To those who made a CFI Binder........

BoDEAN

New Member
During my CFI training, I made a pretty big binder with lesson plans, and sheets that I collected during "my" training. My question is, how many of you have done this. I am wondering if I should either a) scan all my handouts onto computer, and print them off for students or b) make photocopies of them and pass them out.

Ideas?
 
I make copies and give them out. Doesn't matter....half of the students just stuff them into their flight bag without looking at them anyways.
 
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half of the students just stuff them into their flight bag without looking at them anyways.

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It's the sad truth. It's amazing how many old handouts I found at the bottom of my flight bag when I was cleaning out my flight bag before the checkride....
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I'd say that if you just have your students use a good text (like the Jepp Private Pilot Manual, etc) and you use the same one to teach out of, you can probably minimize the number of handouts that you have to give out anyway.

Save the handouts for the really big stuff, I say!!
 
I actually found that I didn't like most of the plans I made during training and ended up not using them anyway.
 
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I actually found that I didn't like most of the plans I made during training and ended up not using them anyway.

[/ QUOTE ]I'm with you. When we write lesson plans for the CFI checkride, we tend to force them into the FAA mold, rather than write them as documents that we can actually teach from.

I didn't' write too many of them to begin with, but all of the ones that I actually use to teach have been written or rewritten after I became a CFI. They tend to be (1) highly personalized (2) an outline of points I need to cover, including graphics and (3) pretty much unintelligible to anyone else, especially a student.
 
I got kind of carried away with my lesson plans
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... I'd add something then thought I should explain it, then I should explain that, etc.

One thing led to another and I ended up with a 400 page monster... but it's kind of cool now that it's done (pictures and all). I was thinking of selling it to my students and using it in lieu of or in addition to the Jepp / Machado stuff.

But yeah I agree about the handouts... I took an instrument ground school at my college and the guy gave us nothing but handouts; the first and last time I ever saw those things was right when he gave them to us.
 
I never understood the whole lesson plan binder deal. I never made one, I just had some Jepp lesson plan book I bought for twenty dollars. No point in reinventing the wheel. I took my ride with the FAA and the examiner never said a word about it.
 
I hear ya tired, I "borrowed" a lot of "jedi nein's" lesson plans (hope that's okay, jedi!) for my binder and made a few on my own, just so I'll know how to make them in case they ask me to on the ckrd (making lesson plans is in the PTS).

My goal is to have a lesson plan over everything in the Recreational, Private, and Commercial PTS when I go in for the oral. However, most FSDO's bust CFI applicants on practicacle flying knowledge rather than "fundamentals of instructing" type questions. The Dallas FSDO, for one, lists "inadequate knowledge of airplane systems" as the number 1 reason for pink'ing incitial CFI applicants.
 
Yeah, exactly. When I took my ride there was one question about FOI...which was good because I was pretty weak there.
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That's hilarious, I too was weak on the FOI stuff, but was too dumb to include it in my folder.
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Live and learn. I passed the next day.
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have a three inch binder i use as reference...its amazing the questions people ask you that you havent thought about in a while..."how do you figure out the max landing weight in a newly certificated plane mr teacher?" strictly reference..if a student wants a copy of a particular sheet in my binder ill make them a copy, but i agree, lots of dead trees in the bottom of my flight bag for no use
 
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I never understood the whole lesson plan binder deal. I never made one, I just had some Jepp lesson plan book I bought for twenty dollars. No point in reinventing the wheel.

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The school I am working for now requires (kind of) the CFI to brief the student on the lesson/flight. The breifing process is very important to them and they evaluate you based on your breif (among other things). At first I was thinking that it was a bit overkill. However, now that I have been in the situation where you are suddenly asked to "teach me about XXXXX" it is far more challenging that I originally thought.

I think a major area of weakness for CFI's is there teaching ability. One cannot accurately and efficiently teach if they are not prepared, do not understand the subject, do not understand what should be presented when & why, and do not keep a record of what was covered the strengths and weaknesses of the student in understanding of the presentation.

The majority of the CFI's out there are only in it for a stepping stone position. Tragically, they are teaching tomorrow's aviators. We all had great experiences with our original CFI's. I think todays CFI's owe it to tomorrow's pilots to be prepared. I think the lesson plan binder is a great idea and I can no longer imagine presenting a lesson without first cover what will be presented, what outcomes are intended to be, and what the sequence of events in that lesson will be.
 
My initial CFI is in two weeks. I bought a Lesson Plan Handbook for about $50. Can I use that for my checkride? I have about 10-12 lesson plans I have done on my own. I figure I should have my own lesson plans on any of the maneuvers I may be asked to teach for the examiner, and that the examiner can see I know how to write a lesson plan. Other than that it's crazy to write your own lesson plans on everything for the commercial and private requirements.
 
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My initial CFI is in two weeks. I bought a Lesson Plan Handbook for about $50. Can I use that for my checkride? I have about 10-12 lesson plans I have done on my own. I figure I should have my own lesson plans on any of the maneuvers I may be asked to teach for the examiner, and that the examiner can see I know how to write a lesson plan. Other than that it's crazy to write your own lesson plans on everything for the commercial and private requirements.

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Yeah, you can use off-the-shelf, commercially produced lesson plans. Nothing wrong with it - it's in the PTS!!

I do think that every CFI should make his or her own, though....it's such a learning experience!!!
 
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I "borrowed" a lot of "jedi nein's" lesson plans (hope that's okay, jedi!) for my binder and made a few on my own

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That's why they are there.

A question for y'all, are those plans easily printed or are they taking up too much paper? I'm in the process of updating them, adding some new stuff (Citation Type Rating Lesson Plans!), and want ideas on format.

I even found a place that will do a 'print-on-demand' for anyone that wants to get the whole set of plans at once without having to replace their ink cartridges.

Ideas?

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein
 
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