Just passed the FSDO ride for the CFI...

purdue1014

purdue1014

Pre-takeoff checklist
Joined
Jun 3, 2006
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Display name:
Brent
Details to come as I decompress...

:-D
 
brent - congratulations! i look forward to the details.
 
Thanks guys!!:)

Ok, here goes…

Short version: Oral was 6 hours, no problems whatsoever….Flight was 1.5, and I never shut up…

Long version:

I chose to do the initial CFI, as the CFI/ME, for two reasons. 1st was that I
wanted to do the MEL add-on and the CFI/ME in one go. Second was that I wanted to relieve myself of the requirement for a complex A/C on the subsequent CFI rides…I have about 35ish total ME time, of that 15ish was for the CMEL (I had to retest on landings of all things—I was still trying to land a 172). Then for the 15 PIC, I wanted to get real world experience, so 11-12ish of those hours were spent flying into SAN/LAX/SFO IFR—I’m glad I did that...Then just a few hours to prep on the maneuvers from the right seat.

I got about 6 hours of sleep last night (which is typical for me of a checkride) Woke up at 5:30, (can you say COFFEE?) to the plane by 6:30, wheels up around 7ish, to make it to the FSDO by 8. My CFI met me at the destination airport, (he lives close to the FSDO) and helped me carry my stuff over to the FSDO. Signed in, had my bags checked, and into the room we went. The ASI requested that my CFI stay around until I showed him I was eligible to take the test…Once we determined that I was indeed qualified, my CFI left, and we started right in…

Throughout this time, a separate ASI inspected the A/C (he went inside it, too) and looked over the logbooks for the plane, to make sure everything was kosher. About 45 minutes after we started, said ASI came in and told my ASI that the plane was good.

I brought all the FAA books with me, and was allowed to assemble them behind me…On the table in front of me, I had my CFI book, the regs, and a PP/CP MEL PTS. Other than my CFI book, the only other book I opened was the regs, and that was once to check and see if a table with the different ‘sets’ of light sport a/c were listed under the sport pilot regs (they were not…)

Started off on the FOI…We hit about 80% of the material. He really liked that I gave examples of my past experiences, along with non aviation examples, to describe/explain the FOI. Unfortunately, I don’t really remember any specific questions he asked me here, other than that we covered most of the material. At this point, I was very comfortable with everything, and I pretty much knew I was going to pass the oral. I can’t explain it, really, other than just I was very comfortable with everything. Every examiner I’ve had has said that my orals have been “pretty much perfect” and today was no exception…Once I was situated, I was in for however long he wanted…

After the FOI, he wanted me to teach him about stalls. He was VERY BIG on stalls and spins, and went VERY in depth here. When he wanted me to teach him, he told me his background (i.e., for this first stall lesson, he was a 17 yo, presolo guy who likes athletics and water sports, but is slightly timid about stalls) and he expected myself to tailor my lesson to his experiences. So, I gave him a lesson (on a white board) on power-off stalls, telling everything that one would for a presolo student, and he was pleased. On oral exams, I like to have a spiral notebook open for things that I learn from the DE/ASI, and right now was the first time I used it today…I couldn’t really think of a good way to connect waterskiing and stalls, and he explained the correlation. Water/air=both fluids, and waterskiing is something a lot of people have experience with, relative wind=relative ‘water,’ etc., I thought that was pretty cool, and wrote that down.

I’m probably not going to remember everything we did today, and I might not have it in the right order, but I’ll keep going. Throughout the 6 hours, we took a couple of 5 minute bathroom breaks (up to me when) and to fill up my water bottle…From my perspective, he had 3 or 4 ‘plan of action’ worksheets he was going over…

Next was (I think) the forces that act on an airplane in flight. Then I think we hit endorsements. Covered everything here, no problems. Then we got into Sport Pilot. I admitted that I don’t know that much about Sport Pilot, but told him the stuff I knew about it, and was able to look up the couple endorsements he wanted me to right away. My hunch here was that, he wanted to stress to me that Sport Pilot is “endorsement pilot,” and he really wanted to make that clear in my head.

Not sure what was next, we did hit all of the technical subject areas, most of them very thorough. I think next he had me teach him on the board all about spins, and everything that is involved with them, this was another part that he was VERY big on. He was a middle aged businessman, who is terrified of the word ‘spin,’ but is VERY interested in EVERYTHING that happens. No problems here, I did write down in my spiral that if one stalls the while in a forward slip, the recovery is PARE, which is a great way to introduce spins to start off. He pushed me hard here, and I said “let’s look it up” (with my hand on the AFH) when I said that, but I got the sense this was his ‘stump the chump’ part here. We also went deep into weight and balance, and stability of the aircraft.

I know I’m missing a lot of stuff, but it’s kinda turning into a blur, but I’ll keep movin’…

Next he had me teach him GRMs on the board. I forget what his background was this time, but was very pleased with how I presented everything.
We covered everything on collision avoidance, aeromedical, privileges and limitations for a PP/CP, MELs and required equipement. Towards the later half of the oral, I started to just talk about everything, and upon hearing me start to talk, he’d tell me that I knew that, and to move onto XYZ.

We covered airspace thoroughly, I think because my homedrome is no where near as dense as this area is. This was good for me, because I could talk for hours about airspace:D He also had me teach some of it to him, too, giving me his background (I don’t remember what) and he said I did good.

We hit regs good too…He tried to get me on something, but I caught it (I don’t remember what it was at the moment—I’m exhausted.)

Around noon, (while it was totally up to me) I got the feeling he wanted me to take a lunch break. At that point, I wanted to separate the flight and the oral, with a lunch break, and asked if we could do that. While that was totally cool with him, I think that made my oral slightly longer based on his body language and the phrasing of some of his subsequent questions.

We then covered ME stuff. He was very big on propellers and engines, and I think I taught it to him on the board, with the aid of a miniature prop I brought with. We also hit ME and OEI/critical engine aerodynamics.

Soon enough, it was 2pmish, and we talked about what we were going to do on the flight. I then took 20 minutes to go grab a burger nearby. I know I’m missing a lot of stuff, but that’s the best I can remember right now.

Overall, while the oral wasn’t ‘walk in, walk out,’ it wasn’t ‘hard’ either. More just long, I guess. There is a part of me that likes oral exams, but I guess I’m weird like that:redface:

Basically, on the flight, I never shutup:-D From the preflight to the shutdown, (1.5) I was always talking, and if I paused for other than a sip of water, I immediately started talking about something. He really liked that I used everything outside the plane to talk about. We started off with a shortfield takeoff, then up to altitude for slowflight, then I feathered one (talking through and explaining why we were doing what we were doing, and why it is important that we know that). Then we did steep turns, stalls, accelerated stall, VMC demo, I’m missing a few things, emergency descent, s-turns, head back for a short field landing, (still talking through everything) a foot off the ground, he told me to go around, then a no flap landing with a forward slip, then a sim. SE landing (still talking) and that was it, 4:30-5PMish now.

I think I missed a few maneuvers, but my 19 hour up self is getting tired.

Overall, I was pleased with how I did. He said that I was very well prepared all around, and the only advice he could give me (which I 100% agree with) was to think before you speak. Mainly, in the prop lesson, I said high, but meant low pitch, twice.

Next up* is CFI/SE and IA. (Right now, they are in a couple of days…Tomorrow morning, those couple of days unfortunately might have to change to a couple of weeks, but we’ll see. And I only will do SE for a while

Nite all,

B
 
Brent, that is awesome. Congrats on passing! It's no small feat.

As Bruce said on my CFI thread, best to stick to teaching single for a while, so good that that's your intent. In your case with about 35 ME time especially, it would be good to get more hours in flying twins. I've got about 125 in the Aztec. I think that 15 number the FAA requires is too low.

Good luck on the CFI/SE and IA! I'm sure you'll nail those, too. :)
 
So now ---- with all of 35 hours of multi-engine time and 0 instructional time, do you feel that you'd be ready to take on a multi-engine student? Please, read between the lines and say "NO"! Best wishes in your career but be careful!
 
David Moeslein said:
So now ---- with all of 35 hours of multi-engine time and 0 instructional time, do you feel that you'd be ready to take on a multi-engine student? Please, read between the lines and say "NO"! Best wishes in your career but be careful!
Click to expand...
The FAA says he is qualified. Not everyone can be a multi-thousand hour ME pilot when they start teaching. If you feel he is not qualified then really the issue is one of the regulations being insufficient. If that is the case can you show, with data, that there is a correlation and causal relation that CFI ME's with low hours have a higher accident rate. Then tell us what then the minimum requirements should be set?


BTW Brent Congratulations!!
 
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David Moeslein said:
So now ---- with all of 35 hours of multi-engine time and 0 instructional time, do you feel that you'd be ready to take on a multi-engine student? Please, read between the lines and say "NO"! Best wishes in your career but be careful!
Click to expand...
Well, knowing Brent, I'm sure he will make wise, and safe choices, no matter what he does. :yes: BTW, I agree with Scott.

Brent, congratulations again. :) Life on the farm next week may seem pretty mundane compared to what you've been through the past few weeks. :D
 
Thanks guys, I really do appreciate it!!!:)

'Mundane' (which I highly doubt, btw;)) sounds A-OK to me:D

B
 
Brent, my head is spinning. Yours must have been spinning like a prop!!

Congratulations, and thanks for the writeup.
 
Thanks Flyers!!

Passed both addons back to back just now:) I'm gunna get my first ride in a G1000 AC in a half hour to catch my flight home, won't get home till about 1AM, so I'll give a write up tomorrow:) IPC on the 12, started in the twin on the 13th, WHAT a 3 weeks it has been:)
B
 
Thanks guys, I do appreciate it!:smile:

It is nice to be home.....:)

B
 
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