Stryker172
Well-Known Member
I currently go to Spartan College of Aeronautics and just recently finished my CFII. I found the key to this checkride was preparation. I made and brought lesson plans for every single task in the PTS and was prepared to teach each and every one. I also developed a plan of action and reviewed it with my examiner prior to beginning. She approved because it met the requirements in the PTS and explained that while this is what I chose to teach her, she would be asking me question on other areas because Im required to have instructional knowledge on all elements.
I started with task A of the FOI, the learning process. It was very conversational, a very back and forth discussion. I was expecting a dry, she would ask questions and I would answer them one by one or me just up there speaking non stop but I was pleasantly surprised. We talked about the 4 levels of learning, the characteristics of learning, and the laws of learning. Each time we had a good conversation about her experiences with other students and I would explain how that relates to the lesson. I was actually enjoying the ground portion. We got to the technical subject areas and the maneuver lesson and that was more me just preaching information. She tossed a few questions at me that took me off guard but I was able to recover. For example she asked me about LNAV capability in the GPS. I didnt really understand what she was getting at so I opened up the supplement in the POH and went over the GPS capabilities and that seemed to satisfy her.
After that the flight was very simple. We took off and at 1500 AGL I handed her the flight controls and gave her a heading and altitude and told her to perform a constant airspeed climb. We discussed primary and supporting instruments. Upon reaching the altitude we did constant rate turns, timed turns, compass turns, and constant rate descents. She handed the flight controls back, I put on the hood and explained unusual attitude recovery. She gave me two unusual attitude recoveries and I explained what I was doing as I was doing it. After that we got vectors for the ILS. We would have done the full approach but there was a large grass fire in the area that had reduced visibility so while I was setting up the approach she was giving a PIREP. She flew the approach and I corrected her (deliberate) mistakes. Before reaching the DA I told her to take off the hood, that we had "popped out" of the clouds. She wanted to do a touch and go so she performed a touch and go and I explained the missed approach procedures upon climb out. We did the published hold around the VOR and I showed her how to adjust her outbound times to make the inbound time 1 minute. We departed the hold, and did the full GPS but had to cut the turn from the IF to the FAF short due to the smoke plume from the fire. The approach went well and upon reaching the MAP she had me take off the hood and head back home. On the way back without her asking I discussed circling approaches and loss of communications in IFR conditions.
Once we got back to her office I gave her a full debrief and gave some suggestions on how to improve on her next flight. She printed off my temp, I signed it while doing back flips in my head. All in all it was a great experience, from start to finish it was about 5 hours. Only about a 3 hour ground portion and 1.4 for the flight. So like I said in the beginning, the key to this checkride is preparation. The more prepared you are, with the appropriate materials and ready to teach, the less time the examiner will want to spend prodding you. Now I have to finish up with my CFI and I can start the hard part. Job hunting with less than 300 TT.
I started with task A of the FOI, the learning process. It was very conversational, a very back and forth discussion. I was expecting a dry, she would ask questions and I would answer them one by one or me just up there speaking non stop but I was pleasantly surprised. We talked about the 4 levels of learning, the characteristics of learning, and the laws of learning. Each time we had a good conversation about her experiences with other students and I would explain how that relates to the lesson. I was actually enjoying the ground portion. We got to the technical subject areas and the maneuver lesson and that was more me just preaching information. She tossed a few questions at me that took me off guard but I was able to recover. For example she asked me about LNAV capability in the GPS. I didnt really understand what she was getting at so I opened up the supplement in the POH and went over the GPS capabilities and that seemed to satisfy her.
After that the flight was very simple. We took off and at 1500 AGL I handed her the flight controls and gave her a heading and altitude and told her to perform a constant airspeed climb. We discussed primary and supporting instruments. Upon reaching the altitude we did constant rate turns, timed turns, compass turns, and constant rate descents. She handed the flight controls back, I put on the hood and explained unusual attitude recovery. She gave me two unusual attitude recoveries and I explained what I was doing as I was doing it. After that we got vectors for the ILS. We would have done the full approach but there was a large grass fire in the area that had reduced visibility so while I was setting up the approach she was giving a PIREP. She flew the approach and I corrected her (deliberate) mistakes. Before reaching the DA I told her to take off the hood, that we had "popped out" of the clouds. She wanted to do a touch and go so she performed a touch and go and I explained the missed approach procedures upon climb out. We did the published hold around the VOR and I showed her how to adjust her outbound times to make the inbound time 1 minute. We departed the hold, and did the full GPS but had to cut the turn from the IF to the FAF short due to the smoke plume from the fire. The approach went well and upon reaching the MAP she had me take off the hood and head back home. On the way back without her asking I discussed circling approaches and loss of communications in IFR conditions.
Once we got back to her office I gave her a full debrief and gave some suggestions on how to improve on her next flight. She printed off my temp, I signed it while doing back flips in my head. All in all it was a great experience, from start to finish it was about 5 hours. Only about a 3 hour ground portion and 1.4 for the flight. So like I said in the beginning, the key to this checkride is preparation. The more prepared you are, with the appropriate materials and ready to teach, the less time the examiner will want to spend prodding you. Now I have to finish up with my CFI and I can start the hard part. Job hunting with less than 300 TT.
