Self study or accelerated course?

zx6rrider

zx6rrider

Well-Known Member
Been studying for my CFI with the intentions of staying local and finishing up with a CFI but am having 2nd thoughts. I'm in a rural area with no real flight school so when I do get my CFI I'll be doing independent work starting with my wife and dad. (Bad idea right?) I understand the material but won't have much practice teaching or much guidance along the way. The nearest place with a complex plane has an instructor who has done CFI instruction but no real program. He said its mostly all self study

Would I be better off going to a structured program or do you think I can get by with the local CFI? I want to be the best instructor I can and I'm starting to think a couple weeks with other people trying to learn to teach each other may be good to develop some skills.

I have a 150 so ideally I'd like to use that for most of it then transfer over to whatever complex aircraft they have. I've began flying from the right seat so by time I go to finish up it should be pretty quick for the flying portion.

Any recommendations for programs in the Midwest? Like the idea of Colorado Contrails but that would include air fare and hotels. Anyone want to go cross county in a 150 to Colorado to get your CFI? Split fuel along the way?
 
You might check out Livingston Aviation in Iowa. But even most accelerated courses will suggest you do your own lesson plans beforehand, so there's still a TON of self study either way.
 
Didn't we address this question a while ago? I thought it was you.

There's nothing all that special about the CFI that requires specialized instruction, so either way works fine. Either way takes a lot of prep work. The difference is whether you will manage your prep work or if someone else will manage it.

Self-discipline is the key if you're going to do it on your own, you need to lock yourself away for a couple hours per day with the sole purpose of writing lesson plans, reviewing fundamentals, memorizing FAR references, finding illustrations, practice teaching the wall, the dog, etc... if you cannot do that then save yourself the stress and loss of productive use of time and just go somewhere for a course and pay them to lock you in the room to do the same things.
 
Kinda, not so much worried about the knowledge part of it this time, more wether or not I will actually be able to teach it. I feel like I understand it in my head but not sure if I will actually be able to get it to the student. I didn't know if the accelerated courses involved enough student interaction/practice teaching to make it worth while or if just doing the local thing and figuring it out as I go afterwards would be sufficient. The instructor I had before I moved was retired airlines/ instructor and after working with him for the time I did I don't feel like I will ever be ready to teach.
 
zx6rrider said:
Kinda, not so much worried about the knowledge part of it this time, more wether or not I will actually be able to teach it. I feel like I understand it in my head but not sure if I will actually be able to get it to the student. I didn't know if the accelerated courses involved enough student interaction/practice teaching to make it worth while or if just doing the local thing and figuring it out as I go afterwards would be sufficient. The instructor I had before I moved was retired airlines/ instructor and after working with him for the time I did I don't feel like I will ever be ready to teach.
Click to expand...


Don't worry about not being able to teach it. It will come with time.

True story;

I had a student a long time ago when I was fairly new CFI. We were out doing stalls. In the pre-flight breif, we talked about spins, critical angle of attack, keeping the ball centered, etc. The first few stalls went decent. On the last one, the wing dropped, he applied everything pro spin, so, we spun. One turn, two turns, three turns. "My controls." They were locked, because he was locked. On the third attempt, I used my elbow to erase the "deer in the head light" look from his face to gain control of the airplane back. I felt defeated as a CFI after that. It took some talking to the Cheif to understand that sometimes, that happens. At that point, I realized that I was on the controls with my students way to much, and changed the way I instructed.

Moral of the story, I thought I knew what I was doing. I knew just enough to keep us both alive. Thats what your job is as a CFI. To keep the airplane from an abrupt meeting with terra-firma. Teach ADM, not how to fly. Install the knowledge you gained throuogh your certificates, and step in right before it gets real ugly. They will teach themselves how to fly by making the mistakes. It doesn't matter where you get your CFI certificates. Just don't half ass it.
 
I would strongly recommend the self-study route as much as possible. Once you get that CFI certificate, you are on your own anyway. Might as well get used to that fact now. Besides, even an accelerated course will require a lot of studying on your part anyway.
 
Thanks for the thoughts. Found out theres an airport about 50 miles from here that the guy brings in an Arrow when needed and has prepped a few CFI's for the checkride. I'm going to stop down and talk to him tomorrow and try and put a rough deadline on getting this done. He seems to think using Gleim/Jepp/King etc. lesson plans modified with your own notes should be fine.....Not so sure about that, I've really learned/remembered alot putting together the ones I have so far so I may stick with that. Hopefully Ill have a good update in a few weeks
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top