Dear Rod:
I’m thinking about taking flying lessons. Can you offer any advice on how to ensure that I have a good training experience? (Question asked at a recent fly-in.)
Neil
Greetings Neil:
Begin by finding a good flight instructor! Nothing—nothing!—is more important for ensuring that you have a good training experience. Begin by doing a little footwork around the airport and chatting with other students. Ask them directly about their instructors. Ask, ask, ask. Your objective is to learn about the reputation of these individuals.
Next, find the local designated pilot examiner (the person who conducts the flight tests for the private pilot certificate) and ask him or her to recommend an instructor that fits your needs (i.e., has patience, likes to teach, and so on). Ask examiners whom they would choose to teach their son or daughter to fly. Examiners know how well instructors teach because they see the results of that training on the checkride.
Once you feel you’ve found the right instructor, make an agreement to fly for three lessons. Explain to the instructor that, at the end of the third lesson, both of you can evaluate how well you dance together (so to speak, since there’s no actual dancing involved here, unless you demand it as part of your training). If you like the instructor, continue the lessons; if you don’t, then find another one. This method makes it a lot easier to escape the clutches of a poor instructor.
Greetings Rod:
I once read an article where you offered advice for someone preparing for the CFI checkride. I can’t find that advice. Would you please offer it again?
Tim
Greetings Tim:
Are you ready for it? Here it is: Be prepared to teach on the checkride.
The big mistake CFI applicants make on their CFI ride is to assume that the examiner is primarily interested in
seeing how well they fly. That’s simply not true. The examiner assumes you know how to fly since you hold a commercial pilot certificate. (Don’t, however, disabuse him of this notion.) What the examiner doesn’t know is how well you teach. So teach from the moment the examination begins.
For example, when you are asked to develop a lesson plan on a subject, create the lesson plan and then ask the examiner to describe any previous
experience that might help you instruct him more efficiently. Then ask him about his learning style based on the language used in the FAA’s Aviation Instructor’s Handbook. Look for something that will help you teach him more effectively.
Begin the lesson by describing the “big picture” of what you intend to accomplish during this session. Indicate that you’ll present the lesson’s building blocks of knowledge while stopping periodically to have him explain the material you just presented. When you do this, you’ll correct the examiner’s (playing the student) poor performance and reward his good behavior (no, don’t pat him on the head unless he’s nibbling on a Milk-Bone dog biscuit).
If you use the teaching techniques that you learned during your training, you’ll impress your examiner. He might even get so excited that he starts panting. If so, now’s the time to pat him on the head and bring out the Milk-Bone biscuits.
Dear Rod:
I’ve adopted a student pilot who has soloed. His 90-day endorsement is about to expire. I’ve flown with him and he’s quite competent. According to FAR 91.87(n)(2), the instructor who gives the endorsement must be the one who “gave the training within the 90 days preceding the date of the flight.” Can I legally offer a 90-day endorsement if I haven’t gone over every presolo requirement stated in the regulations?
Mr. Curious
Greetings Mr. Curious:
The FAA made it clear many years ago that you are not required to retrain a student in all presolo (flight and knowledge) requirements every time you place a 90-day solo endorsement in that student’s logbook. Then again, you should let common sense rule here. After all, you wouldn’t buy a discount TV from a man on a street corner who is out of breath, right? So why should you assume that your newly adopted student is still proficient in these maneuvers or that his original instructor trained him properly from the beginning? That’s why I’d recommend you review the student’s proficiency in all the required presolo maneuvers—every single one—before issuing your first 90-day solo endorsement in the logbook.
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