The struggle is real...

Low&Slow

Low&Slow

Ancora imparo
This video perfectly represents my struggles to get my CFI certificate. I get to a point where I'm just about ready for the checkride, then some significant life event happens that derails my train, and by the time I am able to work on it again I have to start all over again from the bottom.

 
Your knowledge and skills don't degrade that much it's just the last bit of check ride prep you need to knock out.
 
It'll all work out in the end. I had the same problems when I was getting my CFI. The easy thing about it is initial learning is always more work than relearning it later on. Knocking any 'rust' off is no biggie. It'll come back quicker than you realize.
 
I'm in the same boat. Between aircraft maintenance issues, a longer than anticipated annual inspection, and critical family health issues, I've had to put things on hold several times. Trying not to sweat it and work on my materials and lesson plans as I can while waiting for things to calm down.

Keep at it, things have to come together at some point.
 
Finally had that rare coalescence of instructor schedule, airplane and weather (not to mention time and money) yesterday. It had been a month since that happened.

For a CFI candidate, I flew pretty badly. My instructor was patient, and I didn't get that annoyed about it because we all have off days and it had been a while; I had a lot of difficulty getting the feel of things again and I wasn't so much knocking rust off as I was desperately looking for the proverbial WD40. Next time will be better and I will suck less.

Fun part of the story:

I taxi back to the airplane's parking spot and set it up so we can back it in. The next renter is there to take it out - a very nice guy who helps us push it back into the spot. He knows my instructor, he introduces himself and we chat for a moment.

"What are you working on, Bill?" he asks me.
"Well, I'm a CFI candidate but I flew pretty much like a pre-solo today."
He chuckles, so does my instructor. We do the paperwork, hand over the keys, and walk back to the terminal.

Turns out that nice, affable, low-key guy had a pretty cool job before he was taking our ratty 172 up.

His other plane was the Space Shuttle.

I got to meet an astronaut yesterday. Hell of a nice guy.

And it put my lousy day of flying in perspective, because I'm pretty sure he had his share of them at one point.

Onward and upward, fellas.
 
killbilly said:
Finally had that rare coalescence of instructor schedule, airplane and weather (not to mention time and money) yesterday. It had been a month since that happened.

For a CFI candidate, I flew pretty badly. My instructor was patient, and I didn't get that annoyed about it because we all have off days and it had been a while; I had a lot of difficulty getting the feel of things again and I wasn't so much knocking rust off as I was desperately looking for the proverbial WD40. Next time will be better and I will suck less.

Fun part of the story:

I taxi back to the airplane's parking spot and set it up so we can back it in. The next renter is there to take it out - a very nice guy who helps us push it back into the spot. He knows my instructor, he introduces himself and we chat for a moment.

"What are you working on, Bill?" he asks me.
"Well, I'm a CFI candidate but I flew pretty much like a pre-solo today."
He chuckles, so does my instructor. We do the paperwork, hand over the keys, and walk back to the terminal.

Turns out that nice, affable, low-key guy had a pretty cool job before he was taking our ratty 172 up.

His other plane was the Space Shuttle.

I got to meet an astronaut yesterday. Hell of a nice guy.

And it put my lousy day of flying in perspective, because I'm pretty sure he had his share of them at one point.

Onward and upward, fellas.
Click to expand...

Well?.....who was it?
 
av8tr1 said:
Well?.....who was it?
Click to expand...

I wrote a couple different drafts of that post and in each one used his name and it felt wrong. Even as I write this I can't quite figure out why, but I just didn't feel right about using his name.
 
killbilly said:
I wrote a couple different drafts of that post and in each one used his name and it felt wrong. Even as I write this I can't quite figure out why, but I just didn't feel right about using his name.
Click to expand...
Ahhh, TJ is back in town? I gave him a BFR years ago, after I signed his logbook, I made him sign mine! Very nice guy and has written a couple of great books. Volunteers once in a while over at Udvar Hazy too. One of the smartest fellas I've ever met (obviously) and a huge history buff. He's on my top 10 list of greatest Americans I've ever met!
So, if you're rescourefull enough to figure out who we're talking about, keep it to yourself and we'll all enjoy posting the experiences without the Google spiders adding it to his search results!
 
bucksmith said:
Ahhh, TJ is back in town? I gave him a BFR years ago, after I signed his logbook, I made him sign mine! Very nice guy and has written a couple of great books. Volunteers once in a while over at Udvar Hazy too. One of the smartest fellas I've ever met (obviously) and a huge history buff. He's on my top 10 list of greatest Americans I've ever met!
So, if you're rescourefull enough to figure out who we're talking about, keep it to yourself and we'll all enjoy posting the experiences without the Google spiders adding it to his search results!
Click to expand...

Heh, Yeah.

Got back up with the Dutchman on Saturday and flew a lot better. It was an eventful day at JYO.
 
Well. Dropping the complex airplane requirement for CSEL/CFI-A certainly changes things a little...
 
The PA-28R-201T (Arrow IV) I was using is $160/hr, the 172S I'm switching to is $150/hr. It's a little bit cheaper, slower, and simpler to fly, but the biggest, most important differences for me are that there is a left door AND a right door, and that I don't have to get on my old, wornout knees or into awkward uncomfortable positions to wiggle myself in and out of the airplane every time.
 
Low&Slow said:
The PA-28R-201T (Arrow IV) I was using is $160/hr, the 172S I'm switching to is $150/hr. It's a little bit cheaper, slower, and simpler to fly, but the biggest, most important differences for me are that there is a left door AND a right door, and that I don't have to get on my old, wornout knees or into awkward uncomfortable positions to wiggle myself in and out of the airplane every time.
Click to expand...
Whaaat?

hand on the roof, step in, sit down, slide over.

No knees necessary :)

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk
 
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