furiousphoen1x
Filing Flight Plan
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- Jan 3, 2010
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FuriousPhoen1x
Hey All,
I wanted to give my experiences for the CFI-A Initial test. I used the Lubbock FSDO and I did a 3 day intensive training with www.wacoflyingservice.com
I used my own mooney, a m20C model for the checkride. I have been practicing with friends (pilots) in the left seat and I have been teaching maneuvers and landings in the right seat for about two months. I have been jointly studying for the commercial and CFI since about February.
Here's how the ride went:
I was tested over Human Behavior and the Principles of Learning/Levels/Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Those are very easy for me because my current job is essentially all of that stuff put together. I'm a professor at a university. At this point I noticed he had only circled a few items on the PTS to be covered.
Next up was Flight Instructor Responsibilities. Chatted a bit about how I'm not supposed to be the sheriff or narc of the airport, but to keep an eye out and make sure nobody dies. He began to ask me about endorsements but as soon as I brought out the 61-65E we went to the next subject. He did make sure to mention that if the endorsement document has been revised up to letter 'E', that I better make sure I'm endorsing what I think I am by referencing the proper reg, 61.87 etc. Lots of real life scenarios about, 'what would you do if you heard your student was taking passengers up?' - Keep calm, ask a few questions, figure out the real situation and not the heresay.
Talked a lot about what 61.87 and 93 really say about solos and cross countries. Was quizzed on all the distances 25nm, 50nm etc etc.
I then taught Runway Incursion and a proper Weight and Balance. W&B was easy since I teach them as two separate subjects and combine them afterwards.
I can't emphasize enough to new CFI applicants to figure out the EASIEST and SIMPLEST way to describe all this stuff. The FSDO wants you to pretend they are a BRAND NEW student. Keep weight simple. Whats wrong with too much weight? bad for wings....bad for landing gear.
Whats wrong with a forward CG, aft CG? Hard to land, might nose plow into the ground. shut up with the theoretical and stall speeds and etc, you have to relate to your most inexperienced student first!
Taught Steep Turns - Ended up drawing vertical and horizontal components of lift and talked a lot about load factor and all that jazz. I kept this really simple and he enjoyed that quite a bit.
There were random spot checks of knowledge throughout the ride. If you haven't been studying its easy to bust. I have studied for MONTHS and I thought I was about to fail at any moment.
PLEASE know that you are allowed to reference your materials. He would ask me about something, then we'd take a 5 minute break so I could get my plans out and get ready to teach it. Very accommodating examiner. Very 'fair.'
Flying Portion - I used my M20C that I have 300 hours in now. That made it really easy. I had also been sitting right seat in my and another friends Mooney for the last 3 months so I was quite comfortable doing the right seat flying. Just....no brakes
Real easy, he said he was a private pilot here to do a complex checkout. Okay no problem that's easy. Talked about how the Mooney is the only airplane with a proper tail.... (he is a helo guy so he chuckled)\
Did a pre-flight with the owners manual checklist out to show him the old do-verify. I kept throwing in buzzwords and good pieces of information just in case I ever needed to impress him later and prove I wasn't a dunce in the air.
I took off with the controls and Climbed out of the airport after a short field takeoff. Up to 6500 (about 3000AGL) and immediately went into a Steep Turn. Followed those up with letting the Fed do one. I said he did a really great job but it wasn't up to standards. He didn't understand why! He kept altitude and speed perfect. I told him he lost control of the airplane by not using rudder
He was super glad I caught that.
He had me talk about climbs and descents. he REALLY wanted to hear things about sight pictures and looking outside the window first and foremost as opposed to looking at airspeed and altimeter.
Went into a power off stall and then an immediate secondary stall that he had requested. I gave a real life scenario for why this happens and how to stay calm.
I want to emphasize to new CFI applicants that not rambling and being specific with words can be a great benefit. Makes you seem judicious and not frantic.
Followed it up with Lazy Eights. Explained the 45 point and 135 point and how we're just going to hum a waltz while we fly and make it super lazy. I got through with the left one and said 'okay next' because it was my best maneuver
Followed those up with an Emergency Descent. Best glide, pick a place, run through an emergency checklist (mooney owners manual doesnt have one, he didn't like that), and then talk about atc comms and transponder. I didn't even mention ATC or transponder ops because it was obvious to me I was on a checkride, but remember, its all about how you WOULD TEACH it to somebody....
I SPECIFICALLY asked if the farmhouses counted as a congested area because I've heard horror stories of people failing. He said I was fine and we proceeded at 800AGL
Eights on Pylons - I actually had trouble messing these up, so at one point he asked if I could screw up a little and teach what to do. No problem!
It's important to remember that its okay to make mistakes on this ride as long as you can teach what you did wrong, and teach how to correct.
S-Turns across a road. Two hemispherical turns, compensating for downwind, this was easy as well.
Headed back to the airport for landings. I had him switch fuel tanks. m20C has left right and off. He switched it to off. My CFI instructor had conditioned me to watch for really stupid stuff like this. So I nailed him on it immediately. He smiled.
Soft field landing. Did the GUMPS check. Decided not to switch tanks because everything was going fine. He really liked that I didn't arbitrarily switch tanks for no reason. Soft field landing was PERFECT.
While taxiing he thought I was not paying attention and switched the tanks off again, I caught him and manually switched them back
Short field landings and takeoffs. Here's where it was interesting. Talked to me all the way through the takeoff about his helicopter experience etc. Obvious to me (not others) that he was trying to distract me. Introduced concept of sterile cockpit. He liked that.
Came in for landing a little high (short field) and then cut the power. About 200 feet AGL all of a sudden he blocked the airspeed indicator with his hand/wrist.... I asked him to remove it, he didn't, so I reached over and physically moved his hand back to his lap.
The ride was NOT over. Talked about tying down and airport ops and how people can be dangerous by letting guard down. I was peppered with questions the whole flight. I want to mention that they were helpful, meaningful questions that had me glad I had this examiner.
I'll extrapolate if anybody has any questions, I know I was desperate to find out what the CFI ride was like especially since no one in our area had taken the ride with our examiner.
In other news gave 1.8 hours of Dual today.
My dad was a flight instructor so yesterday and today were the culmination of a dream I've had ever since I was 2 years old!
I'm hoping to be the premier Mooney expert in West Texas..... Let's see how well I do
I wanted to give my experiences for the CFI-A Initial test. I used the Lubbock FSDO and I did a 3 day intensive training with www.wacoflyingservice.com
I used my own mooney, a m20C model for the checkride. I have been practicing with friends (pilots) in the left seat and I have been teaching maneuvers and landings in the right seat for about two months. I have been jointly studying for the commercial and CFI since about February.
Here's how the ride went:
I was tested over Human Behavior and the Principles of Learning/Levels/Maslows Hierarchy of Needs. Those are very easy for me because my current job is essentially all of that stuff put together. I'm a professor at a university. At this point I noticed he had only circled a few items on the PTS to be covered.
Next up was Flight Instructor Responsibilities. Chatted a bit about how I'm not supposed to be the sheriff or narc of the airport, but to keep an eye out and make sure nobody dies. He began to ask me about endorsements but as soon as I brought out the 61-65E we went to the next subject. He did make sure to mention that if the endorsement document has been revised up to letter 'E', that I better make sure I'm endorsing what I think I am by referencing the proper reg, 61.87 etc. Lots of real life scenarios about, 'what would you do if you heard your student was taking passengers up?' - Keep calm, ask a few questions, figure out the real situation and not the heresay.
Talked a lot about what 61.87 and 93 really say about solos and cross countries. Was quizzed on all the distances 25nm, 50nm etc etc.
I then taught Runway Incursion and a proper Weight and Balance. W&B was easy since I teach them as two separate subjects and combine them afterwards.
I can't emphasize enough to new CFI applicants to figure out the EASIEST and SIMPLEST way to describe all this stuff. The FSDO wants you to pretend they are a BRAND NEW student. Keep weight simple. Whats wrong with too much weight? bad for wings....bad for landing gear.
Whats wrong with a forward CG, aft CG? Hard to land, might nose plow into the ground. shut up with the theoretical and stall speeds and etc, you have to relate to your most inexperienced student first!
Taught Steep Turns - Ended up drawing vertical and horizontal components of lift and talked a lot about load factor and all that jazz. I kept this really simple and he enjoyed that quite a bit.
There were random spot checks of knowledge throughout the ride. If you haven't been studying its easy to bust. I have studied for MONTHS and I thought I was about to fail at any moment.
PLEASE know that you are allowed to reference your materials. He would ask me about something, then we'd take a 5 minute break so I could get my plans out and get ready to teach it. Very accommodating examiner. Very 'fair.'
Flying Portion - I used my M20C that I have 300 hours in now. That made it really easy. I had also been sitting right seat in my and another friends Mooney for the last 3 months so I was quite comfortable doing the right seat flying. Just....no brakes
Real easy, he said he was a private pilot here to do a complex checkout. Okay no problem that's easy. Talked about how the Mooney is the only airplane with a proper tail.... (he is a helo guy so he chuckled)\
Did a pre-flight with the owners manual checklist out to show him the old do-verify. I kept throwing in buzzwords and good pieces of information just in case I ever needed to impress him later and prove I wasn't a dunce in the air.
I took off with the controls and Climbed out of the airport after a short field takeoff. Up to 6500 (about 3000AGL) and immediately went into a Steep Turn. Followed those up with letting the Fed do one. I said he did a really great job but it wasn't up to standards. He didn't understand why! He kept altitude and speed perfect. I told him he lost control of the airplane by not using rudder
He was super glad I caught that.He had me talk about climbs and descents. he REALLY wanted to hear things about sight pictures and looking outside the window first and foremost as opposed to looking at airspeed and altimeter.
Went into a power off stall and then an immediate secondary stall that he had requested. I gave a real life scenario for why this happens and how to stay calm.
I want to emphasize to new CFI applicants that not rambling and being specific with words can be a great benefit. Makes you seem judicious and not frantic.
Followed it up with Lazy Eights. Explained the 45 point and 135 point and how we're just going to hum a waltz while we fly and make it super lazy. I got through with the left one and said 'okay next' because it was my best maneuver
Followed those up with an Emergency Descent. Best glide, pick a place, run through an emergency checklist (mooney owners manual doesnt have one, he didn't like that), and then talk about atc comms and transponder. I didn't even mention ATC or transponder ops because it was obvious to me I was on a checkride, but remember, its all about how you WOULD TEACH it to somebody....
I SPECIFICALLY asked if the farmhouses counted as a congested area because I've heard horror stories of people failing. He said I was fine and we proceeded at 800AGL
Eights on Pylons - I actually had trouble messing these up, so at one point he asked if I could screw up a little and teach what to do. No problem!
It's important to remember that its okay to make mistakes on this ride as long as you can teach what you did wrong, and teach how to correct.
S-Turns across a road. Two hemispherical turns, compensating for downwind, this was easy as well.
Headed back to the airport for landings. I had him switch fuel tanks. m20C has left right and off. He switched it to off. My CFI instructor had conditioned me to watch for really stupid stuff like this. So I nailed him on it immediately. He smiled.
Soft field landing. Did the GUMPS check. Decided not to switch tanks because everything was going fine. He really liked that I didn't arbitrarily switch tanks for no reason. Soft field landing was PERFECT.
While taxiing he thought I was not paying attention and switched the tanks off again, I caught him and manually switched them back
Short field landings and takeoffs. Here's where it was interesting. Talked to me all the way through the takeoff about his helicopter experience etc. Obvious to me (not others) that he was trying to distract me. Introduced concept of sterile cockpit. He liked that.
Came in for landing a little high (short field) and then cut the power. About 200 feet AGL all of a sudden he blocked the airspeed indicator with his hand/wrist.... I asked him to remove it, he didn't, so I reached over and physically moved his hand back to his lap.
The ride was NOT over. Talked about tying down and airport ops and how people can be dangerous by letting guard down. I was peppered with questions the whole flight. I want to mention that they were helpful, meaningful questions that had me glad I had this examiner.
I'll extrapolate if anybody has any questions, I know I was desperate to find out what the CFI ride was like especially since no one in our area had taken the ride with our examiner.
In other news gave 1.8 hours of Dual today.
I'm hoping to be the premier Mooney expert in West Texas..... Let's see how well I do
turns the fuel off.
