By JASON BLAIR
The pass rates on practical tests for the initial issuing of pilot certificates, specifically private pilot, commercial pilot, and flight instructor certificates, went down in 2022 for the first time in the past few years.
And it went down on all three certificates, noted officials with the Flight School Association of North America.
“Many in the training industry have felt over the past few months that the passing rate was declining, and now that we have the 2022 US Civil Airman Statistics, we can put data to that feeling,” officials said in a recent association newsletter.
“None of the pass rate decreases were overly large, but there is concern that this turn may really only be a measure of what happened in part of the year,” officials continued. “In the early parts of 2022 the most active airline hiring had not fully ramped up yet. As the year went on, a significant percentage of the acting CFI population in the United States was hired by airlines seeking to fill new-hire classes for airline employment. As this happened, the core of CFIs in our system turned over from those with more experience to those who were largely new at the job.”
The concern is that these less experienced CFIs “may be a corollary, if not causal” factor in the drop in pass rates that have been reported by many Designated Pilot Examiners (DPEs).
“While we can only speculate at the moment, this will be very worth tracking into the 2023 certification practices,” association officials said.
They add that the flight training industry has the opportunity to “head off any further degradation in pilot training processes that result in lower pass rates by being proactive in the upcoming year.”
“Hopefully, we can do this and stop any further reduction in pass rates for pilot certification activities,” they concluded. “Let’s not let this be the canary in the coal mine that we ignore.”
To see more information from Jason Blair, go to www.jasonblair.net
I’ve observed for some time now that at many larger flight schools we find the least experienced instructors teaching the entry level flight students. I can’t help but wonder if this is perpetuating o lower level of skill as pilots head for the check ride and into the skies. There’s something to be said for the value of an experienced instructor.
They give Dpes too much autonomy some take advantage of this that they think their God. I took my cfi checkride with so much enthusiasm when i came out of my it , i was traumatized. Who’s checking on the Dpe’s behavior??? I tried calling fsdo to report him to no avail.He was such a d$&k with his behavior that it made me realize I don’t even want to teach.
Good to hear from you, Jason. It’s been almost 20 years since you checked me out at Allegan. I’m not sure what the story is here. In 2018, the CFI pass rate was below 70%.. This year, it dropped from 77.9% to 76.2%? In my opinion, and even looking at the charts, this is just random noise. But what happened from 2011-2015? That is the big question!
Maybe because a large majority of the teachers have been doing it for less then a year? Any statistic showing that pass/fail on pilot mills vs 61 flight schools?
None of us have answers here it’s all speculation, but it seems the pilot test pass rate, across the board, might have been artificially inflated over the last few years (esp. during COVID). This recent drop is probably a correction back to the mean (2008/9). Otherwise, we would expect the test pass rate should continuously *increase* every year to a hypothetical 100%.
The most interesting statistic to me is the CFI initial since this represents a recent change in testing policy. DPEs only recently were empowered to conduct initial CFI evaluations (after years of FAA monopoly). The data reveals an immediate spike and rapid rise in the pass rate; (almost exceeding the private pilot.) This high pass rate seems to be correcting itself as DPEs better understand the standards and associated risks (?) The correction may also have to do with greater FAA oversight of this evaluation and many recent DPE terminations. Again, all speculation…
My fiancé just passed her Private Pilot check ride. I got mine some 50 years ago – now fly a Citation with 6000 hours total time. I was amazed how much more difficult the test was. Although she scored a 95% on her witten, she was grilled for over two hours on her oral, followed by a two hour flight check. I have no gripe as she did great, but it seemed to me that too much minutia was involved. Modern day electronics have made much of the traditional flight planning and navigation obsolete. This may somehow account for the low pass rate.
It seems to me that over-reliance on ‘modern electronics’ has divorced the pilot from the machine and negated the need to thoroughly comprehend the physics and dynamics of flight to be able to take the stick and fly the machine in bad weather and ‘partial panel’ events. Understanding the basics of ILS, for example, should be fundamental, not just learned from a test study guide. I’ve watched too many accident investigation videos in which the tower asked the pilot if he/she understood ILS and the reply was ‘I think so’ right before man and machine became one with the woods.
Regards/J
Back in 1967 the FAA administered written tests no charge and no sign off was required. After a few weeks I took the private written and got a 72% missing a bunch of questions because I didn’t know the sectional chart data was incomplete and supplements were in the back of the test booklet. A few weeks later I took all the tests offered. Commercial, Instrument, CFI & CGI. PASSED THEM ALL. Had to retake several test because they expired before I got the money to do the flight training.
DPE’s have increased their failures to keep the FAA out of their books – that’s the real story, we’ve been watching this happen as applicants have increased in numbers while candidates and their CFI’s have properly gouged check rides.
You are correct. Being an ex-DPE there is subtle pressure from the FAA if your pass rates get too high. I always evaluated without considering pass/fail rates.
Baldersash horsefeathers
That may be true with some DPEs, and is an unintended consequence of the FAA policies. I personally could not tell you what my pass rate is. I can tell you that if a required maneuver isn’t within ACS standards the student won’t pass. Do we fudge on those if one maneuver goes slightly awry & the rest were very strong?
Of course we do. But don’t send a marginal applicant, have them fail and then blame it on the DPE. That’s childish.
I trained about 80 students for private.
commercial, instrument, single and multiengine and cfi & cfii. These were initial ratings though some were same student.
I had only two fails, both CFI M. CFI tests were from FAA FSDO. One test was a co-worker adding the Multi to his CFI. He failed. Later told me he failed on on purpose because he was jealous.
I only had one student I refused to sign off. He had failed his ATP and needed 5 hours for a retake. He was an active duty F4 driver and he would not fly a proper ILS. The FAA INSPECTOR who passed him on the oral said he shouldn’t have passed. He thanked me.
Not surprising. I passed the Private Pilot exam, but then failed both the Basic and Advanced Ground Instructor exams. The AGI was difficult because it contained a lot of information that I did not know, and thus had not studied for.
The BGI was a MAJOR disappointment because it contained so little useful material that one would never use in teaching or preparing a student pilot anything that might help him/her take and pass the FAA Private, Sport or Recreational written exam.
While Ground School instruction is mostly keyed to CFI and FIA, there are NO study couses offered anywhere that are BGI/AGI specific. Most CFIs seem to believe that the BGI/ AGI exams are a waste of time. I’m not interested in becoming a CFI, so dont really need all the CFI-specific material inherent in the current offerings within the BGI/AGI (read CFI/FIA) exams.
Maybe this course would have helped: https://www.gleimaviation.com/shop/ogsfg/