Opinions on Sheble?

mrivc211

Well-Known Member
Hey everyone,

everyone knows that you basically buy a ticket(CFI) when you go to Sheble's in Vegas. But recently most people I've talked with say its actually not a bad idea because the real learning experience is when your student makes the mistake and you learn from it. I'm assuming some of this is true but not all. I'm thinking of just going to Sheble's to knock out the CFI and coming back and taking a few CFI lessons at my school to strengthen my skills.
Most of the guys said if you have a good knowledge of the material then its mainly trying to learn how to present it.
Any comments on this?

BTW- I've had the opinions of two guys mainly, one went to sheble's and one didn't. Both say if they had a second chance they would go to Sheble's and knock out the CFI, start to teach students and learn as you go.
 
I think the initial CFI cert should be gotten the old fashion way. Learning how to teach is the most important part of that rating. After you have some experience teaching the accelerated courses make more sense for additional ratings. I did my initial at my flying club and would do it the same way, and that is after doing the 5 day CFII, MEI course. There is just too much to learn while getting that initial cert to learn everything that quick.
 
This was a concern of mine as well. I want to be a great CFI, not one that is just barely competent. I've had too many of those myself. In choosing a flight school I looked closely at their CFI programs, and found a huge disparity in CFI training. Some of the 90-day Private-to-MEI programs seem to ignore the CFI training. The school I chose is known (notorious?) for its extensive CFI training, with a 60-odd hour ground school, aerobatics, lots of flight time, etc. I believe it will be worth the effort and considerable expense.
 
Don't cheat yourself or future students. I went through a *very* thorough ground a flight training course and thought I was the king of CFI's when I graduated! But when I started instructing students, I found out there was still so much more I had to learn to really be able to teach effectively. I dread to think what my first few months as a CFI would have been like had a gone to a cut price, quickie CFI flight school.

If you know the school won't give you good training, don't go there. There are too many of these places (especially around Florida) that specialize in selling pilot tickets rather then providing decent flight training. I know it's tempting to just "get it all out of the way" quickly and cheaply, but remember that there may be consequences in the future for doing things that way.

Having said all that, good luck with your CFI!
 
Well I'm definitely going to stand up for Shebles. People that have never been there seem to knock the place and they really don't know what they are talking about.

I ended up getting four of my ratings from Shebles including all my cfi ratings. Shebles is one of the few honest businesses I have run into. I signed up for the cfii and mei program. They were up front with me and said that I may only get 3 to 4 hours with that program, so I went ahead and signed up for an extra hour. Well eventually they said that since I'd only done an extra hour of training that it would be fair to just bill me for the price of the program! That was very nice of them! They didn't have to do that and could have charged me extra if they wanted to!

As far as people saying Sheble's gives bad training, that's not true either. The CFI program I went through there was short (8 days, u have to have your writtens done before hand) but it was very intense. Besides, they put you immediately into a class with other students and you end up hanging out with the other students all the time and get lots of study groups in. The ground school is everyday all day as well, and you fly whenever you are not in class. I learned a great deal and felt very confident before my checkride.

And there is one more thing I would like to address. People on here are complaining that they want several months of training to be a cfi. Well I don't know about others but I will say this, when you are going for the advanced ratings it should be your own responsibilty to learn material. If someone needs a ground instructor to hand feed them information, well then I guess they just aren't as motivated as I am. I studied at home all the time for my checkrides. Now I'm a cfi, cfii, and mei. I've got a friend who's been training for his cfi at Westwind since May and he still doesn't have it yet, and I'll stake my knowledge up against his any day. I know I may sound arrogant, but who got the better deal really? Nothing is going to prepare you for teaching like the real experience. And now I am on the side where I will be making money from flying while others are still paying dearly for flight hours just because they think a couple months of training is going to make a world of difference. Well, I'm sure their FBOs and colleges, academies, are very happy because they know they are making a lot of money from those types.
 
I didn't mean to cause any insult in my post. I'm wasn't trying to judge a school I've never been to, but considering mrivc211's comments, I assumed it wasn't the best of places to train, and maybe I shouldn't have made that assumption.

I certainly don't think that you need to drop a fortune to obtain good training as a CFI. If you know whats required of you and can do it yourself, thats great. But the truth is is that the CFI certificate is unlike any other obtained. It's tough and demanding. I think a good thorough ground school and a good syllabus to provide plenty of guidance is essential. Most people may think they can do it all alone, but do not reallyknow exactly what is required of them for the CFI in terms of depth and technical knowledge. I took about 40 hours of thorough ground school, and like I said in an earlier post, thought I had mastered just about everything. But I still didn't know all I needed to know as an instructor. I agree, it's a job you really learn more about by doing. But before starting, I think a very solid and in depth understanding of all topics is necessary.

I'm not trying to say one way of doing things over another is better, or trying to start a my flight school is better then your argument. Just stating my general opinion on the matter. All comments/criticisms are welcome!
 
no offense taken chris, everyones opinion helpes. well- in light of what we've been discussing in the past week, I unfortunetly lost my real job and am stuck in between a rock and another rock. (how much humor I have at a time like this). Anyways, I've made the decision that Sheble's is going to be the best course of action, the main reason being I can't lolly gag around for 6 months unemployed spending $5,000 on this certificate when I could be earning money and having a normal life doing it. Theres no reason why i can't pull out a book and strengthen my skills everyday as I wait for students as well. Life.........will it ever be as scary as when I was 5?
 
I am thinking the same thing.

I am nearly done with my Commercial, and will do the two CFI written exams next week. I have an FBO already waiting for me to get my CFI and I am nervous about the prospect of patching it together here on my own. I was hoping ATP in Sacramento had something to offer, but they dont do CFI Single except for an add on, which I understand the reasoning behind that in terms of their training program. Will be interested in anyone else who went to Sheble's or has visited them...

DeanR
 
Well Dean-
I just finished taking my two writtens for the CFI and will be leaving on the 1st of January for Sheble;s. I'll post a response when I get back. But one indication of the type of training I'm going to get is they mailed me an envelope of all the training syllabus's and study guides to be prepared when I get there. But now that I actually think about it, what do you expect if your going to get this ticket in 9 days. I guess they figure the more you know before you get there the better. The only thing I'm going to hate is getting my credit card statement when i come back. Probably going to be around $5,000 after course,housing, food, and other expenses. Ouch!
 
Hey guys, I'm finally here at Sheble's. It's interesting and different. I'll fill you guys in later. See yah
 
[ QUOTE ]
I unfortunetly lost my real job and am stuck in between a rock and another rock. (how much humor I have at a time like this). Anyways, I've made the decision that Sheble's is going to be the best course of action, the main reason being I can't lolly gag around for 6 months unemployed spending $5,000 on this certificate when I could be earning money and having a normal life doing it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I sympathize with your situation. I was layed off earlier this year. Good news is that I have been instructing full-time since Feb. 2002. Started instructing part-time in 2000.

I trained for the CFI at my local FBO/school and was subsequently hired by them (I was recommended by my instructor and the assistant chief I flew with during training). A review of my logbook shows that while I was working a full-time job, I finished in five weeks, logging 14 hours of flight training, 1.5 hours for checkride, 10 hours of ground instruction, for a cost of $2300. In today's dollars at my school, that would be under $2600. Note that the checkride was free (except for the airplane), since it was with the FAA. A quick check of Sheble's website shows a cost of $4000. Of course, costs vary and quality of instruction is at least as important as price
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I spent about two weeks studying on my own, then going to instructors with questions. At an FBO, instructors are more than happy to answer quick questions to help groom the new CFI. I suspect it would take considerably less than five weeks if you didn't have the full-time job to contend with. And in this hiring environment, I'd recommend getting your CFI where you would like to be employed. If it's Sheble's go for it. In any case, best of luck and I'd be happy to let anyone know when we start hiring instructors again...
 
Well,
I went to Sheble's and got my CFI and along the way got to see for myself how the accelerated program works.

As far as the 'buying a rating' phenomena that gets mentioned, I think what I experienced partly supports that, with a catch. In my class group, those of us who BUSTED OUR A**ES for all 8 days... our checkrides were a breeze. My oral was almost non-existent, I shared the room with a classmate, the DE lectured to us about endorsments.. gave us a little endorsements assignment, and we went on. I had to teach a lesson on the board.. no biggy. Now, there were other students though that I think had problems leading up to the checkride.. and they got the full treatment. Pink slips were handed out for not knowing gear / prop systems.. not reading VFR charts adequately.. stuff I never was exposed to during the oral.

The practical flight went ok. I opted to do ALL of it in the RG to save the DE some time, I think this purchased graces. I thought the examiner was professional and a tad lenient, but hey its not about flying the maeuver perfectly... However, with other classmates, I saw pink slips go out for mistakes that were sometimes big but sometimes minor.. these went to the guys who had problems throughout the week.

I guess what I am saying is that maybe the checkride is somewhat assured, but in my observation it was not assured to ANYONE and EVEYONE, and really all 8 days was a check in a sense..

And this is my own OPINION, but that was not a fun set of days. I had to be a lot more flexible than I was used to, in order to fit in with the 'semi-organized' nature of the program. There were some guys there who did all of their ratings there.. I couldnt imagine a less enjoyable way to enter aviation
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:)

I think I'd go back for another rating, but I'd want to make sure that I did all I could to prepare for and earn the rating even before I went there..

DeanR
 
Now that I've had a chance to evaluate my experience there, I'm planning on going back for the CFII and MEI. I think it will be money well spent, becuase it will be money I'll be saving.
 
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