CFI checkride started

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iRyan

Pre-takeoff checklist
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Feb 25, 2012
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Ryan
I was finally able to take the checkride after several years of starting and stopping. I successfully completed the oral yesterday and I have the flight portion scheduled for Jan 8. While it was long, the examiner followed the pts and there were no surprises. It was an enjoyable and pleasant experience. I will do a write up if anyone is interested when I am done.
 
Congrats,good luck on the flight test.
 
Walboy said:
Congrats! I would be very interested to read a write up.

I would also be interested in how you prepared your lesson plans (made from scratch, used third party etc.) and any other advice you could offer someone considering chasing the CFI cert.
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I agree. I hope to take my CFI ride at the end of the month
 
Here is my write-up for the oral. If anyone needs more details, just shoot me a PM and I will be glad to help. I prepared for the oral by making lesson plans for every item in the CFI & Commercial PTS. I also tabbed my FAR/AIM for all of the major areas. I also practiced teaching the subject areas to my wife and just out loud to get my flow down. Fellow POA member marcoseddi also got bombared with my teaching practice (Thanks dude!). I brought foreflight and paper charts, course plotter, and an E6B. My examiner was fine with foreflight and we used that to talk about airspace.

I had a DPE for my exam and he likes to schedule it in two parts; oral and then come back for the flight test. Before the test, I emailed my examiner to see what areas he wanted me to focus on and what areas of weakness he saw in applicants. He told me to study the FOI, ADM, single pilot RM, risk mgt., basically the commercial pts sections on risk. That was good to know as the oral focused heavily on that. The oral began at 1:30 in my dpe's office and right from the start he put me at ease by stating this was not the Spanish Inquisition, rather just a discussion. We talked about about our experieces, my background, career, etc. He is a well-known CFI, ex-TWA captain and a really nice guy. You can tell he really loves teaching and aviation. We then went over the test, including retakes, his previous checkride experiences and the exam format.

We stared out discussing what makes an airplane fly. I drew an airfoil and talked about the theories of lift, airfoil design, left turning tendencies, stability, the CG's effect on them, and wintip vorticies. He followed the PTS and checked boxes as we covered topics. We covered all of the PTS items re: the FOI with him telling me what to watch out for while teaching (including student stress, personal problems, etc). Then we focuses on the FOI, pretty much covering everyhing the PTS; that wasn't difficult, it was just me describing it and giving examples of the items you can encounter in training.

We talked about night flying, the dangers of it and how to mitigate risk at night. He also was interested in night vision and how this relates to risk, including CFIT, pilot error, etc.

We then moved on to endorsements and Part 61 requirements for pilot certs. We pretended he was a new student and I was to walk him through this training. This introduces the topics of medical certificates, TSA requirements, student solo endorsements and add on requirements. I botched up sport pilot requirements but he said just read up on that later.

My examiner also held up runway signs and markings. We discussed them as I identified what the markings were and what I had to do if I was taxiing. This lead into airspace descriptions, speeds, wx requirements and required equipment.

We talked a bit about weight and balance, VG diagrams, Va and why it differs with weight change.

We then moved on to the landing gear system and the prop. I described the systems and how we would trouble shoot errors. Fly the plane first was his major theme.

The oral ended just after 7 pm. The time flew by and it was an enjoyable experience. My dpe stated several times that he knew I was ready to teach, and there was no need to make it an uncomfortable situation. My flight test is scheduled for Jan 8 and it should be about a 2.5 hour flight.

Thanks for reading!
 
iRyan said:
Here is my write-up for the oral. If anyone needs more details, just shoot me a PM and I will be glad to help. I prepared for the oral by making lesson plans for every item in the CFI & Commercial PTS. I also tabbed my FAR/AIM for all of the major areas. I also practiced teaching the subject areas to my wife and just out loud to get my flow down. Fellow POA member marcoseddi also got bombared with my teaching practice (Thanks dude!). I brought foreflight and paper charts, course plotter, and an E6B. My examiner was fine with foreflight and we used that to talk about airspace.

I had a DPE for my exam and he likes to schedule it in two parts; oral and then come back for the flight test. Before the test, I emailed my examiner to see what areas he wanted me to focus on and what areas of weakness he saw in applicants. He told me to study the FOI, ADM, single pilot RM, risk mgt., basically the commercial pts sections on risk. That was good to know as the oral focused heavily on that. The oral began at 1:30 in my dpe's office and right from the start he put me at ease by stating this was not the Spanish Inquisition, rather just a discussion. We talked about about our experieces, my background, career, etc. He is a well-known CFI, ex-TWA captain and a really nice guy. You can tell he really loves teaching and aviation. We then went over the test, including retakes, his previous checkride experiences and the exam format.

We stared out discussing what makes an airplane fly. I drew an airfoil and talked about the theories of lift, airfoil design, left turning tendencies, stability, the CG's effect on them, and wintip vorticies. He followed the PTS and checked boxes as we covered topics. We covered all of the PTS items re: the FOI with him telling me what to watch out for while teaching (including student stress, personal problems, etc). Then we focuses on the FOI, pretty much covering everyhing the PTS; that wasn't difficult, it was just me describing it and giving examples of the items you can encounter in training.

We talked about night flying, the dangers of it and how to mitigate risk at night. He also was interested in night vision and how this relates to risk, including CFIT, pilot error, etc.

We then moved on to endorsements and Part 61 requirements for pilot certs. We pretended he was a new student and I was to walk him through this training. This introduces the topics of medical certificates, TSA requirements, student solo endorsements and add on requirements. I botched up sport pilot requirements but he said just read up on that later.

My examiner also held up runway signs and markings. We discussed them as I identified what the markings were and what I had to do if I was taxiing. This lead into airspace descriptions, speeds, wx requirements and required equipment.

We talked a bit about weight and balance, VG diagrams, Va and why it differs with weight change.

We then moved on to the landing gear system and the prop. I described the systems and how we would trouble shoot errors. Fly the plane first was his major theme.

The oral ended just after 7 pm. The time flew by and it was an enjoyable experience. My dpe stated several times that he knew I was ready to teach, and there was no need to make it an uncomfortable situation. My flight test is scheduled for Jan 8 and it should be about a 2.5 hour flight.

Thanks for reading!
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Thanks for the write up. Seems like he was a fair guy and didn't throw in any surprises!
 
Wow 5.5 hour oral. That's a doosey Ryan. I'm happy this is finally coming to fruition for you. I know its been a bit of a challenge to complete the training after getting hosed by some other schools and getting sick.

Where are you taking the flight portion? Lakewood?
 
Good information. I'm impressed with the length of the oral. Mine (with the FAA) lasted about three hours.
 
AdamZ said:
Wow 5.5 hour oral. That's a doosey Ryan. I'm happy this is finally coming to fruition for you. I know its been a bit of a challenge to complete the training after getting hosed by some other schools and getting sick.

Where are you taking the flight portion? Lakewood?
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Hell my initial was just over 8 hours. It was a long day. Didn't sleep the night before and didn't eat much before. He wanted to pick up a clearance to a VFR hole 70 miles away and do the checkout there. I told him no and did a continuance.
 
Nice write up. I'm hoping to get to that level sometime in the next couple of years.
 
TMetzinger said:
Good information. I'm impressed with the length of the oral. Mine (with the FAA) lasted about three hours.
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I spoke with several CFI's that just passed with The examiner that I'm supposed to take my ride with and they said their oral was no more than 3 hours.
 
Thanks for the congrats on the oral. I had to postpone my flight portion; my sis in law went to the ER on New Years day. Looks like stage 4 colon cancer from out of nowhere. 44 years old, no family history. 2 little ones at home. my wife and I were just celebrating my 3 years of good health too. Gotta enjoy every day folks. I will post when I complete my flight.
 
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