Originally Posted by
freezingflyboy
I gotta wonder what the resistance is on here from some about taking a checkride. We take checkrides all the time in this business that are far more complex than those in the GA world. So what's the hullabaloo about a CFI or CFII?
As for my own experience, I let my CFI lapse years ago. I did the FIRCs for years until one day realizing that if things were so bad in this industry that my only choice was to go teach stalls and turns around a point again, that I would probably just get out of aviation, at least temporarily. About the only thing that would make me want to go get reinstated would be if my kids decided they wanted to learn to fly.
121 checkrides are relatively consistent and the examiner is an airline guy. 91 checkrides are not, it can be a stressful PITA to prepare for, and the examiner is probably not an airline guy, and might even resent them. If you're not for-sure at your career-destination airline you don't need a recent pink slip, of any sort.
That said most of us should be able to get the right prep and identify the right examiner, although some FSDO's may not always defer to a DPE, so you might get a fed.