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CFI Airplane add-on checkride completed


NotarPilot

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Hello all, I just wanted to add some thoughts on the recent addition of my CFI airplane add-on certificate.  I got my CFI rating for helicopters back in 2012 as well as my CFII RW last year.  This was my 9th checkride since I started flying and by far the hardest. I’ll admit I don’t know airplane stuff as well as I know helicopter stuff. The DPE was very thorough during the oral portion.  Many issues were covered including aerodynamics, stability, CG, weight and balance (by hand), performance charts, aircraft loading, stalls, and probably a few other topics.  Several subjects were not covered such as flight planning, weather, FOI, etc because this was an add-on CFI rating.  

Aside from reviewing the text books I spent most of my time watching YouTube videos on the various subjects prior to the checkride.  This benefited me on two levels.  First, I’m a guy who would rather watch the movie than read the book.  Second it gave me a good idea on how to explain certain subjects in a way that was easy to understand.  There is a ton of good material online that explains things better than most CFIs can being that they feature graphics and videos on how things work.  

The flight portion was a little easier.  I did the checkride in my Mooney so I’m very familiar with the aircraft. This is definitely an advantage over some 250 hour pilot taking a CFI checkride.  I was able to explain all the systems, the engine, etc.  Also with about 550 hours in my plane I feel very comfortable flying the plane.  I was able to nail the power off 180, and did fairly well on the other maneuvers like the chandelle, eights on pylons, S turns over a road (even though the first time I ever did one was on the checkride, thanks YouTube), the accelerated stall, along with the stalls and unusual attitude recovery, which was done under the hood from the right seat.

In the end I passed.  Although he said I wasn’t the best he’s seen I was much much better than most so I felt good about that.  I’m glad to have that out of the way.  Now onto CFII next month.  Do you know what they call the person who comes in last in med school?

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2 minutes ago, NotarPilot said:

Do you know what they call the person who comes in last in med school?

Doctor.  ;)

I keep reminding my A&P classmates that the cert doesn't say anywhere on it whether you passed by a lot or just barely.

Early on in A&P school one of our instructors pointed out that if a Doctor screws up one person might die, if a mechanic screws up, a hundred might die.

And congrats on the new alphabet soup!   None of this stuff is easy, so kudos, and I hope it proves very rewarding.

 

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2 hours ago, kortopates said:

Awesome! You’ll find the Instrument add-on a breeze after the initial ASEL CFI.
Did you get tested by an FAA inspector?


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No it was a DPE and he was really cool in the fact that he wanted to meet up with my CFI and I prior to the checkride to carefully go over everything that would/could be on it.  He's friends with my CFI so we met about a week prior for dinner.  Nice guy.  He didn't give me the answers but rather what I was expected to know.  He says he likes to meet with some of his candidates ahead of time so they are well prepared.  It seems a lot of certificate applicants from private to commercial are really unprepared nowadays and don't seem to know a lot of the material very well or aren't good at problem solving.

Thanks everyone!

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4 hours ago, RLCarter said:

Didn't the FAA stop giving CFI ck rides and handed it over to the DPE's?

I've lost track so not really sure, but my understanding was that each FSDO made that decision on their own. Some punted to a DPE saying they were too busy while others thought it was too important to delegate wanting to make sure they approved of folks becoming CFI's in their area since it was their last chance.  I'll have to ask my FSDO FPM.

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