gatt wrote:
wrote:

Passed the CFI checkride with the FAA...


Woohoo! Congratulations!

I'm shooting for late May. Would love to hear your experience about the
oral exam, since that's what all the CFI candidates around the FBO are
sweating over right now. Nobody here has had a chance to see if the FAA
examiners will do things differently than the old hardass DEs.



-c


Try not to over prepare for the oral by boning up on "facts". Approach
it with a relaxed attitude.
The one thing I always cautioned CFI applicants NOT to do is to overwork
an answer. The best answer is ALWAYS the least complicated that answers
the question. It's Occam's Razor in it's classic form.
Most examiners EXPECT the applicant to enter into technical explanations
in n effort to impress them with the depth of knowledge possessed by the
applicant. This is a natural mistake made by many many applicants. The
usual result is that the deeper you take the examiner, the more chance
you will mis-step, resulting in the examiner expanding, thus causing you
to go defensive in the exchange.
This is to be avoided at all cost.
Be prepared to deal with questions by remembering you are "explaining
the answer not to an examiner but rather to a new student. Keep telling
yourself this as you engage the examiner in the oral.
Every examiner has a few "trick" questions they like to "catch"
applicants on during the oral.
"What makes an airplane turn" is a favorite.
Bottom line is be neat, show the examiner you came prepared, and don't
over complicate your answers.
One more detail; SMILE!! . It relieves the tension and projects to the
examiner how you will be interacting with your students.

Another thing; best of luck to you on the exam. :-))

--
Dudley Henriques