starting CFI

[Fred0311]

I'm going to start working on my CFI soon and was wondering if anyone had advice for it or pitfalls to avoid. I received a lot of good insight when I did this for instrument so hopefully it works again. Thank you in advance!

[WolftalonID]

Learn how to relax... Be confident in your skills, you are commercisl rated now!

 

Learn how to talk about everyhing. ( practice talking out your lesson plans to the dog at home )

Talk on your way to school, explain everythig your doing as you drive...transfer of practice to the flying.

 

Never let a student do the preflight and take it as good, always do your own, and show diligence so that the student will develope good habits.

[kkeller]

http://helicopterforum.verticalreference.com/topic/14756-cfis-looking-for-jobs/

 

Read everything, become curious. If you don't know how something works, or what the regulation is, look it up. Take up the attitude of PIC, don't let your instructor make the decisions, unless its for safety of flight.

 

Also, start looking for work now. No reason to wait till you have the certificate, you can put a line on your resume that says "working on CFI and CFII, expected ...."

 

Best of luck and have fun with those full downs!

[rick1128]

All good advice.

 

Also expect the unexpected. When I got my CFI originally I was told to treat every student as he if he/she was out to kill me. Over the years I have had a few surprises, even from some very experienced pilots.

 

Next, talk, talk, talk. This is one rating that you need to have verbal diarrhea. Keep talking until the Inspector/examiner tells you to shut up. In this rating, less is not more.

 

While talking DO NOT BS your answers. If you do not know. Know where to find it. Not knowing the answer is not a failure item. However, throwing out a BS answer is. The inspector/examiner will keep digging until you really blow it. Sometimes using a story about your experiences during training work well. Everything doesn't have to be doom and gloom, keeping things light at times works as well.

 

If you haven't already started, you need to start immediately with your CFI notebook. Personally, I have found that using the CFI PTS as the foundation works quite well. Many applicants are using powerpoint instead of a paper notebook now. Pictures, videos, graphs, etc.

 

You are not expected to know the endorsements by heart. There are too many of them, ad they are not used enough to know them by heart. However, have the advisory circular on endorsements in your CFI notebook and highlight the appropriate ones. Also understand if no one has already told you, you as an instructor may add additional restrictions to your endorsements. Myself personally, I add wind and weather restrictions to all my students' solo endorsements. Based on past experience, I also add the two following comments.

'Daytime only' and 'no passengers'. Yes the students are expected to know that. However, I have caught a student pilot giving rides. I put it there, so the student doesn't have any excuse like, ' I wasn't told' Also if the student owns their own aircraft,I also put in a limitation that they must call and talk with me prior to each flight. Keep in mind that solo students are flying on your certificate. So if they get into trouble, it is quite likely you will be the second person the FAA talks to if not the first. That certificate is your paycheck. Protect it.

 

If you don't have one already, work up a resume. It doesn't need to be fancy, but it does need to be clear and concise. With computers these days, making changes is relatively easy. Your instructors highly likely each have one that you can look at to help you put together your own. I would also suggest signing up with Vista Print (www.vistaprint.com). No CC information needed to make an account. Just a user name, password and email address. Their business card prices are extremely reasonable.

 

Good luck.

[rotornut67]

Never let your guard down. The student that you feel the most comfortable with is the on that is more likely to hurt you. PLEASE do your own lesson plans!!! If you put the time and effort into them, the material will be familiar and you will KNOW how it flows so when the examiner picks a lesson at random, you will have no problem presenting it. Above all, be honest and up front with EVERY student. Learn how to give a thorough and effective critique. Don't leave a student wondering if what they just did was good or bad or mediocre. Always be prepared for each lesson, and remember this...YOU are the instructor. Good luck and hit those books!

 

The CFI checkride was the most satisfying of them all for me, and a load off of me to boot (and my wife) LOL

[pilot#476398]

Some things I've noticed while flying with newbie CFIs;

 

1. Always have your chart with you and refolded to represent where you are/are going, especially during xc flights. (nothing like the instructor asking to look at his student's chart!)

 

2. Don't hog the controls and/or fight the student. If you want them say "I have the controls", or "Let me do this with you". (What's that unseen force I feel,...oh' yeah its my CFI pushing while I'm pulling)

 

3. Don't stare at the VSI! Learn to feel (or tell by outside references) when we're getting into VRS. Don't just push on the cyclic, because the VSI reads higher than 300fpm, while we're coming in when its obvious (if you look outside, or pay attention to how the ship handles) we're not even close to VRS.

 

4. Never say to your student, "So, what do you want to do today?" Always have a plan!

 

5. Remember, not all "students" will have fewer hours than you, some may even have quite a bit more. So don't treat every student like they are a pre-solo newbie.

 

I guess these are more just gripes I've had during dual flights (post Private of course!), but oh' well?

Edited January 20, 2014 by pilot#476398

[aeroscout]

Go over the PTS with your students. Refer to it a lot. Refer to the tolerances allowed for heading airspeed, altitude, VSI etc. Even go over the introduction. Make sure they are familiar with the do over rule. Let them know their checkride will be conducted right out of the PTS so that it won't be any mystery.

[Flying Pig]

Rehearse for your check ride. I posted a description of mine a couple years ago somewhere on here. When I met with the examiner, we intro'd ourselves, took care of the admin side of the check ride, exchanged a stack of $100 bills…… Once we got that out of the way, I told him I was going to leave for a couple minutes to get myself out of the "student" mindset, and that when i walked back through the door, he was the student and I was his instructor. I even went as far as to reintroduce myself when I walked back into the classroom.

 

For me it was a good mental break instead of going right into it. I even told him what I wanted to do and he said "I don't care… do what works." I told him, "OK, but when I walk back in and introduce myself I don't want you to think Im crazy" When I came back to the classroom, I treated him like we had just met, we talked, thats where he told me what his experience level was. In this case, he was a a Private Pilot, low time, wanting to finish up his commercial after a several year break in flying.

 

I think it was good for him too, because he started asking me questions like a student instead of just saying "OK, now tell me about gyroscopic precession." He would say… "OK, one thing I had trouble with in my private was understanding how the control inputs actually make the rotor disc tilt."

Another was "I did autos during my private, but to this day I don't understand how falling can make the rotor speed up."

 

Seemed like a good way to set the stage myself vs having the DPE rattle off topics. When I did my airplane CFI about a year prior, to me the ground was more of a question and answer period and I didn't really feel like I was in control AT ALL! I felt like I was just answering his questions instead of showing off my knowledge and my teaching technique. I have a lot of experience teaching as a law enforcement instructor so I wanted to make sure I could get that out on the table first.

 

I think the biggest thing for me in my CFI check rides was reminding myself that this was an audition…. not a "check ride" I need to convince the audience that I can play the role of CFI.

Edited January 21, 2014 by Flying Pig

[rick1128]

When going through the PTS don't forget to discuss the special emphasis items completely and in detail. The FAA is quite big on that right now.

[Fred0311]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I look forward to putting it all to good use. And more is always welcome.

[HeliAv8or]

I just took my CFI Checkride the beginning of this month. My biggest advise would be to take the CFI PTS and PERSONALLY write lesson plans for everything in order of the PTS. I see people all the time, make copies of their instructors or other peoples lessons. Ask yourself how serious you are about becoming a CFI and put the time in yourself to develop your own lessons. You will learn a lot as you do and will be thankful you did.

[ridethisbike]

I want to reiterate what someone else said about the PIC mentality. Throughout training a lot of it has been the instructors telling you what to do and where to go and it was up to you to get there and complete the task safely, but he was always there in case something went wrong.

 

It can be difficult to get out of that "I'm still in training" mindset. It took me a while. The sooner you snap out of it and actually start acting like the CFI and making the "what to do and where to go" decisions, the better. Not only for the mindset, but also in how you fly. YOU are now the safety net. It's going to be on you to catch the overspeed and keep your student from bending metal or worse.

 

Being a 141 school, you'll most likely have to follow the TCO that they have. This doesn't affect a thing. I used to print that days lesson off and slap it on my knee board as a guide of what I was going to teach that day. I would chair fly it at home while talking through it. You can also use a simulator (of the free variety) if you have access to help getting over the inevitable stumbling blocks of talking while flying.

 

I had more fun during CFI training than any other part of my training. There's a certain satisfaction you feel when your instructor plays Little Timmy No Time, botches an auto, you make the corrections and are able to effectively critique the maneuver once you pull into the hover. There's a lot going on in an auto and it can be hard to remember everything that happened. I got so into that mind set that towards the end of training, my instructor would be doing a practice auto and I would instinctively start coaching him. A few times he wouldn't listen and then would come up short or have to work way too hard for it. It's the little things haha

Edited January 24, 2014 by ridethisbike

[JBX11B]

FP nailed it right on the head, felt more like an audition than a check ride.

PTS aside, the DPE was figuratively interviewing me (all day) to teach his family and non-flying friends to fly helicopters.