Pilot Hopeful
Well-Known Member
As I begin to work on my CFI license, I thought it would be beneficial to receive input from other members of the aviation community who might be able to add insight from their own instruction (received or given). Specifically, I am interested in areas you wish your instructor had covered or emphasized in more detail.
For instance, I realized early in my CFI preparation that I could not fly a specific bank angle without the attitude indicator, even in VFR conditions. I quickly remedied this deficiency and will expect my future students to be able to maintain bank angles with the attitude indicator covered (though, of course, they may use it after they have a firm understanding of flying by visual references).
I also wish my early private training had placed more-demanding limitations on altitude deviations. Somehow, I feel now that the early 100-200-foot window left me complacent, and though I can definitely hold altitude within 100 feet, this 200-foot window now makes me feel less proficient. Why not start training by requiring the student to hold altitude within 100 feet and gradually moving the window to ±50 feet as the private pilot check ride approaches?
These are just a couple of ideas. At the same time, I realize my instructor covered other topics particularly well and with vivid images, such as putting water and jet fuel in a good fuel sample so I would recognize impurities. Or simulating an engine failure on downwind…an experience that closely paralleled the partial power situation I faced in the pattern immediately after the private pilot check ride.
How about you? What do you wish your instructor had done? What did your instructor do that you found particularly useful?
For instance, I realized early in my CFI preparation that I could not fly a specific bank angle without the attitude indicator, even in VFR conditions. I quickly remedied this deficiency and will expect my future students to be able to maintain bank angles with the attitude indicator covered (though, of course, they may use it after they have a firm understanding of flying by visual references).
I also wish my early private training had placed more-demanding limitations on altitude deviations. Somehow, I feel now that the early 100-200-foot window left me complacent, and though I can definitely hold altitude within 100 feet, this 200-foot window now makes me feel less proficient. Why not start training by requiring the student to hold altitude within 100 feet and gradually moving the window to ±50 feet as the private pilot check ride approaches?
These are just a couple of ideas. At the same time, I realize my instructor covered other topics particularly well and with vivid images, such as putting water and jet fuel in a good fuel sample so I would recognize impurities. Or simulating an engine failure on downwind…an experience that closely paralleled the partial power situation I faced in the pattern immediately after the private pilot check ride.
How about you? What do you wish your instructor had done? What did your instructor do that you found particularly useful?