CFI Program Las Vegas

How big is the packet, would a week be enough to complete it before leaving for the class. Also, how much multi time did you have before you went, Im pretty much gonna have to do the multi comm add on. .Was going to do it before, but had to cancell due to personal issues, which made it unfortunetly impossible to make the dates.
 
MPDC said:
How big is the packet, would a week be enough to complete it before leaving for the class. Also, how much multi time did you have before you went, Im pretty much gonna have to do the multi comm add on. .Was going to do it before, but had to cancell due to personal issues, which made it unfortunetly impossible to make the dates.
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It's 27 pages. You might be able to do it in a week if you spent 10 hours a day on it... I'm not exactly sure because I worked on it gradually over a month.

To give instruction you have to have 15 hours in type, so to become an instructor you must have 15 hours of Seminole time. That's why ATP offers a MEI program where you get 14 hours of Seminole time (plus the checkride =15) for those who are not in the Airline Career Pilot Program.

I personally wouldn't say that the CFI pre-test should be a guide to what you need to know for the CFI oral because as a CFI applicant you should know as much as you have the ability of learning... since we have all the books it is _possible_ for us to aquire almost ALL the knowledge contained in the FAR/AIM, Pilot's Handbook of aeronautical knowledge, Airplane Flying Handbook, Aviation Instructor's handbook etc. etc. etc... If you don't read through all this stuff BEFORE you go to Vegas you are not going to have time to cover all of it. That is what is wrong with ATP's CFI program. The program should be 3 or 3.5 weeks weeks, not 2.

Having gotten through it I don't have regrets and you shouldn't have buyers remorse about it, but do plan on some 16 hour days, including your home study and homework. That pace is completely unecessary. And for the record, I'm not a slow learner. 2 weeks is too fast for CFI/MEI/CFII.
But you will get through it. Study the FOI, study at least the first two chapters of the oral exam guide. Be able to either answer ANY question a new student (or the examiner) may ask or be capable of looking it up.

As a CFI students may ask you any and every question. As a CFI you should have this knowledge. The problem with ATP is the ever present focus on "passing the checkride".
I guess that works with for the Commercial licenses, but not for the CFI.
Prior to being a CFI the person who suffers from your lack of knowledge is just yourself. As a CFI, the student suffers if you have any lack of knowledge. "Passing the checkride" is only the begining of the learning process.

I vented a bit much there but I'm done now! :)

<rant off> :)
(none of this was directed at you- just at the ATP philosophy)

The pace of the entire ACPP worked great for me- except the CFI school is too fast. And that does not mean that I pinked a bunch of rides. :)
 
CaptainChris87 said:
if you did the CFI in JAX could you get time in the Diamond? also for the 90 day will I have enough tinme to study for CFI??
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Interesting question... Tons of ACPP guys do it and it works out so it is possible. I finished the cross country phase of the program the day before Christmas, drove home to Seattle and then decided to change to a self-paced so I could do my commercial multi in Tacoma,WA. With weather delays during my commercial multi training etc... I had plenty of time to get the CFI pretest done and do a fair amount of studying. However I didn't have time to read the Aviation Instructor's Handbook or the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge straight through.

From what I've seen its not uncommon for JAX to drop the ball a bit on scheduling CFI school for ACPP guys and for you to have to hang out in the apartment for a week or week and a half until its time to go to Vegas. That would be a good thing if the time is used to study.

I think ATP should remove the TVs from the apartments for the sake of the new students who are trying to study hard while the guys who are finishing the program are watching football etc. If each of the bedrooms had a desk that would help since you end up with a pair of students at different phases of the program. My training partner spent a lot of time at the airport to avoid the distractions of the apartment.
 
I did the CFI program in Las Vegas and had good time. Glad I did it and came out of it with what I expected. I got my certs in the time alotted.

Frank didn't like me too much, but oh well. I didn't complete the packet and I argued with him because of his misinformation on a few things (hypoxia comes to mind). So that's probably why he didn't like me.

As for as being prepared, just show up. Bring what Frank wants and you should be fine. The checkrides were cake and didn't compare to any stage checks I had at a 141 school.

Good Luck
 
wow, 27 pages, and ill only have about 7 days to get er done.. Can anyone break down the checkrides at VGT for the CFI program, ie.. which manuevers are performed for each.. I imagine they shoot the approaches which are provided on the atp site for the II, but what manuevers do you do for the MEI and the CFI(single engine)? Thanks guys...Im just a little worried, i have decent right seat time, but been a while since Ive done the manuevers....Oh yea, anyone have an electronic copy of the packet they could email?!!!
 
the manuevers that you'll do for the MEI are stalls,steep turns, Vmc demo, drag demo, a ground reference manuever (turns around a point, s turns, or rectangular course), single engine operations, short field t/o and landing, slow flight and any other commercial manuever that I may have forgotten...its definitely a lot of information though in ground school but franks a good instructor.
 
DO you think 7 days is enough time to get the pre test done? 27 pages seems like a lot, how many questions, and are most ones we should alreayd know?
 
Well If you're talking about doing the CFI Pretest while your in CFI school, that is probably not the best idea since you'll definately be doing a lot of cramming. Most if not all of it should be done prior to arriving in vegas because there are other things you should be studying as well. The ground school is basically just a review of the CFI pretest with Frank giving you a bit more detailed information.
 
No, I meant is 7 days enough prior to arrival to finish the pre-test...Yea, I figured I would def. be studying my A$$ off when i am there...Anyone have a copy of the pre-test?
 
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