DPE Question - Does this make sense

kyleb

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A buddy's son got turned away from his practical test for Single Engine Commercial today. He already has multi/commercial, Instrument, and PPSEL ratings. He was turned away because of a discrepancy between his license and medical. His name on his license is "John A Smith" his medical is "John Axel Smith". Names changed to protect the guilty.

He could not resolve this today, so his check ride was canceled by the DPE. A) Is that legit. B) How does he rectify the situation?
 
it’s probably legit but still ******** all at the same time.

Edit:

I had a fed doing a line check one time that said I wasn’t legal because my middle name on the medical was all lower case but my certificate had the first letter capitalized. I laughed in his face and told him I did not give a F because I was going to get pay protected for all my trips. I begged him to ground me. I passed the line check. Officious **** of a human.
 
A buddy's son got turned away from his practical test for Single Engine Commercial today. He already has multi/commercial, Instrument, and PPSEL ratings. He was turned away because of a discrepancy between his license and medical. His name on his license is "John A Smith" his medical is "John Axel Smith". Names changed to protect the guilty.

He could not resolve this today, so his check ride was canceled by the DPE. A) Is that legit. B) How does he rectify the situation?
From the 8710 instructions:
Block A. Name. Enter full legal name (Last, First, Middle).
So at some point he either told the FAA that his middle name was “A” or there was a typo that didn’t get corrected. I don’t believe a DPE can do a name change on a certificate, so he’ll have to go to the FAA and sort it out.
 
He was turned away because of a discrepancy between his license and medical. His name on his license is "John A Smith" his medical is "John Axel Smith". Names changed to protect the guilty.
Apparently it needs to match "character per character" to be accepted.

I found one reference that said if you had a middle initial and a full middle name on the two documents it "could cause friction on a checkride." Guess it's one of those things you're supposed to know and have corrected by the time you go for the checkride. Sort of like showing up for your private checkride with a 50nm XC in your logbook vs a 50 *PLUS* nm XC. :cool: (But both you AND the CFI should have caught that one.)
 
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I remember the FAA making a big stink about names matching exactly some time around the late 1900s or early 2000s, and lots of similar stories around then. I'm surprised your buddy's son hadn't been tripped up by the name mismatch on earlier check rides.
 
I remember the FAA making a big stink about names matching exactly some time around the late 1900s or early 2000s, and lots of similar stories around then. I'm surprised your buddy's son hadn't been tripped up by the name mismatch on earlier check rides.
I was thinking the same thing. I'd have never guessed that something I don't see as a discrepancy was turned into one.
 
The FAA returned a registration application back to me because the serial number was entered as 01 instead of 001.
 
I was thinking the same thing. I'd have never guessed that something I don't see as a discrepancy was turned into one.
The problem isn’t the discrepancy. The problem is the error that was highlighted by the discrepancy.
 
Kyle, this is a subject of heightened vigilance at my place. I am looking for DL's with a "Star", or a passport. To change one's name on a state DMV document all you have to do is show passport or a birth Certificate. But to change federal names you have to go before the judge. I have held the issuance of a certificate until I got an image of the birth certificate due to this.

We had a DPE who let one go through and he barely got reappointed within the 12 month framework before you have to be re-recommended and retrained. The candidates State ID and Federal ID were NOT a "dead to nuts match" with his medical nor his student pilot cert.

B
 
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When I changed my name after marriage, I did an online appointment with the FSDO and they sent a PDF of my new license. I would just do that and change the license to match the medical to make everything easier.
 
I remember the FAA making a big stink about names matching exactly some time around the late 1900s or early 2000s, and lots of similar stories around then. I'm surprised your buddy's son hadn't been tripped up by the name mismatch on earlier check rides.
My line check was 2004ish. Sounds about right.
 
A buddy's son got turned away from his practical test for Single Engine Commercial today. He already has multi/commercial, Instrument, and PPSEL ratings. He was turned away because of a discrepancy between his license and medical. His name on his license is "John A Smith" his medical is "John Axel Smith". Names changed to protect the guilty.

He could not resolve this today, so his check ride was canceled by the DPE. A) Is that legit. B) How does he rectify the situation?
Yes, it is legit. One also can not have different addresses in their records with the FAA and the address on the IACRA form. Fortunately the address issue can be addressed on the spot by doing an address change online with the FAA.

The easy fix for the medical issue is rescheduling the test with a basic med.
 
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We had a DPE who let one go through and he barely got reappointed within 12 month framework before you have to be re-recommended and retrained. His State ID and Federal ID were NOT a "dead to nuts match".
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The FAA and Mona Lisa Vito have something in common. Who knew?
 
Does anyone remember when they started being such sticklers of an initial on one document not being okay? Anything to do with post 9/11 and security, or just one of those bureaucratic things?
 
Does anyone remember when they started being such sticklers of an initial on one document not being okay? Anything to do with post 9/11 and security, or just one of those bureaucratic things?
I doubt that such a time existed. The requirement to follow instructions and fill out paperwork properly has probably existed since the agency was created.
 
I doubt that such a time existed. The requirement to follow instructions and fill out paperwork properly has probably existed since the agency was created.
Okay, I wasn't sure. I'm 99% sure they guy that did my Inst. Checkride (90s) never looked at my Medical. Not ever sure if he looked at my Private Cert., he just looked at my logs a bit and then we went into the oral.

And no clue on my Private Checkride. I don't remember much about that day, just know I did a lot of studying up to that point. :D
 
Does anyone remember when they started being such sticklers of an initial on one document not being okay? Anything to do with post 9/11 and security, or just one of those bureaucratic things?
Hmm..It’s been the case as long as I’ve been flying, going back to the 1990s. Perhaps my DPE’s FSDO was more of a stickler for such things. That said, now that SSNs are no longer used as pilot certificate numbers (late 1990s I believe) and no longer collected, accurate matches of names are even more critical for proper identification of airmen. This gets particularly difficult for foreign pilot certificate applicants whose names are transliterated from other languages with different alphabets. Arabic names are famous for having a variety of differnt spellings for the same name. As you can imagine, this can cause all sorts of issues…
 
Late arriving fact. A prior DPE had pointed out the discrepancy, but let it slide. My buddy's son didn't rectify the situation during the interim.
 
The transition from paper applications to IACRA is probably a factor in increased attention to detail. If things don't match, IACRA will stop the show.
 
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