There is a long-lasting and not entirely incorrect characterization of Certified Flight Instructors that paints them as less than dedicated time-builders.
It’s been said that helping their students make progress is secondary to their own quest to expand their logbooks and move on to the next flying gig up the ladder. They’ve always got one eye on the airlines and one foot out the door.
With a student drop-out rate of nearly 80% it’s not hard to see why that stereotype persists. It’s not the whole story, surely. And not all CFIs are truly updating their resume and total time in their head while they fly with their students. But some are. Enough that the disparagement continues throughout the years.
Maybe it’s time we corrected for that issue.
One factor in poor CFI performance is inexperience. Understandably so. The position of a Certificated Flight Instructor is a common entry-level position for a pilot with aspirations to earn a living in the cockpit. Few of us have performed at a stellar level in our early days at a new job. It takes time and experience to get good at anything, instructing included.
Ironically perhaps, the act of earning the certification to do a particular job does not always provide the individual seeking the position with the insight necessary to actually do that job well. Being a CFI is a prime example of that.
Being able to consistently apply the mechanics of flight is an essential skill that requires considerable knowledge. Being capable of performing select tasks without violating established standards is a requirement. Having the capacity to explain the steps involved in performing a given task is essential. Applying and expounding on appropriate corrections for common mistakes is important.
The emotional component of the job is rarely considered, however. In many ways the CFI is a support mechanism for an individual who is trying to achieve a dream. A dream that may be difficult to realize for myriad reasons.
Finances are an obvious issue. If the student is imagining dollars whipping out the window into the breeze as they struggle to perform in flight, they aren’t doing themselves any favors.
Similarly, the CFI who insists on introducing tasks in flight rather than briefing them on the ground is doing a disservice to their student. Yet many do. Because in the air the clock is ticking and their logbook is getting fatter. In many cases the CFI may not be paid for their ground work. So, they do everything with the engine running, guaranteeing their students are distracted throughout every discussion and have at least some misunderstanding of every task.
Wasted Hobbs time is a serious issue. Time equals money in flight training, and the student has a finite supply of disposable income to invest. A less than capable CFI can run a good student out of money before they reach their goal. That’s not good for the student’s asprirations or the reputation of the CFI.
Students may very well harbor fears of flying, taking off, stalling, engine failures, and the potential for an inflight fire. Those feelings have to be expressed and dealt with in a compassionate manner. If the student doesn’t feel safe, he or she can’t learn to the capacity they would otherwise be able.
Just as it takes time and guidance to become a safe pilot, it takes time and mentoring to become a good CFI. I was fortunate enough to find my mentor at my second CFI gig. The FAA issued my CFI certificates, but it was Frank Gallagher who taught me how to be a CFI.
Conversation turned out to be a much more important tool than I’d imagined it might be. Simply sitting down at the picnic table outside the FBO to brief my student on what the day’s flight lesson would entail wasn’t the start of it. It was the debrief at the end of the previous lesson where I learned to lay that groundwork.
My students went away from every interaction with me and my fellow CFIs knowing what they’d done well, what tasks they needed to refine further, and what we were going to be doing on the next flight. More often than not, those students came to their next lesson with some study time under their belts in preparation for the flight lesson we’d planned.
Progress!
That sort of dedication to the mission of teaching pays off for the student without a doubt. But it can also pay off for the instructor in ways we might not imagine.
I got my first flying job based on the recommendation of another pilot I went to flight school with. I’ve gotten a number of other positions along the way to where I am today based on connections I’d made over the course of my career. In short, I got the interview because I knew someone. I got the job because I could demonstrate my ability to do the work.
One of the oddities of life as a professional pilot CFIs rarely consider is this: While the CFI is hundreds of hours ahead of their student in terms of flight experience, they may only be six to 12 months ahead of them in calendar time.
Depending on their drive, their networking potential, some luck, and a certain geographic flexibility that might allow them to accept a position anywhere on the globe, the CFI may be surprised one day to finally reach their goal of being hired by an airline, only to find a former student sitting to their left in the cockpit.
It happens.
If you’re going to instruct, get good at it. Your dedication to helping your students reach their goals will reflect well on you for years into the future. If you own or operate a flight school, help your CFIs become the best they can be. Reach out to find them that help if you need to. Being the school that puts out happy pilots who rave about their experience at your school will equate to more dollars coming through your door.
And ain’t that what any business is all about in the long run?
“I came away from working with this student with this observation: The aircraft is a good place to practice, but a bad place to learn.” These are profound words. Stallion 51 spends more time pre and post briefing than flying to make sure every hour flying the Mustang is used and enjoyed to the fullest. Great job Jamie!
Liability is a big issue today. We keep our fingers crossed. Do the best we can and hope nothing happens.
It takes special people IMO to do flight training. Many pilots become a CFI to get the required hours to go off to the airlines. A thousand hours of dual given would cost a bundle any other way!
Nice article Jamie.
We are talking about two completely different skill sets. You need to decide first of all if you are a teacher. You need to understand what that means and you need to have a love of teaching. Often I think the CFI is a pilot who is forced to be a teacher.
I have been teaching flying and have trained flight instructors for over fifty years. What you are talking about is one of the most basic and valuable laws of learning which is the law of readiness. If both the flight instructor and student are well prepared it not only makes teaching easier but really cuts the unnecessary time to obtain a rating.
Nic article keep up the good work
It’s important to acknowledge the ground preparation. I once had a student who came to the lesson fully prepared. He would say to me, “Today I would like to practice the effect of the flight controls,” or “Today I would like to file a notam.” I could hardly ever introduce a new concept to him.
Every flight lesson was like that. I remember thinking that I’m not teaching him anything, rather I’m riding with him while he practices what he has learned by studying.
He achieved his pilot certificate in the least amount of time of any of my students. Today, he is a professor teaching aviation at a major university.
I came away from working with this student with this observation: The aircraft is a good place to practice, but a bad place to learn.
Thanks for this. I’m an older pilot, 52, with low time, 200hrs, only 100 of which is recent. I have a desire to be a CFI as my real retirement gig in the coming years…so I’m not a time-builder. My hope is that although my hours don’t show the experience yet, my maturity will help make up for some of that in my decision making and interaction with students. I like the idea of having a CFI mentor to help guide me along the path…especially in the early days of being a CFI
Hi Chad,
Don’t let your 200 hours be a stumbling block for you. The process of becoming a CFI will give you all of the knowledge and flight experience that you need to be safe and successful as a CFI. The initial CFI is the toughest certificate you will ever earn and the toughest check ride of all. It makes you work, it makes you study, and it makes you really good at instructing. It will also make you a much better pilot. I have always recommended that all pilots take a CFI ground school because just that alone will make everyone a better pilot. Having a mentor is also important in any certificate or rating that pilots seek, whether its for private pilot or ATP. Mentors make all the difference in the world. There is a serious shortage of CFIs all over the country, so go for it and you will never be out of work! Besides, it’s a ton of fun and really rewarding!
Michael Lessard
Being a CFI was a passion with me.like any craftsman it was my desire to produce the best product I could…none of my students ever failed a flight check.100pecent in on it.i had a need to do the best I could Everytime….I gave away alot of my time….but I got the return s I wanted…a student with a cert.
Got mine at the age of 60. It can be done. I’m teaching a guy right now who is 62, working on his CFI. Find the right INSTRUCTOR, not a time builder. Good luck
Excellent article, I have been saying for many years the root of the flt.traning problems come from generations of two hundred-hour CFI’s. As a CFI I only flew with mostly graduates of a local aeronautical university with ALL of their ratings including CFII. During preflight briefings, I would ask the students about their previous training and what I refer to as basic flying technique. The standard answer was ” My CFI’s were uncomfortable demonstrating those maneuvers.”
At one FBO I was at we had a solo student stall/spin on base to final. By the grace of Cessna engineers the 150 recovered itself when the controls were released. His instructor shrugged it off with “well you’re here so it’s okay.” The student was ready to quit. It took the Mechanic,myself, to take the man up flying for him decided to keep training. We took a Cherokee 140 up and did steep turns, stalls and then spins. About an hour later the student was excited to keep going and eventually got his certificate,from a different instructor.
I have had good CFIs and bad ones. However, I can say that if you want to have a good CFI as a student, come eager to learn and study on your own. I believe this commitment in yourself will motivate your CFI to spend the quality time with you. In the end its up to you and not the CFI to actually know the material anyway.
I personally prefer the older CFIs that have come back to general aviation after retirement from their flying careers. They come with such a wealth of knowledge and experience it’s worth their weight in gold. Of course they can tell you why things are the way they are and why you do things a certain way. But then they can also relate it to real world flying.
It may or maybe not be the instant gratification of the Internet, but I’m finding more and more students in recent years don’t care a bit about communication. Hangar flying is a thing of the past, and even older more mature students seem bored hearing my stories during post flight briefings. Talking them through a crosswind landing without touching the controls? Good luck with that … They just want to be shown how it’s done so to screw up later. Sorry to be so negative as an older yet wiser CFI, but this seems to be the “new normal” of flight instructing. Oh, and I do have stories!
One issue that was not mentioned in your article was the difference in what a flight school charges for the instructor verses the amount that is paid to said instructor.
Lots of profit is made by the school in this area and their reasoning behind the difference just doesn’t hold water in my book.
One of the most important skills that any student pilot must learn early on is how to choose a CFI to train and yes, mentor them in all that they will need to learn. This is not an easy skill to learn as there is no manual published that explains the ins and outs of choosing a CFI. I remember this quest well from my own personal experience when I learned to fly in San Diego back in the 80s. I’m not sure what inspired me to spend a ton of time learning about the many opportunities that were available in the area. I had not been through ground school to learn the basics or had anyone to seek advice from. My time spent researching “How to learn to fly” paid off. I learned that different FBOs had a wide range of aircraft at a range of prices, aircraft availability, varying learning facilities, full time and part time CFIs, potentially clogged schedules, aircraft condition and maintenance, and a host of other things I had to sort through in making this important choice. And then there was cost. Cost is one of the deepest pieces of the puzzle. It involves not only the cost of the aircraft and the instructor. There were fuel surcharges, consistent availability of the CFI to support learning efficiently, and even the layout and traffic flow at various airports. How much time would we spend on the ground taxiing and waiting for takeoff? Navigating my way through all of this was the equivalent of earning a college degree. But the more I dug into it, the more I knew how important it was to do this right. I interviewed CFIs at many airports, spoke with FBO owners, and chatted with as many pilots as I could find.
At the end of the day I think I was able to make the right decision. I found a CFI that I liked and had good availability to match my schedule. The FBO was great. They had good aircraft at a reasonable price and excellent maintenance. It was a tower controlled field that had less traffic than most of the other airports in the San Diego area so delays were minimal and the training environment was excellent. I got lucky. It was a good experience. I learned a lot from that. But I am also well aware of the other side of the story as Jamie describes in this story. Unfortunately, he is right, and many students struggle with the process. Becoming a pilot is the coolest thing that people can do in their lives and learning should be equally as cool.
I have now been a CFI for many years, and I know the student’s quest well. Today we can add a few more challenges to the list, like a shortage of CFIs and fewer flight schools to name a few. Getting back to choosing a CFI, this is as I say, one of the most important decisions a student pilot will make, but often one of the least guided and most overlooked. In teaching ground schools over the years, most students gravitate to the ground school instructor for whatever reasons that may be. I teach ground schools online to students all over the country so I can’t fly with but a few local students. But what I do is provide a lesson that I only wish was available when I was learning to fly. That lesson is “How to choose a CFI”. Part of the problem that Jamie writes about happens because many students simply accept the first warm body they can find as their CFI. The first mistake they make in their quest to become a pilot is one that they have no guidance to avoid. That is mostly on us as a training community. That is a key element that the flight training community is leaving out. We need to get better at providing support to help the student get a good start.
On the other hand, it is equally as important for CFIs to be responsible about who they accept as a student. In my early years of instructing I also had some bad experiences in selecting students. While some eventually revealed attitudes or lifestyles that were just not conducive to acting as PIC of an aircraft, I had others that I had to report to TSA because of the security threats they demonstrated. I learned from those experiences as well, and I now have a very specific interviewing process that I go through with students before accepting them for flight training. Often, I can recommend a CFI that is better suited to their needs than I am. The result is providing guidance that will get them the best learning experience they can find. As CFIs and flight schools, our objective should be to make sure that every student comes away from check ride day with the feeling that learning was just as cool as being a private pilot! If we can get better at that process, we will have many more students who complete training and complete with good memories, like I was fortunate to have.
I feel that much of this is generational. No, not
‘millennial’ generation but rather the CFI learned it that way from his/her CFI(s)…and that CFI learned it from their CFI(s) and so on.