To Commercial and beyond!

Congrats man!! And great write up! I have been on the fence about doing my commercial this year and that might have pushed me over the fence! Best of luck to you going forward!
 
TRocket said:
Congrats man!! And great write up! I have been on the fence about doing my commercial this year and that might have pushed me over the fence! Best of luck to you going forward!
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Thanks! It's really not too bad. The ground portion are things you need to know for your PPL, just a little bit deeper. And the air work is mainly getting a feel for the airplane, knowing when it's about to stall, staying coordinated, etc.
Go for it! Opens up a couple doors for fun flying opportunities, plus the potential for decreased insurance rates I think.
 
farmerbrake said:
Yes, that was part of our discussion. However a commercial pilot is not going to be down trying to do 8's on pylons with strong winds where he needs to vary altitude over 800 feet like the examiner had seen before.
If I was flying somewhere that wouldn't have been a problem. But trying to do the maneuvers for an examine? The examiner didn't even want to do it.
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I never could do those silly manuvers. That's said, I always like taking a ride in demanding situations. It makes the examiner more forgiving.
 
farmerbrake said:
Yes, that was part of our discussion. However a commercial pilot is not going to be down trying to do 8's on pylons with strong winds where he needs to vary altitude over 800 feet like the examiner had seen before.
If I was flying somewhere that wouldn't have been a problem. But trying to do the maneuvers for an examine? The examiner didn't even want to do it.
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Not arguing against you and the examiner's decision but in your previous post you said the winds really picked up at 2 or 3000 feet. That's higher than where you'd be doing the 8s on pylons so you probably would have been fine since the surface winds were fine.

But, seeing how you're intending to instruct, what your examiner described about doing 8s on pylons with high surface winds should be taken to heart. Several years ago there was a student and instructor lost near my home area when they were attempting to do 8s on pylons with high winds. It was a stall/spin accident that occurred due to the large changes in pitch and altitude to complete the maneuver successfully when it was windy. Make sure you keep yourself and your students safe by picking the right day to do the maneuver.
 
Kritchlow said:
I never could do those silly manuvers. That's said, I always like taking a ride in demanding situations. It makes the examiner more forgiving.
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Lol. So true! Although in talking with the examiner he said he's actually only given so much leway so sometimes he still has to discontinue or disapprove even if he thinks the candidate is ok.

mondtster said:
Not arguing against you and the examiner's decision but in your previous post you said the winds really picked up at 2 or 3000 feet. That's higher than where you'd be doing the 8s on pylons so you probably would have been fine since the surface winds were fine.

But, seeing how you're intending to instruct, what your examiner described about doing 8s on pylons with high surface winds should be taken to heart. Several years ago there was a student and instructor lost near my home area when they were attempting to do 8s on pylons with high winds. It was a stall/spin accident that occurred due to the large changes in pitch and altitude to complete the maneuver successfully when it was windy. Make sure you keep yourself and your students safe by picking the right day to do the maneuver.
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The only thing that I left out is that we have mountains right between the 2 and 4,000 foot area that the wind has to come up and over.
Sorry to hear about the loss. I know I went out and practiced the maneuvers on some windy days and can see how quick and easy things can happen.
 
In the same boat as you passed my commercial check ride yesterday. Now its on to CFI Training. Flying from the right seat is defiantly interesting now... Start trying to find someone for spin training it seems hard to find someone specially in the Northeast.
 
Steven8385 said:
In the same boat as you passed my commercial check ride yesterday. Now its on to CFI Training. Flying from the right seat is defiantly interesting now... Start trying to find someone for spin training it seems hard to find someone specially in the Northeast.
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Not sure where you're located but I know of two places in the eastern part of MD that can do spin training.
Congrats on passing your commercial!
 
Steven8385 said:
Start trying to find someone for spin training it seems hard to find someone specially in the Northeast.
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I can't imagine it is that hard to find a spinnable C150 and an instructor willing to do it is it?

You don't necessarily need a fancy aerobatic airplane or instructor that specializes in aerobatic training to go out and satisfy the spin requirements for the flight instructor rating. The place I instruct at just does it as part of CFI curriculum, no big deal.
 
Steven8385 said:
it seems hard to find someone specially in the Northeast.
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It shouldn't be too hard. There's Andover Flight in NJ (http://www.andoverflight.com/) where you can do it in a PT-17. There's a Pitts in Connecticut (http://www.s2cllc.com/). There's Executive Flyers in Bedford, MA (http://executiveflyers.com/aircraft-fleet/specialty-aircraft/). Flightlab in Plymouth, MA (http://www.flightlab.net/Flightlab.net/Home.html).

I'm sure there are more. Those are just the ones I know off the top of my head.
 
Yeah thank you for the help guys. Executive flyers said they could do it. Size is the biggest problem for me since I am 260 so a lot of it is weight depend and a lot of flight schools will only do what is required for there cfi students and nothing more. To much liability is the answer I was getting in my neck of the woods.
 
What plane will exec flyers use? That is/was Mike goolians family business, and I think they had a decathlon rental for aerobatic training years ago.


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Too the last few days to re group myself and figure out a good balance between life, flying, and school.
Met with my instructor to share with him some thoughts on my training too.
Aiming to be ready for the cfi by the end of Feb. Half the work is done, I just need to get more comfortable in the right seat, take the FOI (next week), and schedule my spin training.

Quick question:
When scheduling a CFI ride do you schedule directly through the DPE (like I did for all my other certificates/rating)? Or do you have to call the FSDO and let them decline and farm it out to the DPE?
I'll look it up tomorrow to find out for sure, but thought I'd start here.
 
farmerbrake said:
Too the last few days to re group myself and figure out a good balance between life, flying, and school.
Met with my instructor to share with him some thoughts on my training too.
Aiming to be ready for the cfi by the end of Feb. Half the work is done, I just need to get more comfortable in the right seat, take the FOI (next week), and schedule my spin training.

Quick question:
When scheduling a CFI ride do you schedule directly through the DPE (like I did for all my other certificates/rating)? Or do you have to call the FSDO and let them decline and farm it out to the DPE?
I'll look it up tomorrow to find out for sure, but thought I'd start here.
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The flight has always scheduled and contacted for my checkrides. Not all DPE's are given authority to conduct CFI initial rides. Every FSDO is different. Check with your FSDO.
 
jordane93 said:
The flight has always scheduled and contacted for my checkrides. Not all DPE's are given authority to conduct CFI initial rides. Every FSDO is different. Check with your FSDO.
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Thanks! I went ahead and called the dpe just to ask him some questions anyways, it's a different one than I've used before since my guy can't do CFI rides yet, and he told me to call.
In all honesty, it doesn't matter to me who does the ride. Yeah, I know the FSDO is usually tougher, but the dpe I would use isn't necessarily known for easy checkrides either.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the fsdo doesn't charge right? So that's an added bonus lol
 
Back when I did all my CFI rides you had to fly with the Feds, and it was free.
 
farmerbrake said:
Thanks! I went ahead and called the dpe just to ask him some questions anyways, it's a different one than I've used before since my guy can't do CFI rides yet, and he told me to call.
In all honesty, it doesn't matter to me who does the ride. Yeah, I know the FSDO is usually tougher, but the dpe I would use isn't necessarily known for easy checkrides either.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the fsdo doesn't charge right? So that's an added bonus lol
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FSDO is free. I paid $750 for my initial CFI with a DPE almost 2 years ago.
 
farmerbrake said:
In all honesty, it doesn't matter to me who does the ride. Yeah, I know the FSDO is usually tougher, but the dpe I would use isn't necessarily known for easy checkrides either.
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It is not necessarily true that the FSDO will be tougher. I don't know what percentage of DPEs have the authority to administer the initial CFI rides, but it often seems that you'll get a tougher initial ride from the DPE than you would from an inspector. The DPE has their authorization to lose, the inspector doesn't.

It sounds like you've got it figured out, but you or your instructor is going to have to call the FSDO for this checkride. They'll have the first option to do the ride, then if they don't have time to do it they'll tell you which examiner to work with. In the FSDO I'm based in I don't think an inspector has done an initial CFI ride in quite a while, they all get sent to examiners. That will vary throughout the country though.

The FSDO is free, a DPE will charge whatever their going rate is. Around here the DPE charges twice the rate of a normal checkride since they can only do one initial CFI checkride in a day instead of being allowed to do two checkrides a day.
 
Make sure you ask some local CFIs who've sent some CFI candidates recently, how long that FSDO process is taking.

It was running about a month from initial phone call to being assigned out to a DPE for the CFI rides around here all year.

Since you said February and it's coming up on end of January, I thought I'd mention it.

Hopefully better where you are. A month is pretty "normal" around here.
 
Been a while since I've updated. Since my checkride I've flown about 5 hours in the right seat where I'm doing the flying, and 5 hours as a safety pilot for some other pilots (great learning/teaching experience!).
Passed the FOI written today.
Called the fsdo over a week ago and they said to call a dpe. Called him and he wanted me to email him some dates. Waiting for him to respond to the email.
We're moving right along! Spin training is scheduled for the week of the 20th of feb. Checkride should hopefully be in the beginning of March. I might take the AGI written just before my test as a final knowledge check, we'll see though.
 
CHECKRIDE OFFICIALLY SCHEDULED! First weekend in March. I'm starting to freak out now, that way as the time gets closer I won't have as much to freak out about.
There's a lot to this ride.... how did you all know if you were prepared enough?
 
Spin training complete! Had an amazing experience with Bill Finagin down at Lee airport (KANP). Started with some rudder walks and then We did about 4 or so spins. Including accelerated and flat spins. Would've loved to do some inverted spins and other things today but decided to call it quits before my body completely gave UP... lol.
Bill is fantastic to work with and makes the process so enjoyable! I definitely recommend ALL pilots go through some form of spin training. I for sure learned a lot!

Beautiful Pitts that we got to use today.
c52d6cc53897783a0fe75d60209475d1.jpg


Meeting with my instructor this week to tie up any loose ends and get the sign-off. Feeling excited!
 
farmerbrake said:
Called the fsdo over a week ago and they said to call a dpe. Called him and he wanted me to email him some dates. Waiting for him to respond to the email.
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Does your FSDO specifically call out a particular DPE? Ours does. Or did they just say to call any one that had the authorization to do CFI rides?

Just curious. It's a little different everywhere it seems.
 
denverpilot said:
Does your FSDO specifically call out a particular DPE? Ours does. Or did they just say to call any one that had the authorization to do CFI rides?

Just curious. It's a little different everywhere it seems.
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They told me to call a specific one, but I think that was more because of his location and he is willing to travel to me.
 
Well we got the ground portion done on Saturday! But had to issue a discontinuance because of wind. Scheduled for the end of this week.
I had hoped to go right into the II, but after this I realized I need some more time to study up on some weak areas. But for sure going to get it done within the next month or two.
 
Geesh I cant seem to catch a break with this!
Had one day scheduled, then had to cancel because of wind. Was supposed to happen this weekend but he had a booking error so he couldn't fit me in.
Now we have snowmagedon knocking at our door. So it'll probably be at least till Thursday or Friday till I finish my ride.
I'm thankful that I'm only in college. I don't see how some people can make this work with job/family.
 
I'll just keep kicking my can down the road until I get a nice day.
Weather was looking perfect today (especially for a checkride) but a last minute change in the weather is brining some nasty weather in earlier today than expected. I would've been able to get the ride done, but I wouldn't have been able to make it home in the plane until Sunday or Monday.
We'll try again next week.
 
FINALLY! Got the official handshake tonight. Glad to finally have the cfi under my belt. Now I can start focusing my efforts on getting the CFII and picking up some students :)
 
farmerbrake said:
FINALLY! Got the official handshake tonight. Glad to finally have the cfi under my belt. Now I can start focusing my efforts on getting the CFII and picking up some students :)
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Congratulations!
 
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