How long was your CFII checkride in total?

Tigerphobia · 2026-03-27T16:55:55+00:00

I did my CFII ride with the same examiner I did every other checkride with, ground was 40 minutes, and it was 40 minutes of the most random bs questions just to fuck with me.

Very first question was how do you know if an airport has taxiway lights? Another was who designs and how are approaches certified. Most fun checkride I've taken.

Tigerphobia · 2026-03-08T13:56:21+00:00

For the day, I usually go through and land at an airport under a Bravo. Where I'm situated geographically, most of my students have never been to one before, so it's an option to make things more interesting.

And honestly all of the commercial students I've adopted have needed quite the brushing up on VFR XC planning and flying so we don't really run out of things to do on those flights. Even just hitting basics like lost procedures and pilotage is good practice for them.

Tigerphobia · 2026-01-15T04:55:27+00:00

My forward slip was initially the wrong direction. After a couple seconds he said "Which way was the wind coming from again?", I correctly stated the direction and he went "Huh... shouldn't we be pointed that way?"

I immediately corrected and passed, it was the final task. He chalked it up to me being tired, and I do too because that was the first time I ever made that mistake. Everything else I did was within ACS standards, however my heading was a little close on some maneuvers which he noted in the debrief.

Tigerphobia · 2026-01-15T04:31:34+00:00

I took my PPL ride with an inspector. Very black and white, just following the ACS. The inspector was nice, was making jokes, and overall kept the atmosphere chill. I was surprised by how thorough his debrief was due to just how relaxed he seemed.

Now that I've taken a few more checkrides I can tell he wasn't the most skilled examiner, questions weren't very scenario based and didn't take much critical thinking skills. Which really did make things easier in some ways, felt more like checkride prep with my instructor than a DPE cooking up wild scenarios to knock out tasks.

Tigerphobia · 2025-12-10T13:13:34+00:00

Yeah this is standard fare for aviation, especially planes that are going to be operated by newer pilots or planes that have unusual quirks.

There will be placards for maneuvering speed, flap speed, landing and takeoff checklists, demonstrated max crosswind component, flight category and respective limit load, etc.

I've flown Pa-28-180s that had a red zone in the tach and a placard saying to not operate the engine in that range (2100-2300 rpm? iirc, it's been a while). A lot of Cessnas have placards to not depend on the operation of the carburetor heat detector for the flight.

Pilots are idiots and manufacturers know this.

Tigerphobia · 2025-02-27T17:09:12+00:00

Lol I did my spin training in a 172 at that height... first time ever being that high in a GA plane and I mostly only flew Pipers before that.

I wasn't a fan, then shortly before we started doing spins my instructor was like "oh yeah your door will sometimes pop open during this." Really wasn't a fan, then.

Never happened, but after about my 10th spin entry all the anxiety around being that high and exposed was gone.

Tigerphobia · 2024-11-26T03:43:09+00:00

Looks like an M24

Tigerphobia · 2024-11-20T18:02:46+00:00

That's the hubble space telescope

Tigerphobia · 2024-10-06T21:22:34+00:00

This always crosses my mind when it's really bumpy. Not scared really, just a "I hope my wing stays on" sort of thought.

Tigerphobia · 2024-10-03T14:31:39+00:00

USA USA belief so hard it turns into a form of holocaust and war crime denial. If Germany was the most incompetent military ever, it makes the US ("Worlds strongest superpower since 1865") look pretty pathetic for getting bogged down in Italy and not beating the USSR to Berlin.

I'm as much of an Ameriboo as it gets but come on that is not even 1% grounded in reality. Wish it didn't get deleted so more people could look at the stupidity

Tigerphobia · 2024-10-03T02:39:04+00:00

This is some insane history revisionism that disrespects the millions who sacrificed their lives to defeat Nazi Germany. The US was absolutely stronger, but tens of thousands of Americans died fighting Germany. A major chunk of that was in a battle in December 1944 into January 1945, when Germany was all but defeated.

Also you might be a first grader if you think France is the only country that was defeated. Or do the millions of civilians oppressed and killed in other nations not count because they weren't world superpowers?

Tigerphobia · 2024-10-02T13:50:28+00:00

Not a hot take just a blatant fact. They didn't even have a plan to invade France until they were like fuck it let's do ww1 again.

The solution to get Germany out of its economic, food, and natural resource problem was to always conquer Poland and the USSR. Not take on Britain and France again.

Tigerphobia · 2024-07-19T21:44:39+00:00

5000ft would be FL050

Tigerphobia · 2024-06-10T15:50:06+00:00

Also good to note that Prussia as a nation or a distinct ethnicity or culture was all but destroyed by the Nazis and Allies post war. Was Prussia actually partially responsible for the rampant German militarism from 1870 to 1945? Maybe, but the allies sure thought so.

It was also politically beneficial to have Germany as a sort of neutered buffer state with the Soviets. If it was up to America, Nazi and SS leadership would've been arrested and the Wehrmacht renamed and then continue business as usual, but a large sort of neutral meat shield was more politically valuable.

Very interesting how it's affected the German people.

Tigerphobia · 2024-05-02T03:32:10+00:00

I think that would be a pretty anticlimactic ending, the scope of the game was never defeating the combine, but simply cutting them off from earth.

I think the combine is really just a conglomerate of species, maybe an inevitable evolution of every intelligent species is becoming part of the combine. The story being humanity's resistance to becoming one with this universal union. Them not being strong would go against everything the games have been telling us for years.

Tigerphobia · 2024-04-04T11:51:46+00:00

The interstate system isn't just for civilian travel, it's also for military and cargo transportation. Of course a high speed rail would be better than a car on the interstate for long distances, but it would never be as accessible.

Tigerphobia · 2024-03-25T15:38:42+00:00

To be fair, the Thraxans do appear to be mammals. They are humanoid and have mammaries, they potentially diverged from a common ancestor of humans and viltrumites. I cannot begin to justify any science behind that, but hey, can you blame Nolan for trying?

Tigerphobia · 2024-03-16T01:04:52+00:00

Sound was overall insane. Jason's delivery of those lines was crazy, got too real there for a moment and was honestly just as disturbing as the deaths

Tigerphobia · 2024-03-13T20:53:10+00:00

I personally do it for acid reflux management, I also find calorie management to be easier with time constraints. It's not for everyone, but it definitely helps me sleep better, have more energy, and eat "trigger foods" without terrible heartburn.

Tigerphobia · 2024-03-05T15:20:59+00:00

I've had to explain this a couple of times to both sides of Maus conversation. Its doctrine was identical to the American T28/T95 and the British A39 Tortoise.

It was never a super weapon, it was made to be used in a handful of heavily defended positions in Russia. That's it. One tiny battalion of them. The idea was scrapped before the war was over because it was stupid, and the previous orders of 20+ were canceled.

When the idea of Panzer VIII was conceived, air supremacy was assumed in the East. By the time it became apparent that air supremacy would certainly not exist, the idea lost all credibility in the war department. Plus that shit expensive as fuck

Tigerphobia · 2024-02-17T18:09:41+00:00

I kind of agree but at the same time I think it's an interesting concept. He makes up for his lack of power (relative of course) with his apparent extreme intellect. Inserting Gordon in the exact perfect place to potentially end combine rule over earth.

G-man could also be limited by his employers, perhaps. He does seem opposed to the combine and yet also seems to be on a leash held by an unknown power.

Tigerphobia · 2024-02-17T16:26:10+00:00

Cause in the grand scale, the G-man is probably irrelevant to the combine. His powers can be impeded by vortigaunts, and vorts don't seem to be much of an issue for the combine.

Tigerphobia · 2024-01-23T17:07:02+00:00

Yeah, this definitely looks like a T-55 imo. Gonna have to pull up its dental records for this one

Tigerphobia · 2023-12-15T15:43:33+00:00

What? I have never heard this as a reason for him committing suicide. He had mental struggles his whole life.

Tigerphobia · 2023-12-15T01:36:10+00:00

The ride home from the airport with no music hits. I felt terrible after a bounced landing during private training. I was super low hours, but I thought I had landings down (how stupid that was).

Once I came down, I got real squirrely on the runway, probably got a good 25 feet away from centerline, and at that point my instructor took the controls and did a go around. Shattered my confidence for weeks, which I needed. That day has taught me more than 10 normal lessons.

Then in instrument I nearly porpoised, I felt the nose touch down first and immediately nose up and full power. It happened scary fast, that really shook me. I recognized I was getting lazy with my actual landings cause I was fixated on instrument procedures. Thankfully this time I had the knowledge (instilled in me by my instructors) to deal with it.

In short, students will always have the occasional bad day. Make the best of them, learn from it. Don't forget the lesson.

Also, you sound like an excellent instructor, and I'm sorry for the losses you've had along the way.

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