Passed the CFII initial oral

jtrain609

jtrain609

Antisocial Monster
Passed the CFII initial oral with the FSDO on Tuesday. Here's a rundown of how things went.

I got there and the inspector asked me for all the documents that you need for a practical. You know, pilots license, medical, endorsements, written reports. WRITTEN REPORTS!? I managed to leave them on my bookshelf back at the crashpad. So I had to take an hour and drive back to Arlington from Alliance airport to get them. So after making a complete a$$ of myself, I got back to the airport and we started the oral.

Things were very straight forward. The examiner didn't dig, he did a lot more probing than anything else. He would ask a few questions out of each subject area and if I answered quickly and knew what I was talking about, moved on. I like check rides like that. He said this ride normally takes a lot longer, but because I knew what was going on he wasn't going to drill me. That was, until he got to systems knowledge of engines.

Turns out I don't know jack about engines. Little did I know this guy is an A&P and an IA, so he grilled me pretty hard and let me dig myself a hole. Long story short, he said he wouldn't bust me on this information because it was a CFII ride, but if this had been a CFI ride he would have to bust me, and gave me a heads up on what to study for my CFI ride with a DPE. Overall I learned a few things about Cessna's during this process (the guy was a Cessna test pilot for 5 years) and had a good experience with him.

But the ride isn't over yet, I still need to pass the flight part of the practical on Friday. I was going to do it today (Wednesday) but the president came into town and shut down all the airspace. MEI ride is hopefully on Monday or Tuesday, and CFI on Wednesday or Thursday.

w00t
 
Half-Congrats! You get the other half when you finish the flight.
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Seriously though you should do just fine.

later
 
Congrats John!!

If you're ever out in Chicago again let me know and you got yourself a free beverage of choice!

Good luck on the flight portion!!
 
Passed the practical, sitting at KAFW waiting for a thunderstorm to leave so I can get out of here and back to Arlington.

Who needs an instrument ticket?
 
[ QUOTE ]
Passed the practical, sitting at KAFW waiting for a thunderstorm to leave so I can get out of here and back to Arlington.

Who needs an instrument ticket?

[/ QUOTE ]

Waiting at T67 for the thunderstorms to pass so I can MAKE SOME MONEY

BTW

Congrats John!
 
Finish the CFII as initial practical today, finally.

Got to the FSDO and we started with explaining how I would teach a student to do DME arc's. I explained to him my DME trend method (turn 090 from the radial at the proper DME and correct in the DME for trend). He said that it worked, but that I should teach the turn 10 twist 10 method, as that is what is accepted by the FAA these days. He said that my students, “would get giged” if I taught them like that. Fair enough.

Then we started looking at the maintenance logs and the fun began! Turns out that on the last inspection cycle the mechanic did the inspection correctly, but made a small error in the sign off in the logbook. Long story short, he said that the next inspection was due when he had done the one that he just completed, instead of 50 hours in the future. It was obvious to the inspector what he did, but he had to come in to cross out the number and put in the proper one. It was a real simple error to make according to the inspector, and not a big deal. Thankfully the mechanic works next door and we got things squared away.

The flight was very straightforward. VOR/DME approach at Bridgeport, GPS 35 at Denton, ILS 16L at Alliance. 1.9 on the hobbs and done. He showed me some interesting ways to put students into unusual attitudes. At one point I thought he had done a wing over. On the last one he did it with the attitude indicator covered, making things a little interesting.

The ride was, when it comes down to it, real simple. It just happened to take forever because we had to wait for the mechanic to come over, then I had to wait out a thunderstorm to get back to Arlington. I actually ended up filing from Alliance to Arlington, which are about 23nm apart. Approach didn't seem too happy about, but flight service said I was probably going to need to (so approach can suck it).

Finally back in Arlington relaxing for the first time this week. MEI ride on Monday, CFI on Wednesday.
 
Engine/systems questions

He asked me how a fuel servo in a fuel injected engine works. Like he wanted me to explain how it combines the fuel and air, atomizes the fuel and puts it in the cylinders. I had no clue. I thought I had a real basic idea of how a carb works, but he pretty much schooled me. Now I know how a carb works, but I still can't find how a fuel servo works. I've got a book back in Michigan that I think will explain it pretty well, but until I get back there I don't expect to be able to get into it.

Also to answer Lloyd's question, that was probably the hardest part. Primarily because I knew he backed me into a corner and I started digging myself a hole (which I told him at one point).
 
Congratulaions, JH! That just earned you an Oberon next time I see you!

BTW, I found out tonight that one of our line guys is in your drum line - small world, isn't it? I told him to tell you "you suck" or something like that. Don't take it too personally, though.
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Back on-topic: Good Job Dude!
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Congrats John, Sounds like the DE just wanted to make you sweat a little. They have to catch you on something. You should have told him what they told us in our systems class about the HMU (Hyrdo Mechanical Unit) on the Saab. It's PFM. That's pure fuel magic or Pure F!@##n Magic.

Congrats again
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. BTW how did you take the CFII ride before the CFI? Did I miss something?
 
Little known fact; the FAA dosen't care what order you take your flight instructor rides in. Ari-Bin and ATP do MEi as intial I believe, we do CFII as initial. As long as the initial is with the FSDO they don't care.
 
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Little known fact; the FAA dosen't care what order you take your flight instructor rides in. Ari-Bin and ATP do MEi as intial I believe, we do CFII as initial. As long as the initial is with the FSDO they don't care.

[/ QUOTE ]

Learn something new everyday. WMU has everyone do the CFI with the FSDO. Just assumed you had to go CFI, II, MEI.

Thanks
 
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