The flying part is a no factor as long as he’s not a complete hot mess, his biggest factor in the 185 will probably be a DPE/ASI who will do the ride in it.

Even if you screw a maneuver up a bit, if you can explain how you messed it up and how you correct it, well that’s good enough for the feds I flew with.

Going way back in the memory archives, think it was on my eights on pylons I got a little distracted on one and had to “re adjust”, I just kept talking and explaining what happened and how you fix it and it wasn’t even debrief item.

This is 85-90% a oral exam

My oral was like 8hrs, flight time was maybe 1.2ish (FSDO ride)

I paid for maybe 5hrs of dual for entire CFI, had to do a spin (had done them pre solo but not been signed off to instruct them), did a couple maneuvers right seat to meet the FAR prior to checkride time and get my log inked, as I said the rest was significant self study and tutoring others

I’m not sure why the hangup on having to do this in a 185, doing it in a small plane isn’t going to cost you much more than the fuel in the 185, and again the flying part is near nil


This isn’t a ride that shows how great of a pilot you might be, it’s how great of a teacher you could be. Very different mindset