Passed my CFI-A Check Ride!!!

RedBaron2000

Well-Known Member
Yesterday I took my CFI-A check ride with the GSO FSDO and I'm happy to say I passed!! It's now the morning after and it feels so good to have this behind me. It was one of the most stressful experiences I've been through, probably only second to my two week Technical Evaluation (basically a long interview) that I had to do with my current employer.

Despite trying to go to bed early since I needed to get up around 5:30, my nerves got the best of me and I got maybe 4-5 hours of sleep. But the good news is I woke up to a high overcast and unusually cool temperatures for NC in August. I never thought I'd need a jacket for pre-flight in August! Anyway, it was nice to know that any sweating I'd be doing from getting yelled at wouldn't be made worse by a 110 degree cockpit.

My examiner was, how should I put it, an interesting guy. I'd describe him as tough but mostly fair. He tried to put me at ease the first 10 minutes by saying he wanted me to pass, and as far as he was concerned the ticket was mine unless I proved him wrong. I appreciated that. After going through my logbooks, doing the IACRA and getting it signed, and making sure I was qualified to be there, we started the actual "test" around 9:15 (arrived at 8:00).

We started with FOI, task E (required), no surprise there. One question I had asked on JC earlier was "Do you need to have the FOI stuff memorized, or just know it to an understanding level?" At least for this examiner, and everything I've heard about the GSO FSDO (I'm sure not all examiners), he let me use my notes, which I was thankful for. So we went over aviation and flight instructor responsibilities, and I used my notes to list them, and then just talked about what it meant. I was able to relate my current role as Chief of Maintenance and how that affects my attitude toward safety, which I think he appreciated. Everything was pretty straight forward, straight out of the PTS. He seemed to be checking things off and looking for certain words I would say, and as soon as I would say that one word he was looking for, he was satisfied and would say "Let's move on." We also did Task C, the Teaching Process, from the FOI.

Under Technical Subject Areas, we did the required Endorsement section (Task M) and Runway Incursion Avoidance (Task B), no surprise there. We flew through the Endorsement section pretty quickly, and I more or less gave him a lesson on runway incursions and taxiing. Ironically, later as we were taxiing, he got on his cell phone to make a call and also had some conversation that IMHO wasn't really necessary. Even though I told him he had the brakes (since this Arrow doesn't have brakes on the right seat), when we got to the runway to depart he was still on his cell phone, he wasn't stopping, so I grabbed the hand brake, which he said he purposely didn't get on the brakes to see what I'd do.

We also went over FAR's, task J (I think). This was one part where he was just asking questions, and it didn't seem to come straight out of the PTS. I did a lesson on 8's on Pylons, he told some more stories, we did some other stuff I can't remember, and then ate lunch. Overall the oral wasn't bad at all, and I felt pretty good since he seemed pretty satisfied. We didn't go over systems at all really, though I'm an A&P which seemed to satisfy him for my knowledge of systems.

For the flight, he had me teach him how to do a pre-flight, what was required, etc., and we talked a good bit about checklists. We also talked about aerodynamics very briefly. This probably took another 30 minutes. We got in the plane and he wanted to go north, but that would have put us off the Charlotte sectional (which I had) and into the Cincinnati sectional (which I didn't have). I was a bit worried he wouldn't like that, but I brought it up, and we agreed to go south instead. Crisis averted!

We did power-on stalls, I flew under the hood for about 2 minutes, and I did a power-off stall and demo'd a secondary stall, pretty easy. No accelerated or cross-control demo for me. We did a chandelle, which I thought I did pretty well, then did a steep spiral which went OK. He then asked me to do 8's on pylons, which I was most concerned about, and here's why. My pivotal altitude was around 810 feet IIRC (110 mph), but I was concerned he'd also be mad if I went below 1000'. I asked him while patiently looking for the perfect pylons, "Do you consider this congested area?" He said, "Well, there are quite a few houses down there." We were over a relatively rural part of NC, in Davidson County (I think), so it wasn't over a town but wasn't just farm fields either, pretty subjective. I wasn't about to start this maneuver until I was confident I had good pylons. So we ended up going to an airport without finding pylons, and agreed to do that later. I demo'd a soft field landing, not my best, then took off again for a short field takeoff and landing. We had some discussion as to when to pull up the gear on a short field takeoff. Then the interesting, confusing, part of my check ride when I almost failed came. On downwind to a short-field landing abeam the TDZ he pulled the power for a simulated engine failure. He asked me where my TDZ would be, I pointed to the fixed distance markers, and was thinking "Power off 180." I turned base soon after that, put some flaps in, and was soon on final. It appeared I'd be coming up short, and he's asking me what I can do to stretch the glide. I mentioned getting rid of flaps and he said, "Don't do that!!" I wasn't planning on it, but I admit it wasn't my most awesome power off 180, but I somehow managed to stretch it to my intended TDZ using ground effect and nailed it. It was definitely a "You pulled that out of your rear-end" kind of thing. He wasn't satisfied at all with it, and was like, "If you had come up short at all I was going to fail you!!!" We then had a long discussion, about it. He said I should have pitched for Vg, best glide, but I was thinking Power off 180, and the -0 +200 TDZ. He said my approach wasn't stabilized, and while I admit it wasn't my best power off 180, the Arrow drops like a rock and you have to turn pretty quick to hit your TDZ. It still wasn't clear what exactly he was asking me to do, because I told him I assumed power off 180 when he asked me where my TDZ was, so I was concentrating on hitting my zone. He said I should pitch for Vg, but I asked what good is Vg at that point if it takes me sailing past my intended TDZ? Anyways, Vg means zero flaps and so I asked him when do I begin transitioning for the landing? He said in the flare. So he fussed at me for a while, talked about primacy for students, etc. I told him by no means was that a textbook power off 180. Maybe I'm just using the defense mechanism of "rationalization," but I didn't really agree with him for that part, and it was confusing to say the least. In my current operations and with my organization we're required to practice power off 180's all the time, and I've gotten fairly good, not perfect, at them in the 206 I normally fly. I have 2500 hours and average about 5.5 power off 180's a month (I log them), so this was a situation where I just bit my tongue and let him lecture me. Again, not saying mine was executed perfectly on my check ride, just that I believe I know the proper technique and can teach it. As it turns out, the head of our flight school, who has done several 135 rides with this same examiner, had a similar confusing scenario, except in the reverse, where he executed an emergency landing (without hitting a certain spot, just landing in the first third of the runway) while this examiner expected him to do a power off 180 to a -0 +200 TDZ. All in all, kind of a confusing situation that I was just glad to get out of by the grace of God.

Anyway, we left, I finally did my 8's on Pylons which thankfully worked out really well since I lucked up and found a small, private grass strip to do them over, and he was very satisfied. "Can't complain about you flying too low over that" he remarked. Plus, I had a perfect place for emergency landing. Glad that was over, since it was the maneuver I was most concerned about.

We went back to GSO, I did a short field landing, which is kind of my specialty for my area of operations, and he really liked that too. Taxied in and shut down, and I made sure to do a thorough post flight since it's a required area of operation, but he walked straight in the FBO and didn't seem to care about that. :rolleyes:

Oh yeah, he also did some SBT and gave me a power loss at altitude, so I talked my way through that, and when I got to the Gas portion of my memorized checklist, I said "fuel pump on and switch tanks" and he gave me my power back. He seemed to indicate that I should have done that sooner, but since I was talking my way through it, it obviously takes a bit longer, I explained. What our organization uses, that I will absolutely teach, is 6 G's: Glide, Grass, Gas, Gab, Guts, Get Out. So I talked my way through glide and grass first before I got to gas. No big deal, just some of the little situations that come up on a check ride with the FAA.

From start to finish, including all the stories (I literally heard his life story from age 13), IACRA, lunch, etc. was right at 9 hours. The actual oral was probably only about 4 hours, but we did 2.2 for flight. The flight for me was definitely harder and more stressful than the oral. I was most worried about FOI but it was pretty easy since he didn't expect me to have the list of stuff memorized, just explain them, which I was glad about.

Came home to my awesome three kids who had drawn me pictures all day and my beautiful bride. I think my family will be glad to have me back to "normal" again!
 
He asked me where my TDZ would be, I pointed to the fixed distance markers, and was thinking "Power off 180." I turned base soon after that, put some flaps in, and was soon on final. It appeared I'd be coming up short, and he's asking me what I can do to stretch the glide. I mentioned getting rid of flaps and he said, "Don't do that!!" I wasn't planning on it, but I admit it wasn't my most awesome power off 180, but I somehow managed to stretch it to my intended TDZ using ground effect and nailed it. It was definitely a "You pulled that out of your rear-end" kind of thing. He wasn't satisfied at all with it, and was like, "If you had come up short at all I was going to fail you!!!" We then had a long discussion, about it. He said I should have pitched for Vg, best glide, but I was thinking Power off 180, and the -0 +200 TDZ. He said my approach wasn't stabilized, and while I admit it wasn't my best power off 180, the Arrow drops like a rock and you have to turn pretty quick to hit your TDZ. It still wasn't clear what exactly he was asking me to do, because I told him I assumed power off 180 when he asked me where my TDZ was, so I was concentrating on hitting my zone. He said I should pitch for Vg, but I asked what good is Vg at that point if it takes me sailing past my intended TDZ? Anyways, Vg means zero flaps and so I asked him when do I begin transitioning for the landing? He said in the flare.

I wouldn't sweat it so much. Having a by-the-book checklist for a dead stick, or power off 180 is somewhat counter productive in my opinion. The goal is to get the aircraft on the ground, choosing the best possible location, and managing the energy available to get you there. As a task on the PTS, it begins at a perfect point - abeam the numbers generally. In the real world - you probably won't lose an engine exactly there.

I like his answer BTW - trim best glide. That give you the maximum possible distance to make an intended point of landing. You can lose energy any time, but you aren't getting it back.

Good job passing the ride!
 
Back
Top