My CFI checkride experience
 

To anyone that is about to have their CFI checkride, I just had mine 2 days ago and these are some things that I feel helped me pass.

1) Come in early. I arrived to the airport around 45 minutes before my scheduled time. I wanted to make sure I had all of my lesson plans, notes, documents, publications, and everything in between organized and ready in case it was asked for. This made the initial process go much faster and the DPE seemed to really appreciate it. This should really be done for every single checkride.

2) Dress the part. As covered in the FOI, professionalism is a big responsibility as an instructor. It is not necessary to show up in a suit. However, I think it would be wise to at least be in a pressed shirt and tie. The DPE commented on it and mentioned it showed that I was taking this seriously and professionally.

3) On the flight portion, talk alot. You will be doing all the flying to commercial standards but talk your way through everything. It is a hard concept to treat someone with more experience than you as someone with no flying experience whatsoever. For every movement and maneuver, talk and talk some more. They are in fact looking to see if you can fly and talk. If you get off of your altitude or heading, talk about why it happened and how you can fix it then correct.

4) Keep the conversation moving. The ground will cover alot of information. Most likely the DPE will use some topics as a "learning moment". Ask questions and seriously try to learn from it. Ask the DPE to explain and elaborate on the info also. Keep notes and show them you enjoy learning/talking about aviation.

These are just a few things I took away from my experience. The day itself was from 8 am to 5:30 pm. An extremely long, but incredibly rewarding day. Personally, I loved my experience and have little to no complaints (except 25 knot crosswinds). If anyone wants to talk more about this, feel free to PM. Just wanted to show some thoughts!

Congratulations and much success teaching others in the future! I'm going to assume that the highlighted portions also apply to Student Pilots going through their initial training with their CFI as well.

Absolutely it does! I just mention the CFI initial because it is such an intense and sometimes overwhelming amount of information. As you pointed out, all of these points I think are extremely beneficial to all checkrides for any rating/add-on.

You are about to learn how to fly.:D

Haha I have heard that several times already. I cannot wait to start!

Record it.

That way when the DPE screws you just so he can make another $1000 you have something to hold him accountable.

Do you really think there are DPE's looking to fail students just to make an extra paycheck?

A few. Also some FSDO's will have a de facto "quota" for initial CFI failures. If the DPE is behind on his quota, he may be looking for any excuse.

With that in mind, it's a great idea to do your CFI with an examiner who has done one or more of your previous rides. Assuming you get along, he'll be somewhat emotionally invested in you and less likely to utilize you as a quota-filler.

I'm hoping to take mine sometime this summer. I don't believe we get to choose who our examiner is though.

As a side note: 2 people have taken them in my area and both got a different examiner from the same FSDO....both failed the first attempt. I know the one had to fly roughly 80 miles to meet the examiner and the examiner wanted to start at 7am. The applicant slept at the FBO because he didn't get off work until 8pm. He got up at 4am to get showered, do his weather and performance data all so he could be off the ground by 6am. That kind of start is just asking for failure for me.

It is and you shouldn’t agree to it.
I had one CFI candidate put with a by the FSDO assigned DPE and my candidate had to fly the examiner to another Airport, wait three hours for him to complete a Private checkride and then fly him back.
He later had his DPE-ness revoked by the FSDO.
There are a-holes out there looking to make a buck.
And unless you file a complaint with the FAA they’ll never do anything about it.
Anyways, enough of that.
Congratulations on passing what’s no doubt one of the mile stones in your career.
Certain check rides are life altering and this is one of them.