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The Initial CFI Checkride

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Alchemy

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Posts
492
I took my Initial CFI checkride at a FSDO last week. Here's a description of what took place:

Oral

I met with the examiner at 0825 and the oral concluded at 1200. The first 35 minutes was spent going over my endorsements, written tests, and 8710's. The inspector was very friendly and courteous. The first topic we discussed was the FOI. I wasn’t asked anything too complicated; mostly straightforward questions such as: "name four principles of learning", "describe the characteristics of learning", "name some barriers to effective communication", etc. There were a few deeper questions, for instance, "in your opinion, what makes a good CFI?” and “What would you do if your student tried to put the airplane into a nose dive at 1000 AGL in the traffic pattern?”. We got into the psychological responsibilites of the CFI, and he asked about Aviation Safety Counselors (appointed, much like DPE's).

After the FOI info, we discussed hypoxia, hyperventilation, CO2 poisoning, and motion sickness. The next topic was Student pilot endorsements ("show me all the endorsements you would give a student before you let them solo."). I produced AC61-65D, pointed out the appropriate endorsements, explained the endorsements on the back of the student pilot certificate, then we moved onto the FAR's. He asked what FAR 1, 43, 61, 67, and 91 covered. Then the inspector opened part 61 and started asking some random questions, for instance:

How long is a temporary pilot certificate good for?
How old do you have to be to become a student pilot? Private Pilot? Commercial Pilot?
Can a private pilot operate an aircraft in furtherance of a business?
How long is a flight instructor certificate good for? How do you renew it?
What does a pilot have to do to carry passengers at night?

Next came some questions over part 91. He asked what Class A and C airspace were. We also discussed required equipment for flight at night. After that, we looked at a sectional and I answered about 30-40 questions about airspace and landmarks on the sectional. Interestingly, I was asked about the national wildlife refuge rule (2000 AGL or higher). A lot of people seem to get asked this question on their CFI checkride, and the inspector also wanted to know if this rule is a FAR (it isn't). From here we moved into the Airplane POH. The Inspector opened the POH to the systems chapter and asked me how much horsepower the engine had, how the flaps work, how the landing gear works, what kind of engine it has, how much oil should it have, how much fuel does it hold, what kind and how many fuel pumps does it have, what kind of anti-ice equipment does it have, which instruments were vacuum driven and which instruments were pitot static driven.

At this point I was asked about lesson plans and had to teach 3 lessons: "How an Airplane Flies for a 5 hour student pilot", "Unusual Attitudes", and "Lazy Eights". I was given 5-10 minutes to look over my lesson plan and formulate a plan of action before each lesson, then I used a dry erase board to draw and lecture about each topic. This went well for the most part, and we took a break for lunch. I was told that we'd reached the end of the oral, and to do a weight and balance before we met again after lunch.

After lunch, we reviewed the weight and balance and walked out to the airplane. I spent over 3 hours washing and degreasing the belly of the 182RG to make sure it was in pristine shape, therefore it received very little attention from the FSDO mx personnel. During the preflight, the inspector asked me about the function of each antenna on the airplane. I momentarily confused the NAV and COM antennas, but I corrected myself after the inspector asked "are you sure?”. We talked about asymmetrical flap extensions and no-flaps landings. The only question about the plane I didn't know was that it has a reflector tube on the wingtip to show the pilot when the strobes were working (didn't know what this tube did).


Flight

I was told not to teach anything unless asked to. I started the airplane as I normally do, reading the checklists aloud as I executed them. I committed a few errors at this point (was about to call ground before clearance and but the inspector said "are you sure it's ground now?"). Also, I had left the transponder on from the previous flight so it was squawking when I turned the avionics on. The inspector turned this off for me. On our way to the runway, I taught basic taxiing technique. The inspector constantly criticized me for taxiing too fast, but I was trying to keep it to as slow a pace as practical without burning the brakes. I performed an engine run-up, and turned on my transponder at the conclusion of the run-up as I always do. Again, I was corrected and told not to turn on the xponder till cleared for takeoff. I took his advice and we executed a normal takeoff.

We flew east of the class B at 2,500 MSL to practice slow flight, power off stalls, power on stalls, cross controlled stalls, lazy eights, chandelles, and steep turns. I taught all of these maneuvers as I performed them. Then he pulled the throttle to idle to simulate an engine failure. I pitched for best glide, turned towards a field, executed my flow check, and flipped to my engine failure troubleshoot checklist, which I read aloud and completed. Next I flipped to the forced landing checklist and briefed him on what would occur during the forced landing. I informed the inspector that I would make a left pattern around the chosen field and land to the north. At this point he re-iterated the fact that he wanted to see me perform a “flow check” before I started using the checklist (odd, I had already done my flow, but maybe he didn’t hear or see it). We recovered at 1500 agl, and then flew to a nearby uncontrolled field. I flew over midfield 500ft above the pattern, entered a downwind on a 45 degree angle, and configured the airplane for a normal landing. After this, we took off again in a normal takeoff configuration. I then taught and demonstrated a soft field landing followed by a soft field takeoff. After that, I taught a short field landing, was told to aim for the second set of aiming points on the runway, and touched down right between them....the downside was that I touched down waaay too firm, but that's typical for a short field in a 182. At this point I we headed back to FSDO, shot an ILS on the way back in ("just for fun" he said) and parked the airplane. On shutdown he told me I had performed satisfactorily and that I would do fine as an instructor.
 
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Jeez Alchemy - could you sound any more apathetic about getting your CFI!!?? I'd start my post with a WOOOOOOOHOOOOOO or something! :D

Congrats man, and thanks for the good gouge.
 
congrats dude, I can not wait for that feeling. Should have mine in the next few weeks. good job and thanks for the post.

Good Luck!

Buda6868
 
WOOHOOOO!!!!! I'm definitely thrilled to finally have the certificate in hand, but finishing this checkride was accompanied more by a feeling of relief than one of elation. I had a long time to build this thing up in my head, to the point where I was sure I was going to fail it at least once. I was amazed at how well everything went and how reasonable my inspector was.....

Aside from my problems with the transponder on the ground, I was pretty happy with my performance in the air. Somehow I always manage to do the best landings, ground reference, and performance maneuvers when the pressure is on....better concentration I guess.

Thanks to everyone who offered advice via flightinfo or other forums, your input was a great help.
 
Buda- You mentioned you were based out of Ft. Worth? This was done at the DAL fsdo. If you're going there, I think you don't have much to worry about as long as you're reasonably well prepared......pm me if you have any more specific questions.
 
Did the guy give you a reason why you should wait for a takeoff clearance to turn on your encoder?

Seems pretty asinine to me.
 
Said it was going to show up on the controller's radar screens and other aircrafts' TCAS. I always thought the tower had a system in place which blocked transponder signals within .5 miles.
 
Alchemy said:
Said it was going to show up on the controller's radar screens and other aircrafts' TCAS. I always thought the tower had a system in place which blocked transponder signals within .5 miles.
I was having some trouble with the transponder in an aircraft a week ago. I contacted tower to ask if they were seeing my transponder; he replied, “no sir we can't see the ATC transponder on the ground.”

Does anyone know weather it’s just this particular airport; or if they as said above, can’t see you at a certain distance?

Thanks for the gouge BTW finally got mine rescheduled at the Houston FSDO and it’s coming up.
:) :D
 
Ummmm,

Just to correct some mis-understandings, Terminal radar can see most all of the transponders turned on on the ground. And this used to cause lots of problems about 10-20 years ago. We'd get "ring-around" and other trash returns near the radar site, or "main bang". Modern, digital radar systems have eliminated much of this

In simplistic terms, (which is the only kind I understand regarding electronics), the ARTS computer is programed to "ignore" transponder returns within a certain distance of the airport, and below a certain altitude. Sometimes we still see some un-tracked secondary targets on the airport, represented by a [ * ], but ARTS will not try to track or auto aquire until the target departs and either climbs above the programmed altitude, or gets a half-mile or more from the airport boundry.
 
Alchemy congrats again, your ride sounded like mine. I had a 3 hour oral and the flight portion went well also. The horror stories we hear about an 80%-90% first time failure rate seemed to be unfounded in this day and age. I know a CFI student who was so afraid of the local FSDO that he went to one of those schools that has a quote unquote examiner on staff. This guy was surprised, no, shocked to learn that I passed my CFI ride on the first try because he felt he was so much more prepared than I.

Are you going to teach at the school where you learned at? I hope they let you otherwise based on my situation it's going to be tough to get students. I was told by the school where I got most of my ratings that they would be happy to let me use thier planes if I brought in students. Any incoming phone calls for demos and such would go to the instructors who are already there. So for now I'm still unemployed and looking.
 

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