Write Up as promised:
Training: Overall, they give you the tools to pass the checkride if you are willing to do your part and study the material (the ground school is great, but fast paced so some self study is needed in order to pass). There were two other CFI students in my class, so we ended up getting together to practice teaching each other/study, which made for some 15 hour+ days, but made the studying bearable. The instructor who does the CFI initials was excellent in my opinion. Not only was he a great instructor, but he was also pleasant to be around (kind of important when you spend 5 or 6 hours in the classroom followed by 1 or 2 in the airplane on most days). Overall, besides a few of the planes being absolute beaters, they give you what you pay for and like most accelerated programs, it's what you make of it. Oh, and for anyone who's been there, they don't do the CFI ground school in the trailer on airport, they do it at the testing center 2 miles away.
Checkride: I ended up getting assigned a DPE (they submit the names to the Las Vegas FSDO when you get there and Vegas chooses who you take the ride with) named Bill Lewis (he frequently does CFI initials in the Vegas area), so I had to fly the 172 from A20 to HND (CFI flew the 172RG up a little later). Landed in HND, and met the DPE in the terminal building (nice place btw). Overall, a very nice guy. He's by the book, but has a different way of conducting the exam, which makes the oral portion go alot faster than average (about 2.5 hours in my case). He tends to combine alot into one question (for instance, "I just wrote your FBO a check for $7,000, what do I need to become a private pilot"). I found the oral to be a breeze since it was heavy on endorsements (one of my strong ares) and he want's you to pass, so if you go in knowing your stuff from the get-go, it'll be a pleasent experience (I've heard he get's pretty irritated when you go in unprepared). I realize my oral was probably easier than the average 6 hour FSDO grilling, but it still required me to know my stuff and I felt it was fair. He especially like my hand written (no laptop at the motel) lesson plans (another thing, don't show up with pre-made lesson plans, take the time to do them yourself (3 a night for each Private and Commercial maneuver took me 1 hour or less after I got the hang of making them), most examiners I've heard of will ask more questions about the material if you bring a gleim syllabus or something along those lines). We spent a little time on FOI, X-C flight planning, TAFs/METARs, and airspace and that was it for the oral.
Walked him through the pre-flight of the straight legged 172, did a soft field takeoff, one turn around the pattern for a soft field landing, unusual attitudes, taught him a constant airspeed climb using the integrated flight instruction method, one Chandelle to the left, steep turns, slow flight, power-off stall, elevator trim stall demo, sim engine out, eights on pylons, and a normal landing. Pretty easy flight, the only thing that didn't go well was the steep turn to the right (I tend to suck at steep turns from the right seat, I haven't really established why yet. I get it trimmed and I can typically fly the one to the left hands off, but end up sucking at steep turns to the right even with more trim and trying not to overuse the rudder). I momentarily deviated 5 or 10 feet below standards, but managed to take a few degrees of bank out and yank it back up to standards before the turn was over, but other than that a good flight.
Pre-flighted the RG and took it for two turns around the pattern: one go around and one normal landing. All went well, although I still think the 172RG is an underpowered, un responsive pig, but I greased it on, so I suppose that's good enough. That was it, went up and got my temporary and flew back down to A20.
