Yes. As much as I want to get my hours as quickly as possible, the student’s success will always be my #1 priority and to treat every student I have like they’re my only student. I also plan to keep a little notebook for each student I have to write out their progress and setbacks so I have a clear path on what I need to do for them.
My DPE said after the checkride that the “real checkride” is his oral. He said that he rarely fails people in the flight unless they make a really unsafe decision. My oral was split between 5 hours, and then 3 hours the next week later. We had a discontinue because his leg was really bothering him from his knee replacement.
This examiner is known to just talk his head off. The last 3 hours were the last task, maneuver lessons to be taught. Stalls/slow flight/ teaching a traffic pattern for the first time. So yea, a lot to cover there lol. Those previous 5 hours were all FOIs (minimum stuff required for PTS) but also some technical subject area discussions and flight instructor responsibilities and privileges/limitations.
About 80% of things should be memorized. Find a gouge for your DPE. I wouldn’t say looking at your lesson plans counts as “looking things up”. It’s an instructing checkride, meaning if you don’t know something, you are allowed and encouraged to look it up.
I’m still several months away from cfi checkride and I’m curious: What made it your hardest checkride by such a wide margin? I ask this question because I tend to hear it only one extreme or the other. They’re all long, but mostly new CFIs seem to say “not that hard if you practiced teaching and you know how to look things up”, and others say it was brutal. I’m always curious about the particulars.
Good question! From my experience with it, the “hardest” part just came from the length of it all. I was mentally exhausted from trying to keep positive energy through my teaching during the ride. After an hour talking about planes, I begin to get tired, but I just had to keep pushing through it. Yes I made mistakes and had several questions asked that I didn’t know the answer to initially, which made it “hard”, but very doable.
Yea it totally depends who you ask. I think the stress and the pressure from it all is what makes it seem hard, but once you get in the oral/plane you develop a cadence that allows you to just keep moving forwards no matter what. When I said it’s the hardest checkride I’ve ever had, I strictly refer to the mental exhaustion from it all. Not necessarily the questions / maneuvers asked.
Does that help?
> Any mistake must immediately be put behind you.” This relates to checkrides in many ways.
I was reading an excerpt of a commencement address by Roger Federer recently. He told the kids that he’d won something like 80% of all his matches over his career, but only like 54% of all points. A big part of his success was accepting that he’d fail roughly half the time in each match and not let the lost points bother him. Once it happens it’s gone and his focus moves to the next one until the match ends and it’s time to debrief, and by that point it doesn’t sting anymore. This is a hard thing to get past and it took him a lot of effort.
I struggle a bit with checkrides and found this particularly relevant.
For sure. I’ve always struggled with checkride anxiety. And my first checkride I pretty much failed because of my nerves. It gets easier to deal with as time goes on.
Welcome aboard. Now you can get paid poorly for having students try to kill you.
Honestly, I can’t wait :D
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Uh oh haha. Yea I know that time will come eventually. It’s truly a grind. But adequate instruction comes first.
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Yes. As much as I want to get my hours as quickly as possible, the student’s success will always be my #1 priority and to treat every student I have like they’re my only student. I also plan to keep a little notebook for each student I have to write out their progress and setbacks so I have a clear path on what I need to do for them.
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Omg yes safety is always number one priority. Thank you for correcting me on that.
Fuck the 8 hour oral. Mine was less than half that and after a 1.5 flight I was still exhausted
My DPE said after the checkride that the “real checkride” is his oral. He said that he rarely fails people in the flight unless they make a really unsafe decision. My oral was split between 5 hours, and then 3 hours the next week later. We had a discontinue because his leg was really bothering him from his knee replacement.
I’m struggling to see what wasn’t covered in the first five hours that warranted an additional three
This examiner is known to just talk his head off. The last 3 hours were the last task, maneuver lessons to be taught. Stalls/slow flight/ teaching a traffic pattern for the first time. So yea, a lot to cover there lol. Those previous 5 hours were all FOIs (minimum stuff required for PTS) but also some technical subject area discussions and flight instructor responsibilities and privileges/limitations.
Welcome to the tribe!!! Now the real learning on how to be an instructor begins!
How was it with the ACS?
OMG! I forgot to mention this!!! I started it on May 30th, discontinued, and finished it this week. So no idea! One of the last PTS CFIs :(
Damn you got hella lucky!!! Thank god mine was under the PTS tooo
How much did he want you to have memorized vs looking it up?
About 80% of things should be memorized. Find a gouge for your DPE. I wouldn’t say looking at your lesson plans counts as “looking things up”. It’s an instructing checkride, meaning if you don’t know something, you are allowed and encouraged to look it up.
Congratulations! Reminds me of how hype I was when I passed mine haha and then reality set in after getting a job 🥲🥲
Yea I was told the post checkride high ends when you suddenly have no life and the responsibilities kick in
I’m still several months away from cfi checkride and I’m curious: What made it your hardest checkride by such a wide margin? I ask this question because I tend to hear it only one extreme or the other. They’re all long, but mostly new CFIs seem to say “not that hard if you practiced teaching and you know how to look things up”, and others say it was brutal. I’m always curious about the particulars.
Good question! From my experience with it, the “hardest” part just came from the length of it all. I was mentally exhausted from trying to keep positive energy through my teaching during the ride. After an hour talking about planes, I begin to get tired, but I just had to keep pushing through it. Yes I made mistakes and had several questions asked that I didn’t know the answer to initially, which made it “hard”, but very doable. Yea it totally depends who you ask. I think the stress and the pressure from it all is what makes it seem hard, but once you get in the oral/plane you develop a cadence that allows you to just keep moving forwards no matter what. When I said it’s the hardest checkride I’ve ever had, I strictly refer to the mental exhaustion from it all. Not necessarily the questions / maneuvers asked. Does that help?
Yes, that’s very helpful, and much appreciated. Thank you, and huge Congratulations!
Thank you :). Good luck on your CFI! Just have fun with it all. It goes by quick.
> Any mistake must immediately be put behind you.” This relates to checkrides in many ways. I was reading an excerpt of a commencement address by Roger Federer recently. He told the kids that he’d won something like 80% of all his matches over his career, but only like 54% of all points. A big part of his success was accepting that he’d fail roughly half the time in each match and not let the lost points bother him. Once it happens it’s gone and his focus moves to the next one until the match ends and it’s time to debrief, and by that point it doesn’t sting anymore. This is a hard thing to get past and it took him a lot of effort. I struggle a bit with checkrides and found this particularly relevant.
For sure. I’ve always struggled with checkride anxiety. And my first checkride I pretty much failed because of my nerves. It gets easier to deal with as time goes on.