Written test rant

tree96

tree96

Line Up and Wait
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Jul 16, 2012
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tree96
Im trying to get the written done for my instrument rating. I know, should have knocked out the written first, but I wasn't scoring where I wanted on the practice tests, and thought it would be better to get some training to be familiar with the material. After ground study on my own, I finally get the sign off from Sportys only to find out the testing center closest to me (55 minute drive still) is no longer open.
No biggie, there is a test site where i took the written for my private at an airport about 40 flying minutes away, I'll fly down this Saturday morning. Nope, only gives the tests during the week.

The only place I can find in the whole state of Ohio who gives it on a Saturday is still a three hour drive away. 50 minutes mutes by air, but you know the wx will not cooperate. I can't take a weekday off work to drive there for the test.
I'm vacationing in the Smokies in July, if all else fails I'll just take it at a place in Knoxville that week.

It's just aggravating dealing with trying to get this knocked out. This whole rating has been a royal pain. I've done all the requirements for the ratings no, the long XC hood time etc.

Just felt like bitching about it on the interwebs. Seems like there are more and more obstacles and hoops to jump through to either become a pilot or further your experience.
 
Yea, had to drive 2 hours myself for the private, on a weekday. Silly.
 
No part 141 school reasonably close? I called up the one near me and they provided a slot on the day I wanted.
 
AggieMike88 said:
No part 141 school reasonably close? I called up the one near me and they provided a slot on the day I wanted.
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Sportys. But I'm about 3 hour drive from there, and weekdays only.
 
3 hours drive would cover at least half the state of Ohio. There should be a bunch of 141 schools. You tried both CATS and LaserGrade, right?
 
Laser grade is better, but yeah, I'm surprised you can find anything.
 
I found it interesting when doing mine that none of these places are ever open after business hours, and the one that was in Boulder, went under and is still listed on PSIs website. They confirmed its not bookable. Apparently their website doesn't draw from their active test site database.

Of the others around, all have numbers of weekdays that they're not open.

And yet, the great folks at the one at APA have mentioned time and again how they bend over backward to do the pilot tests and walk ins and whatever they can because the pilot tests are their bread and butter.

The testing biz must be really low profit margin. I've never seen a day when there aren't at least three or four pilots in there and three or so other testers doing other stuff.

But they're closed two days of the week. Three if you count the weekend.

I've seen lower profit margin businesses that manage to stay open not just every day but 24/7... So it's interesting to me mostly just as a curiosity.

A great many in the area are "By appointment only" which is fine, but interesting also. And then there's CATS... They let the tiny little off-shoot of ATP that's at APA have a test facility and label it "ATP Students Only". That one is extra lame. Haha.

Let's not even talk about how many mistakes the PSI call center makes on reservations and identifying materials... Haha. Both the poor proctors at the APA PSI place just shake their heads and start the process off each time with "we'll go fix that"... It took finding a supervisor on my latest test to get the $10 EAA discount AFTER the guy asked if I had any memberships and entered my ID number. Computer on his end still spit out full price. Proctor said he's had to simply give folks $10 back in person and deal with PSI later to get it back for the test facility. He said a couple of days ago some guy showed up at 0830 for a test and it took over an hour to give his credit card number to PSI when he forgot a checkbook at home. He almost could have just driven home and retrieved it.

The testing companies sure seem to be a total disaster far as business processes go, and not at the local level. How in the world you could continually screw up stuff that could simply be programmed as questions into the call center computers in a q&a workflow is beyond me. Especially since I've worked on such systems since about 1995 or so, back when we had dumb terminals and a big Sun box in the back room running a few hundred reservations agents per site.
 
Wow. Had no idea it was so hard for you. I was able to do mine on a Friday at a tech school 5 minutes away. Didn't realize it was such a PITA for some people.
 
teejayevans said:
Hmmm, why not fly down on a week day?
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Work. I only have one more personal day left for the year, and have to use it and some banked sick time for my daughters appointments in Cincinnati later this year.

MAKG1 said:
3 hours drive would cover at least half the state of Ohio. There should be a bunch of 141 schools. You tried both CATS and LaserGrade, right?
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I'm at the very southern tip of Ohio. I found a place in Lancaster, south of Columbus, that does it on Saturday mornings, so I think that is where I will end up going. Still a 2.5 hours drive or an 87 nm flight. I guess that's not that bad, but still. The Monday thru Friday part is what I am struggling with.
 
Yep, I drove to Lancaster to take mine, too. In January. At least you won't need to worry about weather . . . From Huntington, I think you nailed the drive time. Did you check Mt. Sterling, KY?
 
Must be lucky living in the air capital of the world, I know of at least two places in the area that both do Saturday's.
 
Hank S said:
Yep, I drove to Lancaster to take mine, too. In January. At least you won't need to worry about weather . . . From Huntington, I think you nailed the drive time. Did you check Mt. Sterling, KY?
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Mt Sterling no longer does the weekends either.

At least at Lancaster I can visit some family. I took my ppl written at Mallory. Which was a neat experience...
 
tree96 said:
Mt Sterling no longer does the weekends either.

At least at Lancaster I can visit some family. I took my ppl written at Mallory. Which was a neat experience...
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Mallory . . . I drove there for my PPL written, their internet was down. Waited a couple of hours and left. Took the test the next weekend while visiting my parents in Asheville instead. Even now, with 600+ hours in my plane, I'm not ready to land at Mallory. But it was educational walking out and looking at the (bent) runway with planes and cars parked up and down both sides! :eek: What bothers me, though, is the no-go-around commitment on final; come what may, by short final your flight is about to end.
 
rbridges said:
Wow. Had no idea it was so hard for you. I was able to do mine on a Friday at a tech school 5 minutes away. Didn't realize it was such a PITA for some people.
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Welcome to reality for those of us that don't live in a metro area. Some of us have to drive a long way to find an airplane for rent and/or an instructor. Then you take what you can get, good or bad, because the next closest one is even farther.
 
And to add to my ***** fest. I just waited on hold for 15 minutes trying to schedule this for Saturday morning, only to have to leave my name and number for someone to call me back within 24 hours!! What the h?

It may sound whiney, but what kind of customer service is this crap? Can't schedule with the the testing site directly.
 
tree96 said:
And to add to my ***** fest. I just waited on hold for 15 minutes trying to schedule this for Saturday morning, only to have to leave my name and number for someone to call me back within 24 hours!! What the h?

It may sound whiney, but what kind of customer service is this crap? Can't schedule with the the testing site directly.
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Which company?

PSI seems to go to lengths to hide the local test facilities phone numbers. But they also don't tell you that at least some facilities know how to handle walk-ins and book things on the spot, if they have seats open. And that smarter facilities with customer service skills always have some seats open for exactly that purpose. They know that dealing with PSI's call center is a PITA.

Hunt down the test facility phone number via Google or whatever and call them, and I bet you'll be told they'll get you in, just fine.

Sometimes if you ask nicely the PSI call center will dig around and find the number for you. Expect twenty minutes and being put on hold while they find a supervisor. They admitted to me recently that FAA is one of the only of 10,000 or so tests that they proctor who will allow a test be taken without 24 hour notice so they're not used to anyone even asking and will often parrot the 24 hour thing unless you press. That's also why they don't have or keep facility phone numbers handy.

Can't speak to CATS. They appear to be even more worthless around here than PSI.
 
It is PSI. The actual testing site said they were booked Saturday, but to call them in the morning and if they had any cancellations I could have it. But it would take me a couple hours to drive there.

PSI called me back yesterday evening. I answered told them the exam I wanted, was promptly placed on hold for another 15 minutes. But alas, I'm scheduled to take it this Saturday am!!

My advice to anyone, if your not near a metro area get the written done asap!!! I procrastinated and now am paying for it. This has been a huge hassle.
 
Update;

Passed the written this morning. Lots of approach plate/chart questions. 4 different determine winds aloft forecas questions strangely.

Fairfield county KLHQ Lancaster OH is where I took it. Awesome FBO, super friendly and it was busy when I left this morning.
 
Congrats. I just finished my six written slog and don't want to see another written test for a very long time.
 
I was 141 so it was a non event. Sorry you are having difficulty.
 
denverpilot said:
Sometimes if you ask nicely the PSI call center will dig around and find the number for you. Expect twenty minutes and being put on hold while they find a supervisor. They admitted to me recently that FAA is one of the only of 10,000 or so tests that they proctor who will allow a test be taken without 24 hour notice so they're not used to anyone even asking and will often parrot the 24 hour thing unless you press. That's also why they don't have or keep facility phone numbers handy.

.
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This. I was nice to the college testing center employees and I was able to take my commercial written with no notice on the Friday before Memorial Day. They provided a phone and computer and just had me register and pay while waiting for a computer spot to open. Being courteous and kind will get folks to move mountains for you.
 
tree96 said:
Update;

Passed the written this morning. Lots of approach plate/chart questions. 4 different determine winds aloft forecas questions strangely.

Fairfield county KLHQ Lancaster OH is where I took it. Awesome FBO, super friendly and it was busy when I left this morning.
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Congrats! Deborah saw your Facebook post and pointed it out to me. Now it's time to go ace that check ride! You using the Colonel? His signature is in my logbook twice, PPL and IA.
 
My students have had to do either a 4 hour drive or a 1.8hr flight to a testing center. But, that will very soon be a thing of the past because my little flight school is about to be the newest LaserGrade facility!!!

That being said, it is a LOT of work to get it all done. Lots of red tape, but will be worth it. Profit margin is OK but not wonderful.
 
Hank S said:
Congrats! Deborah saw your Facebook post and pointed it out to me. Now it's time to go ace that check ride! You using the Colonel? His signature is in my logbook twice, PPL and IA.
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Yes that's the plan to use the Colonel. Jessica is out of town next week and then I m gone the week after until Friday so I plan on putting on myself through the paces to knock it out then. Thinking 15/16th July by the time our schedules jive though unfortunately.
 
Just a side note if you plan to pay at a testing facility that will handle walk-ins... Many can't accept credit cards. Bring cash. They'll give you a receipt.

Also I learned that most of the PSI facilities can't enter the code for either an AOPA or EAA discount into PSIs system when you pay locally. They often opt to "eat" the lost $10 to keep customers happy.

If you want the discount, or want to pay with a card, go through the pain of the call center and ask for an "open dated" exam after you've confirmed the test facility has a seat open.

Then ask for your "locator number" and take that into the test facility and they can pull your registration up from that and finish the registration confirmation process anytime and start the test.

Watch the call center. They often screw up a couple of things...

Email address, phone number, and no middle name as printed on my ID were the errors seen on 2 out of 6 registrations through them in the last few weeks. Some agents there really know FAA stuff. Others are reading from a script and barely get it right. One or two seriously don't care and will screw up. Have the proctor fix anything they screwed up prior to test start, of course.

Allow some extra time for this and arrive early if you want your fully slotted test time. I never cared, I didn't take the full time for any of them, not even close.

Also on one test, the PSI server wasn't responding correctly at test start and the proctors seemed to know it was common... CTL-ALT-DEL and Task Manager and kill the thing and restart, three times on that one until the system got its crap together. As an IT guy I thought it was interesting that it shows the public IP of the server while it's doing the setup and it's likely using unencrypted file transfers and really dumb scripts to transfer things, judging by the on screen logging output. "Security" of these systems appears to be decades behind where even my worst secured systems MUST be, nowadays. I loved that they were transferring zip files around, per the on screen logs during setup. Total junk software for the modern world...
 
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