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CFI Initial at FSDO?

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mocaman

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 12, 2002
Posts
130
I am getting ready to take my CFI practical test and have a question. Can I use any FSDO or are they pretty strict on an applicant using the FSDO nearest to where CFI training was received? Thanks!
 
They generally want you to take it at your "home" FSDO. I had to do mine at the DuPage FSDO (notorious for there low pass rate on CFI rides, and any other ride for that matter). I tried to go to Milwaukee, and initially they said yes, but later said that unless your local FSDO can't accomodate you then you must go there.
 
I think if the local FSDO cannot do the ride in the next 30 days they will assign you to a DPE.

Expect to pink the first time either way.
 
They generally want you to take it at your "home" FSDO. I had to do mine at the DuPage FSDO (notorious for there low pass rate on CFI rides, and any other ride for that matter). I tried to go to Milwaukee, and initially they said yes, but later said that unless your local FSDO can't accomodate you then you must go there.


DPA FSDO as well. Hardest thing I have ever done. Was able to pass on the first attempt tho. I've heard of others going to different FSDO's and they look down on that and will probably be a little bit harder on you. Id say just go to your nearest one and get it over with instead of trying to find an easy way out.
 
Your instructor is a DPE?

Usually I never respond to those questions from CFI candidates about where to take the practical. Local checkride procedures vary from place to place, and no one on this board can really tell you.

How to go about taking checkrides should be an intregal part of the training you get in preparation of becoming a CFI. But I also know that bit is consistantly ignored in school training because it isn't a part of the PTS and most 'schools' don't go beyound PTS minimums....

...however...since your instructor is a DPE,...maybe you should address this question to him, and more importantly, discuss the instructional reasoning behind keeping this information secret from you.
 
No two Examiners or Inspectors give a certificate exam the same way. Finding out what an Inspector/Examiner wants to see (IMHO) is part of preparing an applicant for an exam. To not do so asks for a higher failure rate and poor Instructor performance. I would pick a flight school and a specific instructor based on their high pass rate and not blame any one else for a high failure rate. But there is always at least two sides to every story. I have run into ball busting Examiners and Inspectors. In my experience they are few in number. Very, Very, Very few instructors call up to discuss what exactly I would like to see during an exam. Don’t bother calling a day before sending an applicant to an exam, it is already too late. You need to get the information before you start teaching for an exam.

But don’t just think this only works for check rides. I have heard people in my area complain about a specific Building Inspector who always gives general contractors a hard time during the building of a house. One of the Inspectors I work with was building a house and wanted to avoid delays and hassle so he called each building Inspector (electrical, plumbing, etc.) and asked them what they wanted to see. My co-workerc took notes, made sure the jobs were done to this quality and his entire house passed with out delay. WHAT a concept…………….

If I were an applicant I would want to find as many “just passed the exam” Instructors and ask what to expect. (Your Instructor should be doing that.)

In my experience many flight schools send an applicant to a ride just because they have completed the course hours. Not because, in the opinion of the Instructor, they are ready to take the exam or are ready to be a private/commercial/CFI pilot. Just like many students are pressing to get the ticket at the cheapest cost. For the most part – you get what you pay for……

If I were going for an exam and expecting a pink slip, I would ask - why are you going for the exam?? If your reply is the FSDO requires a high failure rate… well, here is a link for FAA Customer Feedback you may find interesting…….I would first find out if other schools have a better pass rate than yours and find out why….. Never go into a fight with out enough ammunition (documentation) and the correct size (information)….

But this is JMHO.

http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/avs/offices/afs/qms/


JAFI
 
No two Examiners or Inspectors give a certificate exam the same way. Finding out what an Inspector/Examiner wants to see (IMHO) is part of preparing an applicant for an exam. To not do so asks for a higher failure rate and poor Instructor performance. I would pick a flight school and a specific instructor based on their high pass rate and not blame any one else for a high failure rate. But there is always at least two sides to every story. I have run into ball busting Examiners and Inspectors. In my experience they are few in number. Very, Very, Very few instructors call up to discuss what exactly I would like to see during an exam. Don’t bother calling a day before sending an applicant to an exam, it is already too late. You need to get the information before you start teaching for an exam.

....

In my experience many flight schools send an applicant to a ride just because they have completed the course hours. Not because, in the opinion of the Instructor, they are ready to take the exam or are ready to be a private/commercial/CFI pilot. Just like many students are pressing to get the ticket at the cheapest cost. For the most part – you get what you pay for……

JAFI
These two paragraphs are a little at odds in my mind...seems to me that a well-prepared applicant wouldn't need to know what a specific examiner wants to see in order to pass a checkride.

Unfortunately, based on glimpses I get of the flight training industry (right up through FSI/Simuflite/Simcom type training, to be perfectly honest), lack of preparedness seems to be the norm. I used to fly a guy in his King Air who had recently passed his CFI initial and was signed off for his MEI, so we decided to discuss some multi-engine training concepts during a flight. I brought up Vmc, and he discovered that he was, in fact, VERY unprepared, at least with respect to that topic.

That discussion also confirmed my impressions that certificates, ratings, and endorsements are largely taught in an aircraft-specific manner...they get the instrument rating in an Archer, and have no idea how to choose the proper speed and flap setting to do an approach in a 172. Their complex endorsement was issued based on training in a Seminole, so they have no idea that there are propellers that are driven to high pitch by oil pressure rather than to low pitch. Personally, I'm type-rated in airplanes that I wouldn't fly without some fairly extensive instruction in differences between the versions that I fly and the ones I don't. (but that's a whole other discussion ;))

In the case of my King Air client, our Vmc discussion included the fact that his King Air, with a particular propeller mod, based its Vmc on the inoperative engine's prop being feathered rather than windmilling. He read the supplement, but I had to specifically state that to him, simply because he was taught that "the conditions related to Vmc include the failed engine windmilling...."

There...ya got my 2 cents' worth, for the bargain-basement price of 3 cents' worth of electricity ;)

Fly safe!

David
 

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