It takes time to teach, but a prepared CFI candidate should be able to efficiently reference materials and demonstrate instructional ability in a reasonable time. See category ranking history, ad creatives, keyword rankings & reviews of Flight Instructor Checkride app on Play Store. Again, references are key to success. Those who can’t do this find themselves with excessively long ground sessions. He explained that students often find the history of chandelles being a WWI maneuver interesting and puts it into perspective. He's been a flight instructor at the University of North Dakota, an airline pilot on the CRJ-200, and has directed development of numerous commercial and military training systems. Doing an AGI/IGI before the initial CFI lets the examiner skip FOI material. Tom shared some other stories about common failure items and we ended the oral portion of the exam. If you don’t know, just tell me you don’t know. The CFI PTS The CFI PTS is the bible when it comes to CFI training and testing. Wow—as a designated pilot examiner, I certainly hope not. Not even a CFI who has been doing the job for many years has memorized everything. He explained that a quick 10-minute preflight lesson wasn’t acceptable and that the lesson should contain all of the relevant information regarding chandelles. Another factor that makes this particular ride difficult is that the examiner is designated by a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regional office. The most important thing is to stay current on information, participate in the community, and strive to give each student the best service for their dollar. He, again, has examples of students getting lost during the diversion portion of the checkride or flying right over the airport and not recognizing it. This was the case for my checkride. On average over the last decade, a CFI candidate would have a 2 percent better chance of passing with FAA staff than with DPEs. We grabbed a classroom and continued our brief and The DPE went over our plan of action for the oral. Unlike all of the other checkrides I had taken previously, there wasn’t a requirement to plan a cross-country flight. Yes, the checkride itself can be anywhere from 6-8 hours long. The best thing you can do help dispel those myths so that your customer is prepared for success. The certified flight instructor checkride is one of the most difficult checkrides there are with a first-time pass rate of just under 70% as of 2017. Selecting an extremely busy DPE may force you to wait weeks between checkride attempts should any unfortunate delays occur. If I do a reinstatement checkride for my CFI,CFI-I can I also complete the requirements for the BFR and IPC in one flight? PROFESSIONAL CFI LESSON PLANS. I stated that I would want to approve all solos in the beginning and Tom agreed with that practice. I then proceeded to explain what a chandelle is and the purpose of it being a “maximum performance turn”. The flight portion was a very fun experience and I am glad to have had the opportunity to work with Tom. Printed in bold on the FAA Plan of Action was “NO INSTRUCTION.” Fear got the better of me, and I had to ask. The S-turns across a road were uneventful and Tom did not comment much on that maneuver. So why does everyone think that the pass rate is that bad? The lesson portion of the checkride took about an hour and a half from prep time to debrief. Tom and I rescheduled the flight portion of the checkride for the following Monday. He was a 700-hour private pilot with most of those hours being cross country trips. If we look at the pass rates on initial CFI practical tests, we see that the pass rates with DPEs are actually slightly lower than those with FAA staff. According to 91.167, you'll need to plan 45 minutes of fuel at normal cruising speed after reaching the your alternate. I called the local FSDO but they are closed because of the gov. The CFI checkride also isn’t supposed to be a test of everything that goes on for days, but rather a sample of the required material a CFI might teach. This software can prepare you for any or all of: Private Pilot Glider, Commercial Pilot Glider, and CFI-Glider (Flight Instructor). He emphasized that he really wasn’t interested in earning his commercial certificate but still wanted to fly for work. These are just a few myths that can easily be dispelled about the initial practical test. We also talked about the importance of briefing taxiway diagrams, hotspots, and not performing checklists while taxiing. This app is NOT specifiaclly tailored for the CFI-Instrument Rating Instructor checkride. “SPECIAL EMPHASIS AREAS” •Ability to … 2 questions really, for the checkride am I to assume I need to have in my possesion a nice set of lesson plans? Installment #4: My IFR Checkride - The Flying. Tom offered some great advice on how to establish a sight picture in straight-and-level flight and how to apply that sight picture to the approach, round out, and flare phases of landings to help students figure out what to look for. After months of studying and building my CFI binder as an initial CFI applicant, I quickly realized what I didn’t know and what should and shouldn’t go into a good lesson plan. The CFI needs to build lesson plans for every possible maneuver. Easier to pass with DPE than with an FAA inspector. Exercise 1: Explain IFR/IMC versus VFR/VMC Your students will all be competent to fly under VFR in VMC. After recovering from the emergency approach to landing, I demonstrated eights on pylons and S-turns across a road. Already a member? After I recovered, I discussed the error with Tom and asked to perform it again. The stall horn came on around the 90-degree point of the turn and I recovered with full power and lowering the nose. All rights reserved. Candidates should be very familiar with the AIM. In an attempt to try and evaluate his understanding of the lesson, I asked him to walk me through the steps required to fly a chandelle and if he could tell me where he would need the most rudder input. I am guessing 'yes obviously'. These tips will let you do both. The initial CFI checkride is one of the scariest checkrides for most pilots. He stressed the importance of checking logbooks for student-owned aircraft and making sure that their (or the flight school’s) insurance covers you for the instruction. Examiners are limited to two checkride actions per day (temp airman's cert issues, discontinuation issued, etc) Oral examination must precede the flight test. He has a library of navigation logs with errors such as missing fuel calculations, times incorrect by hours, and misspellings in fixes and airport identifiers. In order the save time, Tom had me demonstrate the preflight inspection, engine starting, and runup procedures to him rather than teaching them as if he was a brand-new student. ... POWERPOINTS IN ACTION. Remember, as a CFI, you’ll be teaching em’ green, brand new students. Sure, there are some things the CFI candidate needs to know. A CFI candidate needs to have everything memorized. CFI Resources Instruction Safety - accident stats in flight training FAA Advisory Circular 61-65e - student endorsements FAA Advisory Circular 61-67C - stall/spin awareness FAA Advisory Circular 61-9B - transition to complex & multi aircraft Checkride Plan of Action Instrument, Airplane: Forms NASA ARC Form 277 - Backup site - slower I used a toy propeller as an aid to explain P-factor and torque. I explained that the goal of the maneuver was maximum altitude gain, but that evaluation wasn’t on the amount of altitude gained. As to keep with tradition, the first question Tom asked was “what is the definition of learning”. We spent about an hour talking about instructor risk and common circumstances where instructors expose themselves more than they should. He had me show him the required inspections in the logbooks which I had tabbed on a previous day to make finding them easier. Tom had me explain the endorsements required for a student pilot from the beginning of their training to taking their checkride. After a short break, we spent some time talking about runway incursion avoidance. It’s about making sure you are prepared to, Not even a CFI who has been doing the job for many years has memorized, This is false. The flight portion of the checkride took 1.3 hours to complete. Tom stated that he would play the role of a student on the checkride and that, for any maneuver demonstrated, I could assume we had covered a preflight briefing on that maneuver. Flight Instructor certification is but a small part of an inspector's workweek. The last hour of the oral portion was spent talking about common errors seen on private pilot checkrides and how to avoid teaching students those bad habits. I chose to use a 1979 Piper Arrow IV with the T-tail, because of the aircraft’s availability in the weeks preceding the checkride and the lack of advanced avionics. Let’s address some of the most common ones. 91.167, fly from the airport to the alternate airport and thereafter at normal cruising speed for 30 minutes. The preparation for the CFI checkride is different as well. Private Pilot Checkride Part 61, Recreational Pilot to Private Pilot Only ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE CHECKRIDE WRITTEN TEST Aeronautical knowledge test: §§ 61.35(a)(1), 61.103(d), and 61.105 I certify that [First name, MI, Last name] has received the required training of § 61.105. Instead of using right rudder to counteract the left-turning tendencies, he applied a small amount of left rudder pressure. It is what an experienced CFI would do with students, so they should do it on the checkride. Please login below for an enhanced experience. • Areas found to be deficient will be marked as “below standards.” Applicant will review those areas and receive additional instruction if … A CFI test is supposed to be completed in a single day. Expected totals (excluding checkride): 10.0 hours oral 5.2 hours FTD 1.4 hours C-172S Introduction (1.0 oral) 1. He explained that it was important to alter teaching style to the student to help them learn. Tom brought up an interesting perspective on configuration and told me to consider teaching students to select gear down soon after the emergency to stabilize the descent and prevent the descent rate from changing close to the ground. Consider that weather or other factors can force delays. Download them FREE below. 91.131. Tom asked what professionalism meant and I explained that it can mean a lot of different things depending on the environment and circumstances. As any other checkride I’ve taken in the past, the first task was to complete IACRA and review all of the documents required for the checkride. So then the next real question, is it better to create my own or better to buy a well known existing set (like the Ed Quinlan The order of the maneuvers was important as well as to not waste any time in the air. The next maneuver I performed was an accelerated stall. Tom liked this answer and we talked for a bit about examples of bad instructors and the lasting impression it leaves on students. If you know someone who has takend the CFI checkride … You can reach him at colin@boldmethod.com. Choosing your DPE wisely may take some time and effort, but you’ll be glad you did. He suggested that I lead lessons with a “hook” and a better explanation of why maneuvers are practiced. Don’t bring up new information or try to show that you are knowledgable. While some material will be relevant, our RideReady - IFR Helicopter app is more suited for this. Upon Tom’s arrival, we discussed my plan of action for the checkride and verified that it included all of the items required in the CFI PTS. Some resources online had a CFI binder you could print off, some were just downright useless. Another big topic covered on the checkride was logbook endorsements as it is a required task in the CFI PTS. Encourage your customers to use these as a template on their CFI checkride, and modify them for the appropriate airport and aircraft. If the checkride is a retest, make sure that the notice of disapproval is available. Checkrides must be conducted in English. Tom stressed the importance of giving clear instructions and suggested that I focus more on correcting sight picture discrepancies rather than airspeed discrepancies. On to the flying. Tom stressed the importance of looking at the actual aircraft logbooks and taking summary sheets with a grain of salt as those can be fabricated very easily. Don't Waste Hundreds of Hours Creating Lesson Plans! On the way back to the airport, I instructed Tom on straight and level flight which focused on establishing a proper sight picture and trying to associate the “seat-of-your-pants” sensations with what the aircraft is doing. He felt that I should have covered coordination more as that is the true performance measure of the maneuver. Get the latest news on coronavirus impacts on general aviation, including what AOPA is doing to protect GA, event cancellations, advice for pilots to protect themselves, and more. Although the regulations do not require him to have a commercial certificate in this scenario, the insurance company was requiring him to have one. This will be an … Most tests are currently $600 and take 4-5 hours. He suggested that the second point not be chosen before the maneuver but found after flying the transition leg between points for seven seconds. That means both the ground and flight portions. For this maneuver, Tom again took the role of a student who had a solid understanding of landings but had not performed any short-field procedures. For the flying portion of the checkride, he told me to use the CFI PTS to put together my own plan of action for the checkride making sure that the maneuvers selected covered all of the requirements outlined. After the lesson, we dove into the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI) portion of the exam. Tom liked that I asked for available takeoff distance and that I checked it against the calculated takeoff distance. Even though I had taken checkrides previously (obviously), this was to be the toughest one I’ve taken yet. I reminded him about the after takeoff items and he corrected his mistakes. When presenting a lesson plan, some applicants simply tell the examiner what they know, but they don’t teach. All your `` pilot tools. history of chandelles being a WWI maneuver interesting and puts into... 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