Are you keeping up with the times?
Certificated flight instructors (CFIs) are the most underpaid group of teachers in this country. During a recent ski trip to Utah I inquired about a private ski lesson. The cost for an hour of one-on-one instruction was $125. Compare that to the $25 to $55 hourly rate charged for flight instruction. Teaching skiing requires no government-issued certificate, nor does the instructor have to go through the equivalent of multiple knowledge, oral, and flight tests. The ski instructor likely keeps a greater percentage of that hourly figure than the average instructor. No other industry I can think of pays instructors so modestly, and this is unfortunate. Regardless of this inequity, however, we consumers deserve the best training.
A few years ago, I upgraded the panel on our personal Cessna Skyhawk to include state-of-the-art avionics: a whole new stack of equipment that set up the plane for the next decade or more of navigating and communicating with a multifunction display, approach-certified GPS, and modern nav/com. I encouraged my wife, a VFR pilot, to go after her instrument rating.
Realizing that this would be a great way to continue to build time, and she would be learning a new skill with an instructor by her side, she booked some lessons at the same local flight school where she had completed her primary training. Of course, all of the CFIs she knew so well had moved on. So, with an unfamiliar instructor, her new instrument hood, and the new high-tech avionics, she embarked on her first instrument lesson. Needless to say, the new panel was intimidating to her.
Early in my wife's initial training, I learned a husband shouldn't teach his spouse how to fly-leave that to the instructor. But the evening after her first lesson she was not enthusiastic about this new endeavor. Her instructor kept asking her questions about how to operate the new equipment. She had been expecting him to teach her how to use it. On top of that, he claimed she would be unable to take her IFR checkride with her own airplane. Because it had only one VOR receiver, he surmised it would not be able to track and intercept radials defined by a named fix. Moreover, he told her that it would be impossible to define stepdown fixes or waypoints on a localizer.
The instructor neglected to realize that the approach-certified GPS could access all those waypoints, and the moving map portion of the multifunction display would show the aircraft position in relationship to the course and the fixes.
My wife claimed there was no sense for her to pursue a rating if she couldn't train in her own airplane. Calmly, I explained that she should tell her instructor that she needed training on the new equipment, and if he wasn't up to speed she could provide him with all the manuals.
Her second and last instrument lesson ended with the instructor telling her he didn't have the time to learn how to operate this new gear-avionics that, just two years later, have become standard in many new aircraft. If a CFI can't train a pilot to become proficient with today's avionics, who can? Who should?
AOPA Flight Training magazine carries the slogan, "A good pilot is always learning." Even with more than 7,000 hours of flying general aviation aircraft as a private pilot, there is not a flight I complete without learning something new. New avionics are a challenge, and when conquered they offer a huge reward.
The motto "A good CFI is always learning" applies to so many now, but not all. AOPA continues to put forth substantial work on the standardization of the basic functions on new avionics, while working to minimize federal regulation of their operation. The AOPA Air Safety Foundation offers downloadable manuals for many of the most popular models. Manufacturers are working hard to provide interactive CDs and DVDs for advanced training, and other companies offer instructional products as well.
As a CFI, are you gaining this knowledge on bad-weather days when your students can't fly? The flight instructor who masters the art of the new black boxes will be in greater demand by higher-end renters and owners. Word travels fast among the pilots at a local airport when an instructor can unveil more than just the "direct to" function on a new navigation device. More and more, pilots will also be asking, "Is my CFI always learning?"
Related Articles
