You must be a CFI they said...

While instructing isn't my favorite thing in the world, I have learned a ton and have met a lot of great people, and there's nothing like the look on your student's face after they solo or when they see you right after passing their checkride.

Also just finished my first renewal, definitely worth it to keep it up :)

As a side note, I do wish they would have created a reduction in hours required for the R-ATP for having a certain amount of dual given, as I feel in general it is more valuable than other types of time building flight time.
 
Like many I would have loved to skip the CFI but I never found an opportunity for me with such low time and no CFI. I got my CFI and it has been, without a doubt, the most beneficial thing to my career I have done. Not only did it give me the pathway to getting the hours I needed but it made me a better pilot and I learned so much more as a CFI than I did in the entire time before getting it.
 
Adler said:
I graduated a large aviation college with 300 hours COM SEL MEL MES and couldn't find a job. I moved down to Florida do get my CFI/CFII, and got hired at that school. I did 2 days of instruction (2 flights) and got hired at Pinnacle. Kept my CFI current at did a few BFR's and IPC's for fun.

Pinnacle went downhill, I left, and became a FE on a 727. A year into that I was made a ground and simulator instructor for the 727 - only because I had my CFI and another guy let his expire. I'm sure this will be a talking point for interviews to come.

So my CFI didn't necessarily help me get jobs - but it definitely helped me in the long run, plus it gets me into cool GA planes for the random BFR.

I say get it.
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These are actually the reasons that I (now a regional FO) would like to have my CFI. I've not needed it in my career (results not typical), but I certainly want it on occasion.
 
It's probaly the easiest, quickest way to build time, good experiance blah blah blah. That being said I will without a doubt get out of aviation all together before going back to instructing for a living again.
 
jspeed87 said:
CFI should be for experienced retired Airmen with lots of experience or people who sincerely want to teach.
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I agree with this -- I do think that there is a definite need for older/more experienced pilots to be active CFIs. It has long annoyed me that so many folks who are teaching fledgling pilots are themselves relatively inexperienced, and yet there are so many airmen out there with rich experience and airmanship who *could* be trying to pass that along to the next generation of pilots.

That being said, no young pilot ever thinks they're actually ready to be an instructor, even when they actually are. Part of the benefit to airmanship by being an instructor is the recognition of, and confidence in, what a pilot actually does know and is able to teach.

The aviation world benefits from, and thus needs, both kinds of CFIs.
 
TXRaiderPilot22 said:
Hello Folks,

I'm looking for a little advice here, some words of wisdom for Single/Multi Commercial pilot with 300tt with 52 hrs multi. I have recently completed my commercial licenses and was told by a handful of people that "You better not look for a job and just go to CFI school because that is the only way you are going to make it in this world. You HAVE to be a CFI to be a pilot". I want to know if this is really the case or just something someone told them. I've meet some pilots along the way that got it and have never signed off a single student or even had a student. Do you really HAVE to get your CFI or can you do it without one?

Thank y'all in advance for any advice you can lend a new guy,
TXRaiderPilot22
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Bullcrap. BUT.... Get your CFI. You'll want it down the road.... For say.... when you're retiring and have a ton of experience. The conventional method of students teaching student in the civilian world is KILLING our aviators. By and large, single dimensional robots who, when faced with real world situations and scenarios can't think, let alone act outside of the tiny little box that they have the capacity of. Ranting aside, I don't have a CFI, and have flown corporate, and Alaska bush 91 and 135. I didn't get rich flying Alaska, but I got plenty of experience.

I have 0 CFI hours. I networked. I begged. I moved for jobs. But I've been living out of bags for the better part of 5 years at that point. It's a trade off. Would I do it again? Every single day and twice on Sundays. Why? Simply, coming from a military background, and an Air Traffic Control one at that, people that I would have been teaching to fly would have washed out from my training in week 1. I wasn't going to up the ante and try to teach foreign students to fly when the checkbook dictated the pass fail attempts.

It's why staying out of debt to get your training is imperative.
 
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RobG said:
It's probaly the easiest, quickest way to build time, good experiance blah blah blah. That being said I will without a doubt get out of aviation all together before going back to instructing for a living again.
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As a guy who flew with a lot of "time builders" (oppose flight instructor) in the earlier days of his career, please be sure that you're actually teaching, and doing a good job of building safe pilots, not merely occupying the seat.
 
Hacker15e said:
I agree with this -- I do think that there is a definite need for older/more experienced pilots to be active CFIs. It has long annoyed me that so many folks who are teaching fledgling pilots are themselves relatively inexperienced, and yet there are so many airmen out there with rich experience and airmanship who *could* be trying to pass that along to the next generation of pilots.

That being said, no young pilot ever thinks they're actually ready to be an instructor, even when they actually are. Part of the benefit to airmanship by being an instructor is the recognition of, and confidence in, what a pilot actually does know and is able to teach.

The aviation world benefits from, and thus needs, both kinds of CFIs.
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And what about FAIP's?

Or are they different for some reason?
 
Adler said:
A little arrogant?
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It's not arrogance, it's science.

I never washed one flight instructor out at Amflight.

Mappers, meat missile tossers, banner towers, you name it; they all had problems with basic attitude instrument flying. Did some of them make it through? Sure. But they didn't have the ability to self critique like flight instructors did, and they didn't have the hand flying skills that flight instructors did, and they didn't have the rock solid instrument skills that flight instructors did.

I don't know about you, but I want to be the best at whatever I do, and I don't like cutting corners.

So like I said, if you're ok with being mediocre, then don't instruct. If you want to be the best, then get out there and teach it. This is not a value judgement about what paths others choose, simply an elucidation of how to be great at something. If somebody doesn't want that for themselves, and many don't, then that's fine.

And that doesn't matter what it is in life, if you can teach it, you're at the top of your game. I mean why do you think they make the best of the best at any company sim instructors?
 
Being a CFI personally for me has been of huge value. It's amazing what you realize you don't really know like you thought you did until you have to teach it to someone else. With a CFI, CFII, and MEI, you can open the doors to a LOT of work teaching others to fly.
 
jtrain609 said:
And what about FAIP's?

Or are they different for some reason?
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Nope, not different at all -- exactly the same, really.

Just like with low time CFIs, FAIPs serve a useful purpose when used in concert with more experienced instructors. The value is that they have a somewhat different focus to their instruction and expectations of the student than instructors who have all ready served operational tours do. Students benefit from exposure to instructors from different experience levels, techniques, and areas of emphasis.

Problems arise when there are too many FAIPs, however, and not enough return-from-MWS instructors, because of their limited experience in the real world...in the same way that civilian students can learn less-than-optimal techniques from low time CFIs.
 
I'll give you my perspective as I'm going through it now.

To me it is worth getting my CFI. I'm in a large enough place (Phoenix) that should allow quite a few opportunities once I get my CFI. I could have stopped short of CFI school, however that would have meant looking high and low for someone to hire me here in Phoenix into a very low time position. If that didn't pan out then I would have had to move somewhere in the US for most likely what would have been very little pay. Keep in mind this is all while trying to pay bills. Someone's gotta pay those bills!

Even better is how much I am learning. I am feeling great about how much I am learning through this process and granted I am still in CFI school. Being able to teach this stuff makes a huge difference i'm finding and love that.

Everyone is different and it depends on the situation your in.
 
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It all comes down to experience and your attitude. I met some CFI's who.... I'll just say "lol". And there are good non CFI sticks out there who are professional and have a good attitude.
 
Boris Badenov said:
While I'll stop short of any embarrassingly public lectures on "how to be great", I do believe that I'm better at aviation appliance operation than I would have been had I not instructed. Take it FWIW.
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Let me use the analogy I just dropped on Tall Doug.

Is it possible you're the next "Will Hunting?"

Sure.

It is likely?

No, not at all.

Don't believe you'll be an outlier, and then stack the deck in your favor and you'll do well in life.
 
jtrain609 said:
It's not arrogance, it's science.

I never washed one flight instructor out at Amflight.

Mappers, meat missile tossers, banner towers, you name it; they all had problems with basic attitude instrument flying. Did some of them make it through? Sure. But they didn't have the ability to self critique like flight instructors did, and they didn't have the hand flying skills that flight instructors did, and they didn't have the rock solid instrument skills that flight instructors did.
?
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In my class at pinnacle we had 1 person wash out...it was the only practicing CFI. I'm not saying this means anything at all other than that your example has just about as little merit as mine.

I think as with anything, it all just depends on the person. You're either born with it our you're not. You saying someone needs to be a CFI to be a good pilot is like saying if you play middle school basketball you'll play in college. The fact that someone is seven feet tall has nothing to do with it?

I'd rather build time as a CFI than bomb around in some shady single pilot metro all night. But that metro pilot probably has much better instrument skills than the CFI teaching private pilots in Texas.

I think you should get your CFI, but don't listen to others trying to make you think you need it just because they see it as some sort of rite of passage.
 
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