CFI Initial - What to Expect

[Murdoughnut]

Starting my CFI Initial on Monday. Found a flight school at a rural airport not too far away, and a gold seal instructor who agreed to take me on as a student. Haven't flown with the guy before, and I asked him if I needed to review anything before our first lesson, and he said no. I've completed ground school and the written. Likely won't need FOI because I'm a community college instructor.

What should I expect from the CFI flight lessons? Is it just focused on commercial maneuvers from the right seat, or will I dive into scenario based exercises where I act out the role of CFI?

Thanks!

 

[drunkenbeagle]

What should I expect from the CFI flight lessons? Is it just focused on commercial maneuvers from the right seat, or will I dive into scenario based exercises where I act out the role of CFI?

Thanks!

Yep, both. Scenarios are teaching some maneuvers, like a power off 180 or short field takeoff, etc. Everything in all the ACS's are fair game. Student doing something wrong and correcting him, know when to take control of the airplane, etc. Most of the prep has been for the oral in my experience of a few CFI rides.

 

[RORO]

Starting my CFI Initial on Monday. Found a flight school at a rural airport not too far away, and a gold seal instructor who agreed to take me on as a student. Haven't flown with the guy before, and I asked him if I needed to review anything before our first lesson, and he said no. I've completed ground school and the written. Likely won't need FOI because I'm a community college instructor.

What should I expect from the CFI flight lessons? Is it just focused on commercial maneuvers from the right seat, or will I dive into scenario based exercises where I act out the role of CFI?

Thanks!

Been a long time since i did my CFI training, but this sounds kinda crazy to me that he said there's nothing to prepare? Mine had me prepare basic maneuvers, climbs, descents, some ground reference maneuvers, and he followed my instruction to the T. It was eye opening how bad my instruction was. Making something that I found second nature easy and deliberate for anyone to understand was a lot more involved than I had imagined. I'll probably never forget that flight and I think it laid a good foundation for the rest of the CFI training.

You'll probably do much better than I did since you are currently a college instructor, but no prep before a training flight? I felt like there was always prep.

 

[ahw01]

Yes and no. When I did it, it was 90% ground school. Which I self studied. If you’re part 61 thats kinda normal. Lesson plans and the PHAK/FAR-AIM took plenty of time to digest. would have liked more from my CFI on evaluating the DPE as a student vs just demonstrating maneuvers from the right seat, but it is still a test to pass. Just expect a 4 hour oral.

 

[N826AW]

I would be prepared to be able to teach anything on a PPL/CPL training syallbus, both ground lesson and in the airplane. Have you purchased lesson plans yet?

 

[killbilly]

@Murdoughnut - You may not need the FOI written, but you absolutely have to know the concepts in the FOI. Your DPE may not have the educational credential background that you have but he will absolutely ask you questions from the FOI, especially around principles of learning, educational psychology, defense mechanisms, etc - I highly recommend you study that. Evaluation skills are huge, as well as the concept of the building-block approach to learning. For what it's worth, I have found FOI to be useful in everyday life, I still find it helpful at the airline. It's incredibly useful. My old chief used to refer to the FOI as a manual for How To Operate A Human. He wasn't wrong.

You will need to know how to draft/build a lesson plan, and more importantly, how to tailor it for the given lesson. A full lesson on XC navigation for a PPL, for example, will be quite different from teaching chandelles to a commercial student. You don't have to follow the FAA suggested format exactly, but you *do* need to make sure you cover the major bits.

Your CFI mentor may have a certain way he wants you to do this. Mine put me in the airplane and had me start talking from pre-flight all the way through the full lesson to shutdown. Talk non-stop. Explain everything I'm doing, and why. It felt silly at first but it got me in the habit of teaching and doing at the same time, and eventually, I stopped spewing words and started actually TEACHING. When you can fly and teach a steep turn, including catching and correcting mistakes and explaining why, while also managing traffic, practice area and student time, you will be onto something.

The ACS for Private and Commercial is your bible. For EACH task, you should be able to provide effective instruction. A syllabus, either school provided or created by you, is the roadmap through that.

Finally - and this is most important - what is job #1, above all others, of the CFI?

It is to care. Everything else - including safe practices, ADM, etc....is all derived from you caring about what happens to your student.

 

[AA34]

Pretty much what @killbilly said…

I’m 5 or 6 flights in on my initial as well and my instructor didn’t have me do anything prior to our first flight. You’ll be in a new seat so we spent the first flight just getting used to everything that comes with that - especially landings. I would look at the PPL ground reference stuff if you haven’t in a bit. I got my private almost 20 years ago in high school so I had to brush up there as simple as they are.

Honestly it’s been fun so far. Maybe it’s the new seat, maybe it’s the confidence that comes with having seen all the maneuvers. Good luck, look forward to hearing how it goes!

 

[ahw01]

Pretty much what @killbilly said…

I’m 5 or 6 flights in on my initial as well and my instructor didn’t have me do anything prior to our first flight. You’ll be in a new seat so we spent the first flight just getting used to everything that comes with that - especially landings. I would look at the PPL ground reference stuff if you haven’t in a bit. I got my private almost 20 years ago in high school so I had to brush up there as simple as they are.

Honestly it’s been fun so far. Maybe it’s the new seat, maybe it’s the confidence that comes with having seen all the maneuvers. Good luck, look forward to hearing how it goes!

yeh you shouldnt need many flights, you can already fly the maneuvers to Comm PTS, it's about teaching them.

 

[Murdoughnut]

I would be prepared to be able to teach anything on a PPL/CPL training syallbus, both ground lesson and in the airplane. Have you purchased lesson plans yet?

I’m actually creating my own. I like creating instructional material and have found designing a PPL training program to be highly enjoyable

 

[CFI A&P]

In my experience, much of the preparation for the CFI was lesson plans. Either write them yourself to match the ACS/PTS tasks, or acquire them from someone else - but you'll need to review theirs to ensure accuracy for ACS/PTS tolerances on maneuvers and other things that constantly change. If you go into the ride without any lesson plan, or loose plans, the examiner will ask you to teach a lesson (either ground or flight) and you'll find yourself stumbling through it.

There used to be some sort of "hack" if you did the ground instructor (written and FOI) first as it would remove some tasks on the PTS, but I have no idea if that is still applicable.

 

[ahw01]

In my experience, much of the preparation for the CFI was lesson plans. Either write them yourself to match the ACS/PTS tasks, or acquire them from someone else - but you'll need to review theirs to ensure accuracy for ACS/PTS tolerances on maneuvers and other things that constantly change. If you go into the ride without any lesson plan, or loose plans, the examiner will ask you to teach a lesson (either ground or flight) and you'll find yourself stumbling through it.

There used to be some sort of "hack" if you did the ground instructor (written and FOI) first as it would remove some tasks on the PTS, but I have no idea if that is still applicable.

That was definitely a Flyers thing, it’s best to be prepared to cover it anyway.

 

[ahw01]

So @Murdoughnut any news

 

[Murdoughnut]

So @Murdoughnut any news

On hold, unfortunately. The day before my initial lesson the instructor wrote me to let me know the plane went down for mx. The guy didn't seem terribly enthused about rescheduling after that, which bumped into the time life/kids/family ramped up, so I figured I'd put it on hold until probably after the holidays, unfortunately.

 

[Fly_Unity]

On hold, unfortunately. The day before my initial lesson the instructor wrote me to let me know the plane went down for mx. The guy didn't seem terribly enthused about rescheduling after that, which bumped into the time life/kids/family ramped up, so I figured I'd put it on hold until probably after the holidays, unfortunately.

If you want to come to Wyoming for a few weeks, I can hook you up with our flight school. They have a CFI class scheduled Starting Jan 8th I believe. Two week class just for the ground, maybe another week to get the flights and checkride done (depending on your proficiency level).