No more checkrides for a while!
 

I passed my MEI checkride the other day. It was by far the easiest ride I have taken. The oral was about 1.5 hours, and the checkride was .9 hours.

The oral covered the following topics:
Stall/Vmc vs. airspeed graph, 12 factors effecting Vmc, zero-sideslip, FAR 23.67 (SE climb requirements), calculation of Vsse, why we lose 80% performance and 50% thrust, absolute/service ceiling both full and SE, the fuel system, the prop governor and accumulator, accelerate stop/go distance, and other various topics.

The checkride went as follows (he played the stupid/suicidal ME student):
As the instructor, I did a mixture cut on the takeoff roll and he messed it up (I had to get the throttles to idle before I gave him his mixtures back), slow flight, stalls, steep turns, I walked him through a Vmc demo (had to help him roll in more aileron/rudder as we slowed down and I had to pitch down to blue line attitude for him), he did a selector cut while we simulated taking off at 5,000 ft. We would slow to about 70 kts, add full power until at 75 kts, then "rotate", climb out. At 5,200 ft he retracted the gear. We were not sure when the engine would finally die, so I had to be prepared for the failure at any phase of flight. As the student, he completely messed up the checklist, so I had to take the controls (even had to hit his hands off the yoke because he "froze up", which he briefed me he would do), and I shut down the engine and feathered the prop. I went through the unfeathering checklist, and restarted the engine. On our way back to the airport, I taught him how to calculate the descent rate to maintain a 3* glidepath to the airport (groundspeed / 2 * 10). I did a short field landing followed by a short field takeoff. On the crosswind-to-downwind turn, he failed the outboard engine with throttle, and I had to simulate feathering the prop as we continued with a SE engine landing.

I am just relieved to be done with checkrides for another 3 years (ATP, I'm 20). I thought I'd share the experience with any of you who are going on multi or MEI rides soon.

Congratulations DaveYoung. Well done.

USMCFLYR

Good show!

Congrads. It fells good to pass the check ride.

Congrats...always a relief!!!

Good job. Have some fun with it. Multi instruction was the most enjoyable instruction I did, and it taught me some good skills that came in handy for V1 cuts. Make sure you know your airplane inside and out before you teach it. Also, one bit of advice. Everyone knows Student Pilots are trying to kill you. They just don't realize it. Commercial (and especially ME add-ons) just invent new ways to kill you. Stay alert.:D

Out of curiosity, did you learn to kill both throttles during an aborted TO? I was taught to kill both mixtures in case the student freezes on the throttles.

I was taught to pull a mixture, then the other, ensure the student got the throttles to idle (to prevent overspeeding the props), and move the mixtures back to rich.

Interesting. My personal experience: if the student didn't immediately cut both throttles and we start veering, I cut both mixtures. Then I'd check the throttles back and add mixture to get the engines on again. Usually, it only took one time being too slow and getting their mixtures chopped before the students would react appropriately. I always like knowing what others do.

I'm going up for my MEI ride here in a few days. Anyone got any helpful hints or personal expierences that might help?