The Spirit of 439 …                    

 

Bruce Rutter and The Journey to CFI

                                    Interview by Aaron Gustafson

 

I had finally started taking flying lessons, a dream I’d had for some time, when I was hit by a drunk driver and had my neck and back broken.  Then I spent 3 ½ years in the hospital, learned how to walk for the second time, and now was ready to get back to the business of flying.  I had to fight hard to get a third class medical.

 

I finally got that medical and resumed my training for private pilot. I started flying in April of ‘02 and that’s when Brooks left here.  I had to quit flying or buy a plane.  So I bought a plane in Oct ‘02 started flying again in Nov of ‘02 with Les Brown.  I received my private pilot certificate in June of ‘03.

 

Shortly after that I thought, an instrument rating would be good.  An instrument rating seems especially good to have if you fly around this area of the country.  And since you have to have an instrument rating with 500 hours to fly for Northwoods Airlifeline, which I wanted to do, it seemed a natural next step.  It took me until July of  ‘07 to get my instrument rating. 

 

I had talked to the examiner and asked, “What would it take to get a  Commercial license?”  He said it was a matter of “flying a high performance plane for 10 hours with an instructor and doing commercial maneuvers”.  I took the written test for that and Aug 20th, a month later, I took the oral and checkride for the commercial and passed.

 

At that point Chad Kubick said, “We could use another instructor”.  I started reading what that was all about and I actually became a mentor through AOPA.  I would work with student pilots or private pilots, not instructing, but helping them and mentoring them.  That was a lot of fun so I thought, well, it can’t be too bad to become a flight instructor.  Let me tell you, that’s the farthest thing from the truth.  It was tough.  First, you have to learn the fundamentals of instruction and take a written test for that and that’s probably the easiest test.  You also have to have spin training in order to become a CFI.  You get to do a lot of things with the plane in spin training.  You flip the airplane upside down and twist it and spin it.  The instructor acted like the student, putting us in one of these unusual attitudes and I’d act like the instructor getting us out.

 

Next, I needed a CFI who’s been instructing more than 24 months and clocked over 200 hours with  students.  That was a problem.  CFI’s with both those requirements are hard to find around here.  I decided to go to Green Bay and see what kind of program they had to offer down there.  I contacted a fellow and his  comment was, “we can probably get you finished up in 100 hours”.

 

A hundred Hours!!!  There was no way I could justify going down there for 100 hours and that was at $50 /hour for him and $187/ hour for a the plane.  I called Madison and Waterford and a few different places and they all had their own little ways of how they wanted to do it and “we’ll try maybe to fit you in” and so it was very frustrating. 

 

 I waited until Les Brown came back from Florida and I was able to work with him.  I actually got signed off with Les and then I worked with Doug  Richardson, who is a gold seal CFII.  I actually flew with 4 different CFI’s. 

 

In any event I was signed off and I called the Grand Rapids FSDO to set up an appointment. 

I said, “I need to do an oral and check ride”.

Their comment was, “Okay, be here tomorrow morning at 8:00”. 

So I said, “Well I don’t know what the weather is down there tomorrow morning at 8:00.  I’ll have to check this and I don’t think I can do this but let me check”. Boy I got read the riot act, where “we say you come down here and you have to be here at this time”.

I said, “Well, I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that.  First of all I have to bring two planes”.  I was going to use Chad’s Cessna 150 which is approved for spins. (You have to have a plane you’re approved to do these maneuvers in.)  And I was going to use a high performance complex plane supplied by Dennis Whitehead.  “I think I need a little more notice.”

“No, we don’t give you notice, you be here when you’re told to be here.”

I cancelled right then.

 

I called back later and asked if I could get several different dates.  And it’s like, “No, we tell you when to be here”.  To make a long story short, I became thoroughly frustrated trying to determine when I could actually get there.  Then we had a safety seminar that a couple of FAA people came up here for.  I talked to them and told them the problem I was running into. To make another long story short, a gal from the Grand Rapids FSDO called me soon afterwards.  She was very very pleasant and she said, “I understand you’re trying to do a check ride. I have a couple of options for you. It may be easier if you work with a designated examiner out of Traverse City. His name is Whit Balentine.”

 

So I called him and we talked several times over the phone. The weather there was either bad, which was normal this time of year, or we couldn’t get out of here.  There was always some issue coming up and finally I got to a point back in December where I said, “I really really need to do an oral test because I don’t know what a prop is anymore.”  Whit said that would be fine and to come on over.   I drove over on Thursday and took my oral test on the 19th of December.  That oral test was really interesting.  Whit sat down and explained to me that “the failure rate for this test is 95%.”  He says, “Are you ready to begin”?  And I don’t remember anything he said   after that.

 

The test starts off with the fundamentals of instruction and when they ask you a question you explain the whole question. How are you going to teach; what are the four fundamentals of teaching; what are the rote, understanding, application, and correlation?

 

            You explain everything, giving definitions and demonstrating on a blackboard and with model          airplanes.   Everything you can think of about the plane is asked and you explain it. Then the private pilot part of the test, which is going through all the charts and regulations and things like that and then you go into the commercial side of it.  It’s thorough and I don’t care what anybody says, you’re intimidated.  We did three hours into it and he said, “We’ll break for lunch.  Do you have any questions”?

 “Yeah, I said, How am I doing?” 

And he says “you’re doing fine, you really are.”

 

Well, Whit’s a nice guy anyway so I’m wondering is he just being a nice guy or does he really mean it.  In any event, we broke for lunch.  He had gone out the door to go to his car and I thought, “I’ll go out and start my car and warm it up.”  It was really snowing out, a real blizzard. So I opened the door and Whit was talking to a gal out there and he says to her, “Yeah, those CFI oral tests are long and really hard and intimidating, but that guy in there is doing a really good job.”  Well, I closed the door quickly and went the other way.  He left and I went out to my car.  When Whit came back he said, “Okay we’re going to begin again.”  And I don’t   remember anything he said after that. 

 

We were done at 4:30.  Whit had been doing a lot of writing and he asked if I’d noticed?  I said, “Yeah”. 

Then he says, do you have any questions?

I said, “Well, how’d I do?”

 “Oh, you passed you did just fine.” 

“Thank you!”  

He says, “You made it in the 5%.”

The FAA really likes to stress that, why, I don’t know.”

 

Next came the check ride. January 6th was the date.  Whit explained again about the 95% failure rate, and “if you don’t enter the maneuvers in the proper way or maintain things within the tolerances, I have fail you, no exception.”  So I said “Okay, let’s get this failure out of the way.”  Whit said, “Here’s our pre-flight and here’s what we’re going to do.”  And I don’t remember anything he said after that.

 

We got outside the delta airspace in Traverse City and for a solid hour and 10 minutes, it was nothing but maneuver after maneuver.  Every commercial maneuver every private pilot maneuver:  maneuver after  maneuver.  As we returned Whit said, “Can you do a short field landing doing this, that and the other thing?”  I did the landing and he says, “That was too easy, now we gotta do it over a 50 foot obstacle.  And I want the tires right here on this part of the runway no exceptions if you want to pass this.”  Well, no pressure there.  Then of course he says, “What’s your speed going to be?” 

How I did it in my head so quickly I don’t know, but he says, “That’s exactly right.”  I came down and put it right where it was and did every thing I needed to do.  Whit said, “Ahh that was too easy.”  He kind of chuckled.  We went around, and he says, “Just do a regular landing.  No, No, do one under the power curve.  I want a soft field landing under the power curve.”  I did that and he says, “That’s all I need to see.”   We taxied back and Whit said, “Any questions?”

“Well, how did I do?”

                        “You did fine, you passed.” 

Hey, give me a little emotion here!

 

It’s been such a huge relief.  My hat goes off to any CFI for it is truly an accomplishment.  I’m glad it’s done.