CFI Checkride

Tristanstar

New Member
Well after a lot of hard work I am completely done with not only my Professional pilot degree at Oklahoma State University but now all of my ratings. CFI has been the most challenging but rightfully so. The ground portion emphasized the Laws of Learning, what makes a good flight instructor, weight and balance, oxygen requirements, aircraft paperwork, and many questions on sectional chart symbols. A lot of the chart work was him pointing at a symbol and asking, "what's this?" and "can I fly there under (specified) conditions." I was also asked to explain on the board how a wing creates lift as well as how to do a lazy eight. Btw, bring your own markers. When it came to the flight portion, it started pretty predictably with showing the examiner how to do a preflight and what all the antennas are. They love to ask about them. We taxied to the runway and did a normal takeoff. All first takeoffs are usually normal ones or so the examiner said. I was immediately put under the hood on the crosswind departure. I did climbs and turns with reference to instruments. When he was satisfied we headed to Kingfisher which is a small town and VOR about 20+ miles from the field. I thought it was a bit far but the intention was to stay away from OKC class C. Once we got to the practice area, I did steep turns, a lazy eight, slow flight, power off and on stall, and an elevator trim stall. The traffic pattern was later used in conjunction with the rectangular course. When I did the landing portion it was actually pretty simple. The examiner walked me through what we were going to do which was a normal takeoff to a short field landing, then a soft field takeoff to a soft field landing, and finally a short field takeoff to a normal landing. There was also a go around but what was interesting is he actually warned me of it on downwind. We were on final when he said, "is that a deer on the runway?" which I replied, "yep, we're going around." I talked through how to go around as well as radio calls. The simple fact is all of what I've done in the past is the same as what I did on my checkride except for now I was talking through what I was doing when such as verbalizing checklists and airspeeds and when to turn on different portions of the traffic pattern. He told me on final for the last landing, "well if you dont scare me on this landing, you'll get a new white certificate." I did a great last landing, we taxied back to Atlantic Aviation at Wiley Post airport. He shook my hand and said, "congratulations, you passed." You have no idea how much I wanted to jump up and down and even hug the guy but I refrained and said thank you with a smile. I was handed my certificate and after waiting for a storm to pass, I flew home. I'm a happy official Certified Flight Instructor.
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Fly Safe!
Tristan
 
Now you'll quickly learn that it is one thing to get your CFI, but another beast to actually put it to use. The people who said the amount you learn in the first 100 hours of dual speak the truth.
 
Congrats, Tristan!

Caution: monitoring the radios while flying with a student suddenly becomes tougher...guarantee you'll miss at least 1 radio call in the first few months of instructing!! Enjoy & fly safely!

A.S.
 
Congrats.... Welcome to the club. Now it's time to go out and prevent your students from trying to........ well you know..... Seriously though, congrats. Enjoy the journey.
 
Congrats Tristan!! I just finished my degree at Eastern Michigan University in Aviation Flight Technology. I got all of my ratings. I did the CFI checkride back in March, and I would have to agree with you, it's a tough one to get through, but once its over it's the best feeling in the world. Do you have any jobs lined up yet? What types of planes did you train in?


Arkadiy
 
Good write up!
Welcome to the ranks.

I hope you have a job lined up. You are in for a memorable next 100 hours!
 
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