In the words of Blur "WOOHOO"! Passed the CFI practical today, the first time around, thankfully. Flew with a FSDO inspector.
4 hour oral, 2 hours in the aircraft.
Double-triple check all your historical signoffs and endorsements, the wording on my high-performance was very poor, and I could've been sent home over it. Also the Fed says he crosschecks things like the spin endorsement with the logbook entry, to make sure that the flight actually happened.
Started with a big question, let me ponder it while he took care of the paperwork. "What determines airworthiness?"
Moved right into the FOI, emphasis on CHaps 1 +2 of the AIH, the Learning Process and the Teaching Process. I came up with some mnemonics that served me well. The teaching process, for example, PREparation. Presentation. Application, Review and Eval - it spells PRE P A R E. PIM, Perceptions, Insights, Motivation. The Laws of Learning, etc. The major bulleted lists and subheadings are the key. It's stupid rote learning, but it's what they want, apparently. Only spent about 35 minutes on FOI stuff, he had my compose a lesson plan on chandelles, that was no problem closed book. Then taught the subject matter for maybe 5 minutes.
Then on to the Technical Subject Areas, things like Hypoxia, Spatial Disorientaion, Turning Tendencies, the typical stuff that isn't too strenuous. Asked me to do a CG calc for our aircraft, so I handed him the one I had prepared, so he just asked me to explain it. I discussed the basic equation and the math and why we bother. This may have been a mistake, as then he started asking about the various effects of aft CG on takeoff and we got really into the subject. In this instance i dug myself a hole. I knew enough to get out of it, but I beleive I did provoke some unnecessary questioning.
Rule #1 - Answer the question, then shut up.
Told me to plan a one checkpoint cross country. Didn't expect this at all, but had brought the dorky flight plan sheets along just in case. He thought I ought to be able to be done in 10 min, but it took me maybe 15. I did all the math with an electronic E-6B. Examiner was highly unimpressed. Had me scrounge a circular E-6B and work the math that way. I hadn't touched one of these for at least 4 years. Bigtime horror show. Had to follow step-by-step the directions on the computer itself, reteaching mysel in front of the examiner. It was probably the most horrific checkride moment of my flying career to date.
Explored the performance section of the POH, i slipped in some extraneous remark about distances varying on grass vs. pavement, and dug myself another hole. Now had to delve back into the book to find the sentence dealing with that issue.
He started pointing to things on the sectional chart, and I got roughed up. Transponder useage above/below Class C, where to look for more information about MOAs, student pilot ops at the local Class B, yea or nea, DME on this VOR? How Grid MOCAs are computed, etc. This didn't go well.
More assorted technical subjects and then off we flew. Nothing remarkable, two engine failures, chandelles, but no lazy-eights. The wind was howling so neither he or I could tell If the eights on pylons were any good. Obviously no turns around a point or rectangular course stuff aside from the traffic pattern. He did mention that it would be nice to identify and announce an emergency landing field prior to commencing a given maneuver. All of my landings basically sucked, but the wind helped my case. Other stupid pilot tricks, forgot to turn on the Transponder till about 5 minutes after takeoff. Taxied around with the flaps down and didn't realize it until holding short for takeoff. Just stupid stuff.
I used two aircraft for the check, a rented complex and the family bird. This made life very hard without much tangible benefit. You then have to know speeds, systems, on both a/c, and preflight, weight + balance etc two aircraft. Just more stress on a rough day to start with. For example I didn't spend enough time in the POH for the rented airplane, but did memorize all the speeds. Of course he never asked about any of the speeds, but did discover just how weak I was on some of the strange particulars in some of the systems.
There ya have it, in a rather large nutshell. Your mileage may vary. Hopefully it might be of help. Any further questions?