MY 2 CENTS By Randy Rowles
AND MY GREAT REGRET HARRISON FORD’S
FAA EXAM…
In 1997, I was a relatively new FAA designated pilot examiner (DPE) in the South Florida FAA District Office. On a beautiful Saturday in December, I was asked to complete an FAA private pilot added-rating exam for an applicant at a helicopter flight school at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport (FXE).
As I had done many exams for this school, there was nothing unique about this day... at least, that was my thought prior to my arrival.
The exam was scheduled for 8 a.m., so I arrived about 15 minutes early. I often arrived early so I could stroll next door and visit my friend Terry at CavAir, a helicopter maintenance facility, and have a cup of coffee. We enjoyed a quick chat and off to work I went.
Volar Helicopters, the flight school hosting the exam, was owned and operated by Tony Hicks. Tony would often be in his office when I arrived, so when I walked through the door of the school and heard someone shuffling papers in the office area, I assumed it was him. Then, a voice said “Hello.” At that moment: I knew!
“Hi, I’m Harrison Ford.” My response was simply, “I know.” Immediately, I questioned
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myself as to his identity: Was he Indiana Jones, Han Solo, or should I simply call him Mr. President? Although I was able to focus on the reality of the moment, my mind took a second to gather its thoughts.
Once I introduced myself, his reply surprised me. He looked at me and said, “I’ve got kids older than you,” and this was true. As a young DPE in my 20s, I was not the expected FAA representative to administer the exam in his mind. And he was not the expected applicant in mine.
With those words, I knew I had to collect my thoughts and maintain a professional posture. Being starstruck was not the best way to get this task accomplished. However, my admiration for Mr. Ford’s work and how my life had been so affected by him was a reality I had to work through. It was his Han Solo character in “Star Wars” that sparked my interest to be a pilot. At that moment, I realized it was my task to evaluate him; this was not a movie.
Once the ground portion of the exam started, I knew immediately that my normal method of oral questioning wasn’t going to work. He was able to recite specific notes within the Rotorcraft Flight Manual and the subscript of documents.
It hit me that Mr. Ford’s career was based upon memorizing scripts and he was exceptionally good at it. I shifted the oral discussion to a scenario-based discussion, which proved to be highly effective.
Since this was a helicopter-added rating, the oral discussion focused heavily on helicopter-specific questioning. There were no issues found, and we were able to move out to the flight line for the preflight.
At this point, I was in the groove and wasn’t thinking about who the applicant was. My focus was simply to observe and evaluate the preflight of the Bell 206 helicopter and go fly. His preflight was thorough with a satisfactory passenger briefing conducted.
Utilizing the checklist, we started the helicopter. I could hear that the igniters weren’t firing at a rate that I was comfortable with to start the helicopter, as if there was a weak battery. At 15%, an attempt to start the helicopter was made, and as predicted in my mind, he had to abort the start.
We discussed the situation, and he explained the solution. “I’ll go get a
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