Question About CFI Initial

troopernflight

troopernflight

Well-Known Member
Do you really need to know all this FOI crap backwards and forwards for the check ride? Should I expect a large portion of time devoted to this during the oral? I'm sure it probably depends on the examiner, but I was curious what experiences you all had. BTW, I passed my FOI written today with a 98% thanks for Sheppard Air.
 
troopernflight said:
Do you really need to know all this FOI crap backwards and forwards for the check ride? Should I expect a large portion of time devoted to this during the oral? I'm sure it probably depends on the examiner, but I was curious what experiences you all had. BTW, I passed my FOI written today with a 98% thanks for Sheppard Air.
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You need to know it better than memorizing the answers from Sheppard Air, yes.
 
What? Are you seriously asking this? Know that stuff so well that you can recite it in your sleep, otherwise your oral won't last very long. And for heaven's sake, do review it ever so often after you become certified. I can't tell you much it unnerves me when CFIs tell me that they've never picked up the AIH since the time when they were studying for the checkride....
 
I'm sure there is a lot of useful information to be used in the aviation instruction atmosphere, but it just seemed to me that there is a lot of extraneous information contained in that Aviation Instructor's Handbook. I've been an instructor in many different fields in my career, and perhaps in the current line of employment I am in, it doesn't apply in the same capacity. I will say that I have seen some of the psychological manifestations talked about in this manual, but I felt like that written was made with a specific goal to create confusion, rather than serve a specific purpose. Perhaps I have become cynical with the FAA in regards, and I should adjust my attitude accordingly. I'll take all of your advice to heart, and use it with the expectation that it
will be useful. The main thing I wanted to take from this is what it takes to pass the oral. All of these mnemonics seem tedious and I feel like I'm just "roting" this stuff to pass the practical. Adjusting attitude...this stuff is useful...I will actually use this with students...the FAA does not want to make my life miserable by making me memorize this. Sorry, but I'm just used to chapping butts because they are shooting worm burners, rather than the target. Now that's effective instruction! I kidd, I kidd. ;-)
 
It is important to really understand the concepts presented in the AIH and how you will apply them in real life situations. This above all, in my opinion, will get you through the practical and help you as an instructor. Don't just use rote memorization of all the mnemonics, think about how you will apply the concepts and correlate them with past experiences.;)
 
They are called the "fundamentals of instruction" for a reason. Not trying to sound crass with that statement but if you try to find examples of each letter for the mnemonics, you will see that they fit in very well with the psychology of learning. Try to find each defense mechanism in yourself.....I guarantee that you can. Then find the laws of learning in your lessons. Same goes for the levels of learning in each lesson and/ or maneuver. I myself am a strong believer in the stuff and believe that if one doesn't have a firm grasp on the material then they are only short selling themselves and their students by randomly throwing knowledge to the student in an unorganized fashion.


Matt
 
Keep in mind the inspector conducting your oral is a pilot too, he just memorized the AIH better than you. It's a poorly written book with great concepts that I apply every day as an instructor. Don't discount it, just know it, understand it, and apply it in your lessons including the ones you'll give to the inspector.
 
As others have suggested, AIH is very good and relevant information but very poorly laid out and presented. Yes you must actually know it to do your job as an instructor well. As for the checkride, some inspectors spend 2 hours on FOI, mine just touched on it but wanted to see the application of FOI concepts throughout what I was teaching.

If you try to go in with just a few acronyms memorized, expect to fail quickly.
 
I just did mine on Saturday. He incorporated it into every teaching lesson we did. First I taught about Va. We then moved into a discussion on how I decided to teach Va, which level of learning was I trying to accomplish, how else could I have taught it, what type of assessment did I give. It was more or less that and then some traditional oral quizing on FOI stuff.
 
This is, IMO the most important part of the oral because the DPE will start out with this, if you ACE this, the rest of the oral will be much easier and quicker.
 
Think about it this way. Most of the rest of the stuff in your oral, they expect has been covered before. This is the "new" material for this checkride, so you can bet your ass on the initial it's going to be talked about in quite a lot of depth, unless you get some cake DPE. Honestly we probably only spent 25-30 mins talking about it on my initial but he could tell I knew it backwards and forwards so we moved on pretty quickly.
 
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