u/Recent-Bag3170

I'm back again and this time with my CFI temp cert in hand. Thank you to everyone that gave me encouragement and advice in my original post. Starting off I'll say yes, I did report the oral to the FSDO once I was home safe and talked to my local POI and friends. I went back to the same DPE for my retest and my oral retest was a single question on COMM training requirements.

Going from that single question we got straight into the plane and after a long pre start brief we taxied out for what turned into a 2.7 hour long flight. I talked about every marking, sign, light, and airport object we taxied passed, the hold short and every item on the check list. Everything set and complete I demonstrate SF T/O and VY climb out to our cruise altitude.

I talked the whole time to the practice area about our sight picture, trimming the plane, systems and how to set the GPS/Nav to local VOR. Once in a good area I did clearing turns and we went into maneuvers. DPE asked for PPL steep turns both sides, straight into COMM steep turns both sides. He took controls after my demonstration and did perfect PPL steep turns and asked for a critique (I had none I said we were perfect on ACS standards), next he did COMM steep turns and put us straight into a accelerated stall that caught me off guard but I took controls and recovered immediately. I got us back to stable cruise and he asked for slow flight. Real easy but he had me hold slow flight while climbing 500ft and doing a 180. At 300ft I mentioned that our CHT's were getting high (440°) and he told me to stop the climb.

I went from slow flight to power off stall, recovered, power off stall again with secondary stall, recovered, cross controlled stall, and recovered. I climbed back to cruise and as soon as I finished cruise checklist he cut the throttle and gave me engine out. I explained ABCD list while demonstrating everything. We dropped to a little over 500ft AGL when he said recover. while we were low we did lazy 8's, 8's on pylons, turns around a point, and rectangular pattern.

Climbed back to up and picked a nearby airport to do Soft and Short field landings / takeoffs all to a full stop. Last takeoff was normal climb out back to the starting airport. I flew over for the 45 entry left downwind and as expected he killed the throttle and gave me a power off 180. I got all setup and 50ish feet over the ground setup perfect to hit the 1000ft marker when he called out "plane on the runway". I went around, flew normal left pattern and did a normal landing and taxi back to the FBO. Once the engine was turned off he he said "You're the FAA's newest CFI". I was locked in this entire flight, no way was I going to give him a reason for a NOD.

I have my cert and just got back to my home base an a few hours ago. Thank you again for everyone's kind words and encouragement after my oral horror story. To everyone who said my experience scared them away from CFI make sure you research DPE's heavily before you take your ride but if you prep and go to a well known local DPE your CFI ride should never be like mine. I'm not touching a plane for the rest of the week but starting next monday CFII training starts.

More of a rant because it just happened this week and I have to go back for retest but I just had my CFI initial checkride ending in NOD after a 8.5 hour oral. I'll admit right off the bat I let my nerves set the tone for the checkride because I was going in with a fail on my record from CMEL and I was flying in for a 9am test from out of state.

We got there as soon as the FBO opened in the morning and started setting up documents and books. 6:15 the DPE walks in and says we can start right away no need to wait until 9. We get through iacra and settle in. Starting with logs I open them to all of our inspections and he goes silent. After a moment I asked if there was a discrepancy or issue and he tells me he has no idea what he's looking at I should probably teach him. I got my ass in gear and started teaching. AVIATES, how to check for AD compliance, how to keep airworthiness valid, why we don't need 100h inspections (its my friends plane), ect. Logs are good and we move straight into systems. He says he wants to know more about how pitot static and vacuum systems work (this plane has GI275's so no vac), I got through my lesson plan for both 6 pack and the 275's. Next we go into FOI's, He asks random but easy questions like laws of learning and what is behaviorism when the first major wrench gets thrown in. He reaches over and locks my ipad and says he'll be back in a few minutes, I should prepare to teach FOI task B and C, I'm a bit shell shocked because my FOI lessons were somewhat ill prepared but no big deal I can teach them.

He comes back in, picks up my ipad, sits down and says he's ready. I shut down at this point and after a minute I started teaching whatever I could to satisfy the ACS requirements in my book. I gave examples for every task item in the ACS and by the time I finished I felt completely drained (my first of many moments I considered discontinuing). He said "ok MR CFI, I need a flight review" gives me a scenario of a delta pilot who got furloughed and needed a FR before he can go back to work. I said we just need 1 hour of ground including 91 regs and 1 hour flight with maneuvers up to my discretion. He snaps at me telling me not to tell him what's required but to write a whole lesson for what I would cover in my ground and flight. Now Im really letting my nerves get to me, I write a ground lesson covering high altitude regs, Airspace, and airport ops. I present the overview of my ground lesson and he stops me saying we can move on. Next is endorsements, we go over how to keep CFI currency and how to reinstate it. student solo endorsements and commercial requirements. He got me on XC requirements because I forgot to mention you need a CFI for the training XC's. ( this was 100% on me and I accept this. This was my NOD item) He didn't mention anything after the aeronautical experience requirements and he moved on to intro flights. He asked if we need TSA for intro flights, I said no since its not training its just intro flight. He called a short break and told me to prepare to do a navlog while he was gone. I preped everything and waited while he was telling my CFI that I just busted on endorsements.

He comes back and I get straight into it, he gives me 3 course changes and I got through it no issue just a lot of recalculating winds. He interrupts me explaining the new TAS on the last leg to ask if the battery died en route if the engine would quit. This turned into a MAG lesson that ended pretty quick with him telling me to prep a ground lesson with a COMM student learning 8's on pylons, slowflight, and stalls. He steps out while I prep and I get another urge to call discontinue but the need to get through this without another fail kept me from calling it. I get through the lesson plans no issue but I'm definitely slowing down, he calls a lunch break and leaves after giving me the task of going over how load factor works in detail.

I meet with my CFI once the DPE leaves and he hands me a 61.49 already filled out and a lesson on endorsements written up ready to retrain. This is how I learned I already failed. My CFI asked me what was going on in the office room and I debriefed everything so far. DPE never told me I failed so I assumed I was still alive in this checkride. I just sat with my CFI for half the break and went back in to prep for load factor (we never ended he just told my CFI that I busted). Lunch break over and he returns ready to learn about load factor. I teach, he sits silently and after I finish my lesson he pulls up a TAF for KLGA and asks me what all the numbers mean. I teach everything I can, all the remarks, everything up to the codes that are for the weather stations. He says "alright last thing, just teach me about ADM, I hear its important". I go through a frankensteined lesson covering ADM skills, how to build ADM based of of case studies and experience, risk management, hazard identification, and how to mitigate risks. He closes his ACS book and tells me to relax its over. Walks out and returns with a freshly printed still warm NOD and says I did great but missed a required task item, he's happy to fit me at the end of next month.

I expected CFI initial to be hard but holy crap that was ridiculous. 6:15am-2:30pm and I just paid my next two months rent to a DPE just to go back in month. I'm gutted by another NOD but i'm proud I made it through that. Question now is do I go back for my one question area and flight or find a new DPE and hope they dont make me redo a large portion of the oral.