CFI Checkride Done!

CFmike

Well-Known Member
Whooo!

I have finally completed the CFI checkride and to make a long story short I passed!

Oral:

It started off early in the morning the designated examiner flew in from Maui and got in around 7am. We are based out of Honolulu airport on Oahu, so pretty busy and lots of traffic. Start all the paper work and make sure all my applications are okay etc. Then we jump right into the oral.

First things we talk about is fundamentals of instruction which is important to know as a flight instructor. It has a lot to do with the psychology of teaching someone and principles of learning. We spent at least 45 minutes talking about how too keep students motivated, communication, and professionalism. Once he was satisfied with that we started talking about the technical subject areas like student endorsements which took quite a while to go through. That led to discussing several various regs such as logging flight time and signing log books. We also discussed the procedures for deferring inop. instruments on an aircraft. I went over all of the different types of airspace, VFR minimums, required instruments, dimensions. Also some Aeromedical factors were discussed.

The final hour of the oral was spent talking about performance. The examiner was really big into having knowledge of performance and how density altitude and the various other factors affect the takeoff and landing distances of the aircraft.

And that was that... He said sounds good to me lets go flying. That was only about 3 hours of oral time. It went by pretty quickly but I was expecting a bit more with CFI being the hardest checkride and most failed ride according to everyone I have talked to.

Flight:

Okay heres the fun part. When we took off of Honolulu it was gusty and there were light scattered showers. Nothing too bad. We started with a short field take off, holding the breaks, full power and lifting off early to clear an obstacle. Headed out over to the practice area just west of Mililani. Started off with Ground reference maneuvers. Turns around a point and 8's on pylons. Climbed up a couple thousand feet to do Lazy 8's, Steep turns, Power On Stalls, Slow flight, Power Off Secondary stalls. All went perfectly considering how much we were getting bumped around.

About this time I noticed the door wasn't completely locked. The top latch had missed its lock and the door was slightly open. Oops. So I requested a full stop over at PHJR Kalaeloa.

Next over to Kalaeloa to get the landings done. First approach was a short field landing aiming for the thousand footers hit within 200 feet to a full stop to close the door. Taking off again this time doing a soft field take off. Winds were 090 @ 14 gusting 20 on runway 04. Pretty typical day there with some wind sheer on short final the winds shifted more down the runway after crossing the threshold.
Finally I did a short approach Power off 180 accuracy landing aiming for the 1000 footers again. That went well too. I just nicked the back of the thousand footers within limits.

Then back to Honolulu for a full stop and that was it!

I'll be starting to instruct at the flight school next week and I've already got 4 full days booked full flying one of the clients around for surveying around the islands. Great day and I'm stoaked!:D:beer:
 
Congrats!

I'm just getting into my CFI training and wish I were in your shoes and have it over with. I'm dreading this checkride. Oh well....the worst that can happen is he/she says "not going to happen today", right?
 
Whooo!

I have finally completed the CFI checkride and to make a long story short I passed!

Congrats!! :D


CFmike said:
I'll be starting to instruct at the flight school next week and I've already got 4 full days booked full flying one of the clients around for surveying around the islands. Great day and I'm stoaked!:D:beer:

And congrats!!! :beer:
 
Nicely done! I start my initial CFI ground school next week so hopefully everything goes as well for me as it did for you. Congrats!
 
A BIG congrats to you! The CFI ride is very difficult IF you are not prepared...sounds like you were well prepared. Great job!
 
Congrat's on the CFI !!

If I could live / fly anywhere for a while the islands there would definitely be on the list :D ....spent two weeks on Kauai for our honeymoon last Fall ... can't wait to get back.

Best,

Patrick
 
Good job dude. I remember mine. I was physically exhausted. After the ride, I went to celebrate with a beer, and was so "twisted" I cought a serious buzz from only one beer.

No get ready to buckle down and learn somethin'.



........FAKE IT TILL YA MAKE IT.........
 
Did my first solo at Kalaeloa airport.

Congrats on the CFI. Where will you be instructing at? I did my PPL and IR at FSH.
 
Back
Top