Best Study Method for CFI initial?

L

Luke Froese

Well-Known Member
I've read through some of the threads on here already but didn't seem to find anything that touched on this question. I was wondering how some of you have prepared yourself for the CFI initial. Mine should be in the next couple of months so I'm trying to find an efficient way as time is limited.
 
Luke Froese said:
Mine should be in the next couple of months so I'm trying to find an efficient way as time is limited.
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Mostly, it is time consuming. Study a lot, make lesson plans ideally. You don't need to memorize absolutely everything, but you do need to be familiar with where to find just about everything. In particular, all of the PTS/ACS for every rating, the AC's on traffic patterns, stall/spin, endorsements, and flight reviews, PHAK, and FAR/AIM. Read over all of those a few times and you should be fine.

It is a lot of material, so there really aren't any shortcuts. If it makes you feel any better (or worse), staying familiar with all of it while teaching actual students is much harder than doing so for one day with an examiner.
 
Make flashcards for the FOIs and use the acronyms. I found it's really helpful to practice teaching lesson plans with another person working on their CFI.
 
I did my CFI Initial a few months ago and some things that helped:
I had a massive stack of flash cards, everything from FOIs to Aerodynamics.
Go back to the basics and be able to teach them. A DPE I was talking to who does a lot of CFI rides told me he has most people fail in the technical subject areas of the CFI PTS. So that being said, be able to teach or know most of everything in the CFI PTS, and know the Technical subject areas very well.
For most of the rides I have heard of the examiners hitting hard on: Endorsements, Regs (Part 61 in particular), Aircraft Systems, stall and spin awareness, Runway Incursion avoidance, and Visual scanning and traffic collision avoidance, and Aerodynamics.
Have a solid understanding of the Private ACS and Commercial PTS.
Also, I googled CFI Checkride Write ups and a bunch of results came up of people explaining what took place on their rides, I used that as a guide to concentrate on areas I forgot to study and it helped point out areas I needed more work on, that really helped me.

When I was studying for mine it seemed overwhelming at times, but just study hard daily and know the PTS/ACS's, FAR/AIM, PHAK, and airplane flying handbook inside and out, that way you will go into your ride very well prepared. And remember, the examiner doesn't expect you to know everything, thats simply not human, just be able to gather the necessary information and be able to present and teach it.
 
If you have lesson plans that cover the PTS objectives, you already know what you will be teaching. I have lesson plans for all CFI PTS AOs/Tasks and I put their content on PowerPoint / Sway presentations. Of course this doesn't mean you pop the PowerPoint open and read from it during the checkride. You still need to teach and use media as a tool. People usually fail because they omit information as well. Lesson plans should be able help you organize information and hit what you need to hit.


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drunkenbeagle said:
If it makes you feel any better (or worse), staying familiar with all of it while teaching actual students is much harder than doing so for one day with an examiner.
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Guy Behind Desk with phone to his ear as I walk by: "Hey! You got time for an IPC this afternoon?"
Me: "Uhhhh...."

And I fly IFR ALMOST EVERYWHERE I GO. Flying it for a living and teaching it are pretty different. Good luck with your studies.
 
Flyinthrew said:
Guy Behind Desk with phone to his ear as I walk by: "Hey! You got time for an IPC this afternoon?"
Me: "Uhhhh...."

And I fly IFR ALMOST EVERYWHERE I GO. Flying it for a living and teaching it are pretty different. Good luck with your studies.
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Actually I need one too! Are you available? :D


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Flyinthrew said:
I'm heading to KNYL on Tuesday for a month. Bring an airplane, a view limiting device, $50, and a positive mental attitude and I'm in.
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I appreciate the offer. I do need an IPC but I was still pulling your leg. :) Shouldn't CFII ride take care of it? Or should I do it prior? I do have a few friends who can do it here at KIWA. We could have requested a PAR down at Yuma though :)


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Bushmaster78FS said:
I appreciate the offer. I do need an IPC but I was still pulling your leg. :) Shouldn't CFII ride take care of it? Or should I do it prior? I do have a few friends who can do it here at KIWA. We could have requested a PAR down at Yuma though :)


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I'll almost certainly be working out of Willy during one of the next 3 or 4 weekends. Your II ride should take care of it though.
 
Flyinthrew said:
I'll almost certainly be working out of Willy during one of the next 3 or 4 weekends. Your II ride should take care of it though.
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I could wait until the CFII ride then. MEI prep is taking most of my time at the moment. Thank you so much again. :)


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Sure thing. Speaking of, though, since it's on topic-ish for the thread, the MEI checkride is like a gift that you receive as consolation for the pain and discontent wrought by the initial ride. Easiest ride you'll ever do.
 
I'm in the ASU/ATP collegiate program so our initial is the MEI :))) I guess I'll receive that consolation for the single engine ride. They say after the MEI it's relatively downhill with single and CFII


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I just passed my initial CFI today. Passed on the first attempt, oral was 3 hours and flight portion 2.4 hours. The biggest advice I can give you is to study anything you can top to bottom, inside and out, backwards and forwards. Anything is fair game on this ride. Hard work pays off though. If you over prepare and study, it's not as hard as it sounds. If you study as much as you did for previous checkrides, you will fail. I studied for 45 hours total in the 5 days leading up to my checkride. Now I might have gone overboard with the studying, I admit, but I didn't want to fail the ride so I kind of obsessed over it. Anything I thought the examiner could possibly bring up, I studied it. Granted, you're not going to know everything, they don't expect you to, but definitely know where to look something up. Don't guess, pull out those references and look for the answer. Have references tabbed. Be able to talk or 'teach' stuff instead of reading from the text on every other question. Instructional knowledge means you can explain something in detail, putting in your own words. Avoid reading word for word to the examiner on every question. Now when it comes to regs, he/she won't care if you read from the text. But have a good working knowledge on technical subjects and you should be fine. The oral is the hardest part. Focus mainly on preparing for the oral. Remember, in the end, 'teaching' an examiner is not the same thing as teaching an actual student. I had the opportunity to do student teaching a few times before checkride time, it's different than teaching an examiner. The CFI checkride I've been told by more experienced instructors is more about assessing the depth of your knowledge rather than seeing if you can teach.
 
So I've heard quite a few times that the oral portion of their checkride was only 3 or 4 hours. I understand that kind of depends on how prepared you are, how much they dig for more information, and I guess the examiner. But I've been told to expect a 7 hour oral. So I seem to have conflicting information. I'm wondering, from those who have taken their initial more recently how long their oral was. Anybody take theirs recently?
 
Luke Froese said:
So I've heard quite a few times that the oral portion of their checkride was only 3 or 4 hours. I understand that kind of depends on how prepared you are, how much they dig for more information, and I guess the examiner. But I've been told to expect a 7 hour oral. So I seem to have conflicting information. I'm wondering, from those who have taken their initial more recently how long their oral was. Anybody take theirs recently?
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It could be 7 hours. It could be longer. If you are prepared, it most likely won't be. It will be thorough, you can't fake your way through it. Given the responsibilities you have after the ride, where the stroke of your pen quite literally is the difference between life and death for your students, you should treat the preparation as such.

3 to 4 hours should be normal if you are prepared for it.
 
Luke Froese said:
So I've heard quite a few times that the oral portion of their checkride was only 3 or 4 hours. I understand that kind of depends on how prepared you are, how much they dig for more information, and I guess the examiner. But I've been told to expect a 7 hour oral. So I seem to have conflicting information. I'm wondering, from those who have taken their initial more recently how long their oral was. Anybody take theirs recently?
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I've always heard conflicting info on the length of the oral as well. Generally speaking though, if you are very well prepared, some examiners may cut the oral short. If on the other hand, you aren't well prepared, it doesn't take the examiner/inspector very long (within a few minutes) after the exam begins to figure out if an applicant will fail or pass. I had my ride done with an inspector. This same inspector did CFI checkrides with other applicants recently, and he did like 7-8 orals with them bc those applicants were ill prepared (one failed). The general consensus seems to be that the less your prepared, the longer it's going to be. Or, if you dig yourself into too many holes, the examiner is going to expect you to dig out of them. If you can't dig out of a hole, they will probably fail you. Take my advice and don't give more information to a question than is needed. Be clear and specific with your descriptions/explanations, but at the same time don't go off on a long tangent. It's really not as difficult as it sounds, just overprepare, and keep your answers brief. If the examiner wants to know more to a question, then they will ask for more.
 
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