Best Way to initial CFI?

DenverPilot8

DenverPilot8

Well-Known Member
I'm finally working on my initial CFI (single) and was wondering what people think the most efficient way is to prepare for this rating. I know it's very study intensive but in what order did you study stuff? Did you do King DVDs? Did you just do the Gleim Stuff? How long did the rating take you. I want to finish in the best way possible which will hopefully translate to the most cost efficient way as weel. Thanks for your help.
 
Get the FAA books, you can download them for free or just buy them for a couple of bucks. The two books that I'm referring to are the Flying handbook and the aeronautical knowledge, can't quite remember the exact names for those books, I'm sure someone will chime with the answer.
I did all my ratings prior to CFI using the Jeppessen material, however my instructor introduced me to the FAA books and had a very valid argument. As a CFI you should learn and use the FAA material and surprisingly for being government books they are quite good and easy to get through all the information. We used those along with the FAR AIM and that's all I needed to prepare.
Last thought is that you really should understand the purpose and execution of each maneuver, in both PPL and Commercial PTS, very well and you'll be 90% there. The rest is just flying from the right seat and taking a DE along for the ride.
 
The airplane flying handbook and the pilot's handbook of aeronautical knowledge, private/commercial/flight instructor PTS, and of course can't forget the aviation instructors handbook as well, which covers the FOI.
 
For me, the hardest part was the FOI. It is all new material and absolutely boring as can be. I must have read that book a hundred times. It was worth it though, as the examiner went through literally every page of that thing. Good luck to you. The sooner you get started the better.
 
I studied by reading the FAA publications and by listening in on other instructors ground lessons. I also rented a 152 and taught a non-pilot friend basic stuff; steep turns, slow flight, landings, etc...

Then before my checkride I flew about 5 hours with my instructor in a complex airplane to brush up on maneuvers.

In retrospect, my method was in no way the quickest, I self-studied for eight months (concurrently while I worked on my CPL) before taking the checkride. However, having listened to hours and hours of ground lessons and having real experience teaching someone in the cockpit made the checkride, and my first real students easy, pleasurable experiences.
 
I would say the best thing I did for myself was find a study buddy.
Find somebody that is counting on meeting you at the Library, somebody to bounce questions and ideas off of.

We took our checkrides two days apart, did the self-study thing and had a great CFI that would talk to us about practical things about being a CFI and left the ABC123 memorization to our own time.
cheers
 
FAA books are a must. They are indeed good books and highly recomended. Once you have those it's time to study. The way i did was I got a CFI PTS and just went through each item under each task. If you know a task cold move on to the next. When you get to one you don't know put a check by it. Then go back through and study the checkmarked tasks until you are stone cold in those.

As has been said, the FOI is tedious for the first time. memory aids are your friend...PRMA, CPRDRFAR anyone? The thing about the FOI is I thought a lot of it was pretty common sense just with fancy words. So once you know the fancy words the meanings shouldn't be to hard.
 
For me the hardest part was getting up in front of someone and actually learning how to teach. And since I did all my lesson plans beforehand it took forever....okay, not really, it took 2 months for the lesson plans and 3 months of hard-core studying of all the FAA manuals and then went to an accelerated program to finish it up. I also did my ground instructor a year before and practiced teaching on my friends.
 
Thanks. I was hoping if I hit everything pretty hardcore everyday I could finish it up in a couple months. Is that unrealistic?
 
DenverPilot8 said:
Thanks. I was hoping if I hit everything pretty hardcore everyday I could finish it up in a couple months. Is that unrealistic?
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That all depends on how much you have soaked up until this point, how good you can study, how you study...etc. A couple of months, not unrealistic, but not the easiest thing to do.
 
DenverPilot8 said:
Thanks. I was hoping if I hit everything pretty hardcore everyday I could finish it up in a couple months. Is that unrealistic?
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Get the ASA oral guide, it's the best 10 bucks you will spend for your cfi. I didn't realise it untill CFI training but those ASA oral guides are the PTS but with all the answers. Look at their content, it follows the pts. The ASA oral guide also shows where the answers are located, in the specific FAA book or in the FARAIM. Make sure you look over the books as well. If you memorized all the answers in that thing, you're about 50% done with your preparation. The other part is actually being able to teach a lesson and fly.

By the way as far as the king videos, I used their CFI practical DVD of an actual CFI checkride. It was generally good but it was done with a DPE so the oral wasn't very through and the flight is nice to watch but I didn't see how it could help the person watching. Basically what I got out of the flight portion was to keep talking until you pass out. For the price of 100 bucks it's still worth watching, plus they have a guarantee that if you don't pass the test after watching the DVD you get your money back.
 
I even used an old Jeppesen CFI renewal course that we had at my flight school. Great study material in my opinion and VERY in depth.
 
Find a friend who is studying CFI and practice teaching the information to each other. I did this, and we were constantly giving each other advice on how to explain things clearer and more concisely.
 
Put the great majority of your effort into the study rather than the flying. If you get past the oral, you are more than half-way home.

Call the DPEs in your area who are authorized to do initial CFI checks and ask if there is an opportunity for you to sit in when they give the oral portion of the practical test, maybe even the flight portion too. It is allowed in the handbook for someone woking on a similar rating or certificate to observe the oral IF everyone (i.e. the examiner and applicant) agree to allow that. You can also call the FSDO and make the same request of the inspectors. It may not work out, but the worst anyone can say is "no" and if you should happen to get ot observe a CFI test, it will be worth a lot. There are also King courses (and probably others) that simulate a CFI practical test. Those are well worth watching too. By doing this, you will quickly see where the holes are in your knowledge and be better able to focus your study time in those areas.

I wish you the best of luck in your efforts.
 
I did ye old CFI initial about 13 years ago.

I took a CFI ground school and used the requisite, at the time, fat Gleim book.

However, for me, the biggest boon was writing my own lesson plans.

It took me all summer and I used an entire ream of paper printing it out, filling a 3" binder.

However, that was the best thing I did. It really cemented the knowledge into my head, also when I was actually teaching, I knew I had it, and I could look info up.

There were many, many things I looking back, improving my initial training experience, and gaining more knowledge out of the process. However, writing my own lesson plans (I even sold a few copies for $50/shot - good beer money in college ;) ) was probably the best step to consolidate the cumulative knowledge to that point.
 
I will personally tell you that the ASA Oral Guide books can be a great tool for enhancing your knowledge to pass an FAA checkride. I used them with nearly all of mine. That being said however, DO NOT use them as your primary study reference.

People get into a very bad habit of relying too heavily on that book. When I conduct an exam and hear the pre-programmed answer coming straight from the oral guide it is a clear indication to me that I need to dig further. Usually one or two questions into it I discover that the rote memorization is there but the practical application knowledge is no where to be found.

Good luck with your training, I will guarantee that as a CFI you will learn way more than you ever did as a student!
 
I am also in the same boat. After taking the GRE first week of September (in case I do decide to study more engineering), I am moving back home to save some money and get my CFI/CFII...assuming I haven't been in the flying saddle for a bit, how long should one prepare to execute all this? I have seen people take 3-4 months for the CFI or upwards of 1 year....
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I really appreciate it. One more question. How do I put the lesson plans together? Is there a guide to what needs to be in each section and what order?
 
It's kind of comforting to hear others have experienced what I am experiencing. The lesson plans can be ROUGH! It's not the lesson plan itself, it's the development and organization of the lesson.

I have read a ton of books, and reference all of them. Big ones like stated before are the FAR/AIM, PHAK, AFH, AIH, AC 61-65, and AC 61-98.

Other threads here had mentioned some oral exam guides by June Bonesteel. I picked them up one at a time throughout the last few months and they are worth every penny.
 
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