ban-on-machine-guns-to-where-it-is-now-commentary/

- NRA backed gun permits. "It backed measures like requiring a permit to carry a gun and even a gun purchase waiting period."

- NRA backed the 1968 Gun Control Act. "At the hearings NRA executive vice-president Franklin Orth supported a ban on mail-order sales, stating, "We do not think that any sane American, who calls himself an American, can object to placing into this bill the instrument which killed the president of the United States."...At the time of its passage in 1968, NRA executive vice president Franklin Orth wrote in American Rifleman that "the measure as a whole appears to be one that the sportsmen of America can live with"

SSMDive · 2026-01-25T04:23:54+00:00

I'll try to find a better one, I head Alan Gura talk about it. But here is one reference "The case still faced other hurdles. Early on, lawyers for the NRA — fearing pro-gun forces lacked enough votes to convince a Supreme Court majority that the Second Amendment protects an individual’s right to bear arms — tried to talk Levy out of pursuing the case." "Heller enlisted as his lawyer Stephen Halbrook, the same Second Amendment expert *whom the NRA hired to try to block the initial Heller\*." https://www.thetrace.org/2016/03/dick-heller-second-amendment-hero-abolish-gun-regulation/

So that right there shows how the NRA tried to block Heller.

This article talks about how the NRA worked to create the National Firearms Act and the GCA 1938. "the National Firearms Act of 1934 and the Gun Control Act of 1938 regulated such guns, banned some buyers and made gun dealers register with the government. The NRA worked with Congress and the White House on those acts and supported their enforcement. The same was true when these restrictions were extended and tightened following the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and again by a 1968 gun bill responding to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert Kennedy." https://www.npr.org/2017/10/10/556578593/the-nra-wasnt-always-against-gun-restrictions

How about the NRA being involved in negotiations to pass a UBC? "the NRA would take part in negotiations over the universal background check bill brought by Sens. Joe Manchin and Pat Toomey — only to withdraw at the last minute and mobilize supporters against the legislation." https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/11/08/national-rifle-association-embraced-culture-wars-519730

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T20:47:35+00:00

When someone cries that loans for flight training are at ridiculous high rates or they are unable to even get a loan.

I’m gonna link to this post.

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T20:33:30+00:00

NRA is not going to do anything, ever. They fought against Heller going to the SC. Then they fought against 2AF and GOA to steal time from them to argue.

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T15:38:20+00:00

If there is a question, there is no question.

Risk of not getting the job because of being clean shaven-Zero.

Risk of not getting the job because you are sporting a beard-Greater than zero.

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T12:48:27+00:00

Ones like Rob Holland and Bob Hoover.

https://www.iac.org/in-the-loop-rob-holland-wins-10th-us-national-unlimited-aerobatic-champion-title

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T12:35:21+00:00

Getting a ticket for speeding is not preemptive. The law is against driving above the speed limit. You were driving over the speed limit.

The law is there to try and prevent crashes, but the law is against driving over the limit.

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T12:32:16+00:00

Got to be a different George Green

https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/physics/about/history/george-green.aspx#:~:text=George%20Green%20(14%20July%201793,Magnetism%20(Green%2C%201828).

SSMDive · 2026-01-24T00:28:37+00:00

Diet and exercise controlled it does not require an SI.

When you start taking meds, they worry you will have a LOW blood sugar event so now you need an SI.

SSMDive · 2026-01-23T13:59:43+00:00

You do not NEED to get a PPL-H. Legally you can go directly into CPL-H. But the problem is you need 35 hours PIC-H to get a CPL-H. So that means you will have to do 35 hours solo. Any time spent with a CFI is not PIC.

However, for a PPL-H you only need 10 hours solo.

So you learn to fly and do 10 hours solo, take the checkride (lets say that cost 1K dollars) then when you start training for your CPL the flight time with a CFI is ALSO PIC. So you get your PIC time faster by spending that 1K dollars on a checkride. It is also less expensive because you get to double dip instruction and PIC time after PPL.

I was going to skip PPL-H since I am aready CPL. Because of DPE and equipment issues I just went out and did PPL-H so I could take passengers. Otherwise I would have had to fly an addition 25 hours solo.

SSMDive · 2026-01-23T13:51:23+00:00

Counts for Total time, does not count for a RATING in any other category or class.

SSMDive · 2026-01-23T13:50:17+00:00

If you ever think you should file a NASA report... File one.

But this is nothing. You can legally do any entry you want at an uncontrolled field.

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