Two Tips to Pass Your CFI Checkride
We spend so much time and money to become certified to fly our bird of choice. Then, with a commercial pilot we are highly limited by the endeavors we can pursue. After spending tens of thousands of dollars... we aren't yet through.
There are multiple paths to build time to gain enough experience for insurance to cover you or employers to look at you. The effects of COVID have not been kind to our industry and while many employers are lowering employment requirements, it will not last forever. Putting more tools in your belt (in the form of certificates and ratings) will make you not recession proof, but recession resistant. A common path many take to build time and their tool belt is earning their Flight Instructor Certificate.
The time I spent preparing for my CFI checkride felt like learning to fly again. Fortunately, I had instructors that helped me develop good habits like: using checklists at all phase changes and whenever appropriate, a thorough pre-takeoff brief reviewed every flight, good aeronautical decision making, and clear and concise communications.
The largest area of improvement I have found in my own flying is the ability to accurately set power, trim, and attitude for desired airspeed withing the traffic pattern. After a basic understanding of flight principles and fundamentals, we improve upon these skills by narrowing in on procedures.
That brings us to the first tip to help impress the examiner on your Flight Instructor Checkride: Emphasize Known Power Settings.
Known power settings because increasingly important as you transition to larger and faster aircraft. In "slippery" aircraft, a good landing is set up on initial descent. Managing your energy with proper energy management through known power settings and use of drag devices is an essential skill to prevent being too high and too fast. Preparation for bigger and faster planes is exactly why we must emphasize known power settings for our students. Known power settings and proper trim control are the fastest way to a stabilized approach. Get them into the habit early of setting power, pitch, and trim and knowing exactly what the result will be. For example, in a Cessna 172 N model, a power setting of 2000RPM and pitch attitude for 90kts should yield about a 500 FPM descent. Using standards and known power settings reduces the guessing game to obtain a desired flight profile.
Using known power settings helped while flying, but my teaching ability on the ground came from reading, preparing my own lesson plans, and practicing teaching. We fly maneuvers over and over again to reach proficiency, yet many go into the CFI checkride without practicing teaching? Make your lesson plan, practice talking it through. Compare it to our comms in the plane. PTT stands for "Push to Talk" not "Push to Think." The ultimate professional is cool, collected, and confident. Confidence can be gained through simply knowing what to say and in what order to say it. A copy of the first slow flight lesson plan I made can be found below. In practice, I use this as a form of notes to jog my memory for what needs to be covered. The second page goes into more detail about procedure and what to share with the student while in flight. I practice each lesson out loud at least twice before it is ever shared with any students.
Ultimately, you and your instructor will work together to decide when you are ready for any checkride, from private to CFI to ATP, and beyond. Sometimes you won't feel ready. If you're like me, you want assurance and guarantee of passing before you make the journey and pay money to your examiner. No examiner is looking for perfection, however. What they want is assurance of safety and following the rules - application of proper skills and knowledge to make good decisions in the air.
Using a combination of the fundamentals of instruction, your own aeronautical knowledge, the FARS, and all appropriate FAA publications, you can show the examiner that you can teach effectively especially if you follow the two tips here - emphasize known power settings and practice, practice, practice teaching!
What are the areas you feel you need improvement in before your checkride? Drop a comment or send an email to erica@gilbertaviation.com and let me know!
Good luck!
E. Gilbert