Final Post!!

I used this blog to chronicle my experiences leading up to the CFI.

I earned that certificate yesterday and so "trainingforCFI" doesn't make much sense to post to anymore.

I'll leave this up for any aspiring CFI candidates who want to peruse and see what I went through in preparing. I also like to read back and be reminded of lessons learned, good flights, etc.

So the blog will be changed to www.flightmusings.blogger.com

CFI Checkride, Part 2 (10 APR 08)

The weather looked marginal today and tomorrow, but when I called the FAA Inspector at 9 he said, "Let's go" so I raced to VVS, preflighted the A36, flew up to FWQ, and was on the ramp by 10.

He was waiting for me, so he probably saw the short field landing and short roll out despite the 70 degree 12 knot x-wind.

Good.

After some preliminaries -- 8710, logbooks, etc, he hopped in the left seat. I said, "I'm going to treat you like a low time pilot moving up to a Bonanza -- you tell me when to stop."

I then went over the entire panel, safety and egress, gear, and various systems. He hadn't flown and A36 so he wasn't pretending -- he really wanted to know the stuff.

Then we did startup and taxied to the end of 26. I went through the entire runup procedure, explaing each step (and why in some cases). We were ready to go and he said, "Are we ready to go?" I did a second check and said, "Yes."

He said, "No we're not.. check again."

Finally I saw the vent window was open. is aid "The vent window is open, but as long as you keep the airspeed under 125 KIAS that's fine..." and then I pointed out the little placard under the vent.

He said OK, closed it, said "You need to check things like that with yoru students" and then he kept control of the a/c and took off, with me talking him through the procedure.

We climbed to 3500 and headed south into the open airspace well clear of the Class B and any other airports. He had me demonstrate 720 power turns, a Lazy 8, and Approach to landing stall and slow flight. I did all the required clearing turns, etc and talked him through the steep turns.

He had me close my eyes and then after a while I heard the gear horn -- I said, "That's the gear horn -- since you're low power with gear up."

I kept my eyes closed for a few more gyrations and then he said, "OK"

Nose down, airspeed increasing, banked -- level the wings, pull out from the bank.

"Good -- now get us headed to Morgantown."

I showed him the river and the powerplants and said, "head that way" as I punched MGW direct into the 430.

We headed towards MGW and he took the landing there. I talked him through it, and he landed somewhat flat, but passable.

We taxied over to the ramp, I picked up the CAP a/c book, and we walked over to that hangar. I looked the a/c over and it was in good condition. he found two missing screws but those had been noted in the log (missing inserts deferred to next 100 hour).

I talked him through startup and then he taxied. Winds were 220 at 12-16, at the tower offered us 23, but he said, "Let's use 18."

I talked him through runup and then he had me demonstrate a normal t/o and landing. I leveled off at pattern altitude and then set up for 80 KIAS, 1500 RPM, 10 degrees flaps, 500' FPM descent, turned base, then final, slowed to 70 and we got jostled quite a bit (MGW is on a hill and after you fly there a while you learn to anticipate the wind shear).

I did a passable landing wing low, no side load, on the centerline. He had me taxi back to 18 for the next t/o. He took this one and I talked him through it. We had a little side skip on t/o (not enough x-wind correction -- and I said so -- and lifted off a bit early -- hold it on with a x-wind).

He took the landing and on short final aid, "I can see why you were having trouble holding airspeed -- some shear going on here."

A decent wing low landing and then taxi back.

I demonstrated soft and then short fld t/o and landings -- all were good considering the varying winds and gusts and rain and t-storm just southeast of the field.

He said, "That's good -- lets get back in the good airplane.."

We put the 172 away and then i checked to see if we needed to file to get back. It was MVFR but still legal VFR all around so I said we didn't need to. He took off and flew back and even landed as i coached him through the different phases.

Another flat landing at FWQ and then shutdown. HE took my 8710 and test reports, filled out the temp certificate, and now I'm a CFI!

He said I was very well prepared and that I would be a good instructor, and to call him when I was ready for the double I.

Whew! It's good to have that done!!!

April 7 & 8 in CAP C172N

Yesterday I was Safety Pilot as Ryan flew 3 approaches to stay current. I need to do the same but want to concentrate on the CFI right seat maneuvers.

Winds were 21 from 120, but seemed to be from 090 as we landed on 18. I had a hard time keeping it all straight and had two ugly x-wind landings in the C172.

So i decided to do some solo practice this morning and get my C172 wings back -- it's been a while and I needed to work out the kinks alone.

I flew 1.4 in the pattern and logged 12 T/O & Landings. There was some time spent extending downwinds and doing 360s to fit into the flew of transient and low approach traffic, so the total count was lower than it could have been for that much hobbs time.

The first 4 landings were downright awful. On the fifth downwind I realized why -- I was coming in way too fast. 65-70 is the recommended normal approach speed, but anything over 65 solo in this bird with full flaps is simply too fast.

So on the fifth landing I nailed the approach to 65 on final and it worked out much better. I did several more and never let it creep above 65. I did a short field at 60 and was stopped by the Bravo taxiway -- 2400', but I didn't touch down until my aim point 1000' feet down the runway.

1.3 Vso in the C172N is 40, so I should have been using 55 as my short field approach number. I'll use that Thursday (assuming we fly then). The landings are far less work at these slower speeds.

Now I feel prepared in both airplanes. It's a bit of a trick to be at peak form in two very different airplanes on the same day, but too late to worry about that now.

Airplane Fixed (4 April 08)

Kevin added the missing static wick today.

Apparently 2 per wing (one on each aileron, one on each flap) were original equipment according to the A36 IPB. There was no other mention of sttaic wicks in the Shop manual, POH, etc.

He also inspected and logged that the dent was considered negligible damage that meant the aiplane was airworthy.

I'll look over the CAP airplane Sunday and then fly the pattern right seat for an hour.

I'm hoping we can simply fly Thursday and not got bogged down in minutia.

CFI Checkride, Part 1

My CFI checkride was scheduled for 10 AM on April 3rd at FWQ. I arrived at VVS to find the winds from 150 at 22 G 37.

Great....

I decided to launch at 9. The winds died down a bit (G32 now), but were variable between 150-170. The wind sock seemed to favor 170, and after thinking it over I realized if I took off on 14 I would be climbing into all the turbulence off the mountains, and the sink rate might exceed my climb rate.

So I opted to accept the 60 degree crosswind and take off from 23 and turn west as soon as possible.

The takeoff run was exciting -- I lined up on the left side to account for any drift. The airplane wanted to weathervane left into the wind but I worked hard at maintaining a track parallel to centerline. I reached 70 KIAS, held it on a bit longer, and popped up into the climb. The stall horn beeped at me a few times as I reached Vy (96 KIAS).

The crab angle to maintain runway centerline was about 30 degrees. I pitched and trimmed for 100 KIAS and left the gear down for stability. The airplane was caught several times by some sharp gusts and tried to roll but I was prepared and caught it and prevented the roll without over-correcting.

About 1200' AGL I raised the gear and began a slow turn westward at about 10 degree bank. If I banked more than that the winds rolling off the ridge were threatening to roll me right over, so I kept it gentle as I came around.

The turbulence on climb out would have to rated moderate to severe.

Once I was at 3500' MSL I leveled off and maintained straight and level. The turbulence was far less violent and the airplane was flying normally.

I listened to the FWQ AWOS and winds there were 150 @ 8 -- quite a difference!

I settled in behind a Cessna doing pattern work and landed on runway 8. I lowered the upwind wing and settled down nicely on the right main before the left.

I unloaded the plane after parking in front of the Airport building. I had lots to carry -- binders, books, and airplane logs.

Larry met me and helped unload. We waited past 10 and then I got a call saying he was running 15 minutes late.

We started at 1030 and after paperwork (8710, ID, etc) reviewed endorsements. they were fine despite a few questions (had to change all the dates entered as "10 JAN 2008" to "JAN 10 2008" even though the PDF the FAA provides prefers the former). We reviewed the FAA rules about right side brakes but he said we still needed an airplane with dual brakes.

(The A36 only has brake son the pilot's side. All otehr controls are available. The FAA has a guide for practical tests and on the second page they list the FAA interpretation of the rules and conclude that the examiner can hold the brakes or the examinee can simply switch seats for that portion of the test.)

I thought it was a bit unfair to say that this guidance could be ignored. He argued that working the brakes made him PIC. I held my tongue but that's nonsense as the PTS says specifically that the *applicant* is PIC.

I told him I preferred to use the CAP airplane at MGW since the 172E at FWQ seemed to be having generator output problems. He seemed OK with that.

He went over the A36 books and spent time on the phone with the FSDO about ADs, but ended up with nothing -- the A36 books are impeccable.

The he started the oral -- he had the standard FOI questions, then rolled into basic aerodynamics -- lift, how an airplane turns, primary controls, etc. Then onto navigation and I demonstrated solving a time-distance problem using the both electronic and manual E6Bs.

We discussed constant speeds props for a while.

Then he asked me to explain how and airplane turns. I discussed banking, adverse yaw, HCL and VCL, and the rest. He suggested I draw the vectors differently, but otherwise that was fine.

We spent a little time on systems, but he said he didn't know much about the Bonanza.

Around 1220 he said "You're apparently very well prepared so you passed the oral portion with flying colors.."

I was happy to hear that and we decided to fly right away rather than break for lunch before the weather deteriorated.

I checked wx and winds were 150 @ 15g22 at AGC. Oh well, would be a good day to find out if I know how to fly!

I started the preflight and prepared to describe everything but he seemed in a hurry and walked around ahead of me. I did a complete preflight and tried to point out things as I went whenever he was nearby.

I said we were good to go and said I would pull the chocks when he said "Don't pull the chocks -- there are two things wrong with this airplane and we can't fly it today."

After playing the "Guess what I'm thinking game" I figured out he meant the tiny (3mm deep) dent in the left elevator and the fact that there was a static wick on the right flap but not one on the right.

There is no STC for the wicks and no mention in the A36 shop manual, so I couldn't confirm or deny how many there should be and where they should be mounted. I told him the dent had been inspected by an IA and found airworthy but he said there needed to be a logbook enrty attesting to that (first I'd ever heard of that).

Then he said if I wanted to fly it back I would need a ferry permit.

Anyway, I was more than annoyed.

He went over to the restaurant while I called Kevin, and IA. He said he couldn't come out and sign the log this afternoon, but thought the guy was full of $#&&.

So we had lunch (he paid) and talked about flying. He did say several times "As a flight instructor you will find that..." which gave me a bit of a boost -- at least he was thinking that way.

So today I'll go buy a static wick, Kevin will install it, we'll get the logbooks annotated, and I'll try again next Thursday.

We still have to look over the CAP C172. I'm hoping I will have impressed him enough in the A36 that he'll decide, "Let me just pass this guy" and not be a pain about that airplane as well.

We'll see...