Draconian Club Checkrides?

In article ,
Chris Schmelzer wrote:

Just really painful after paying monthly dues to the club for so long.
I mean, after I finished my PPL checkride at Stinson, they didn't then
say, "Well, you can fly after a checkride!"

If it's a real club, maybe you can get together with some
other members and vote out the board. Alternatively, go to
a club meeting and raise the issue. It may turn out to
be insurance restrictions, or it may turn out to be a
Napoleon complex. In either case, it will probably
clarify what you want to do.

Mike Beede

KayInPA wrote:
All the rules, even the mystifying ones,
are there for a reason though. Usually, a result of one specific
incident from the past and there to protect pilots and airplanes from
future repetitions.

You're right Kay. Sometimes the reason is to turn checkout flights
into a profit center. You didn't say that all of the rules existed for
a "good" reason :-))

If I were the OP, I'd lose this outfit. 4 hrs for a 172 checkout is
nothing more the blantant milking. Sure, flying with an instructor may
not be a bad idea, but the fact that they're forcing a long checkout,
plus the fact that they won't let him fly in the 152 that he's
currently checked out in, raises a whole bunch of red flags.

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

John Galban wrote:
You didn't say that all of the rules existed for a "good" reason :-))
Too true. There are a number of rules at my club that are, to use a
polite word, asinine.

4 hrs for a 172 checkout is nothing more the blantant milking.
It seems excessive for a known competent pilot.

Sure, flying with an instructor may not be a bad idea, but the fact
that they're forcing a long checkout, plus the fact that they won't
let him fly in the 152 that he's currently checked out in,
raises a whole bunch of red flags.
But according to the club rules, he's not currently checked out.

I agree with you. If the rules are upsetting to the OP, he should
leave the club. My guess is that his road to flying happiness will be
better found with alternate arrangements than with fighting a club's
city hall.

That said, for me personally, I didn't find the checkout rules at my
club to be restrictive. I was a brand new pilot when I joined, and
eager to learn from as many people as possible. Still am. The club
aircraft is really nice, usually available, and exceedingly
cost-effective. In exchange, I'm willing to go by club rules and in
some cases (such as with instruction), make them into positives.

I recognize that's not possible in all cases.


Kay

BTW - an instructor who needs more than 30 minutes to figure out if you

can fly competently is himself incompetent.

I agree. 30 minutes to see if they are competent is reasonable but
some people will need additional time to make them competent.
Some pilots have it and some do not. The same goes for a CFI.

I saw a club last year that had just suffered an accident (no injuries) in
one of their 172's. Apparently eager to impress their insurance company,
the chief pilot issued a new check-ride proceedure, which - on paper at
least - listed everything in the book and then some! I chuckled when I read
it. I mean, "recovery from heavy bounced landing" - I'm not sure how many
CFI's really want to go out there and do that. Then when it said "recovery
from stall on approach", well I guess they mean "simulated at altitude",
but I had a mental picture of a white-knuckled CFI forcing the prospective
renter to stall at 300 AGL on final and see if he can come out alive! If he
had thought of it, he probably would have listed "in-flight fire" as well -
go out to the training area and set the thing on fire to see of the renter
is sharp enough to get back alive!

The accident they had was a typical - too fast, high flare, nose-over
incident, which, as usual, damaged the plane but not the pilot. My guess is
the chief pilot is trying to stave off an insurance premium increase, but
the checkrides will continue as before. I agree with the one who posted "if
it take the CFI more than half an hour to determine your level of
competence, he is himself incompetent".

G Faris

In article , Dan Luke wrote:
Yes, it makes perfect sense. The kind of people who like to make rules
join clubs so they can.

Yep, and they rise to the top because the other people in the club want to do
what the club's really about: fly, hunt, restore old cars, whatever, so the
mini-Hitlers become officers by default.

We had a pretty good system in the club I was in when I lived in Houston
- the club board couldn't change the club bylaws and SOPs by fiat - any
change to the basic club rules had to be voted through by the
membership. This kept petty rule making to a minimum; the bylaws/SOPs
relating to checkouts etc. were pretty much what you'd find at any FBO,
including things like a check out in an Arrow was good for a Warrior
too. (Unlike many FBOs in our area, we did NOT have restrictions on
private or turf or short fields - the only requirement for the airfield
you wanted to use is that it was charted. I often flew the Bonanza to
the glider club).

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"