How do you study the FAR/AIM?

Shiner

Shiner

El Capitan
I'm working on the initial CFI and, without a doubt, the hardest part for me is working with the FAR/AIM. It seems like a mess of legalese and I have a lot of trouble interpreting it. I can't be the only one.

How did you learn to read it? How do you remember all of those numbers?

I think that learning it is important to furthering my development as a pilot, but gosh darn it, it's a pain in the rear.
 
I made flash cards. One side had the FAR/AIM reference and the other had a brief description. Some of the descriptions were in my own words to help cut through the legalese.
 
I used the "open,read, close, repeat again tomorrow" method..
Break it down to what you need to know, most of us don't need to know part 65, AND 121, AND 135, AND AND.... so on so forth so as far as regs, just need to know 91, 61, plus whatever applies to you.. Aim - just read it section by section..
 
Richie Lengel's "Everything Explained". Read his explanation, then use his reference look it up in the actual resource & read it again there.
 
Shiner said:
How do you remember all of those numbers?
Click to expand...

Bunk that. haha. The common flight instructor that can spout reg numbers impressed me the least. Forget the number, but know how to go get it.

So I guess that is my advice from my experience on the regs, don't study it like a book, but question what you want to know and go find it. Repeat that and sooner or later you've hit it all in the course of CFI study.
 
Plan out mock flights with MELed items on the aircraft. Pick origin and destinations you have never been to and dig into details about each airport. Grab sectionals and pic a random area and find the regs/aim references that define the rules and operating procedures


Know the big regs and aim sections but more importantly know WHERE to find the info.
 
The FAR has a subject-matter-based outline/table of contents.

Much of the detail is better learned through application and cross-referenced supplementary material. But after a lesson or so that focuses on the way it's organized, finding an answer (you're not required to memorize everything) to a specific question cab be fairly easy.

Unless, of course, you start off by viewing it all as a bunch of legalese and the assumption that you can't possibly read and understand it. Then you've pretty much stacked the deck against yourself.
 
Thanks everybody, all good suggestions. I'm going to do the flash cards to get used to seeing the numbers, but I think doing the scenario based stuff, even if it's just a mock flight, will help me a lot to put these regs to practical use.

I will have to try putting it under my pillow at night, too. Though the ASA version I have is too thick for that, so maybe I'll just rip out the pages and stuff them in my pillow case.
 
Douglas said:
Bunk that. haha. The common flight instructor that can spout reg numbers impressed me the least. Forget the number, but know how to go get it.

So I guess that is my advice from my experience on the regs, don't study it like a book, but question what you want to know and go find it. Repeat that and sooner or later you've hit it all in the course of CFI study.
Click to expand...

Just know where to find stuff. I had mine tabbed out and the few times I was stumped on checkride I was able to find the information almost instantly due to my tabs. Examiner was impressed. Remember as a
CFI your not expected to know everything. It's ok to tell the student ( examiner on checkride) hold on let me look it up. Knowing where to look is important though.
 
Study from the PTS. Under each TASK is a reference to the (general)FAR required for the knowledge of that TASK.
Find it, and write down the specific FAR number, paragraph, etc., and page # for quick reference during study, so that you become familiar with all the FARs referenced in the TASK.
 
Don't worry about the numbers. That will come in time. I like the ASA one because it has a very nice index at the front of each part, making it very easy for me to look something up. I didn't really study it, I read the relevant sections, and used the index to get through the checkride and day-to-day questions.

By this stage, you should already know the major things, and just referring to the book for the finer details.
 
At the beginning of the ASA version, there is an index of all the revelant regs for each license/rating. Besides that, I wouldn't try memorizing the whole book because it is going to be a lost cause. Know where to look things up and you will be absolutely fine.
 
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