FAA course for UAS commercial - fail

murphey

murphey

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Aug 21, 2008
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murphey
I just spent over 3 hours going thru the course only to discover the navigation is completely trashed.

1) I logged into the FAA course
2) Went thru the entire course
3) As per the directions at the end of the course, I selected EXIT to take the exam
4) I am returned to the ALC-451.
5) According to the details on the page, I have NOT STARTED the course.
6) There is NO way to take the exam.

I am NOT happy. What a waste of time.

Have sent this same note to the FAA

Has anyone successfully gone thru this thing and gotten to the exam and the certificate?
 
You sure you work in IT? Heh.

My various social media and private chat groups are loaded to the gills with all the IT nerd pilots announcing that they got their certs today.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why I would need one, ever. But there's already headlines in various news sources claiming "People flock to new Drone Certification"...
 
The problem is poor directions. Even after completing the course, there's nothing that tells you that you need to click on the stupid little buttons with the 2 chapters, the review button and the exam button.

Low-bid contractor, obviously.

And no, I don't work in IT. There's an entire IT staff that worries about the hardware, software upgrades, network security, etc. They're paid to make sure I have the resources so that I get paid to build new systems for customers.

nyuk nyuk nyuk...

(update)

I. am not. a low bid contractor on a govt contract.

I. am a very expensive contractor on an expensive govt contract. But nowhere near as expensive as the $400 billion F35. Miniscule in comparison, really.
 
Last edited:
murphey said:
The problem is poor directions. Even after completing the course, there's nothing that tells you that you need to click on the stupid little buttons with the 2 chapters, the review button and the exam button.

Low-bid contractor, obviously.

And no, I don't work in IT. There's an entire IT staff that worries about the hardware, software upgrades, network security, etc. They're paid to make sure I have the resources so that I get paid to build new systems for customers.

nyuk nyuk nyuk...
Click to expand...

Then you know how these things happen and should know to click on everything in sight like a rabid monkey whenever you see unexplained click buttons in software... You've seen that bad code before.

Deja Fu... Somewhere somehow I've been kicked in the head like this before. Haha.

UI bugs are definitely not IT. ;)
 
You should have seen what I went through to help a friend apply for his FCC license for the aviation band radios for the Air Boss at an airshow. LOL. Holy hell, I had to dig out a computer with Java 6 on it from the closet to even get their website to work.
 
murphey said:
I just spent over 3 hours going thru the course only to discover the navigation is completely trashed.

1) I logged into the FAA course
2) Went thru the entire course
3) As per the directions at the end of the course, I selected EXIT to take the exam
4) I am returned to the ALC-451.
5) According to the details on the page, I have NOT STARTED the course.
6) There is NO way to take the exam.

I am NOT happy. What a waste of time.

Have sent this same note to the FAA

Has anyone successfully gone thru this thing and gotten to the exam and the certificate?
Click to expand...

Did you start the course previous to today? I believe they had to make an update to the course over the weekend that caused some people to have to redo the course to take the test.
 
murphey said:
I just spent over 3 hours going thru the course only to discover the navigation is completely trashed.

1) I logged into the FAA course
2) Went thru the entire course
3) As per the directions at the end of the course, I selected EXIT to take the exam
4) I am returned to the ALC-451.
5) According to the details on the page, I have NOT STARTED the course.
6) There is NO way to take the exam.

I am NOT happy. What a waste of time.

Have sent this same note to the FAA

Has anyone successfully gone thru this thing and gotten to the exam and the certificate?
Click to expand...

Yeah. It was acting kinda funny in kinda a way you described, sorta. I don't remember the details. I signed out, cleared the browser cache, signed back in and 'resumed' the course. Went fine after that.
 
I had the same problem..if I remeber there were 3 buttons..you have to review before you take the exam and I had to click on the review button. Then the exam button lit up. But yes I had the same problem.
 
a low bidder woulda had a working site. Trust me it wasn't a lowest bidder. :(
 
Do you get a new piece of plastic, a separate one, a piece of paper, or maybe a tattoo?

Cheers
 
Remote Pilot Certificate is a separate certificate from whatever part 61 pilot certificate you hold.
 
It worked for me. No issues at all with either the course, exam or IACRA. Piece of cake.
 
You know...there's a part of me that says that if the FAA messed up the UAS course, that's a good thing. I really don't want a bunch of irresponsible yahoos flying UASs around. It's bad enough already, what happens if they mainstream?

Am I evil for feeling this way?
 
bflynn said:
You know...there's a part of me that says that if the FAA messed up the UAS course, that's a good thing. I really don't want a bunch of irresponsible yahoos flying UASs around. It's bad enough already, what happens if they mainstream?

Am I evil for feeling this way?
Click to expand...
The flip side is that if they can't handle a simple CBT course to year people, how on earth are they going to manage controlling the airspace?
 
I did mine about 3-4 weeks ago. There were no issues.. hopefully you can get it resolved
 
Just refresh the page, worked for me

Also seems all things FAA seem to play better with IE than other browsers.
 
Lemme see. It's a free course and getting your certificate will cost you nothing. And the certificate never expires.

You people really do have reason to get angry. For those of you how are constantly going on about the FAA, you should deal with some of the foreign aviation regulators I deal with to come to appreciate just how good you have it in the USA and why I, for one, consider the FAA to be a role model.
 
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