Sport Pilot Talk

Does the DPE choose either the S-Turns, Turns around a point, and Rectangular course for your actual checkride or does he have the student perform all three?

The PTS (Practical Test Standards) book says "one" of those tasks. I had to do steep turns.

I've also heard that if you don't do so well with the one they choose he/she could make you do another one of the choices.

My examiner had me do turns around a point

AviatorCrafty wrote:My examiner had me do turns around a point

Same for me.

Dave C wrote:The PTS (Practical Test Standards) book says "one" of those tasks. I had to do steep turns.

For some reason I had steep turns on my mind, they are too much fun. While I did do those, my ground reference maneuver, that I had to do, was turns about a point.

It depends on your DPE - they can do pretty much whatever they want ....

Warmi wrote:It depends on your DPE - they can do pretty much whatever they want ....

Not entirely true. We DPEs are required to create a Plan of Action for every practical test. No two can be exactly alike, and each must include a realistic scenario. The PTS says we must include one of the three ground reference maneuvers in the PoA, so there's a one in three chance that you and some other randomly selected applicant will be assigned the same one. See Area of Operation VI, pp 1-24 and 1-25 of the Sport Pilot PTS, which you can download from:

http://avsport.org/DPE/pts.htm

For details about how all this works, feel free to browse my DPE website:

http://SportPilotExaminer.US

drseti wrote:

Warmi wrote:It depends on your DPE - they can do pretty much whatever they want ....

Not entirely true. We DPEs are required to create a Plan of Action for every practical test. No two can be exactly alike, and each must include a realistic scenario. The PTS says we must include one of the three ground reference maneuvers in the PoA, so there's a one in three chance that you and some other randomly selected applicant will be assigned the same one. See Area of Operation VI, pp 1-24 and 1-25 of the Sport Pilot PTS, which you can download from:

http://avsport.org/DPE/pts.htm

For details about how all this works, feel free to browse my DPE website:

http://SportPilotExaminer.US

But these are all minimum benchmarks ... there is nothing in the rules preventing a DPE from including 2 or all 3 maneuvers... or any other scenario that he can dream off as long as It builds on top of prescribed minimums.

How many times and kinds of Landing will the DPE asks to perform?

Warmi wrote:
But these are all minimum benchmarks ... there is nothing in the rules preventing a DPE from including 2 or all 3 maneuvers... or any other scenario that he can dream off as long as It builds on top of prescribed minimums.

Yes, there is something in the rules to prevent that. It's called FAA Order 8900.1.

FAA emphasize in both initial and recurrent DPE training (and we get lots of training) that we cannot go beyond the PTS requirements. In this case, the PTS says choose one - not choose at least one, or choose one or more. (Yes, the PP ACS has language like this for some Areas of Operation, but not the SP PTS.) One is sufficient to see if the applicant meets the standard.

Any DPE who makes up his or her own standards will be decertified. There is a reason that each of us gets observed by an FAA supervising inspector at least once a year.

Remember that a DPE functions as a representative of the Administrator. We are Independent Contractors, so we can set our own schedules, fees, and personal minimums for accepting a flight. But we can not make up our own standards or requirements. If we do, we will be ex-DPEs.

RTC'83 wrote:How many times and kinds of Landing will the DPE asks to perform?

Again, this is dictated by (and revealed in) the PTS. We are required to observe one takeoff and landing each of normal, short field (with obstacle), and soft field. So, three TOLs total.

drseti wrote:

RTC'83 wrote:How many times and kinds of Landing will the DPE asks to perform?

Again, this is dictated by (and revealed in) the PTS. We are required to observe one takeoff and landing each of normal, short field (with obstacle), and soft field. So, three TOLs total.

Paul, as a DPE what would you expect to see if there is not a specific procedure for short or soft field take offs and landing procedures in the particular airplane manual?

See my video "Less than Ideal - short, soft, and obstacle operations" at:

http://avsport.org/webinars/videos/short_soft.mp4

drseti wrote:Yes, there is something in the rules to prevent that. It's called FAA Order 8900.1.

My mistake. I meant to say FAA Order 8900.2. The latest revision is available on my website, at:

http://SportPilotExaminer.US/docs/8900.2C.pdf