justind0805
Well-Known Member
Well...after about a 5 1/2 hour oral and 1.6 flight on the hobbs, fought through it and now a certified flight instructor! :rawk: When I was preparing for my checkride I really liked the write ups that I found on this forum so I figured I would help out other people who were in my shoes a couple of days ago. Sooo here we gooo
I was supposed to meet my examiner at the FBO at 815 tuesday morning. I arrived at 7 and got everything situated and ready to go, needles to say...my examiner ended up not getting there until 9! Oh well. First thing we did was go over the 8710 and my written exams, he said show him all the endorsements and ground training logs blah blah...then we went on to "show him the airplane was airworthy." I had mad a "Comprehensive Maintenance log" ahead of time and he really liked that. I just showed him that all the inspections and AD's were complied with on my paper and sited a few of them in the maintenance logs.
Then the actual exam started, he said I could use anything I wanted. Notes, books, handouts, etc. he just said don't say a word unless you know its correct. Understandable. We went into the FOI stuff but it was STRONGLY scenario based. I new everything there was about FOI...memorized all the terms, made a bunch of acronyms, the usual. But in the scenarios you had to put all of your FOI knowledge together and use it as a whole. Basically you had to actually figure out what kind of FOI he was trying to hint at and then know and use it effectively and properly. I really can't write up the scenarios, they were just really long stories and what I would do in different situations. I used the Laws of Learning, Constructivism, Cognitive Theory, defense mechanisms, Flight Instructor responsibilities, Teaching methods, overconfident or impatient student, Manslow's hierarchy of human needs, and charateristics of a lesson plan. My recommendation is just to not memorize it, because you can always just look at your notes and site stuff off, but spend some time understanding what the terms and ideas are really about.
Then onto the technical subject areas. We went over how alcohol affects your system (also what the regs , how I would handle a student pilot with one eye irate:, SODA, Authorization, spatial disorientation (this is where he proceeded on with a story of a plane crash that he had to go investigate due to spatial disorientation and to never endorse someone you wouldn't trust to fly your wife...ok) Medication...he asked me about a bunch of different medications and if they are to legal. The real answer is that all medication affects people differently and it is the pilot responsibility to know if they can fly safely. Also, check FAA website. Does someone flying a piper super cub up to 28,500 need a high altitude endorsement? For Airspace, he pulled out the sectional for the Washington DC area, made a giant diamond for the route and said the ceilings are at 3500 ft and I dont have an instrument rating...I was like thanks! Making it really easy here for me! lol But no big deal, just work your way through it, dont be in a hurry. The big thing he would of busted me on was we were over Baltimore under the class B arispace. Clear of obstacles, under the airspace, above Min safe altitudes, were we legal? The answer was no because we didn't have a safe gliding distance if we had an engine failure (we were over downtown Baltimore). Know how lift is created, what factors affect lift (Aoa, air density, velocity, etc.) and the Coefficient of Lift. I struggled with this because he wanted the actual equation. Fowler flaps, the four forces acting on an airplane, what an airfoil is, wing tip vortices, avoiding wake turbulence, why pilots use red light, what are some problems with using red light, how should things change while taking off at night relative to the day (use AI), traffic pattern different? nope, haze illusion, empty field illusion, when your eyes relax how far in front do they focus? 10ft, that really all the big stuff.
HMR 175...I'm sorry but I never read this. Its about Hazardous materials and carriage in the airplane. He drilled me on this, just started naming off a bunch of stuff...aircraft batteries, different kinds of hairspray, different kinds of air freshener, lysol, propaine, different kinds of window cleaner, etc. I said there has to be a line but I'm not aware of it...He said yeah its in HMR 175 and he would recommend me reading it .
I gave a lesson on Weight and Balance and Vmc and then we were ready to fly.
Flight was really easy. Taught him how to taxi at the privat pilot level, stressed runway incursion avoidance and CRM. Took off out of SAT...on climb out put the foggles on and did basic instrument maneuvers. When we leveled off we did unusual attitudes, steep turns with no AI, Vmc demo, Power off stall, Power on stall, decent into BAZ. Engine failure on short final and he wanted me to go a single engine go around. I kind of argued this during the preflight briefing but he really wanted us to do it. Came around in the pattern for a single engine landing, taxi back for full length t/o, engine failure on takeoff roll, engine failure on upwind, then he said that was great and we can head back to SAT.
Overall, just study hard, know your stuff and you will be fine! In my opinion, the examiner knows most people study really hard and are prepared for the material, they just want to know if you are ready as a person and can handle the responsibility. It was a rough ride, but I'm telling you its all worth it when you get to fly home with a brand new flight instructor ticket!
Good luck!
I was supposed to meet my examiner at the FBO at 815 tuesday morning. I arrived at 7 and got everything situated and ready to go, needles to say...my examiner ended up not getting there until 9! Oh well. First thing we did was go over the 8710 and my written exams, he said show him all the endorsements and ground training logs blah blah...then we went on to "show him the airplane was airworthy." I had mad a "Comprehensive Maintenance log" ahead of time and he really liked that. I just showed him that all the inspections and AD's were complied with on my paper and sited a few of them in the maintenance logs.
Then the actual exam started, he said I could use anything I wanted. Notes, books, handouts, etc. he just said don't say a word unless you know its correct. Understandable. We went into the FOI stuff but it was STRONGLY scenario based. I new everything there was about FOI...memorized all the terms, made a bunch of acronyms, the usual. But in the scenarios you had to put all of your FOI knowledge together and use it as a whole. Basically you had to actually figure out what kind of FOI he was trying to hint at and then know and use it effectively and properly. I really can't write up the scenarios, they were just really long stories and what I would do in different situations. I used the Laws of Learning, Constructivism, Cognitive Theory, defense mechanisms, Flight Instructor responsibilities, Teaching methods, overconfident or impatient student, Manslow's hierarchy of human needs, and charateristics of a lesson plan. My recommendation is just to not memorize it, because you can always just look at your notes and site stuff off, but spend some time understanding what the terms and ideas are really about.
Then onto the technical subject areas. We went over how alcohol affects your system (also what the regs , how I would handle a student pilot with one eye irate:, SODA, Authorization, spatial disorientation (this is where he proceeded on with a story of a plane crash that he had to go investigate due to spatial disorientation and to never endorse someone you wouldn't trust to fly your wife...ok) Medication...he asked me about a bunch of different medications and if they are to legal. The real answer is that all medication affects people differently and it is the pilot responsibility to know if they can fly safely. Also, check FAA website. Does someone flying a piper super cub up to 28,500 need a high altitude endorsement? For Airspace, he pulled out the sectional for the Washington DC area, made a giant diamond for the route and said the ceilings are at 3500 ft and I dont have an instrument rating...I was like thanks! Making it really easy here for me! lol But no big deal, just work your way through it, dont be in a hurry. The big thing he would of busted me on was we were over Baltimore under the class B arispace. Clear of obstacles, under the airspace, above Min safe altitudes, were we legal? The answer was no because we didn't have a safe gliding distance if we had an engine failure (we were over downtown Baltimore). Know how lift is created, what factors affect lift (Aoa, air density, velocity, etc.) and the Coefficient of Lift. I struggled with this because he wanted the actual equation. Fowler flaps, the four forces acting on an airplane, what an airfoil is, wing tip vortices, avoiding wake turbulence, why pilots use red light, what are some problems with using red light, how should things change while taking off at night relative to the day (use AI), traffic pattern different? nope, haze illusion, empty field illusion, when your eyes relax how far in front do they focus? 10ft, that really all the big stuff.
HMR 175...I'm sorry but I never read this. Its about Hazardous materials and carriage in the airplane. He drilled me on this, just started naming off a bunch of stuff...aircraft batteries, different kinds of hairspray, different kinds of air freshener, lysol, propaine, different kinds of window cleaner, etc. I said there has to be a line but I'm not aware of it...He said yeah its in HMR 175 and he would recommend me reading it .
I gave a lesson on Weight and Balance and Vmc and then we were ready to fly.
Flight was really easy. Taught him how to taxi at the privat pilot level, stressed runway incursion avoidance and CRM. Took off out of SAT...on climb out put the foggles on and did basic instrument maneuvers. When we leveled off we did unusual attitudes, steep turns with no AI, Vmc demo, Power off stall, Power on stall, decent into BAZ. Engine failure on short final and he wanted me to go a single engine go around. I kind of argued this during the preflight briefing but he really wanted us to do it. Came around in the pattern for a single engine landing, taxi back for full length t/o, engine failure on takeoff roll, engine failure on upwind, then he said that was great and we can head back to SAT.
Overall, just study hard, know your stuff and you will be fine! In my opinion, the examiner knows most people study really hard and are prepared for the material, they just want to know if you are ready as a person and can handle the responsibility. It was a rough ride, but I'm telling you its all worth it when you get to fly home with a brand new flight instructor ticket!
Good luck!