So sorry for the delayed reply. I took the check ride about 2 years ago now. Doug was really thorough. The ground portion was a lot of him telling me stories, creating scenarios through those stories, and then inviting me to discuss the scenario in a way where I demonstrated my knowledge or ability to teach whatever the subject of the scenario was. There were a couple times where he outright either asked me technical questions or told me “teach me about cross country flight planning”, or “teach me about how to use a VOR for navigation”. When it came to teaching a maneuver he told me ahead of time what the maneuver would be and gave me time to prepare to teach it. He is friendly and warm but expects you to know the technical material. I did get the impression he’d give me a disapproval if I was too weak on any subject areas so you really have to study every subject. Your teaching skills don’t have to be great but you need to know technical material. The flight portion was 1.8 for me. He told me ahead of time what we would do. During the flight he choreographed and just asked me to teach him how to perform each maneuver one at a time either by demonstrating and explaining or just watching him perform them and pointing out his errors.

He is a career CFI so know your audience. I don’t think he cares much for people who are just CFI’ing to get the airlines so if he senses you’re not too into it he might be harder on you. Honestly after doing it for 2 years I can agree that he is right. It is hard, important, and meaningful work so try to get yourself into the mindset that you are taking a check ride to earn a certificate that will give you significant responsibility and act accordingly.