Need a little advice and quick

3 Answers

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   Donnie on Sep 23, 2013

   You might ask him what criteria he uses to endorse a student. At least you’ll know in advance what it takes. If he says perfect on the practice, it’d be interesting to know if that’s the criteria he uses for all students.

   About the hazardous attitude thing … I get the frustration. And you should be careful about the “checkride that you told everyone you’d have done in a few weeks”. That’s probably just the frustration talking. But that self-induced peer pressure is a common ingredient for hazardous attitudes after you get your license.

   About the annual inspection, it’s likely that it’s due for the 100hr inspection … which could happen at any point in the month. Sometimes people use those terms interchangeably for the inspection because the items are identical. I suppose you could try to schedule the airplane to determine if it’s really down for maintenance.

   If they’ve really been that sloppy about keeping up with the annual/100hr inspections, it may be that they are delaying so they can get everything in order. The DPE will go through the aircraft & engine logbooks to make sure everything is as it should be.

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   Bob Watson on Sep 23, 2013

   Phew… I needed to take a deep breath after reading your post.

   Some things that seem odd to me:

   1) you’re on the cusp of your practical test and you haven’t taken your written test.

   2) you’re studying for the written test by taking practice tests over and over. Hopefully you’re getting some ground instruction along the way, as well.

   3) You scheduled your practical test based on your assessment of being ready and not your CFI’s (and without having completed the written test)

   4) You told everyone that you were almost finished (That’s not odd, necessarily, maybe just getting ahead of yourself. But, over-promising is also how many pilots end their flying career and get a picture of [what’s left of] their plane in the newspaper.)

   That being said, I agree that you have every right to expect a clear and straightforward explanation of where you are in the training and what’s left to be done (actually, that should never be mysterious). The training requirements and standards of performance are pretty clear and straightforward. (FAR 61 & PTS)

   Maybe you could schedule an hour of ground instruction with your CFI and sit down with him, the FARs, PTS, and your logbook and say, “OK here’s what I need: (FAR 61), here’s what I have (logbook), what’s left?” You should do that in any case before your checkride to make sure your examiner won’t find something amiss, so it doesn’t need to be any sort of confrontation–just a review of your log book for the checkride. It might not hurt to also review the logbooks of the plane, while you’re in a paperwork mood.

   Schedule (and pay for) an hour or so of ground instruction to take the time pressure off, so you can review things without either one of you being in a rush to be somewhere else. At the end of the hour you should have a clear picture–either of what’s left to do for your checkride or that you’d be better off finishing up with a new CFI.

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   wannafly on Sep 24, 2013

   Thanks for the advice about self induced pressure that is a valid point. In the grand scheme of things it really dosnt matter to me if I get my ticket at 55 hours or 75 hours. To a guy that plans on having a long flying career a few more hours with a CFI isnt a bad thing. It is mainly the frustration of it all. On the inspections it is the annual, I am an “on paper” fractional owner of the plane for a predetermined amount of time. That eliminated the need for 100 hour inspections and lessened the insurance for me. I am the only student with this CFI he doesnt do much instruction anymore. He was close, convinent and seemed to be stright foward. As for the written test I have recieved ground instruction and continue to. It just seems to me that something doesnt pass the smell test. We seem to have been skirting on the edge of leagality. I have realized that I havent done my due diligence and looked at the log books etc. Its time to take a step back and have an honest discussion with him, non confrontational, but lay everthing out on the table. If I continue with the status-quo I am not doing myself or the aviation community at large any favors.

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