For the CFI initial checkride! Passed it today and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. In fact, it was easier than the instrument, but more difficult than the commercial. It was nothing like the horror stories I heard. Maybe I got a good inspector (yes, I did take it with the FAA) or maybe I just overprepared a lot. But all in all, it was a good day and I'm glad to have that behind me. I even learned a couple things today and I taught the examiner a couple things too. Looking forward to this new adventure in flying.
Put me in the "Passed" category...
- Thread starter Z06_Mir
- Start date
HPNPilot1200
En-Route
Congrats! That's awesome. CFI is a really big accomplishment. 
gkaiser
Pre-takeoff checklist
Congrat's!
denverpilot
Tied Down
PoA is doing way better than the rumored 80% fail rate.
Congrats.
Congrats.
Jeanie
Pattern Altitude
Good for you! Congrats.
Congrats! I hope you enjoy teaching as much as I have. It's incredibly rewarding.
Thank you everyone! I think these forums really helped me, if nothing else to keep current on issues and challenges people have. I haven't been flying very long (less than 2yrs since I took my first lesson, just a couple months over a year since I got my PPL) but I've really enjoyed it and I look forward to helping other people enjoy it. Starting to look for part-time work, or look into joining a flying club (I hear some let CFIs join for free if they'll instruct actively).
If anyone wants a write-up I will post one either today or tomorrow. It really won't be very exciting, but might help someone who has a great inspector like I had.
If anyone wants a write-up I will post one either today or tomorrow. It really won't be very exciting, but might help someone who has a great inspector like I had.
marcoseddi
Cleared for Takeoff
congrats im sure it feels good after training for it for a while! I hear this is a hard ride with the faa
I've got a couple minutes so here it goes..
A couple weeks ago I called the FAA and they said I could either take it that week (oh my!) or I'd have to wait until the 16th because their examiners were in training. OK, well the 16th is fine.. a little later than I wanted but that's OK. My examiner called a couple days later and told me what he wanted me to bring: A weight & balance (he weighs 170), current charts (iPad OK!), airplane logbooks and one lesson of my choice. By this point I'd made about 15 lesson plans, so I just had to pick one. A couple days before the checkride he called to make sure I had done my spin training because he wasn't "current" to spin anything. I did mine in a Citabria, because the 182 can't spin. I was told by a few people who had taken type rides with him or 135 rides with him he was VERY shy and wouldn't make much eye contact or give much input. THey were right. But I was also told he was very fair and reasonable. Again, they were right. This inspector was a great guy and far from what I expected for an FAA checkride.
Day of checkride I show up 30 minutes early to look at the airplane make sure everything looked good in the logbooks. The inspector showed up early too, so we elected to start about 15 minutes early. This is when he tells me their office doesn't use IACRA, so my electronic application is no good.. well that's odd. So I filled one out by hand and called my CFI to come sign it. Since the electronic one was signed already we decided to start with the oral while we waited. CFI came and signed it about 30 minutes into the oral and it was no big deal. The inspector apologized for not telling us and for not being in the 21st century. All was well.
We talked about my responsibility as a CFI, then moved onto the learning process. To discuss the learning process he said right away "You can use any material you want" so I grabbed my iPad and I had bookmarked that chapter in the instructors handbook. We talked about the learning process more and he seemed satisfied. We moved on to more technical things, talking about runway incursions and how I will teach students to avoid them. I was able to bring some real life experience to the table because I've flown into some large places (PHX being one of them, but KAPA was teh hardest to navigate on the ground) and how I'd help a student in their training to be able to do that. We talked about stall/spin awareness also for a little bit. Then we went over the airplanes logbooks and talked about required inspections and how as a CFI teaching in someones airplane it's something I"ll need to look for. A lot of the oral was conversation, some of his experiences and just things that a CFI should do. It wasn't hard. He had me teach my slow flight lesson and it went well. Then he asked me about the left turning tendencies.. I described all of them but he wanted more on P-factor. I tried to explain it, but I eventually said "I'll show you a video" and used a "favorited" video I had for this very reason. He said that was good that I did that. We talked about professional development a bit too. He just went through the PTS and we did all the required stuff, not a whole lot extra. We never talked about aerodynamics or aeromedical factors. The oral lasted about 2.5 hours which I was shocked at. When we were done, we were disappointed to see the fog hadn't lifted yet, though it was getting better. So we waited around about an hour, did the preflight with him and finally we could go.
I did the first takeoff, a short field, and it went well. He let me choose between a short and a soft. He actually let me choose everything that we did if there was a choice, so the only thing I didn't choose was eights on pylons. I climbed up to 5,500 which was about 2,000 AGL. I taught him my slow flight lesson and we moved onto a power off stall (again, I got to choose this) from there. He then flew my lesson and the stall with me giving him corrections. From there we did a chandelle to the left (my choice over a lazy eight) and I screwed up a bit by not holding enough pitch. I explained it and he demonstrated one. His was a little better than mine, but he overshot the heading. I never stopped talking. Since by this point we were around 3,000ft AGL we did a simulated emergency. I talked him through it and picked a good field that would have probably allowed the airplane to fly out of again afterwards. Yeah! Since we were 1,000 AGL we climbed up just a bit and did eights on pylons (the only real required maneuver of the whole thing) and mine were pretty decent! Then he did one and it wasn't so pretty. I was giving him corrections, and he was sort of responding to them. He said I did a pretty good job with my corrections. We then did an S turn across the road, he didn't want to fly that one though. After that we headed back to the airport for some landings. I called tower and she told me to enter a right downwind runway 14. No problem, I can easily see the airport from here. About a minute later I notice that I was actually looking at the freeway. BONEHEAD move! The inspector found it humorous, because he knew it was just a nervous mistake, and clearly I wouldn't have landed on it. So I enter the traffic pattern and get cleared for the option. Was going to do a short field approach but I went around. It wasn't a perfect approach and I knew I'd need to go-around at some point anyway. So we went around and he asked if he could take the landing and I'd talk him through it. Well..... OK I guess.... He flew a good approach but I knew the landing was going flat. I said "You need to flare more. Pull back.. pull back...." I didn't grab the controls harshly but I did pull back a little bit... Still flat, but not on the nosewheel and not very hard. He gave the airplane back to me on takeoff and this time I asked for a short-approach to a full stop for a power off 180. I love the challenge of the power off 180, but it is a challenge. We had a gusty headwind (10G16) which made judging it a little harder. I put teh gear down on base and started putting in flaps on final. Third flaps went in over the number (I was aiming for the 1000ft markers) and I came up about 100-200 feet long and with a soft landing. I explained that I waited too long to put the gear down, but the inspector seemed pleased with it all. So we taxiid back to the FBO and as we were shutting down, after 1.5 on the hobbs, I had to ask "So did I pass?"
"Yep! There are a few things to talk about but overall you did a very good job."
RELIEF! All the time, energy, effort, confusion... everything had paid off!
We debriefed and he told me I needed to work a little more on my technical things like P-factor, but that if I briefed a lesson before a student came it would help a lot more too. He really liked my decision to go-around when my approach wasn't great, he said more people should do that. He made it clear that I had a lot to learn still but that it's stuff that will be learned from students with experience. I fully expect that. He handwrote my temporary certificate and I was on my way. Elated. All the hype I'd heard about how hard this checkride was, how long and grueling it was... it was either overhyped, or I was over prepared. Either way, I am OK with the outcome
As another mention, my inspector hadn't given a CFI ride in two years. More fun than that, my CFI hadn't had a CFI student in almost 25 years. He was as happy as I was when I passed.
I have been so lucky with all my CFIs, I've taken pieces of all of them with me into my flying, I guess you could say I'm a melting pot of CFIs, and they've all taught me a lot. I'd do it again the same way in a heartbeat, even through some tough times with one of them.
A couple weeks ago I called the FAA and they said I could either take it that week (oh my!) or I'd have to wait until the 16th because their examiners were in training. OK, well the 16th is fine.. a little later than I wanted but that's OK. My examiner called a couple days later and told me what he wanted me to bring: A weight & balance (he weighs 170), current charts (iPad OK!), airplane logbooks and one lesson of my choice. By this point I'd made about 15 lesson plans, so I just had to pick one. A couple days before the checkride he called to make sure I had done my spin training because he wasn't "current" to spin anything. I did mine in a Citabria, because the 182 can't spin. I was told by a few people who had taken type rides with him or 135 rides with him he was VERY shy and wouldn't make much eye contact or give much input. THey were right. But I was also told he was very fair and reasonable. Again, they were right. This inspector was a great guy and far from what I expected for an FAA checkride.
Day of checkride I show up 30 minutes early to look at the airplane make sure everything looked good in the logbooks. The inspector showed up early too, so we elected to start about 15 minutes early. This is when he tells me their office doesn't use IACRA, so my electronic application is no good.. well that's odd. So I filled one out by hand and called my CFI to come sign it. Since the electronic one was signed already we decided to start with the oral while we waited. CFI came and signed it about 30 minutes into the oral and it was no big deal. The inspector apologized for not telling us and for not being in the 21st century. All was well.
We talked about my responsibility as a CFI, then moved onto the learning process. To discuss the learning process he said right away "You can use any material you want" so I grabbed my iPad and I had bookmarked that chapter in the instructors handbook. We talked about the learning process more and he seemed satisfied. We moved on to more technical things, talking about runway incursions and how I will teach students to avoid them. I was able to bring some real life experience to the table because I've flown into some large places (PHX being one of them, but KAPA was teh hardest to navigate on the ground) and how I'd help a student in their training to be able to do that. We talked about stall/spin awareness also for a little bit. Then we went over the airplanes logbooks and talked about required inspections and how as a CFI teaching in someones airplane it's something I"ll need to look for. A lot of the oral was conversation, some of his experiences and just things that a CFI should do. It wasn't hard. He had me teach my slow flight lesson and it went well. Then he asked me about the left turning tendencies.. I described all of them but he wanted more on P-factor. I tried to explain it, but I eventually said "I'll show you a video" and used a "favorited" video I had for this very reason. He said that was good that I did that. We talked about professional development a bit too. He just went through the PTS and we did all the required stuff, not a whole lot extra. We never talked about aerodynamics or aeromedical factors. The oral lasted about 2.5 hours which I was shocked at. When we were done, we were disappointed to see the fog hadn't lifted yet, though it was getting better. So we waited around about an hour, did the preflight with him and finally we could go.
I did the first takeoff, a short field, and it went well. He let me choose between a short and a soft. He actually let me choose everything that we did if there was a choice, so the only thing I didn't choose was eights on pylons. I climbed up to 5,500 which was about 2,000 AGL. I taught him my slow flight lesson and we moved onto a power off stall (again, I got to choose this) from there. He then flew my lesson and the stall with me giving him corrections. From there we did a chandelle to the left (my choice over a lazy eight) and I screwed up a bit by not holding enough pitch. I explained it and he demonstrated one. His was a little better than mine, but he overshot the heading. I never stopped talking. Since by this point we were around 3,000ft AGL we did a simulated emergency. I talked him through it and picked a good field that would have probably allowed the airplane to fly out of again afterwards. Yeah! Since we were 1,000 AGL we climbed up just a bit and did eights on pylons (the only real required maneuver of the whole thing) and mine were pretty decent! Then he did one and it wasn't so pretty. I was giving him corrections, and he was sort of responding to them. He said I did a pretty good job with my corrections. We then did an S turn across the road, he didn't want to fly that one though. After that we headed back to the airport for some landings. I called tower and she told me to enter a right downwind runway 14. No problem, I can easily see the airport from here. About a minute later I notice that I was actually looking at the freeway. BONEHEAD move! The inspector found it humorous, because he knew it was just a nervous mistake, and clearly I wouldn't have landed on it. So I enter the traffic pattern and get cleared for the option. Was going to do a short field approach but I went around. It wasn't a perfect approach and I knew I'd need to go-around at some point anyway. So we went around and he asked if he could take the landing and I'd talk him through it. Well..... OK I guess.... He flew a good approach but I knew the landing was going flat. I said "You need to flare more. Pull back.. pull back...." I didn't grab the controls harshly but I did pull back a little bit... Still flat, but not on the nosewheel and not very hard. He gave the airplane back to me on takeoff and this time I asked for a short-approach to a full stop for a power off 180. I love the challenge of the power off 180, but it is a challenge. We had a gusty headwind (10G16) which made judging it a little harder. I put teh gear down on base and started putting in flaps on final. Third flaps went in over the number (I was aiming for the 1000ft markers) and I came up about 100-200 feet long and with a soft landing. I explained that I waited too long to put the gear down, but the inspector seemed pleased with it all. So we taxiid back to the FBO and as we were shutting down, after 1.5 on the hobbs, I had to ask "So did I pass?"
"Yep! There are a few things to talk about but overall you did a very good job."
RELIEF! All the time, energy, effort, confusion... everything had paid off!
We debriefed and he told me I needed to work a little more on my technical things like P-factor, but that if I briefed a lesson before a student came it would help a lot more too. He really liked my decision to go-around when my approach wasn't great, he said more people should do that. He made it clear that I had a lot to learn still but that it's stuff that will be learned from students with experience. I fully expect that. He handwrote my temporary certificate and I was on my way. Elated. All the hype I'd heard about how hard this checkride was, how long and grueling it was... it was either overhyped, or I was over prepared. Either way, I am OK with the outcome
As another mention, my inspector hadn't given a CFI ride in two years. More fun than that, my CFI hadn't had a CFI student in almost 25 years. He was as happy as I was when I passed.
I have been so lucky with all my CFIs, I've taken pieces of all of them with me into my flying, I guess you could say I'm a melting pot of CFIs, and they've all taught me a lot. I'd do it again the same way in a heartbeat, even through some tough times with one of them.
denverpilot
Tied Down
I'm curious ... Genuinely curious... About what was difficult about navigating on the ground at KAPA. I suspect since I fly out of there as home base, I don't realize when anything is difficult for others.
I'd like to know because I could pass it along to friends who come here to visit, etc.
I'd like to know because I could pass it along to friends who come here to visit, etc.
It was a year ago, and I was a new private pilot, but I also had a 6000 hour pilot/CFI with me. The airport diagram is where the confusion started, with three GA ramps listed. Then our vague taxi instructions didn't say anything the ILS critical area we crossed (after we asked permission of course) . The ground controller wasn't much help and actually had us make a 180 which we then had to reverse. We ended up at XJet though and loved it. The second time we landed the other direction and got off right in front of XJet so it wasn't as bad. The diagram really confused us the first time though. If you knew which GA ramp to go to, it would probably go smoother.
azure
Final Approach
Congratulations!
Now other people will be able to pay you for the privilege of trying to kill you.
(JK. Enjoy the rating and fly safe! )
Now other people will be able to pay you for the privilege of trying to kill you.
(JK. Enjoy the rating and fly safe! )
denverpilot
Tied Down
Ahhh interesting. XJet is erm.. Uh... Relatively new. (Cough... Old fart, cough...).
I've never been "over there". Seriously. That whole area over there didn't exist when I started flying at KAPA. XJet is just new scenery along Taxiway Alpha southbound for me. Hahaha.
So... Yeah, the "multiple" GA ramps for a visitor... Noted.
I've never been "over there". Seriously. That whole area over there didn't exist when I started flying at KAPA. XJet is just new scenery along Taxiway Alpha southbound for me. Hahaha.
So... Yeah, the "multiple" GA ramps for a visitor... Noted.
GCA319
Cleared for Takeoff
Congrats! The CFI is a heck of a ride to have behind you. Now get out there and use it.