Sosee
1 of 3 Green aint too bad.
I am posting this as inspiration for those going up soon. I took my CFI Initial back in 2013 and my CFII earlier this year.
Here is my CFI Initial checkride story:
I show up at 6:30am for a 7 am showtime
The DPE (yes DPE) a former Marine from I think World War One says "I have to leave at 11am for a meeting about my 135 Operation, is that okay?"
In my head I am going "WTF am I supposed to say here, No? lol"
My mouth says "Yes sir, no problem whatsoever"
At 7:05PM PST we takeoff for the flight.
All the maneuvers go great.
We go out over the water and he pulls the power and says "throttle is stuck"
He also slides my POH down between the door of the 172RG and his left leg so I can't reach it.
Calmly, I reach behind him and pluck the real POH serialized to the plane out of the pocket where I had put it and flip to the supplemental water ditching procedure that the 172RG has.
He looks at me like he wants to choke me. "how did you know I would take the POH?" he asks
"You looked shifty, sir" comes my answer
He then asks me if I am going to go through the procedure and I say "Nope, we aren't ditching in the water...we are doing an Emergency engine out landing in that golf course over there, so please be ready to unlatch your door when I tell you to"
"How the F did you make the land?" he mutters
"I am a good pilot and I never let my attention stray from that golf course from the moment the throttle got stuck...plus the wind is at my back hehe"
Our last landing was a short field into the sunset with a awfully grazed window on a rnwy heading of 250.
"Do you have the runway?" he says noticing we both can't see a damn thing out the windshield due to the sunset light on the grazed window.
I poke my head out the window "Got my side, how does your's look" I answer followed a second later by the chirp of our base wheels touching down evenly over the runway centerline and on the numbers.
It was 9:30pm
I was tired.
I said to him "did I pass or what?"
"Congratulations, even though you beat my tricks, you did great!"
I flew back to my home airport and never retracted the landing gear because I was so tired I was afraid I might forget to lower it before landing.
CFI Initials are some of the most feared checkrides there are. I believe that most folks go into them vastly over prepared and come out the other side exhausted. I also believe that is exactly how it should always be. In our jobs, the responsibility to know the material inside out, upside down and backwards is crucial. Only then can we properly teach others that which we over prepared to teach.
I love that Examiner like a Private loves his Drill Sergeant. Outwardly I think he is a real SOB. Inwardly, I will always respect his opinion above that of many others I have encountered. I spent over 15 hours on my CFI initial, including waiting through his 135 meeting to continue the oral. The flight was 1.5 The rest minus 2 hours for the 135 meeting was oral exam. I was beat, but I knew my stuff and I knew that plane well. Going in prepared made each trick he tried on me something I could deal with easily. It was fun just as much as it was grueling.
Here is my CFI Initial checkride story:
I show up at 6:30am for a 7 am showtime
The DPE (yes DPE) a former Marine from I think World War One says "I have to leave at 11am for a meeting about my 135 Operation, is that okay?"
In my head I am going "WTF am I supposed to say here, No? lol"
My mouth says "Yes sir, no problem whatsoever"
At 7:05PM PST we takeoff for the flight.
All the maneuvers go great.
We go out over the water and he pulls the power and says "throttle is stuck"
He also slides my POH down between the door of the 172RG and his left leg so I can't reach it.
Calmly, I reach behind him and pluck the real POH serialized to the plane out of the pocket where I had put it and flip to the supplemental water ditching procedure that the 172RG has.
He looks at me like he wants to choke me. "how did you know I would take the POH?" he asks
"You looked shifty, sir" comes my answer
He then asks me if I am going to go through the procedure and I say "Nope, we aren't ditching in the water...we are doing an Emergency engine out landing in that golf course over there, so please be ready to unlatch your door when I tell you to"
"How the F did you make the land?" he mutters
"I am a good pilot and I never let my attention stray from that golf course from the moment the throttle got stuck...plus the wind is at my back hehe"
Our last landing was a short field into the sunset with a awfully grazed window on a rnwy heading of 250.
"Do you have the runway?" he says noticing we both can't see a damn thing out the windshield due to the sunset light on the grazed window.
I poke my head out the window "Got my side, how does your's look" I answer followed a second later by the chirp of our base wheels touching down evenly over the runway centerline and on the numbers.
It was 9:30pm
I was tired.
I said to him "did I pass or what?"
"Congratulations, even though you beat my tricks, you did great!"
I flew back to my home airport and never retracted the landing gear because I was so tired I was afraid I might forget to lower it before landing.
CFI Initials are some of the most feared checkrides there are. I believe that most folks go into them vastly over prepared and come out the other side exhausted. I also believe that is exactly how it should always be. In our jobs, the responsibility to know the material inside out, upside down and backwards is crucial. Only then can we properly teach others that which we over prepared to teach.
I love that Examiner like a Private loves his Drill Sergeant. Outwardly I think he is a real SOB. Inwardly, I will always respect his opinion above that of many others I have encountered. I spent over 15 hours on my CFI initial, including waiting through his 135 meeting to continue the oral. The flight was 1.5 The rest minus 2 hours for the 135 meeting was oral exam. I was beat, but I knew my stuff and I knew that plane well. Going in prepared made each trick he tried on me something I could deal with easily. It was fun just as much as it was grueling.
