Planespotta

Soooooooo got the CFI-A checkride coming up in a few weeks. Finishing up all my lesson plans and studying like crazy. Anyone got any good stories and lessons to share from their experiences with this checkride? Special items to look over, tricky questions, and stuff like that? Also, what's the deal with weather on the checkride? It isn't a technical subject area for the ride...worth studying a lot or should I focus my attention on FOI, endorsements, and other things like that?

Thanks!

Xtain

I just had my CFI ride a little over a month ago and I would say to just start going through your CFI PTS and hit every section and make sure you can answer everything in there. If your short on time, make sure you hit all the tasks that the examiner is required to test you on and then review areas that you feel weakest on. Hope that helps. Good luck!

snippercr

Godly luck, sir. I still wake up in a cold sweat every now and then remembering my CFI initial.

Know the systems in and out of your aircraft. Recite private,commercial and CFI endorsements. For heavens sake, know airspaces! Be able to teach 8s on and lazy 8s - since those are a more difficult topic and draw on almost all topics, examiners at my school LOVE to test those.

Most importantly - take breaks! I know there is a urge to "finish things up" but seriously, give yourself a breather. My CFI oral was getting rocky and I was on a slippery slope downhill and I just said "look, I need a few minutes to collect myself and get back into things." Had to do that a few times but managed through it.

Also, bring a bottle of water. You're going to be nervous as it is and since you will be talking the whole time, you're mouth will get dry.

Again, good luck!

Estantoi

I recently passed the "stage check" portion for the oral at my school and the guy gave me a few tips.

part 61.39(I believe, its the portion that states you have to have training within the past 60 days yada yada yada) of the fars is NOT covered in AC 61.65E. I guess the examiners like to whip that little gem out to feel smart every now and then.

Also, never say "step on the ball". Apparently they hate that Coordinate use of rudder and ailerons!

pimashahs

I took my CFI checkride in February and the only books i read were the Airplane Flying Handbook, Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Which has everything in it, Aviation's Instructors Handbook, and the Airplane Manual. If you see, three of the books are directly from the FAA so i used all of the stuff from those books. On my checkride, i wasn't asked anything about weather but i was asked about tailwheel aircrafts and why is there a tendency for a tailwheel aircraft to ground loop. I got asked on systems, regs, FOI, Aerodynamics, Airspace and Aeromedical Factors. My ground was fairly short, only 3 hours long with the paperwork but my flight was 2.6 hours. We went through EVERYTHING on the flight, which included private and commercial maneuvers and VOR and GPS Navigation. I also had to teach him everything from Pre-Flight to Post-Flight. Hope that helps.

snippercr

Haha, my instructor for my CFI training hated things like that, as well as "bump the throttle a little bit." He wanted "Advance the throttle 1/xth of an inch" or "retard the throttle all the way"

Planespotta

Thanks to everyone for their advice! I really appreciate it. I'm hitting the AFH, PHAK, PTS & AIH hard, as well as the 172RG AFM.

Keep the advice comin'

Estantoi

I think it's funny how, during private/instrument/commercial, it's perfectly OK to use slang/phrases but once we start CFI training we have to clean up our act. I've just decided that if I let one these no-no's slip out I'll just correct myself and chalk it up to "primacy".

the King

If you have the time, try to tab your copy of the FAR/AIM (and make sure you have a current version). You can put the plastic sticky tags in commonly used sections to make it easier to find a specific reg or other info in the AIM instead of having to spend minutes searching through the table of contents or the index. Remember to relax and not rush your speech or mumble, etc. Examiners pay attention to how you present the info too. Hopefully your CFI has been giving you tips, but reviewing some public speaking habits can give you the confidence to express the things you know properly, and enable a student (or examiner for now) to understand what you're communicating.

Grumble

Which FSDO are you doing it at?

They may break out the the aircraft maint logs, so make sure you know what is in them. When was the last 100 hour? When was the last pitot static certification? Is the transponder current? Things like that you've probably never thought about. Be ready to prove that the a/c is full up.

As far as the oral goes... I did mine at the MCO FSDO, notorious for 6+ hour orals. We were done in under two. When all was said and done I asked why I had heard all the horror stories for mind numbing oral exams. The inspectors basic explination is that most CFI applicants are hair triggered to give lengthy technical answer, which just digs their own grave. Pretend like you're talking to a 5th grader. When they ask "what is a stall" answer with "the point at which the wings stops producing enough lift." If you get into boundary layer seperation, critical AOA, etc you open yourself up to follow on questions. Bottom line, your answer should be very basic, and not create any other questions, but at the same time give a complete answer. When you're driving around town, ask yourself questions you think they may ask in the oral, and then answer them. Then go back and think about your answer. Are there more questions that could be asked from my answer? "What is p-factor?" The left turning tendancy created from the decending blade creating more lift than the acending blade. Asked and answered... if he wants to go further then yeah, you'll have to explain why, through AOA, etc., but the bottom line is you gave an answer anyone would understand.

As far as the practical, make sure they are doing EVERYTHING! I almost got nailed because he didn't throw the prop full forward until the turn from base to final. On the climbout he asked for a debrief on his (whatever the landing was)... when I talked him through everything he asked "is there anything else?" I backed up my debrief of it a little further beyond just the landing to doing the gump check on the downwind, and he told me had I missed that we would've been done. So again, let them make the mistakes (like a real student would) and save the learning until after that event is complete. Just like a real world student they'll pretend like they're becoming over loaded if you never stop talking. They may or may not ham fist the plane too, to find out where your threshold is for taking over.

Just be confident, prepare, and look at him as if they were your first private pilot student that doesn't know anything.

Let us know how it goes.