One of the takeaways from the 2020 Redbird Flight Migration, a virtual flight training conference, is that certificated flight instructors aren’t always quality flight instructors.
“Mentoring CFIs beyond the test can help boost the satisfaction and proficiency of student pilots in flight training programs. At Migration 2020, we dug into practical training techniques that help flight instructors transition from certification to training actual pilots,” Redbird officials said.
A lot of the conference’s sessions have been posted to YouTube, including one from Eric Crump, Aerospace Program Director at Polk State College in Florida, called “CFI: Can’t Fully Instruct (Building Quality Flight Instructors).”
In the 32 minute video, Eric discusses ideas for improving the quality of new CFI candidates and outlines best practices for CFI training, recruitment, and retention.
Check it out below:
Just now figuring that out? My first instructor was terminated for incompetence by the FBO…in 1975.
Passing tests and competence are two different things…the later being an actual quality.
The FAA relied too much on CFI and DPE which diminished quality of train as there no review after you pass cfi or dpe course, as there are no oversight or penalty for bad instruction. As CFII for 3 years and had number of bad instructor I understand the need of system to put in better instructor. CFI milking student for flight hours how does FAA respond “go to another school!?”. I had CFI on the phone while training me on my time. How do you fix the system if is broken? FAA please help. And don’t get me started about DPE the scandal of this are amazing, again I blame FAA for setup up a corrupted system with so many loop hole. Flying are fun hope there are smarter way on doing things.
I have had a number of flying instructors and all except one had very limited classroom abilities. Now my experience is purely anecdotal so your mileage may vary. In my experience most of my instructors were reluctant to teach outside of the airplane and even in the cockpit they really spent a lot of time telling me things and not teaching me things. Trust me, when I am in the clouds and just trying to keep from killing us, I can follow instructions but don’t expect me to know what you said when it is over. When I took my private pilot training I already had 30 years in the military and by chance the one instructor I had who was able to teach in the class room and from whom I received a tailwheel endorsement, was also an Air Force instructor . Possibly we connected because I was accustomed to receiving a structured block of instruction on whatever task I was going to be instructed on, and he was used to giving structured blocks of instruction.
My private instructor was a retired Air Force C-121C (Super Constellation) instructor. I learned things from him that a ‘wet behind the ears’ instructor could never teach. My com/inst/ME/instructor instructors were all corporate/airline guys who loved to teach. Flying with them was fun and I learned to FLY an airplane!
The problem with pilot schools as I see it is lack of knowledge in the right seat. A new student starts out with an instructor who hasn’t even received their plastic license yet. All they know to teach is the syllabus, which is enough to pass a check ride.
Knowledge comes from experience. You get experience by doing, or by being mentored by someone who has experience. I tell my new students that they’re starting with a full bag of luck and an empty bag of knowledge. Our goal is to fill the bag of knowledge before they empty the bag of luck.
I understand that instructing is a good way to build time, and many of us have done that. And the best way to learn something is to teach it. Without a gray beard on staff to mentor new instructors and provide ongoing training, the quality of new pilots coming out of these schools will be lacking.
no school are willing to put in training for staffed cfi, the time and money just not there. in order to do better job the employer of the cfi have to invest into it too. As the FAA is not doing much in enhancing cfi quality after passing the test other then cfi renewal which is another test. there no soft skill or accountable personnel to support these training which is a shame.
Salary upgrade issue stands slim pickings for future satisfaction….FAA 70 years late in development of at least 3 regional, primarily taxpayer funded, academies for civilian instructor candidate students…serious Standardization instruction…could develop serious dedication.. And eliminate Dud instructors….Wayyy too late at this time… sayin’ folks!!!
FAA is not doing it function. 100%
One of the ways to improve the quality of CFI instruction and retain good instructors is related to pay. You simply aren’t going to keep people if they can’t make a living wage. Flight schools need to pay decent rates and not take a huge cut. Independent Part 61 instructors need to charge more for their services and bill from handshake to handshake, not based on Hobbs time alone. Compared to any highly skilled occupation, CFI pay is way out of line. $30-$50 an hour net might have been OK in the ‘70s, but $85-$100 is more in line with the rest of the labor market today. I know we are all sensitive to the cost of obtaining a certificate, but a CFI shouldn’t make less than your average home handyman.
100% Agree
Those rates normally include equipment and hands on labor, perhaps an apprentice assistant, along with a warranty and a number of other obligations far exceeding those needed to simply instruct.
As a new CFI in 1967, I had a lot to learn and my students taught me. Now after over 400 students I am a good CFI. Te secret is to keep learning as a CFI and to learn how to adapt to each individual student and their needs and how the learn. I shared my learning experiences over 41 years with CFIs that I taught in FIRCs graduating over 19,000 CFIs. I considered myself a mentor but never taught one seminar without learning something new.
As a student I have flown with 3 flight instructors. The first 2 were building time. The 3rd was a mentor and loved to teach. He had wisdom and experience the younger guys had yet to gain. Since I had lost the use of my right arm years earlier we worked on a way solve the multitasking issue flying singlehanded. The day I was able to do a short/soft field landing and execute a go around from about 1 ft agl was a major milestone. After reading your comment Gregory I believe you and my 3rd instructor were cut from the same cloth.
It took a conference to figure that out?
News flash, from the bottom to the top,, most people are not fully competent in their trade.
The majority of CFI’s working today are simply using that job as a way to build hours before going onto the main lines, the big score of an Airline job.
Consider the university model – student works program up to Commercial pilot, then gets CFI, and ‘works’ for the university teaching underclassmen. Once they graduate, they’re gone. This makes great financial sense for the university, but the quality of pilot they put out might not be up to snuff.
But they go off to the Airlines, who put some polish on them with their own internal training programs.
Outside the university, it’s similar, but with less dramatic turn over. Pilots get their commercial tickets, and immediately after go CFI, to build hours with low cost. These temporary CFI’s work the field just long enough to get good at the job, if they actually care – I’ve met a few that it was pretty obvious they just wanted hours – and then they’re gone. Often leaving students in a lurch, with poor instruction, poor skills development, and not a lot of understanding.
The career CFI is a pretty rare bird these days, the pay is low and often benefits are non-existent. The cost and effort for the average pilot to go from student to CFI is the same as getting an associates degree – and a substantial financial load. Most CFI’s in the job for any length of time have other work to supplement their incomes -or they;ve been around a long enough time to be the FBO owner/Chief Pilot etc. The few that are doing really well are the ones who’ve adapted to the 21st century, getting online and using social media to boost their customer base/incomes, check out some of those big youtube channels, you’ll see what I mean. Not something everyone can do, nor would the limited market support it.
Unfortunately, I don’t know of a solution for the issue. The market sets what an FBO can afford to pay, the universities have a specific financial and educational model, neither of which is something we can change or control.
Maybe recurring training for CFI’s with less than 300 or so hours dual given would help. Maybe not. There’s really no way to make someone a great instructor if the desire and will isn’t there, and we can’t test for that.
The roughest landing I’ve experienced in 12 years of owning my Cherokee and 25 years of flying was following the insistent advice of a CFI in the right seat about seven years ago. I told him I thought his advice was wrong; he insisted I try his “better way.” We hit hard; no harm done but I taxied to the ramp and threw him out. I’ve trained with great instructors, men and women providing instruction in military flying clubs, retired airline pilots who’ve owned and flown small planes for decades, highly experienced mountain flyers, many others. This was my first and, so far, last experience with a dud, when I first learned that all flight instructors are not created equal.
Curious. What was the improper advice?
To be honest, Jeff, I don’t recall now. It wasn’t right and I don’t have the mental capacity or store up stuff that’s wrong. I not sure anyone does; it seems to me we don’t fly safely by avoiding all the wrong ways to do things; we fly safely by learning and practicing the right ways. (Some of that distinction is just semantics, I’ll admit: I’ll fly equally safely whether I avoid flying fatigued or always fly rested. I’m not talking about things like that; I’m talking about procedures, like flying stabilized approaches. There are lots of ways to destabilize an approach; I don’t recall now which one (or several) that CFI insisted I try; it was bad advice and I don’t need bad advice from an instructor. In fact, shortly after that episode, my friend the retired airline captain, CFI, and decades-long light airplane owner taught me how to reliably fly a stabilized approach. I practice and remember that.
Students are always right! As a CFI since 2015 I know this to be true.
I believe that mentoring from a seasoned CFI with a known formula for success has enormous value. Unfortunately, not every flight training facility has a source of such mentors. Therefore, though the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook has good background information for the fundamentals of instruction, I believe it helpful for new CFIs to refer to publications such as Wm Kershner’s Flight Instructor Manual & Gregory Brown’s the Savvy Flight Instructor, as well as articles authored by Rod Machado. The aforementioned sources provide good, practical references to prepare an upcoming lesson. However, for a CFI to desire to deliver a quality lesson by employing the use of advice contained in practical references, connotes a work ethic that could be a major crux to the whole problem of quality instruction. The moral obligation to prepare one to fly an aircraft safely, whether for personal use or for hire must be a huge emphasis to CFI applicants and those refreshing their certificates. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart…” Do to others what you would have them do to you” are Biblical values, difficult for even some Christians to follow consistently, but should be aspired to. Additionally, the pay needs to be commensurate with that responsibility; e.g., book 2 hours, pay for two hours. We must still face the realistic fact that most will wonder to greener pastures that mom & pop flight schools (even college schools) cannot compete against; but if the right values are encouraged & implemented, the instruction should have a quality that endures and transfers well to the next CFI in line.