on your checkride - how much is too much?

TXaviator

TXaviator

Well-Known Member
talking about, referring to your notes or lesson plans...

how much is too much to be glancing back at them? did your examiner make you teach everything completely off the cuff without glancing back to your laptop or printouts for guidance?

even with knowing the material, it seems like a ton to be spouting off just completely off the top of your head... maybe im not retaining enough information yet or something but yeesh.

also, seems like a good way to get off track or omit stuff .... i like looking at my lesson plans that i made :)

how did your knowledge portion go?
 
It should be a balance. One of, if not the primary, purpose of outlines and notes is so you cover the material effectively and thoroughly.

Use them as a crutch, but not a crutch for lack of knowledge.
 
I would say use study aids for everything. You can teach with them in real life why couldn't you use them in a checkride. Be warned though, it is NOT hard to spot someone using an aid and someone who doesn't know what he is talking about and using books/aids as a crutch.
 
Before starting my oral, the examiner told me to answer like I am teaching him. He then went on to say that he does not expect me to teach from memory so it is okay for me to use any resource I would like as long as it doesn't contradict an FAA publication.
 
TXaviator said:
even with knowing the material, it seems like a ton to be spouting off just completely off the top of your head... maybe im not retaining enough information yet or something but yeesh.

also, seems like a good way to get off track or omit stuff .... i like looking at my lesson plans that i made :)
Click to expand...

400A said:
It should be a balance....Use them as a crutch, but not a crutch for lack of knowledge.
Click to expand...

400A is right on, IMHO. As you mentioned, use the lesson plans as much as necessary to keep yourself on track, and to ensure you're hitting all the areas necessary for the particular topic - that's supposed to be one of the major purposes of a lesson plan. But, you shouldn't be using the lesson plans as cheat sheets. In other words, a lesson plan should be a simple overview of what you plan to cover for a topic, not a five page packet of notes to help you remember the actual information.

Obviously you can't be expected to know everything about everything on a CFI checkride - and it's certainly acceptable to say "I don't know" once in a while and look things up (preferably in an FAA publication, not in your notes or lesson plans). But keep in mind, once you have the CFI cert in hand, you are considered an expert, authorized to teach any pilot certificate level. At that level, you really shouldn't need help remembering the vast majority of the basic information or you shouldn't have a CFI certificate.

The only thing that should be new or difficult at the CFI level is learning how to organize the material, and how to present it to the student in a meaningful way. As a CFI who has successfully taught more than my fair share of initial CFI applicants, my biggest pet peeve was CFI applicants that may have been great sticks, but retained nothing from an aeronautical knowledge standpoint. Heck, sometimes they weren't even good sticks! It made my burden 10 times more difficult trying to fill all the holes in knowledge, and made the student's bank account 10 times smaller. Much more often than not, that problem arose with very low time, fast track applicants to whom the CFI cert and teaching was just the next hurdle to get past on the way to "bigger and better things". It's one of the core problems with the aviation industry as a whole (not just flight instruction), but that's a topic for another thread.

Apologies to TXaviator...I don't mean to imply that the above statements apply to you personally, but hopefully they do help answer your question. I know it's an intimidating amount of information to keep straight for a checkride; try to relax and trust your knowledge - the only new skill you're being evaluated on is organizing and teaching the material. The information itself you already aced to get your commercial cert!
:beer:
 
There is no such thing as too much. However, you should at least know and be able to present your lessons without teaching out of the book.

My CFI checkride was pretty straight forward. KNOW your Endorsements, and AC that shows how to word them. Some of the standard questions such as "Teach me a lazy 8, How does an airplane turn? , Center of gravity and the effects of weight, stability"

The easiest thing I found after practing the lessons with my instructor is after the question, dont rush into it. Take a moment, to pull out the lesson plan and notes, and skim through it. I created the lesson plan, a outline of key items in that lesson plan, and then a page of notes for each key item. Looking at the outline of key points will keep you on track, and you should already know the information for each point. If you can explain something pretty well without the book, and then use the FAA book to nail the details down, such as the VG diagram. Use the FAA book as a Visual tool, show the examiner the book and the picture so they can follow along, and point to the book, which also allows you to look and reference your next point. This is not teaching reading out of the book, but using it a tool to help you teach it and also a visual aid in presenting it to the student (in this case the FAA Examiner). You can do this for almost every lesson betweent the Airplane Flying Manual, Pilot Handbook, FAA/AIM, Weather book, and the POH.

There are instances where the FAA Examiner will ask a question that your unsure of. DO NOT ..DO NOT try and wing it and teach him something that is wrong. Simply state, "I not certain, but I know where to find that information, so I can dont give you incorrect information" Just know where to find it. If you do try and wing it, this goes against the Law of Primacy, that first taught is last remembered.
 
TXaviator said:
talking about, referring to your notes or lesson plans...

how much is too much to be glancing back at them? did your examiner make you teach everything completely off the cuff without glancing back to your laptop or printouts for guidance?

even with knowing the material, it seems like a ton to be spouting off just completely off the top of your head... maybe im not retaining enough information yet or something but yeesh.

also, seems like a good way to get off track or omit stuff .... i like looking at my lesson plans that i made :)

how did your knowledge portion go?
Click to expand...


Your lesson plans should serve as an outline of what you are going to be talking about, not as a crutch for being unprepared in a certain subject area.

Just as with any student or examiner, if you glance at your lesson plans and/or notes in order to make sure you cover everything, or to look up an answer that you aren't 100% sure of, that's fine. If you are reading everything verbatim, that puts into question your knowledge of the subject matter, and isn't acceptable in my opinion.

Just as with any other checkride, you are not expected to know everything. The CFI checkride is no different. Perfection is not required, you just have to meet the minimum standards.

As far as preparation for the oral, look at the PTS. That is hands-down your best gouge.
 
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