FL420
Blues vs. Birds-Tailhook
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2005
- Posts
- 626
Since becoming unemployed due to Elwood Quesada's influence peddling years ago, I have been working on my CFI, CFII and MEI certificates. Based on having years of military instructor experience and the BGI, AGI and IGI certificates, I thought I could do it on a relatively tight budget.
Mapping out a plan resulted in the decision to do the CFII first, followed by the MEI and finally, if any money remained, the CFI. I planned on doing my practical exams with the FAA for two reasons. One, they don't charge. Two, they are supposed to do initial CFI practical exams, time and availability permitting. There was no money in my budget for practical exams, outside of aircraft rental expense.
My instructor called the DEN FSDO to schedule me for the CFII practical exam. They gave me an appointment two weeks later. A couple of hours after that, I got a call from a guy at the FSDO asking me if I worked for the government. When I said I didn't, he told me that the FSDO would not do my initial CFI practical unless I worked for the government. I could call back and ask to get on the list for the Designated Pilot Examiner(DPE) who was next on the list to give a practical exam.
The next guy on the list had a reputation for nitpicking, long and drawn out orals and flight tests and a high failure rate with an additional charge for retakes. The worst part was he charges $600 which I had not budgeted for and which I consider to be outrageously high. The DEN FSDO system of assigning DPEs didn't even allow me to price shop DPEs for the best value.
I went to the FAA website and obtained contact info. for the FSDOs in Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Casper and Rapid City. I called the FSDOs in CPR and RAP and talked to the POIs there. They were all very friendly and willing to work with me to fit me into their schedules for the CFII practical.
I ended up renting a C172 and flying up to KRAP for the practical. I took along my reference material, lesson plans and a whiteboard with markers and did my oral in the conference room of the local FBO. We then went flying locally for the flight test. It all went very well despite a few challenges such as having to shoot the ILS at Ellsworth AFB since the KRAP ILS was OTS and intermittent GPS RAIM Integrity messages on the trip from KBJC to KRAP.
If I had paid the entire rental fees myself it would have cost me about the same as the examiner's fee. Of course, I wouldn't have gotten 5½ hours of XC time and experience really getting to know the KLN-94 GPS going with the DPE. Fortunately, my instructor wanted to build XC time toward his ATP so he split the rental fee with me. It was comforting to have him along to give me some remedial instruction in case I busted something on the flight test portion of the practical. It could get very expensive to have to repeat the trip to retake a portion of the flight test.
KCPR was closer to KBJC(and therefore cheaper) but CPR is only a field office(FSFO) with only one POI. His schedule didn't mesh as well with mine compared to the two POIs at KRAP.
All in all, a great experience. The POI at KRAP was great. I have nothing against DPEs making a reasonable fee for providing a reasonable service. I just feel I got better value for the money I didn't originally plan on spending by FSDO shopping for the practical. I plan on doing it again for the MEI. I doubt I will have any money left over for the CFI but primary instruction wasn't really in my plans anyway.
Mapping out a plan resulted in the decision to do the CFII first, followed by the MEI and finally, if any money remained, the CFI. I planned on doing my practical exams with the FAA for two reasons. One, they don't charge. Two, they are supposed to do initial CFI practical exams, time and availability permitting. There was no money in my budget for practical exams, outside of aircraft rental expense.
My instructor called the DEN FSDO to schedule me for the CFII practical exam. They gave me an appointment two weeks later. A couple of hours after that, I got a call from a guy at the FSDO asking me if I worked for the government. When I said I didn't, he told me that the FSDO would not do my initial CFI practical unless I worked for the government. I could call back and ask to get on the list for the Designated Pilot Examiner(DPE) who was next on the list to give a practical exam.
The next guy on the list had a reputation for nitpicking, long and drawn out orals and flight tests and a high failure rate with an additional charge for retakes. The worst part was he charges $600 which I had not budgeted for and which I consider to be outrageously high. The DEN FSDO system of assigning DPEs didn't even allow me to price shop DPEs for the best value.
I went to the FAA website and obtained contact info. for the FSDOs in Albuquerque, Salt Lake City, Casper and Rapid City. I called the FSDOs in CPR and RAP and talked to the POIs there. They were all very friendly and willing to work with me to fit me into their schedules for the CFII practical.
I ended up renting a C172 and flying up to KRAP for the practical. I took along my reference material, lesson plans and a whiteboard with markers and did my oral in the conference room of the local FBO. We then went flying locally for the flight test. It all went very well despite a few challenges such as having to shoot the ILS at Ellsworth AFB since the KRAP ILS was OTS and intermittent GPS RAIM Integrity messages on the trip from KBJC to KRAP.
If I had paid the entire rental fees myself it would have cost me about the same as the examiner's fee. Of course, I wouldn't have gotten 5½ hours of XC time and experience really getting to know the KLN-94 GPS going with the DPE. Fortunately, my instructor wanted to build XC time toward his ATP so he split the rental fee with me. It was comforting to have him along to give me some remedial instruction in case I busted something on the flight test portion of the practical. It could get very expensive to have to repeat the trip to retake a portion of the flight test.
KCPR was closer to KBJC(and therefore cheaper) but CPR is only a field office(FSFO) with only one POI. His schedule didn't mesh as well with mine compared to the two POIs at KRAP.
All in all, a great experience. The POI at KRAP was great. I have nothing against DPEs making a reasonable fee for providing a reasonable service. I just feel I got better value for the money I didn't originally plan on spending by FSDO shopping for the practical. I plan on doing it again for the MEI. I doubt I will have any money left over for the CFI but primary instruction wasn't really in my plans anyway.
