MEI/II checkride (long)...

[Stone Cold]

Okay, here's my experience with ALL ATP and back-to-back checkrides...

Showed up Tuesday morning at 0800, and did paperwork, etc.; then went straight into ground school and orientation on the airplane. We took lunch, then went flying in the afternoon for a couple of hours. The schedule is whatever you and your instructor worked out, so that was great...we even did an IFR round robin from CRG to DAB and did approaches all the way up the coast for our last flight.

Overall, we did about 7 flights for training and some ground school. The ground school was basically gouge on the examiner and what you need to study...this is where I felt I did not prepare enough myself. Bring all your books with you (I didn't have FAR/AIM, PTS, etc. with me). My instructor, Jeremy, did an excellent job attempting to prepare me for the examiner, but when actually in the oral portions, the gouge was way off on what the DE would ask for/do. I am not sure if the examiner made it different since I have some dual given or what, but the orals were not pretty. At least not in my opinion. I did pass both checkrides, and the flights went great, but the orals left something to be desired.

The MEI checkride was all the maneuvers that we had done, no surprises. The surprise (sarcasm) was that it was a Florida afternoon and TS were all around. I ended up delaying my flight by 1 hour to let them move off and I think the DE was a little irritated with the delay, but he did say the decision was mine. The next day, one of the other instructors there said she would definitely not have wanted to do a checkride in those conditions, so I think I made the right decision.

The II checkride was more intense than I was expecting. We did the VOR tracking and intercepting right off the bat, went Partial panel and re-intercepted the VOR inbound for some PP holding at the VOR for 2 turns, departed the hold, did PP unusual attitude recoveries, went full panel, ILS into CRG, go figure had an engine failure inbound on the ILS and also went PP. The DE then landed the airplane and let me catch my breath. Stop and go, back in the soup, set up for the GPS back into CRG PP. End of checkride...MEI checkride 1.3, II checkride 1.1, TT 14.3 Seminole time ( I don't have my logbook in front of me, but I think those times are correct).

Overall, I feel the experience was definitely worth every penny. I met a lot of nice people and had fun (for the most part ) with the experience. Anybody getting ready for this, be ready for a very intense experience and get ready to learn a ton in a few days.

[braidkid]

Hey man, excellent job...
I'll have to give you a call and get the full gouge as to why you left us!!!!

[Stone Cold]

I'll be out there this weekend...btw, am I on the books for any flights this weekend?

[mtsu_av8er]

Hey txpilot, what Naval course do you teach??

[Stone Cold]

I have taught everything from Naval Aircraft, to 3M in the basic Divisional Officers courses and Advanced Combat Computer Systems in the Weapons Control Officers course for the Guided Missile Frigate pipeline. Currently I am a CPR instructor and work in the Multi-Mission Tactical Trainer (basically it's Jane's Fleet Command except they do a lot of extra stuff) conting down the time .

[mtsu_av8er]

Isn't schoolhouse life fun??

[Stone Cold]

It's been interesting, but we're restructuring right now, so not a good time to be there. It won't be long now, though.

[braidkid]

Hey Joe, looks like you're off the schedule for the weekend.

[Stone Cold]

Thanks...looks like I have a busy last weekend, then.

I'll come visit ya'll some time this weekend...I'll call tomorrow and figure out when is a good time for all.