An absolute crock, Mr. Strange is a great person, an awesome pilot and a excellent examiner. He can be intimidating, but that is something you will have to deal with your entire career. He gave me at least 5 of my checkrides when I was at ATP in 2000. If you take the time to be prepared and educated (as opposed to just studying the "gouge") you will be pleasantly suprised. All of his checkrides are a learning experience, and believe me, he can teach us all a thing or two.
I encourage anyone going to a checkride with him (or anyone else for that matter) to get the PTS, study it, and know exactly what is expected of you. This alone will put you miles ahead of many applicants.
All in all, ATP is the BEST thing I ever did for my career.
Kryder
UPS Airbus F/O
Please don't assume anything about me, my style of preparation for my cert's, nor how much I studied during my ratings.
I'll tell you one thing for sure, I never had a gouge except a day or two before the checkride. My study materials, for the two single engine ratings I took with Strange were the PTS, POH, AFH, PHAK, Everything explained, FAR/AIM, and the King Videos. In fact, I didn't get a single slip of paper from my CFI, not even a maneuver sheet - I did all the legwork on my own and made it work. I didn't slip up at all on either checkride. I'm not saying I'm some kind of super pilot or anything, just that I satisified the PTS requirements with flying colors.
My point is that he could conduct a checkride with fairness, and without attempting to humiliate the applicant - there's nothing professional about that at all! Guys like him that get off on making others feel miserable obviously have a lack of self respect, and I just laugh at them.
I did learn a few things from him, which are great and all; those came on my CFI ride with him, and I'm thankful for learning a few things, but that is irrelevant in my opinion of him as a DE.
I'll make one other point clear, I've got over a thousand dual given in light twins now, and I don't remember ever giving a gouge to a student for a checkride until the day before the checkride. Each day is a formatted lesson, and my gouge are the FAA publications primarily, with the PTS guiding the entire process.
And Eclipse - don't worry, I didn't lose concentration, I took care of what needed to be taken care of in the cockpit, I just would rather not have his saliva all over the side of my face
That's all.... don't be so quick to judge.
Anyway... moving on :whatever: