A new examiner's handbook
To learn how this volume affects you and your coming checkride, read on. You should first note is that it bears the word Order in its title. For your local designated pilot examiner (DPE), this becomes exactly as it sounds: orders from the FAA administrator regarding how your testing shall be done. Pilot examiners are no longer permitted to test however they want, although rogue examiners still taint aviation. If each Flight Standards District Office (FSDO) can effectively enforce Order 8710.3D, rogue examiners will be less common. One impetus for this to happen is the simple change in many places of the word "shall" to "must." In the FAA's lexicon, the word "shall" is optional in nature. Not so "must."
Growing from 18 chapters in its 1996 edition to 22 chapters, the Examiner Handbook has modernized and even streamlined some areas in addition to making its meanings very clear to those relying on its counsel. Chapter 5 directs examiners' conduct of practical testing and certification functions and thus becomes one of those hidden social expectations that touches your life almost unseen -- unless, that is, you take the time to see it.
Society's objective in Chapter 5 is to have uniform, correctly performed testing without abuse or non-use of examiners' authority. Chapter 5 governs every request we make to the FAA for any pilot privilege that requires a Form 8710-1 application. As an example of the shifted emphasis discussed above, the Examiner Handbook immediately states that examiners must conduct the practical test using a written plan of action. Previously, 8710.3C said simply that examiners "shall" use a plan of action. Over the years, a number of examiners have capitalized on the FAA's non-mandatory view of shall to exempt them from using written plans of action. During examiners' yearly renewal, with a FSDO safety inspector present, examiners demonstrate their use of plans of action. Human nature leads all of us to do what our overseers inspect, not what they expect. If this weren't true, practical testing would not exist.
One conspicuous addition to Order 8710.3D addresses English language skill standards. Refining society's expectations, the FAA now demands that examiners comply with Advisory Circular (AC) 60-28 plus appropriate regulations regarding applicants' ability to read, speak, write, and understand aviation's international standard language, which is English. Those who cannot and still appear before their examiners will find the test terminated, and they will be referred to the FSDO. No longer are examiners authorized to issue airman certificates with the old "Not Valid for Flights Requiring the Use of English." Testing demands the ability to communicate. For many reasons, this issue is becoming as serious as overdue rent.
An interesting examiner limitation now appears: A DPE may not be involved in conducting or monitoring any portion of computerized knowledge tests. This may change a few arrangements throughout the nation. Certainly, examiners who have performed both functions will disagree, but society now dislikes monopolies or undue potential influence.
Yet another disagreement between some examiners and the FAA regards examiners acting as pilot in command (PIC). Some have long ignored the FAA's instruction so as to increase the year's business: Instrument rating tests in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) require the examiner to be PIC. Still, many examiners avoid testing in IMC for a number of reasons, one of them being the FAA's discomfort with examiners being PIC. Fair warning now appears in FAA's new statement: "The FAA strongly recommends that an examiner not agree to act as PIC of a flight during a practical test." While not specifically prohibiting the habit, should an accident or incident occur, that examiner would have to explain to the FSDO why he or she ignored published recommendations.
Examiners tend to have soft hearts, so they have rendered occasional advice or assistance to applicants during tests. The previous Handbook almost seemed to make the practice acceptable. Now, examiners have much firmer guidance in that if advice or assistance has to be given, the applicant will be issued a notice of disapproval.
Another blow to examiners who have depended on cramming their days with as many checkrides as possible is the new requirement (with certain exceptions) that examiners not conduct more than two certificate actions in a 24-hour period. Within that paragraph, a certificate action means the issuance of a temporary airman certificate, a notice of disapproval, or a letter of discontinuance. The same section of 8710.3D now makes clear that the ground portion of a practical test must precede the flight portion.
Nearly every DPE has encountered applicants whose replies very early in the test to questions during the ground portion were incorrect, confused, or unrelated to the scenario or question. Most examiners of my acquaintance simply note that task and move on, returning to the question later. Now, Order 8710.3D instructs that only one or two incorrect answers will not only require a notice of disapproval, but continues, "If, after that question the examiner is certain that the applicant's knowledge is unsatisfactory or incomplete, then the practical test would be terminated and a notice of disapproval should be issued." Such instructions to DPEs dovetail well with the FAA's push for scenario-type testing during the ground portion.
In the same vein, the FAA now directs that examiners "must note" the failed areas coded on an applicant's knowledge test report. Advisory Circular 60-25 includes subject matter knowledge codes and should be a part of each examiner's job aids. The task of qualifying applicants may now take a little more time, especially when a knowledge test has a low grade -- and thus a large number of knowledge codes. Naturally, competent ground testing will be longer as well in such cases. Now there is a reason beyond ego for all of us to covet applicants who have very high scores!
Regarding time used in ground testing, examiners have occasionally tested two applicants at the same time when circumstances allowed. For original issuances of private, commercial, or airline transport pilot certificates, simultaneous testing is now verboten. Type-rating applicants may still test together, but only during the ground portion. For a few years, FSDOs had instructed DPEs that unless it was reasonable to expect to complete the test on the appointed day, the test was to be rescheduled. Better guidance appears now with the examiner authorized to elect, with the applicant's concurrence, to begin the test anyway with the intention of finishing on another day. However, when the test is discontinued, the applicant must be issued a letter of discontinuance.
One last subject, and an unexpected area of discord between some DPEs and the FAA, involves practical-test briefings. Examiners must conduct pretest, preflight, and post-flight briefings. Although the pretest and post-flight briefings are but loosely touched upon in the Examiner Test Guide (now a part of chapter 5 instead of being a separate document), the Handbook quite clearly details subjects to be covered at minimum.
England's respected poet John Donne (1572-1631) wrote, "No man is an island." This also holds true of most government agencies, like the FAA, and to those individuals who exercise the privileges governed by those faceless administrations. Both they and we must never forget that we do so by meeting the expectations of all those that constitute society, and to whom we are ultimately responsible.
Dave Wilkerson is a designated pilot examiner, writer/photographer, and historian. He has been a certificated flight instructor since 1981 with approximately 2,000 hours of dual instruction, and is a single- and multiengine commercial-rated pilot.
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