CFI-A Checkride

A

av8tr24

Filing Flight Plan
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Aug 26, 2014
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Daytona Beach, FL
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av8tr24
It's been a crazy couple of weeks. I had my CFI-A checkride last Tuesday, and I'm happy to report I passed the 6.5 hour-long oral! Continued with the flight, and during taxi-out and run-up, I started making all sorts of stupid little mistakes. After completing the run-up, I looked over at the examiner and asked if I could still discontinue. She said "Absolutely, I think that is a great idea. It's been a long day, and you're exhausted and haven't eaten much. Really tough decision to make, but I think it's the right one and I'm glad."

I've been out here in SoCal for the past 6 weeks, and have finished my Commercial (passed first time :-D, but had to discontinue the flight to different times due to weather), now my CFI-A, and have been working on my CFII. It's my third trip out here, and last week, my grandmother passed away in MN. She was only 68, and was suffering from cancer. Really sad. She passed away Sunday, and my ride was Tuesday. Still not sure how I made it through, and after it was over, I told the examiner. She was pretty shocked and not sure how I made it through either. The whole day I could hear my grandma saying, "This is important! You have to focus, don't worry about me :)".

All these trips and I'm almost to Medallion status again on DL for next year :rolleyes2:

My flight test is tomorrow afternoon, and I'm ready to go fly! Will report back, super excited to start my new job on Monday back in FL!
 
While that's certainly not the record for the longest CFI-A oral, it's definitely up there. I'd be interested in what you talked about for that long. How many lessons did you have to teach?

I'd be exhausted after that long too. Good decision. I'm sure your flight will go fine, especially since the examiner now knows without a doubt that you can make tough decisions. You'll do great!
 
Congratulations on the accomplishment and sorry to hear about your loss. Where a outs in Florida will you be stationed?
 
Very nice. I call on all the airports in that area frequently so I will have to look you up upon your return and buy you a cup of your favorite refreshment.
 
RussR said:
While that's certainly not the record for the longest CFI-A oral, it's definitely up there. I'd be interested in what you talked about for that long. How many lessons did you have to teach?

I'd be exhausted after that long too. Good decision. I'm sure your flight will go fine, especially since the examiner now knows without a doubt that you can make tough decisions. You'll do great!
Click to expand...

I'm thankful it wasn't longer. Another guy at the school I'm at failed his oral after 7 hours. That would suck, majorly.

This is examiner is BIG on SBT (scenario based training), so I was assigned a lesson to teach from the FITS syllabus. Lesson 9 on emergency procedures, short/soft-field TO/LDG, and emergency/survival gear. I started with the PAVE checklist, and covered all the ADM and RM points. She tried desperately to derail me with off-topic questions and included some of the barriers to learning...typical new student stuff ;-) I kept her involved throughout the lesson, asking lots of questions. A lot of dialogue, she liked that. She was super impressed with my lesson plan and scenario that I designed, said it was the most realistic she has seen. I also started out by writing out my two overall objectives for each lesson, Be Safe and Have FUN!. She said I was the first applicant she has ever had write "Have FUN!" on the board :lol:

I then taught short-field landings, and then the conversation went elsewhere into other subject areas. She found some holes in my knowledge, naturally, "like swiss cheese (laughingly)" were her words. A few issues on correlation in some areas, so she assigned me some homework. Nothing major though.

Thank you, I appreciate it!
 
Congrats you passed the hard part! The flying portion of the checkride is cake.
 
i believe that's a piece of Chocolate Cake :)
The oral is grueling. It's a rite of passage. Mine just kept going too. It wasn't that i was weak on anything, we just kept running through the PTS..
My Flying was some of the sloppiest i've ever done. It was bitterly cold and i was exhausted. You did the right thing to ask for a letter. Congratulations.
By the way, no matter how hard the day was, wait until your first week as a CFI. -Now that's tired!
 
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