What's a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

J

Joel

New Member
What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

Hey,

Have any input, would be helpful to hear from
some of you.

I am full of questions since I am 'newbie' :-)

How many hours would you consider a
CFI to have in order to be 'good teacher' ?

I am just wondering how many hours it should
take for someone to know 'everything' that is needed
in order to teach and to be safe at the same.


Thanks,
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

A CFI should be safe as soon as they earn their CFI certificate. It's the FAA's job to deny any CFI applicant their certificate if they aren't safe. The inital CFI checkride administred by the FAA is rigorous and thorough. I feel comfortable and confident flying around with zero time student pilots behind the controls and I just earned my ticket 2 weeks ago. I'm at 450 total time.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

Ah ok, my CFI has about 500 hours roughly, it's funny
to watch him fly.. so smooth, so natural.

He flys about 4-5 hours, nearly every day.

I feel like damn robot half the time.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

Practice practice practice, You'll get there!

We all started out as robots!
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

[ QUOTE ]
How many hours would you consider a CFI to have in order to be 'good teacher' ?

[/ QUOTE ]

Hours has little or nothing to do with it. If you have your CFI you have met the req's for the FAA. I have and I'm sure others have seen CFI's with few hours that are good teachers and CFI's with many hours that are not so good.

[ QUOTE ]
I am just wondering how many hours it should take for someone to know 'everything' that is needed in order to teach and to be safe at the same.

[/ QUOTE ]

You will never know everything. I learn something new every flight.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

I wouldn't worry about it, like someone else already said, it matters on the instructor, not the hours. Well, of course for the most part.
I know what you're talking about feeling like a robot. I still feel the same way, I can't wait to smooth things out...
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

Well hours have something to with it but there are other more important aspects:

1) Is he/she a professional CFI?
2) Does the CFI take the job seriously or is this just "building time for a 'real' job?"
3) How are the interpersonal skills? Do you want to sit next to this person for 20+ hours?
4) How much CFI experience? Hours as a CFI are certainly more important (to a student) than hours hauling checks for example.
5) Is the CFI organized? Is there a syllabus? Does the schedule structure fit yours?

Oh one other thing. While I agree that a CFI is "qualified to teach" as soon as the ink is drying on the temporary, I had to feel sorry for my first couple of students. I didn't realize how little I knew until I started teaching. The (true) old adage is "You don't know who's learning more, the new student or the new CFI."
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

[ QUOTE ]
Ah ok, my CFI has about 500 hours roughly, it's funny
to watch him fly.. so smooth, so natural.

He flys about 4-5 hours, nearly every day.

I feel like damn robot half the time.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember once during training for my PPL, I decided that I was quiting, because my landing were like total dog poo-poo (what's changed??
grin.gif
), and my CFI was just soooo good!! He finally convinced me that when I had 300 hours in Cessna's (he was a boot instructor...), I'd be the same way.

"Wow", I thought to myself. "I'll have 300 hours one day!!!"

wink.gif
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

I had 4 CFIs in the course of my training (spread out over 16 yrs), and the least experienced one in terms of hours (the last one) was the best teacher.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

[ QUOTE ]
I didn't realize how little I knew until I started teaching. The (true) old adage is "You don't know who's learning more, the new student or the new CFI."

[/ QUOTE ]

YUP. Thank god my FIRST student was a commercial applicant whom I was already an acquaintence with. He was understanding of my not necessarily getting each lesson ironed out perfectly and also, he was a good pilot himself so it allowed me to focus on the CFI-big-picture
smile.gif
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

[ QUOTE ]
I had 4 CFIs in the course of my training (spread out over 16 yrs), and the least experienced one in terms of hours (the last one) was the best teacher.

[/ QUOTE ]I always found that the newer instructors, while they didn't have the hard-nosed experience teaching, were always the ones that were most likely to go "above and beyond" ... freshest on the bookwork, gung ho to be teaching rather than complaining that "Airline X" hasn't called yet.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ah ok, my CFI has about 500 hours roughly, it's funny
to watch him fly.. so smooth, so natural.

He flys about 4-5 hours, nearly every day.

I feel like damn robot half the time.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember once during training for my PPL, I decided that I was quiting, because my landing were like total dog poo-poo (what's changed??
grin.gif
), and my CFI was just soooo good!! He finally convinced me that when I had 300 hours in Cessna's (he was a boot instructor...), I'd be the same way.

"Wow", I thought to myself. "I'll have 300 hours one day!!!"

wink.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Magnus or Gopi? Its funny how im speaking english but i bet only you and I know what those to things are.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

If your working on your private or instrument I wouldn't fly with an instructor who didn't have a couple hundred hours. If you can find an instructor with 1000+ hours of dual you'll save some money. It's amazing how a seasoned instructor can tell you exactly how to fix your mistakes the first time.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

Yeah, that makes sense.

My CFI has over 500 hours
plus he is CFII.

He says he is not sure if he wants to be an
airline pilot.
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

Well, I'll have about 350TT when I (hopefully) get my CFI. Preparing to teach has taught ME a lot already - highlighting the things I need to work on.

Secondly, the most thorough and helpful CFI I've ever had, had fewer hours than my other CFI's. 1000 fewer hours.

Hope that helps!
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Ah ok, my CFI has about 500 hours roughly, it's funny
to watch him fly.. so smooth, so natural.

He flys about 4-5 hours, nearly every day.

I feel like damn robot half the time.

[/ QUOTE ]

I remember once during training for my PPL, I decided that I was quiting, because my landing were like total dog poo-poo (what's changed??
grin.gif
), and my CFI was just soooo good!! He finally convinced me that when I had 300 hours in Cessna's (he was a boot instructor...), I'd be the same way.

"Wow", I thought to myself. "I'll have 300 hours one day!!!"

wink.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Magnus or Gopi? Its funny how im speaking english but i bet only you and I know what those to things are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Magnus, man!!!
grin.gif
grin.gif
He was a hoot, but awesome!!!!

Gopi...well, that's another story altogether!!!!
tongue.gif
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

quick, someone call the JC police. I feel a thread hijacking on.
grin.gif
 
Re: What\'s a safe amount of hours for a CFI to have ?

To the orignal poster, A newly mented CFI is still not bad but may not know the tricks of the trade yet. My first student failed his checkride and my next 16+ passed. Even if you do get a completly green CFI, look at it this way. If you were to learn and be just as good as they are, youd be good enough to pass a few checkrides and be a commerical pilot!
smile.gif
 
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