Every so often an airplane shows up for a practical test with a small piece of tape on the panel.
INOP.
Sometimes it's legitimate. Equipment fails. Parts are on order. Airplanes are machines, and machines break.
But sometimes the placard is very suspicious.
These days it's most often the autopilot. Occasionally on a brand-new airplane. Years ago it was the ADF, or the VOR/DME RNAV box on an instrument practical test. The equipment changes. The pattern doesn't.
And when I ask about it, the story usually goes something like this: it was working last week, nobody is quite sure what's wrong with it, and no, there isn't a logbook entry.
Why It Happens
The reason isn't complicated. If the equipment is inoperative, I can't ask the applicant to demonstrate how to use it.
So instead of training the applicant to use the equipment installed in the airplane, someone decides it's easier to make the equipment disappear for a day.
I understand the temptation. Automation can be hard to teach well. An autopilot with several modes takes time to learn, and an applicant who doesn't understand it can get behind it quickly. A piece of tape looks like a shortcut around all of that.
It's a lazy, dishonest solution.
Why It Doesn't Work
First, an “INOP” placard isn't a sticky note. It's a statement about the airworthiness of the airplane. When equipment is inoperative, there's a process for determining whether the airplane can still be flown, deactivating or removing the item as required, and documenting it. A placard that appears the morning of the practical test, with nothing behind it, raises an airworthiness question before we ever get to the flying.
Second, I'm going to ask about it. How was it determined to be inoperative? Who made that determination? Where is it documented? What does it mean for today's flight? Those aren't trick questions. They're the same questions a pilot in command should be able to answer about any airplane they're about to fly.
How those questions are answered decides what happens next.
And I'll be honest. Most of the time, I sigh and carry on.
It shouldn't be that way.
Third, and most important, it doesn't change what the applicant needs to know. A pilot who can't use the autopilot in the airplane they trained in will eventually fly that airplane, or one like it, with the autopilot working. Probably in instrument conditions. Probably at night. Probably tired.
That's exactly when they'll need it.
The Equipment You Fly Is the Equipment You Know
The practical test evaluates the pilot you are going to be after I get out of the airplane. If the airplane you train in has an autopilot, you should know how to use it, when to use it, and when to turn it off. You should know what mode it's in, what it's going to do next, and how to take over if it does something you didn't expect.
The same was true of the ADF and the RNAV box. If the equipment was in the airplane, it was part of the pilot's world. Pretending it wasn't didn't make the pilot safer. It just moved the learning to a less forgiving day.
Managing automation is a pilot skill. It isn't a convenience feature, and it isn't an optional chapter.
A Word to Instructors
If you find yourself thinking about a piece of tape, stop and ask what problem you're actually trying to solve.
If the applicant isn't ready to use the equipment, the answer is more training, not less equipment. If the equipment really is inoperative, handle it the right way and bring the documentation. Either of those is fine with me.
What isn't fine is asking an applicant to start their flying career with a small act of dishonesty. That's not the lesson any of us want them to learn.
The Bottom Line
I don't expect perfection with automation. I expect honesty about the airplane, a working knowledge of the equipment installed in it, and the judgment to use it well.
An “INOP” placard should describe the airplane.
It shouldn't describe the training.
— Brad Kramer
FAA Designated Pilot Examiner
