Passed the CFI initial today

[labbats]

Everyone I know has gone to the FSDO for their initial CFI. I don't even know for sure if a DE can give an initial CFI or not. Well, the best thing is that those Feds are free. Just make **CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED****CENSORED** sure you set up an appointment 3-4 weeks in advance.

Best of luck~

 

[cookmg]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for all the congrats. I don't anticipate that I will feel this degree of satisfaction with any future ratings or certificates. CFI really represents the start of a career for me.

To answer a few questions and give a little run down on the ride . . .

In my district you can definately take the CFI with certain DPEs. However, they charge 500 bucks and are probably tougher . . though much more efficient. It depends on the district. My area is too big to have the FSDO do all the Inital rides.

I started training for my CFI, before I started training for the commercial. My instructor had me become very familiar with the first 3 chapters in the AIH prior to starting our commercial training. I did all of my commercial from the right seat. What a huge benefit this was! My instructor made my CFI appointment on his cell phone right after I shut the engine down on my commercial checkride.

I spent a ridiculous amount of time writing lesson plans and topic outlines for the whole CFI PTS. I am still not too comfortable giving instruction, but I have been told that with this rating, the real learning begins after the checkride.

Yes, I took it with the FSDO. I had a really great inspector who, in my opinion, really could have been much harder on me. I'm sure that most local DEs would have been more thorough. That 10 hours is from the moment I showed up at the FSDO to the moment I left. Keep in mind that involved a 1 hour lunch break, a few other breaks along the way, and a whole lot of war stories (so to speak). The inspector had a lot of advice to share as far as "real-world" instructing goes. He also shared a lot of good stories about his balloon flying! His candidness surely helped relax me, but I was feeling very fatigued about half way through the flight.

He went really easy on FOI after commenting on my 100 on the written. (It's only 50 questions out of 200 possible, but I wasn't going to point that out) We discussed the HOT items in his eyes: endorsements, privileges of the inital CFI, aeromedical factors, proper use of the flight controls and the associated aerodynamics (adverse yaw, over banking, pitch vs. power vs. trim, why do we need rudder). We also discussed airworthiness requirements and did a cursory coverage of systems -- I was expecting more on these. He had me teach him two maneuver lessons. 8s on and then let me pick a performance maneuver. I chose steep turns (anyone else hate steep spirals??). He was pretty relaxed about these. I expected more of the oral to be pretending to be teaching, but I felt It was more like he wanted to know what I knew and then what I will teach my students about the subject.

So finally the flight. Only a couple of surprises. He gave me the full briefing so I knew ahead of time what he wanted. We did short field ops, normal ops, and then I was going to demonstrate a soft field when he chopped the power abeam and turned it into a 180. I'm just three weeks off my commercial in this same plane, so I made a very nice landing to make up for the (cough cough) not so precise normal landing. We did, MCA, power off stall, cross controlled demo, steep turns, chandelles, eights on, s turns, emergency approach. He opened my window during rotation . . that was cool. JUST fly the plane.

Like I said, I was feeling fatigued toward the end of the flight. He actually did a lot of the flying, but I could feel my self getting behind the plane. Luckily I sucked it up or atleast got lucky and didn't do anything to bone headed. I tried to talk a lot and say meaningful things. I'm still getting used to that though. All and all I have to say it's one of my proudest achievments.

Thanks for listening.

Mike

 

[bobbysamd]

CFI Practical

Thanks, Mike. Good debrief. Sounds like it was a fairly standard and straightforward CFI practical. Most CFI practicals are done in four to six hours, but eight to ten-hour tests are common as well.

Once more, congratulations. You will soon be amazed at how much you're really learning about aviation as you work with your students.

 

[Flyingtoohigh]

To share another CFI initial checkride story...

I took my ride about 11 months ago. I took my commercial in Cessna C-177RG "Cardinal" and chose the same plane for my CFI, which really helped.

Our FSDO here in the Denver area is pretty saturated for initial CFIs so most of us elect to go to DPEs for our check rides. I parted with my 500 bucks cash in the process, though it certainly was better than waiting 3+ months for my checkride.

The day we schedule to take my test in late October turned out to be 1000 & 5, not good enough for maneuvers. We did my oral and it took around 5 hours. Started with FOI for an hour, then regulations, then aerodynamics with a special emphasis on spins and finishing up with private and commercial pilot maneuvers.

Two days later the weather cleared and I took the flying portion of the test. We took off normally in the Cardinal and headed north of the airport. During climb I noticed that the gear up light did not illuminate when the gear stowed. (On the gear it's green for down-and-locked, no lights for in-transit, and amber for up-and-locked).

At this point we leveled off and cycled the gear down; no green light. The examiner and declared this checkride was over, though the examiner still addressed me as "Mr. CFI" as in, "What are we going to do now, Mr. CFI?" I pushed-to-test both bulbs and switched them out, still nothing. Pulled back the throttle below 14" of manifold pressure and gear warning horn sounded. Lowered flaps fully and gear horn sounded again. Checked the manual hand-pump and it was pressurized -- I couldn't move it.

We flew by the tower and he report three down as well as did two pilots on the run-up area after making a pass over the runway. We decided to head back to terra firma. The tower called out the emergency equipment, just in case.

I proceded to make the best soft-field landing I've ever done. The gear held up fine and we taxied back to our flight school with the gear horn blaring. In the end the down-lock-sensor was faulty and somehow failed during our takeoff and initial climb.

I thought my day was over and my CFI aspirations would go unfilled for awhile since we only had one Cardinal for CFI training. We still had a pair of 182RG's at my club, but I flew the Cardinal much better.

My examiner approached me and said that we sure covered the complex aircraft and emergency procedures sections of the PTS and could complete the practical test in a Cessna 172. At this point I had not flown a 172 in at least 8 months, though I had done my instrument training in one. An extra Cessna 172 was available on the schedule for the next 2 hours so I decided to go for it. The examiner gave me 20 minutes to review systems, weights, and speeds and off we went.

I proceeded to fly the worst chandelles and Lazy-8's I've ever flown, though they did (barely) meet the PTS standards. My private maneuvers were a little better. When we came back in to land I overshot the 1000-foot markers slightly. At this point I was pretty sure I had failed, although I knew that the examiner was required to inform me the minute that I could no longer pass the practical test.

Somehow, I passed and here I am today. My luck on that day last October foreshadowed the luck I've had instructing since. I definitely learned more than I expected to during a checkride. In the intervening year I've earned my Commercial-Multi and my CFI-I. Both of those check rides were taken in the same day and were much less remarkable than my initial CFI.

Again Mike, congrats on the new CFI ticket and the new job. Let us know how it goes!

 

[AceCrackshot]

Nice story flying too high...
I'm sure you impressed the Fed with your calm and professional demenor during the abnormality...after all, a check airman is looking for someone with headwork, who won't kill himself in an airplane, not for the ace of the base who can fly the b*lls off any airplane you put him in...after all, if you're so good, why were you taking instruction? Anyway, as far as length, I went through AllAtps, and there are a bunch of military guys there. During my three day, eight hour oral (another story) a Marine remarked "An eight hour oral...sounds like an anal."

By the way...whats chasing the kitten in the avatar...they sure look angry.

 

[Flyingtoohigh]

okay, not to get too far off topic...

Two little angry Gumby-like creatures are chasing the kitten. The caption reads:

"Every time you masterbate, God kills a kitten. Think of the kittens."

 

[labbats]

It's domo-kan (sp?)!!!

Some children's show from Japan. The puppet guy became a huge hit in indie circles.