CFI or Multi Time?!?!?s

taseal said:
I've been thinking of the same...

I have respect for CFIs, but i have seen CFIs that couldn't even land a plane nicely, or do stalls...

after all, all you do is sit on the right, and monitor your student's progress, and once in a while (attempt) show manuevers to the student.

you will def have good knowledge of oral stuf, but when it comes to flight, I think you will be left out.

I'm probably going to invest in multi time... at least I'll be flying the plane.
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taseal said:
I'm not putting anybody down.... man, I always seem to make it look like I put people down, I did this with some freight dawgs here, and I apoligzed, that is not my intention to put anyone down....

It just irritates me when I see CFIs that are just there to make their hours, and gtfo. and I don't want to be like one of those guys... that is all I am saying.
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You've got a knack for it, I'll give ya that!

To help you out in the future, here's what looked bad in your post and why:

all you do- This implies CFIs don't do all that much, or that the job is easy.

once in a while (attempt) show manuevers to the student - see, did you need to write "attempt?" Perhaps you have a bad CFI - I don't know. This comment makes you sound arrogant and cocky.

but when it comes to flight, I think you will be left out.- This is simply a statement made from ignorance. How could you possibly know if a pilot's flying ability degrades while a CFI. I could tell you (even with personal experience aside) plenty of CFIs on JC report just the opposite.
Okay - then in your other post you said you meant hour-building CFIs. Didn't see that in the original post anywhere. I have no doubt some hour-builders suck ass - but it'd better to criticize that group specifically - or better yet CFIs you actually know, than group all CFIs together in a negative light.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by taseal
I've been thinking of the same...

I have respect for CFIs, but i have seen CFIs that couldn't even land a plane nicely, or do stalls...

after all, all you do is sit on the right, and monitor your student's progress, and once in a while (attempt) show manuevers to the student.

you will def have good knowledge of oral stuf, but when it comes to flight, I think you will be left out.

I'm probably going to invest in multi time... at least I'll be flying the plane.



Go get a few hundred hours of dual given and learn something....I think you will change your opinion:D
 
From a non-flight perspective, I would be inclined to error on the side of the CFI. We have an industry that is more and more interested in people who deal well with their surroundings (including other people). Good CRM is a primary concern. Right now, your primary interest is getting an FO spot, but 4 years down the road, that interest will be to move in to the left seat. As a Captain, every FO you fly with will be (realistically speaking) a future Captain. Regardless of who is pilot flying, you are PIC. At that point you will be the ULTIMATE CFI. You will be training captains...one leg at a time.

That being the case, and assuming airlines recognize this (and they do), and integrate it into their hiring process (which I hope they do) you tell me which is more important multi, or CFI?
 
beechpilot84 said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by taseal
I've been thinking of the same...

I have respect for CFIs, but i have seen CFIs that couldn't even land a plane nicely, or do stalls...

after all, all you do is sit on the right, and monitor your student's progress, and once in a while (attempt) show manuevers to the student.

you will def have good knowledge of oral stuf, but when it comes to flight, I think you will be left out.

I'm probably going to invest in multi time... at least I'll be flying the plane.



Go get a few hundred hours of dual given and learn something....I think you will change your opinion:D
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:yeahthat::yeahthat::yeahthat:

I've got a mere 20 hours of dual given and I feel that I have learned more in those 20 hours than all my flight training combined.

Like said before, I believe it makes you better on both fronts, flying and knowledge.
 
I guess we'll let time decide if I do CFI or not... after all, I can't even for anyone here so.
 
Yeah anyone who says that one isnt able to fly after becoming a CFI or "all you do is sit there" obviously has never been a cfi.
 
People always say that CFI'ing is way better than time-building, and that you learn more by CFI'ing, but I'm not totally convinced. Lets me first say that I was a CFI for about a year, and racked up over 700 hours of dual given. I can indeed say that I learned a lot during my tenure of instructing, but I can't be sure that all I learned was caused by instructing in and of itself, or if the learning was caused by just flying, period.

When I had 250 hours, I knew my stuff (as much as any other 250 pilot), but now I'm in the 1000 range, I know a lot more. How can I be sure that had I "time built" to 1000 I would be less abled now? Looking back, some of the most "educational" flights I've done, were me and a student blasting off to an airport far away and dealing with whatever came our way. Not the 1.5 hour multiple VOR approaches flights, not any of the 1.0 hour flights of nothing but touch and go's, not the 300 or so hours I spent doing nothing but slow flight, steep turns and stalls...

Don't get me wrong, you do learn stuff instructing, but people seems to romanticize it too much. They say things like "every single hour I've spent instructing, I've learned just as much as the student has". I've heard people with 18,000 hours who have been instructing for 30 years say things like this. Come on. After you've learned how to teach landings (it only takes about 40 or 50 hours tops to properly learn how to teach landings), doing pattern flights is no longer a learning experience for the CFI.

I guess if your time building consisted of flying the same route every day in the same weather conditions to the same dead uncontrolled field, you aren't going to learn much. But at the same time, there are CFI's out there who's flying experience is quite the same. When I CFI'd, about 99% of my flights were in CAVOK conditions. Am I still a better pilot than a timebuilder who flew to different airports in various weather conditions?
 
After about 200 hours of dual given, I am already very very tired of stalls, slow flight, steep turns etc...

But I've learned about a million things just watching other people fly that I'm not sure I could have picked up otherwise (not ruling out the possibility). For me the first two things that come to mind are basic attitude flying and emergency procedures. I'm sure every CFI on this board has something. Yeah maybe you can work on these while "time building," but I kind of doubt most people would. I guess maybe it's a trade off in that the "time builders" get the longer xc's, but I just have to wonder what most people are doing between getting their PPL and Commercial if not flying long XC's, getting instrument experience, etc. Seems like you can get the best of both worlds...

I think most importantly looking back I had no concept of the notion of "pilot in command" before I started as a CFI. There's something about being responsible for the student's life while he's quite likely trying to kill you that I'm not sure I could have picked up otherwise. This is especially true with my high school students, or those random discovery flights where "hey our two other kids want to ride along too, so we're going to go ahead and place every one of our children in your hands for an hour."

Apart from that, I think I've learned more valuable lessons continuing to hit the books and visit the tech talk forum than anywhere else.
 
Butt, you continue to be the forum's de facto devil's advocate :). All I can say is that if you take 500 hours of blasting off to build time on your own dime vs. 500 hours of dual given, there is no question you will be a better stick and more knowledgeable (and frankly, more confident) pilot by doing the CFI thing.​
 
Get the instructor rating. At this point in your career, a commercial multiengine rating and a block of hours is not nearly as beneficial to you as an instructor certificate with airplane and instrument ratings. The instructor certificate allows you to get to work immediately; earning money, getting experience, building flight hours. Work for a while, then get your commercial and instructor multiengine ratings. Working on both at the same time might just expedite the process and save you a few dollars. Your employer might even pay for the ratings, or at least provide the airplane and instructor at a lower cost than an ordinary customer would pay. You never know.
 
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