evaluating a new CFI?

killbilly

killbilly

Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
I'm planning on going up with a CFI this weekend. I need to knock some rust off and do a little airwork and just generally make sure I still know how to fly an airplane.

The CFI seems to be a nice chap - we talked on the phone but haven't met. He's got a Citation flying job which keeps him on a flexible schedule.

Curious how you guys might evaluate working with a new CFI. Any and all opinions welcomed.

I've really only worked with 3, personally. My original CFI, who was great. Our own MhCasey, who is a gentleman and a scholar and a very good instructor, (explains things very clearly - not everyone does) and the owner of the UFC airplanes here in KAUS. So this would be my fourth.

So how do you guys determine if it's a guy you'd want to work with? Any hard and fast rules, or is it an instinct thing?
 
Obviously for the most part it's a complex question that has to do with "meshing" and all that. I will say, though, that a couple of things I'd look for are 1) Do they let you fly the airplane? CFIs with sticky fingers are irritating and of little use to the student/instructee. 2) Do they have a "my way or the highway" attitude and are they niggling about stuff that doesn't matter? "Well, that's fine, but the RIGHT WAY to do it is..." is a warning sign. If you're safe and complying with the regs, I might (back when I did the cfi thing) have said ONCE "I like to do it this way because", but you're not paying good money to get a lot of personal preferences from your instructor.

Good luck, and remember to have fun. That's what it's supposed to be all about.
 
Here' my list:

  • Instant Chemistry & equal sense of black humor?
  • Qualification & Background, Experience Profile
  • Who's better prepared, Student or CFI?
  • Superior or Inferior Type? Or maybe even EQUAL?
  • Is he/ she paid well, or just a notch above McDonalds?
  • History & Reputation?
  • How does the person perceive "self"? (open style questions, let them do the talking and do nothing, but listen, no scripts, just give people a chance to shine their light and look for clues)
If it comes to flying:
  • Able to let me fly, or constantly hovering the controls?
  • Relaxed, or stiff?
  • Use of professional language (*f-words, s* words, general style)
  • Brief & Debrief?
  • Body language, general demeanor?
90% of it is chemistry - if the chemistry and general mindset is equal, almost everything else can be worked out.

Good Luck!
 
Two ways to go about this:

1. Ask how many hours he has, if it is a ton then he has to be good... Experience is everything!

2. Ask how cheap he is willing to work. In this economic environment you should be able to get a CFI to work for free or maybe even pay for gas... Cash is king!

Than again you could always use that gut feeling method mentioned above.
 
Cessna414JJB said:
Here' my list:

  • Instant Chemistry & equal sense of black humor?
  • Qualification & Background, Experience Profile
  • Who's better prepared, Student or CFI?
  • Superior or Inferior Type? Or maybe even EQUAL?
  • Is he/ she paid well, or just a notch above McDonalds?
  • History & Reputation?
  • How does the person perceive "self"? (open style questions, let them do the talking and do nothing, but listen, no scripts, just give people a chance to shine their light and look for clues)
If it comes to flying:
  • Able to let me fly, or constantly hovering the controls?
  • Relaxed, or stiff?
  • Use of professional language (*f-words, s* words, general style)
  • Brief & Debrief?
  • Body language, general demeanor?
90% of it is chemistry - if the chemistry and general mindset is equal, almost everything else can be worked out.

Good Luck!
Click to expand...

This is pretty much everything I was thinking... Its hard to tell that much about someone until you actually start flying/working with them though.

Another one is recommendations. Take a look at the flight school schedule, usually the busiest CFI has a pretty good reputation.

If you seem to get a good vibe from the CFI when you first meet them, thats what I would start with. If it turns out that things dont go very well during training, there are plenty more CFIs out there for you to choose from!
 
personally with me being 16 its somebody who will take me seriously. after that, it comes down to how well we mix. I've worked with about 10 instructors. I've only really liked 2 of them. It came down to - us getting along, him being a teacher as well as a friend or friendly guy, and not telling me im wrong if I don't do it the way they like.

So basically everything mentioned before my post :laff:
 
Timbuff10 said:
Two ways to go about this:

1. Ask how many hours he has, if it is a ton then he has to be good... Experience is everything!

2. Ask how cheap he is willing to work. In this economic environment you should be able to get a CFI to work for free or maybe even pay for gas... Cash is king!

Than again you could always use that gut feeling method mentioned above.
Click to expand...

I don't agree with either of those points man.

I know alot of CFI's that have tons of hours but still are poor CFI's. I have around 1000 Dual given, that doesnt make me a superior instructor to someone who has 300.


Its all about professionalism to me. But that doesnt mean it has to be a super super serious relationship. I think excitement and willingness to compromise are great traits in a CFI. But its not a one sided battle.
 
Timbuff10 said:
Two ways to go about this:

1. Ask how many hours he has, if it is a ton then he has to be good... Experience is everything!

2. Ask how cheap he is willing to work. In this economic environment you should be able to get a CFI to work for free or maybe even pay for gas... Cash is king!

Than again you could always use that gut feeling method mentioned above.
Click to expand...
So we are supposed to give away are time for free now also?? I'll see if I have time to teach someone how to fly once I get done standing in the soup line if we go by your idea. I've known Instructors that have had tons of hours and were not good by any means.
 
I agree with the above recommendations...and would like to add that if anytime during training you find yourself not having fun, try flying with someone new. i wasted a lot of money with one guy before i realized that his teaching style & my learning style didnt mesh. Not that he was a bad instructor, i learned a lot from him. It was when i figured out that i had been flying the plane by in an effort to please, and not really learning to think outside the box, that i dropped him. If you're not comfortable flying with someone, it will really impede learning and progressing. I cant overemphasize the importance of clicking with someone.
 
I would say that the most important thing with a new instructor is how well you two get along. An airplane is a small, cramped environment and how well you get along with the person will directly effect how much you take from the flight.
 
Crockrocket94 said:
I don't agree with either of those points man.

I know alot of CFI's that have tons of hours but still are poor CFI's. I have around 1000 Dual given, that doesnt make me a superior instructor to someone who has 300.


Its all about professionalism to me. But that doesnt mean it has to be a super super serious relationship. I think excitement and willingness to compromise are great traits in a CFI. But its not a one sided battle.
Click to expand...

Mabgibai said:
So we are supposed to give away are time for free now also?? I'll see if I have time to teach someone how to fly once I get done standing in the soup line if we go by your idea. I've known Instructors that have had tons of hours and were not good by any means.
Click to expand...

Double FAIL!


Here's your sign.... :sarcasm:
 
tgrayson said:
Can he make you a better pilot? Nothing else matters.
Click to expand...


I don't agree with that man. If you don't get along with the CFI you shouldn't use them. Almost all of them can make you a better pilot, thats what they're there for. There are most defiantly other factors that matter.
 
CN94559 said:
If you don't get along with the CFI you shouldn't use them.
Click to expand...

Then you're there for the wrong reason. You're hiring a professional to perform a task, not find a new best friend. Unless you absolutely hate the guy and want to punch him in the face the whole time you're flying with him, in which case he no longer is able to make you a better pilot, the mature action is to make whatever accommodations are necessary for you to get what you need.
Almost all of them can make you a better pilot, thats what they're there for.
Click to expand...
So everyone that offers a particular service is equally competent to provide it? I know you don't think so. Personality is what you use to evaluate someone when you don't know how to evaluate qualities that actually matter. Would you hire your lawyer this way? Your doctor? Your architect? I suspect not, and it saddens me to think that people assume there is so little professional content to flight instructing that ability or hard work doesn't matter like it does in other professions.
 
tgrayson said:
Then you're there for the wrong reason. You're hiring a professional to perform a task, not find a new best friend. Unless you absolutely hate the guy and want to punch him in the face the whole time you're flying with him, in which case he no longer is able to make you a better pilot, the mature action is to make whatever accommodations are necessary for you to get what you need.


So everyone that offers a particular service is equally competent to provide it? I know you don't think so. Personality is what you use to evaluate someone when you don't know how to evaluate qualities that actually matter. Would you hire your lawyer this way? Your doctor? Your architect? I suspect not, and it saddens me to think that people assume there is so little professional content to flight instructing that ability or hard work doesn't matter like it does in other professions.
Click to expand...


Im not trying to say you're looking for a new best friend, but you are looking for somebody that you can get along with. If you don't get along with them, it will be much harder to learn from them. As my instructor says, we're friendly, not friends.

Im also not trying to say that they are all equal thats why I said
Almost all of them can make you a better pilot
Click to expand...

I know from experience that not all of them can. I've had a few guys that I felt like I was more confident than there were cause I was one of their first students. I couldn't fly with them, we didnt match up. Personality is something that everybody uses to decided on a professional they're going to use, and if you don't, then im sorry.
 
Uuuups, forgot something:

If your instructor will work for free, or peanuts, stay as far away as you can. Otherwise expect from your training what you paid for it.
You are not talking to a professional if services rendered are not reimbursed appropriately. I have paid up to 95 dollars/ hour for good instruction. This is not a Turkish basar.

:D
 
CN94559 said:
personally with me being 16 its somebody who will take me seriously. after that, it comes down to how well we mix. I've worked with about 10 instructors. I've only really liked 2 of them. It came down to - us getting along, him being a teacher as well as a friend or friendly guy, and not telling me im wrong if I don't do it the way they like.

So basically everything mentioned before my post :laff:
Click to expand...


Imagine how they felt when I did my intro ride when I was 9. :laff:

(Pretty cool actually, I did ALL of the flying, and was not all that bad either :confused: )
 
Well, I went up with him today.

The flight went very well. He's a very sharp guy, very easygoing. When he arrived, I had already preflighted. Offered to let him double-check anything I did, since after all he doesn't know me either. We talked a little bit about what we were going to do, fired up and took off.

All the way up to altitude he kept his hands in his lap. We did a few landings down at 50R - I was having a hard time setting up the approach correctly...kept ending up high and fast and floating. On the next takeoff, he asks if he can demo something to me. So I go hands off and he flies a really beautiful little pattern, talking through how he's setting up, and several things clicked right then about what I was doing wrong. Next time around I did it right, and even corrected properly for some gusts.

He said, "You didn't need me today - you're flying fine - especially since you haven't flown in 3 months."

He was specific in both his criticism (set up earlier, carrying a little too much speed on approach - let the plane settle, flaring just a hair too high) and praise, (excellent procedures, radio work, good coordination, good traffic scans, smooth handling, smart move on the go-around on the first landing) and I felt like I learned a better way to fly the airplane today. We got along pretty well.

Added bonus, he let me go with him over to the hangar where the Citation (CE550 or 650, I think - nice one, swept wing) he flies lives and gave me a tour of the plane, let me sit in the seat and he fired up some of the electrics to let me see the bells and whistles. :)

Really liked the guy and I think we'll work together. If I can pull the dough together, I want to use him as my CFII.

Thanks for the advice all. Very enjoyable 1.8 today. :)
 
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