CFI Initial Check Ride

Jake_D

Jake_D

New Member
Does anyone remember how many times it took them to pass their initial checkout? So far I have taken two. The first time was a weather cancel. However, the inspector did not like the fact I had the PTS out when we began the exam and said he could bust me on that. Nonetheless, I was rescheduled with a different examiner and was to pick back up on area of operation three (where we left off).

The second inspector was really cool, however, he went back into an area of airspace and I got busted on one question over class G up to 14.5. I look at it though as it would not have mattered again because weather would not have permitted us to fly again. I hate the long waiting process and did not know if others have had similar problems or if most everyone passed on the first try. I quess I hate the idea of waiting another two weeks and then picked on for something small again.
 
Sorry you busted, man. But try not to stress out too much about it (easier said than done, I know). I busted on my first try but got it the second time. From what I've heard, busting on the CFI isn't all that uncommon as it is probably the hardest checkride.
Just keep studying and you'll do fine. Think of it as two extra weeks to study!
 
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However, the inspector did not like the fact I had the PTS out when we began the exam and said he could bust me on that.

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What a tool. On my Initial checkride I was told to take my PTS out and start explaining what various tasks meant...
 
Yeah he was kind of a jerk and did not really appear to know what all was going on. The second guy I went with made sure I had my PTS with me becuase he wanted me to know exactley where he was in the test and to make sure he was not going against what the standards are. But I am sure I will get it on this next try. I guess one way to look at it is whether I aced the two exams or not the weather did not permit us to fly anyway so it would have been a wash no matter what. I would still be going back. But I have heard several times too that this is the hardest ticket to get and the easiest one to loose.
 
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However, the inspector did not like the fact I had the PTS out when we began the exam and said he could bust me on that.

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What a tool. On my Initial checkride I was told to take my PTS out and start explaining what various tasks meant...

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lol, did you by chance take your initial CFI with Pinkston?
 
Don't sweat it much at all man, the initial CFI is the hardest ticket to come by, in my opinion. I saw a number one time, something like 85% of initial CFI's nationwide, fail the ride first time out. So you're not in bad company.
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I was by far the most nervous on my initial CFI as I knew the odds were against me but didn't realize it was an 85% failure rate (which seems high to me). As soon as I sat down though and started talking with the guy everything just seemed to come together and then the flight was a piece of cake.

My problem came a few weeks after that when I got a bit overconfident and busted the CFII. Not a good feeling but in retrospect failing that checkride was probably a good thing as it made me study the material more. I'm just glad that was the only time I busted one.

It's not the end of the world or your aviation career as long as you find a way to learn something from it.
 
Based on a little research on the web, I was able to conclude 85% may be a little high. It appears it's more like 75%, though I haven't been able to find any official numbers from the FAA. The number I'm throwing up there comes from multiple posts on message boards from FSDO's around the country. So, even if it's only 75% on average, still a good reason to not feel too bad about failing the initial first time out!
 
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lol, did you by chance take your initial CFI with Pinkston?

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Was he awake?
 
lol - mostly
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And even if you flew the best checkride of Pinkston's career, all you'd get in return would be a "That ride was satisfactory."
 
If you read the PTS your could have pointed out to the examiner that as a CFI, you have to know where to reference the proper material being discussed. Look at the definition for instructional knowledge in the beginning of the PTS book. The term instructional knowledge means the instructor applicant is capable of using the appropriate reference to provide the "application or correlation level of knowledge" of a subject matter topic, procedure, or maneuver. It also means that the flight instructor applicant's discussions, explanations, and descriptions should follow the recommended teaching procedures and techniques explained in FAA-H-8083-9 (The Aviation Instructors Handbook...so don't burn it...lol).
There is nothing wrong with having ANY book out during a practical test, but you better know how to explain what the book means when you use it. You can't just read an answer right out of the book and expect that to be sufficient.
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.There is nothing wrong with having ANY book out during a practical test, but you better know how to explain what the book means when you use it. You can't just read an answer right out of the book and expect that to be sufficient.
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I wouldn't go so far as "ANY" book out during the practical. For emergency procedure quizzes, I allow a guy to reference only what he'd normally have in the cockpit with him, be it checklist, possibly Dash 1, etc. He's not going to have a full set of academic books with him onboard, so having use of ANY publication might or might not apply.
 
My first time around I brought a mess load of books. I was not sure what to expect and wanted to make sure I had every resource available for any possible answer I might not know. Each time I took the exam though, I needed nothing more than regs and a PTS as reference.
 
Sorry about the ride, but don't worry you'll bounce back and all will be fine in the long run.
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As for pass rates, I have a document at work (i'm home relaxing and sipping coffee this morning) that has 2003 pass rates. It is an FAA doc that a guy at my school came across from 2003.

CFI Initial - 66% w/ DE
75% w/ FAA Inspector

(these numbers are from memory, but are very close if not the correct ones)

And those are pass rates! NOT failure rates! It was VERY surprising to me that the rides w/ inspectors were more successful. Who woulda thunk it?
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I'll post again tomorrow and try to link that document. I don't know where the data comes from (if you have taken a statistics course you know how easy it is skew results) but it seemed to be nationwide and not from one particular FSDO.

Cheers!
 
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lol, did you by chance take your initial CFI with Pinkston?

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my flight partner took his ride with Pinkston and failed about 3 minutes in to the oral. I took mine with Brooks Black and it was by far the greatest learning experience of my craeer.
 
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it was by far the greatest learning experience of my craeer.

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And a spelling lesson wasn't part of it?
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Just kidding er! Couldn't help myself
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And a spelling lesson wasn't part of it? Just kidding er! Couldn't help myself

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spelling is overrated
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how you liking this snow? we built an igloo in our backyard.
 
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lol, did you by chance take your initial CFI with Pinkston?

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my flight partner took his ride with Pinkston and failed about 3 minutes in to the oral. I took mine with Brooks Black and it was by far the greatest learning experience of my craeer.

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How did he fail 3 minutes in? paperwork?
 
That's surprising to me, I heard Brooks Black was almost akin to the devil for your initial ride!!

As for my initial with Pinkston, I found it to not be difficult at all. "Open the PTS to page xx and tell me everything you know about the things in that list". So long as you knew the PTS, it was a breeze. Flying portion wasn't difficult either, at least to me.
 
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How did he fail 3 minutes in? paperwork?


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I meant about 3 minutes into the actual oral, he busted on a FAR question.


Don't get me wrong Brooks Black was a very tough cookie, but also not a bad guy.
 
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