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Unwanted Flight Test: The FAA’s 709 Ride

Rick Durden
Verified

Edited By:

kmeyne

"I did feel like I was forgetting something." An inadvertent gear-up landing may result in the FAA requesting that you take a 709 ride.

Correspondence from the FAA is enough to elevate a pilot’s heart rate we’ll into triple digits. A letter from the FAA stating that the pilot’s competence has been called into question and requesting that the pilot take a reexamination checkride with an FAA inspector will make even the toughest pilot go weak in the knees. 

Pilot reexamination—what does it mean? Can the FAA do that to me? What triggered the FAA’s sudden interest in me? How do I deal with it? Can I make it go away? Who do they think they are?

Rick Durden

Senior Editor Rick Durden has written for Aviation Consumer since 1994 and specializes in aviation law. Rick is an active CFII and holds an ATP with type ratings in the Douglas DC-3 and Cessna Citation. He is the author of The Thinking Pilot’s Flight Manual or, How to Survive Flying Little Airplanes and Have a Ball Doing It, Vols. 1 & 2.