Don Jones
Line Up and Wait
I will try to write up my CFI check ride experience as best I can. It is such a long day it makes it hard to remember and the details get fuzzy quickly. I would first like to thank the many who helped me in attaining this goal starting with my wife. She has been patient and understanding during this past couple of months and I could not have done it without her support. Several on the board have helped me as well. Ed and Chip in particular, thanks guys.
I left work at 2 PM on Thursday afternoon and headed out to the Las Cruces airport. I borrowed a friend’s Piper Arrow(thanks Mark and Michelle) for the check ride. I did a thorough pre-flight and loaded all the stuff I needed. Man there is a lot of stuff. A quick call to Flight Service and I fired it up, did the run-up, and took off on Rwy 26 with a stiff crosswind. Lots of bumps along the way and a quick look at the GS revealed why, 156 knots, that is about 30 knots of tail wind for this particular airplane and with all the mountains about it makes it pretty bumpy. After only about 1 hour and 15 minutes I landed on rwy 17 at Double Eagle II airport and taxied up to Bode Aviation. I fueled up the plane and got it tied down for the evening. Bode let me use their courtesy car (2005 Nissan Sentra) for the evening and I headed off for the motel.
The check ride was scheduled for 8 am in the conference room at Bode. I had vowed not to crack a book at all the night before the check ride. I figured I was either ready at that point or not, and a couple of hours of studying was not going to make any difference. I called up Nick and we met at a local restaurant called the Frontier. It is an old Albuquerque legend, and has been around for years. We sat and visited, while eating one of their great burrito’s. I enjoyed getting to meet another board member. Only 4 so far. Nick had to go to work, and I returned to the motel. I spent the evening watching TV.
I awoke early and headed to the airport around 7 am. I figured I would get organized and relax a while before the FSDO examiner arrived. On the drive to the airport I could feel the tension rising, “dammit Don, breathe, stay calm, relax” hmmm, it worked, instantly calm(thanks Ron). When I walked into the FBO, there was an older gentleman standing at the front counter, guess who!! We visited for a few minutes, and he seemed like a really nice guy. Wow, this might not be so bad!!
The ride started at 8 am straight up. First Ken, the examiner went through a review of all the required paperwork which had no surprises. He then launched into a question and answer session starting with the Fundamentals of Instructing. Question after question, I banged out the answers, wow, I really do know this stuff. I relaxed more and more as I realized I was well prepared. We covered the entire PTS from start to finish. I presented several things on the board, teaching him about how a wing creates lift, stalls, adverse yaw, left turning tendencies, and other aerodynamic stuff. I presented a lesson on how to do Lazy 8's. It all went smooth. We took a break about every hour until we broke for lunch about 11:30. Ken drove us into town for lunch at Applebee’s. I even had a few questions over lunch. After lunch we took up the oral again with weight and balance, cross-country planning, and some more on instructor responsibilities. Finally about 2:30 Ken said, “that is enough of this, lets go fly”. The oral had lasted about 5 hours.
We walked out to the plane, and I dug out the checklist. I went step by step through about half of it explaining everything when he said “I’ve heard enough, just finish the pre-flight and lets go”. We jumped in, I briefed him on belts, safety equipment, sterile cockpit, and positive exchange of flight controls, and fired it up. We taxied out to rwy 22, he had me explaining markings, signs, lights, etc on the way. He asked me what take off I wanted to do first, and I chose the short field. The wind was blowing 16 knots from 190 so there was a little cross-wind, no problem, was the best short I have ever done in this particular aircraft. We headed off to the practice area NW of the field. Next I chose to get the steep turns out of the way, I nailed one to the left and kept the altitude within 20 feet. Ken commented that I held altitude better in a steep turn than I do straight and level. I got a good laugh out of that. I then chose to do Lazy 8's, I like these, they are really fun. Next a couple of Chandelles to gain altitude, not great but passable, did a dirty stall, then onto a departure stall, followed by a trim stall and a cross-controlled stall. Piece of cake, all that practice was worth it. I then did a steep spiral down to a simulated emergency landing. Just as I rolled out on the road I had selected Ken waived me off. “That’s enough he said, lets go do some 8's on Pylons”. I hate 8's on, and they were my usual crappy ones at that, I could however teach them and tell him what I was doing wrong, just couldn’t fix it very well. We then headed back to the airport for a couple of more landings, I did a short field landing, Ken took over and played the student while I played instructor through a couple of times around the pattern. Then the words I had waited to hear, “we’re done, you passed, good job” Lets land this thing and do the paper work. Must have lost my focus instantly, cause my last landing was BAD.
I got the stupid thing sideways, and planted it down “pretty firmly” embarrassed the crap out of me.
All in all I have to say the ride was not bad at all. I was way more exhausted after my instrument ride despite it being some 3 hours shorter. 5 hours oral and about 1.5 in the airplane was still a long day. I was going to fly back to LRU afterwards. I bailed out on my first go-no go decision as a CFI. Wind was blowing 22017 g30 at home. I was tired, it would be a night landing, in an airplane I had never flown at night, and rwy 22 is closed(thanks prez Bush). I came home on Saturday morning. I am sure glad this one is done.
Don
CFI
I left work at 2 PM on Thursday afternoon and headed out to the Las Cruces airport. I borrowed a friend’s Piper Arrow(thanks Mark and Michelle) for the check ride. I did a thorough pre-flight and loaded all the stuff I needed. Man there is a lot of stuff. A quick call to Flight Service and I fired it up, did the run-up, and took off on Rwy 26 with a stiff crosswind. Lots of bumps along the way and a quick look at the GS revealed why, 156 knots, that is about 30 knots of tail wind for this particular airplane and with all the mountains about it makes it pretty bumpy. After only about 1 hour and 15 minutes I landed on rwy 17 at Double Eagle II airport and taxied up to Bode Aviation. I fueled up the plane and got it tied down for the evening. Bode let me use their courtesy car (2005 Nissan Sentra) for the evening and I headed off for the motel.
The check ride was scheduled for 8 am in the conference room at Bode. I had vowed not to crack a book at all the night before the check ride. I figured I was either ready at that point or not, and a couple of hours of studying was not going to make any difference. I called up Nick and we met at a local restaurant called the Frontier. It is an old Albuquerque legend, and has been around for years. We sat and visited, while eating one of their great burrito’s. I enjoyed getting to meet another board member. Only 4 so far. Nick had to go to work, and I returned to the motel. I spent the evening watching TV.
I awoke early and headed to the airport around 7 am. I figured I would get organized and relax a while before the FSDO examiner arrived. On the drive to the airport I could feel the tension rising, “dammit Don, breathe, stay calm, relax” hmmm, it worked, instantly calm(thanks Ron). When I walked into the FBO, there was an older gentleman standing at the front counter, guess who!! We visited for a few minutes, and he seemed like a really nice guy. Wow, this might not be so bad!!
The ride started at 8 am straight up. First Ken, the examiner went through a review of all the required paperwork which had no surprises. He then launched into a question and answer session starting with the Fundamentals of Instructing. Question after question, I banged out the answers, wow, I really do know this stuff. I relaxed more and more as I realized I was well prepared. We covered the entire PTS from start to finish. I presented several things on the board, teaching him about how a wing creates lift, stalls, adverse yaw, left turning tendencies, and other aerodynamic stuff. I presented a lesson on how to do Lazy 8's. It all went smooth. We took a break about every hour until we broke for lunch about 11:30. Ken drove us into town for lunch at Applebee’s. I even had a few questions over lunch. After lunch we took up the oral again with weight and balance, cross-country planning, and some more on instructor responsibilities. Finally about 2:30 Ken said, “that is enough of this, lets go fly”. The oral had lasted about 5 hours.
We walked out to the plane, and I dug out the checklist. I went step by step through about half of it explaining everything when he said “I’ve heard enough, just finish the pre-flight and lets go”. We jumped in, I briefed him on belts, safety equipment, sterile cockpit, and positive exchange of flight controls, and fired it up. We taxied out to rwy 22, he had me explaining markings, signs, lights, etc on the way. He asked me what take off I wanted to do first, and I chose the short field. The wind was blowing 16 knots from 190 so there was a little cross-wind, no problem, was the best short I have ever done in this particular aircraft. We headed off to the practice area NW of the field. Next I chose to get the steep turns out of the way, I nailed one to the left and kept the altitude within 20 feet. Ken commented that I held altitude better in a steep turn than I do straight and level. I got a good laugh out of that. I then chose to do Lazy 8's, I like these, they are really fun. Next a couple of Chandelles to gain altitude, not great but passable, did a dirty stall, then onto a departure stall, followed by a trim stall and a cross-controlled stall. Piece of cake, all that practice was worth it. I then did a steep spiral down to a simulated emergency landing. Just as I rolled out on the road I had selected Ken waived me off. “That’s enough he said, lets go do some 8's on Pylons”. I hate 8's on, and they were my usual crappy ones at that, I could however teach them and tell him what I was doing wrong, just couldn’t fix it very well. We then headed back to the airport for a couple of more landings, I did a short field landing, Ken took over and played the student while I played instructor through a couple of times around the pattern. Then the words I had waited to hear, “we’re done, you passed, good job” Lets land this thing and do the paper work. Must have lost my focus instantly, cause my last landing was BAD.
I got the stupid thing sideways, and planted it down “pretty firmly” embarrassed the crap out of me.
All in all I have to say the ride was not bad at all. I was way more exhausted after my instrument ride despite it being some 3 hours shorter. 5 hours oral and about 1.5 in the airplane was still a long day. I was going to fly back to LRU afterwards. I bailed out on my first go-no go decision as a CFI. Wind was blowing 22017 g30 at home. I was tired, it would be a night landing, in an airplane I had never flown at night, and rwy 22 is closed(thanks prez Bush). I came home on Saturday morning. I am sure glad this one is done.
Don
CFI