Failing a practical test — the check ride — can be a big hit to a student pilot’s ego and confidence. But it also is a big hit to their wallets.
According to officials with the Flight School Association of North America (FSANA), there are “real costs associated with failing a check ride.”
“When a student fails a check ride, they are going to typically incur a retest fee with the examiner,” officials noted. “To get to the retest, they are going to require some additional training to brush up on what they failed and maybe a little currency flight to keep their skills sharp if there is a need to wait for the DPE to fit them back into the calendar.”
Typical Costs Associated With a Retest:
- Airplane at $200 an hour
- CFI at $75 an hour
- Two hours of CFI re-training in aircraft needed
- Two hours of CFI re-training ground needed
- DPE retest of $500
- Currency flying of two hours
A cost breakdown looks like this:
- Aircraft: Four hours at $200 an hour = $800
- CFI at four hours at $75 an hour = $300
- DPE retest fee = $500
Total Cost to Complete Retest = $1,600
That’s a big financial hit — which “speaks to why the quality of training is important,” FSANA officials said.
“Training students to meet and exceed the standards so that they won’t need to retest is likely to save them money,” officials noted.
FSANA officials say they have heard “too many reports” of flight schools that train to meet experience requirements “and then just send applicants to test and hope they pass.”
“If they don’t, they re-train the items that they failed and send them again — sometimes multiple times until they pass,” officials continued. “This has a real cost to customers.”
Best practice is to not send students until they are really ready to take the test, they advised.
If a check ride failure costs $1,600, a couple of extra hours of training is much cheaper, they said, noting two hours of training with a CFI would add up to $550, “definitely cheaper than failing and needing the retest.”
There are also other less quantifiable ramifications to retests, FSANA officials point out, including:
- The need to hold slots for retesting takes away valuable time in a DPE’s schedule that could be used for new testing
- The need to dedicate aircraft or CFI time to retesting efforts reduces a flight school’s ability to teach more students
- The potential hiring ramifications for student pilots who have multiple practical test failures.
“A check ride bust isn’t just an inconvenience,” FSANSA officials conclude. “It has costs and ramifications. High-quality training providers will make the effort to help their customers understand this and only take tests when they are fully ready and likely to pass.”
This is total disinformation! The most important consequence is barely covered in the article here: “The potential hiring ramifications for student pilots who have multiple practical test failures.”.
Here’s why: one busts enough checkrides to dent his/her ability to get hired at a regional at the minimums. Assuming all other aspects besides this are equal, one will have to accept a lesser job to “prove himself” , “cut his/her teeth” etc. Assuming this process is completed in 2 years and a regional job is landed shortly after, the subject will always be 2 years behind in seniority, pay rises, upgrades, future jobs opportunities etc.
Considering a $20k/year handicap over a 30 years career, that’s a cool $600k in direct earnings alone (In reality it will be much more due to compounding loses). That is 2 orders of magnitude higher than the “$1600 per checkride” costs outlined in the article!!!
Ask me how do I know…
“Training students to meet and exceed the standards so that they won’t need to retest is likely to save them money,” officials noted.
No kidding…really?
I hear of some of this, mainly from a school with nationwide outposts, which does the applicant a real disservice.
Some just don’t test well, that’s true. But
truly, most people don’t like being evaluated. If you want to pursue aviation
you need to come to grips with the fact that evals are a part of life.
The real problem is the number hence availability of DPEs. Their scarcity causes the scheduling problem mentioned while simultaneously allowing them to charge exorbitant fees. Presuming the $500 mentioned in the article for a retest lasting a couple of hours for a private that is $250 an hour. While the instructor earns $75 (probably less)! We pay for the FAA. They should provide examiners to test for their certificates at no charge to the applicant (their customer and taxpayer).
Kind of goes back to who signed off the student for the check ride doesn’t it?
Or, some people just do well with testing.
Busted my instrument ride, cost me an extra $500+ back in 1997.
Ditto (back in 2016) — but I had an excuse (trying to maintain glide slope in heavy convective weather.) But also put the blame on the CFI who endorsed me — his sign-off was a joke and never did any IN AIRPLANE retraining before re-endorsing me. (No, I won’t mention names or where — all in the past and under Martha’s bridge)