CFI Challenges

N

njdem82

New Member
Hello All,
I just passed my AMEL Instrument :) which is a great feeling and a relief as even just a week ago I was staring straight at a brick wall in my training. Once again I want to thank everyone for their input which was extremely helpful.

Now its on to commercial and then CFI so in terms of time (not work or growth) that rating is really not so far away. Since it is no longer an abstract I am constantly auditing myself (am I good enough , do I have the skills to be a good instructor etc.)

All of the CFI's and professionals pilots here seem very competent and confident and I was wondering if any of you had similar doubts or misgivings before you became a CFI and also what some of the greater challenges of being a CFI are.

Lastly if you could go back in time are there any additional things that you would have done to better prepare yourself to be an instructor?
 
I was scared out of my mind on my first day as a CFI.
I learned more in the first 100 hours of dual given than in the previous 300 hours.

The biggest challenge is the conveyance of information in a way that is easy to understand. Being able to adapt your teaching style and methods to each student. They all learn different, so you have to teach differently. This is what separates the men from the boys in the CFI crowd.

The best thing you can do to prepare to be a CFI is start learning things at the correlation level, and not stopping at the rote level. The more you learn and understand now, the less you'll have to relearn and memorize later. It's all the same stuff, just a higher level of knowledge and understanding is required.
 
bLizZuE said:
I was scared out of my mind on my first day as a CFI.
I learned more in the first 100 hours of dual given than in the previous 300 hours.

The biggest challenge is the conveyance of information in a way that is easy to understand. Being able to adapt your teaching style and methods to each student. They all learn different, so you have to teach differently. This is what separates the men from the boys in the CFI crowd.

The best thing you can do to prepare to be a CFI is start learning things at the correlation level, and not stopping at the rote level. The more you learn and understand now, the less you'll have to relearn and memorize later. It's all the same stuff, just a higher level of knowledge and understanding is required.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

For what it's worth, I think it would be really weird for a new CFI to *not* worry about what they're doing. Any CFI who says otherwise is either lying or stupid. The things that are no-brainers for me today were fairly big challenges five years ago.

I distinctly remember walking out to the plane for my first flight with my first student, thinking to myself, "Seriously? I'm supposed to teach this girl how to fly??? Ummmm...ok...here we go!" I couldn't believe the roles had finally been reversed.
 
I always heard "you never truly learn how to fly until you CFI" and let me tell you they are right!

I guess my piece of advice is not to be one of those instructors who forgets what its like to be a student. There is no reason to ever YELL at your student because they mess up... we have all tried to kill our instructors (by mistake of course) when we were learning, thats why they pay us CFIs the big bucks! ;) Keep on your toes and you will see when you solo your first student it will be a life accomplishment for YOU and student!

Good Luck! I know that people think of instructing as a "stepping stone" to the airlines but when you have a student succeed at something you taught them, it will be one of the greatest feelings you've had.
 
It is actually very comforting to know that others have started from a point of being “unsure” and succeeded from there. I am working on correlation. Somehow I got it into my head that just because my training has been going somewhat well lately, that I have a firm command over the information. That delusion evaporates very quickly when I try to explain basic ideas to my friends/family and find that I have no way to do it in simple terms. If I cannot explain these concepts in simple language then I clearly do not understand them as well as I think I do.

Next time I start to slack off or say to myself that "I know enough" I'll envision that first walk out with a new student and how I will feel then. I remember how much respect I had (and still have) for my instructor when I first walked out onto the flight line. I was absolutely amazed that he knew what was going on in such an intense environment. With hard work and help hopefully I can be worthy of that respect and trust when I have a student who puts his/her life into my hands.

Perhaps after the long hours, experience, office politics etc I may become a little more jaded, that has not been the case at previous jobs but this is nothing like those. Either way I look at being a CFI as the single greatest challenge in my life. I cannot imagine how rewarding it must be to share something that I am so passionate about and help another person as my instructor has helped me.

As to not yelling at a student, I have been on the other side of that and for me it did nothing but have a demoralizing effect on me. I would never be rude, I think that I would like to find that balance between positive reinforcement and constructive criticism, but it is very easy to type those words. Chances are that it will be more “trial and error” but I really want to reduce as much of the error part of that as possible before a student invests his or her time and money on me.

Well as you can see I am still very nieve about this and do not know what to expect. I trust that the organization which I will work for will point me in the right direction and that I will find more helpful info on this site and other resources (any suggestions?) but the rest will be on me.

Thank You for your responses, I look forward to reading about more experiences and/or advice. The main thing so far is that it seems like others have shared my trepidation when they were at this point.
 
njdem82 said:
As to not yelling at a student, I have been on the other side of that and for me it did nothing but have a demoralizing effect on me. I would never be rude, I think that I would like to find that balance between positive reinforcement and constructive criticism, but it is very easy to type those words. Chances are that it will be more “trial and error” but I really want to reduce as much of the error part of that as possible before a student invests his or her time and money on me.

Well as you can see I am still very nieve about this and do not know what to expect. I trust that the organization which I will work for will point me in the right direction and that I will find more helpful info on this site and other resources (any suggestions?) but the rest will be on me.

Thank You for your responses, I look forward to reading about more experiences and/or advice. The main thing so far is that it seems like others have shared my trepidation when they were at this point.
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Here are two books that I consider "must read" items for any instructor, new or old:

Train Like You Fly
http://www.amazon.com/Train-Like-You-Fly-Scenario-based/dp/1560277076

The Savvy Flight Instructor
http://www.amazon.com/Savvy-Flight-Instructor-Successful-Training/dp/1560272961


Both of these titles are awesome at teaching a person how to teach. So much of flight instructor training is based on learning technical data and oftentimes the "softer" side of teaching is neglected. Never yelling at a client is an obvious one, but there are a million other more subtle tips like how to form an effective debrief, improve your demeanor in the plane, etc. Really, really good stuff.
 
Fake it till you make it.:sarcasm: My first 100hrs of dual given I felt like a total tard. My next 100hrs I felt like I still didn't know much, but had looked enough stuff up to find it quickly. I steped on my own feet a bunch. Just make sure that when you make a mistake, you own up to it, or your students will never trust you.
 
Make it fun. Keep it varied, for the sake of your and your student's sanity.

I found that primary students learned more when we had an understanding that we were both there to learn. When flight training is team work between you and the student, it is a lot more relaxed. Like others have said, own up to what you don't know and your students will give you a great deal of respect.

Best of luck out there.
 
Few more things.

FOI is real. A lot of instructors learn FOI for the test, then never apply it in their training, or the training of their students. I've evaluated instructors with hundreds and even thousands of hours dual given, that forgot the very basic priciples of FOI.
If you truly learn, know and understand FOI you will be a better student, and a better instructor.
 
PFGiardino said:
Make it fun. Keep it varied, for the sake of your and your student's sanity.
Click to expand...

DEFINATELY! When I started, I felt ready however, I knew it would take time to find my niche' and style. Every so often on my own time I'd go back to the FOI books to see if my performance is a relfection of what is mentioned. Every once in a while I'll ask a student to be honest and tell me how they fair with me, what I could do better, or improve on with them. I'll ask questions of their background what they are most familiar with outside of aviation, go home and research the subject to see how I can incorporate some of the theoretical aviation knowledge to fit in with their background knowledge so it's easier for them to understand. Now, when I teach, I conversate. I research and try my best to incorporate "as close to real life" scenarios, use ntsb reports, nasa's asrs reports, etc. Everyone gets frustrated when a student is falling behind, or not performing well. Thankfully I'm a patient person for the most part, but when I feel the frustration kicking in I tell the student, "just fly straight and level" I take a deep breathe, look outside, and say okay lets go to X airport land, smoke a cigarette (if you're like me), get lunch and talk about it. I have found that most of my patience came from more experience, and just shutting up and allowing the student to just FLY sometimes. One thing i've learned from observing other CFI's too is that they use their power against themselves. Yes you are responsible, yes you have authority, but respect, and being down to earth, and taking the aviators and headset off(outside of the airplane) once in a while while dealing with people go a long long way when it comes to learning. Encouragement and praise when praise is due is also an important factor. Congratulations to ya and good luck!
 
nocturnalaviator said:
DEFINATELY! When I started, I felt ready however, I knew it would take time to find my niche' and style. Every so often on my own time I'd go back to the FOI books to see if my performance is a relfection of what is mentioned. Every once in a while I'll ask a student to be honest and tell me how they fair with me, what I could do better, or improve on with them. I'll ask questions of their background what they are most familiar with outside of aviation, go home and research the subject to see how I can incorporate some of the theoretical aviation knowledge to fit in with their background knowledge so it's easier for them to understand. Now, when I teach, I conversate. I research and try my best to incorporate "as close to real life" scenarios, use ntsb reports, nasa's asrs reports, etc. Everyone gets frustrated when a student is falling behind, or not performing well. Thankfully I'm a patient person for the most part, but when I feel the frustration kicking in I tell the student, "just fly straight and level" I take a deep breathe, look outside, and say okay lets go to X airport land, smoke a cigarette (if you're like me), get lunch and talk about it. I have found that most of my patience came from more experience, and just shutting up and allowing the student to just FLY sometimes. One thing i've learned from observing other CFI's too is that they use their power against themselves. Yes you are responsible, yes you have authority, but respect, and being down to earth, and taking the aviators and headset off(outside of the airplane) once in a while while dealing with people go a long long way when it comes to learning. Encouragement and praise when praise is due is also an important factor. Congratulations to ya and good luck!
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Thank You. I have seen how tough the job is and I can't yet imagine teaching people how to fly. But I thought that way about every phase of my training so far so I guess that I will figure it out eventually after some mistakes.

I really appreciate the experience and advice. At the least it will give me a reference for the situations that I will be in. I wish that I had asked more questions before I started my training , I would have saved myself alot of headaches and money.
 
bLizZuE said:
Few more things.

FOI is real. A lot of instructors learn FOI for the test, then never apply it in their training, or the training of their students. I've evaluated instructors with hundreds and even thousands of hours dual given, that forgot the very basic priciples of FOI.
If you truly learn, know and understand FOI you will be a better student, and a better instructor.
Click to expand...

:yeahthat:

Im still a new instructor with about 15 hours of dual given, and i can definately say that if i could go back i would have paid a lot more attention to FOI'S. i have three students now, all private pilots who have never flown in an airplane before, and they all have different learning styles. To be a good instructor you not only need to be knowledgeable, but you must be able to communicate that knowledge to your student.

The day after my first flight with a student, i went home and started reading the instructors handbook again with all the FOI'S. Very very important stuff!!
 
Im not gonna outright say the FOI is junk, because it's not. But almost everthing written in the FOI is common sense. I am not saying that I am gods gift to instruction by any means, but if your anything other than a social tard, reading a persons responses and adjusting accordingly is what the FOI re-enforces, not teaches. Just my $.02.
 
mshunter said:
Im not gonna outright say the FOI is junk, because it's not. But almost everthing written in the FOI is common sense. I am not saying that I am gods gift to instruction by any means, but if your anything other than a social tard, reading a persons responses and adjusting accordingly is what the FOI re-enforces, not teaches. Just my $.02.
Click to expand...

It comes a lot more naturally to some than to others.
 
mshunter said:
Im not gonna outright say the FOI is junk, because it's not. But almost everthing written in the FOI is common sense. I am not saying that I am gods gift to instruction by any means, but if your anything other than a social tard, reading a persons responses and adjusting accordingly is what the FOI re-enforces, not teaches. Just my $.02.
Click to expand...

One thing that I still remember is how some instructors treated us newbies like garbage. I went to a relatively large academy and intructors (some not all , there were many good guys there) would yell at and embarass students in front of people.

One time when I was first trying to fly a traffic pattern an instructor yelled that a " (expletive) monkey could do this better Ive never seen such (expletive) flying". It may sound funny to some now but at the times it crushed me and made me want to give up because I did not think that I had what it took to fly. But this was early in my training and the reason I did not fly a good pattern is because no one taught me how to, once they did I was able to. Critique is neccesary and I could not learn without it ---but it makes no sense to be rude and condescending to someone at any time but especially at the beggining . Later when we can gauge our skill it is easier to brush off.

Have any of you seen or experienced this?? was it more because of the school I was going to?? Are instructors trained to be negative beyond simple critique sometimes to leave an impression??

Personally I would have benefitted from more positive reinforcement at the beginning. I knew that I was not a good pilot at the time but I would have performed better not thinking that I was the worst student pilot that ever set foot in an airplane. Atleast the place I am now is not at all like that but for some reason those experiences really stick in my head. Im not sure if all instructor know how much of an impact they have on their students.
 
PFGiardino said:
Make it fun. Keep it varied, for the sake of your and your student's sanity.

I found that primary students learned more when we had an understanding that we were both there to learn. When flight training is team work between you and the student, it is a lot more relaxed. Like others have said, own up to what you don't know and your students will give you a great deal of respect.

Best of luck out there.
Click to expand...

Knowing where you come from, AMEN.

Too many instructors are either way too hard or way too disconnected from their students. I would do a ton of cross countries with random students and by the time we were done, I had a good look into where they come from and could offer my own input on what they could do better and where they could go from here. Keep things positive. Too many guys are dull because they don't like their jobs or don't have the personality for it. I personally love flying and love making flying fun.

Students are very large university which just so happens to be located in Daytona Beach are WAY too bogged down and have so much stress from school, administration, family, and the terrible people running the flight line that it is nice to see them relax for once.

One of the things I do when I fly with someone is try to get their input at the end. Brief the student beforehand that if they feel anything is out of place or needs more explanation, to let you know. I ask for the student's input on my teaching and whatnot at the end of the flight to get some feedback. Good practice and can help you do a self-evaluation of where you stand.
 
mshunter said:
Just make sure that when you make a mistake, you own up to it, or your students will never trust you.
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Either that, or they won't realize it's a mistake and they will copy it. I didn't realize exactly what I taught my first student until I sat in his debrief with the DPE and listened to him say "That's the way my instructor did it" time after time.

When I was a new CFI I would focus on teaching pilots to fly correct maneuvers. Now I focus on teaching them to make corret decisions.
 
njdem82 said:
One thing that I still remember is how some instructors treated us newbies like garbage. I went to a relatively large academy and intructors (some not all , there were many good guys there) would yell at and embarass students in front of people.

One time when I was first trying to fly a traffic pattern an instructor yelled that a " (expletive) monkey could do this better Ive never seen such (expletive) flying". It may sound funny to some now but at the times it crushed me and made me want to give up because I did not think that I had what it took to fly. But this was early in my training and the reason I did not fly a good pattern is because no one taught me how to, once they did I was able to. Critique is neccesary and I could not learn without it ---but it makes no sense to be rude and condescending to someone at any time but especially at the beggining . Later when we can gauge our skill it is easier to brush off.Have any of you seen or experienced this?? was it more because of the school I was going to?? Are instructors trained to be negative beyond simple critique sometimes to leave an impression??

Personally I would have benefitted from more positive reinforcement at the beginning. I knew that I was not a good pilot at the time but I would have performed better not thinking that I was the worst student pilot that ever set foot in an airplane. Atleast the place I am now is not at all like that but for some reason those experiences really stick in my head. Im not sure if all instructor know how much of an impact they have on their students.
Click to expand...


:yeahthat:


I went through it as well starting out as a young eaglet at a very expensive, "highly regarding" university. I'm pretty sure I gave it away with the first clue. Anyway, some instructors were great, and others were condescending, big headed, and down right rotten. I vowed to myself that when I became an instructor I would NEVER treat others the way I was treated there.

The school I instruct at now had a CFI yelling at his student, pushing his weight around (only 3 weeks of instructing), and it brought flashbacks of what I went through. I took the student aside and said, "Listen man, if you need anything, have a question, or afraid to ask mr. smith instructor a question, just ask me. You're here to learn, not to fend for yourself." After that, I took Mr. Smith instructor aside and said, "Hey, it hasn't even been a month yet, give the guy a break. I'm not judging your instructing ability because your a well knowledgeable, fully capable person of producing a good pilot. Just use your head man and stop being a [oops]. You were the new kid in school at one point too, give the guy a break."

It's funny how certain people become instructor pilots, then a "fast track" miracle happens. THEY BECOME EXPERTS:insane: They know it-all, sport a higher than thou attitude. I suppose they do it to finally feel "bigger." Kind of like the kid being picked on at school, finally becomes a police officer and annoys the hell out of the whole unit, and is a total jerk. Just be true to yourself, to others, and be your best! Be real to people. There is more to life than regs, technical rote knowledge, and everything else typical aviation jargon. And to those condescending IPs, Karma's a female dog so watch what you say/do. Your student, may become your boss or networking source to a job someday.
 
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