The gateway to aviation leads directly through the CFI corps.
In fact, with the exception of Part 103 ultralight vehicle pilots and the arguable possibility that Part 107 drone operators could sneak under the fence without seeking instruction, every person who identifies as a pilot has spent time and worked closely with one or more flight instructors.
Years ago, it was discovered that the flight training drop-out rate was as high as 80%, a staggering number that would ruin many industries. Fortunately, aviation has survived that horrendous shortfall, but the industry could do much better. We should make the attempt, surely.
It goes without saying that a drop-out rate that high must have some connection to the quantity and quality of CFIs on the job. Rest assured I am not attempting to disparage CFIs in general. I am a CFI myself and proud of it.
But I know something that few seem willing to acknowledge and fewer still appear to be inclined to address head on. It is this: The CFI position is initially an entry-level situation.
Serving as a CFI is a critically important job that can become a career in and of itself. A satisfying one, too. Yet it is an assignment typically held by someone relatively young and inexperienced in business. They have often logged only a few hundred hours of flight time. Through no fault of their own they possess a limited understanding of marketing, finance, customer service, regulatory requirements, or their own likely path to a more established career.
That was me at one time. Like so many others, I was once young, inexperienced, hopeful, but somewhat lost.
And why wouldn’t I be?
When the FAA issued me my CFI certificate way back when, the administration was not indicating I had talent, or experience, or some profound insight into how people learn. The FAA was simply indicating that I had met the bare minimum requirements to teach. That’s it.
If I wanted to teach well, if I wanted to stay safe and pass on that goal as a cultural norm to my students, I was going to have to do some serious self-improvement.
Being a respected professional in any field takes effort. Earning CFI status is just the start of it.
Last week it became public knowledge that as many as 20% of check ride applicants do not meet the minimum standards that would allow their Designated Pilot Examiner to conduct the practical test. They get to pay for the DPE’s time. They get to cover the cost of the aircraft rental or operation if they have to travel. They even get to experience all the normal jitters that none of us enjoy but all of us have experienced. They just don’t get to take the check ride.
They’ve been sent off to become a pilot without having the minimum qualifications to become a pilot. Now whose fault is that? There’s no hiding from that one. This is 100% percent the responsibility of the CFI.
With that in mind, let me offer some basic guidance. Anyone who is a CFI or wishes to become a CFI should take these few tips as the bare minimum commitment on their journey to becoming a truly effective, efficient, professional CFI.
- Know this: You do not have to be a great pilot to be an outstanding flight instructor. CFIs are teachers, not air show performers. Your understanding of the basics and the communication skills you employ to share that knowledge are the key to your student’s success.
- Talk to your students, not at them. To teach well it is necessary to establish a bond with your students. Accept them as individuals. Make the effort to understand their fears, their motivations, their financial capacity, and their concerns. These will all become factors in their ability to make progress at some point.
- Brief and debrief each lesson. Do it even if you’re not being paid for ground time. These are critical components of a productive flight lesson. If you’re not briefing and debriefing, you’re shortchanging your clients. Do it.
- Use a syllabus. There should be a plan for every lesson. If the school you fly for doesn’t require you to use a syllabus, do it anyway. There are excellent products available commercially for you to choose from. Consider this purchase as essential as your headset. Both the student and the CFI should be clear on what the plan is before they ever climb into the aircraft.
- Sit with your student to review their logbook and confirm your student’s qualifications before sending them out for a practical test. Nothing erodes confidence, wastes time, ties up resources, and unnecessarily empties bank accounts like sending an unqualified applicant to a practical test they are not qualified to take.
- Accept and even encourage critique. None of us is perfect. There is no rule that says you can’t do the equivalent of an exit interview with your clients. After they complete their training and ace their check ride, it is not just acceptable — but potentially game changing — to ask something along the lines of “Was there anything I could have done to help you gain confidence or competence during your training?” or “Was there something you struggled with during training that you wish we had worked on differently?”
Like the couple struggling with debt before they discover Dave Ramsey, like Tom Brady who was so poorly thought of he was the 199th pick in the 2000 NFL draft, like Sean Tucker who learned to fly aerobatics in an attempt to overcome his very rational fear of flying — instilled in him by less than ideal CFIs — we all need a mentor to help us develop into the top performer we believe we can be.
You’re walking now. Learn to run.
I attended a university aviation flight program and I must of had a half dozen young upper-classmen CFIs in my journey through my ratings (PP, CA, IRA, CFI) to also become a young university department CFI. I realized early on that I actually liked teaching and I especially admired my best flight instructors. I tried to cherry pick the best teaching traits of those individuals with hopes of incorporating them into my abilities to be the best CFI/teacher that I could be. I also noted the worse traits of several of my CFI’s and decided I would not be like them. I agree with the author’s comment that when you get the CFI temporary certificate from the FAA DPE, you have met the minimum level of knowledge and skills to start your journey to become a better, more knowledgeable and skillful pilot/instructor. I realized early on I did not have all the answers and would have to fess up to my student. I don’t know the answer to your question, but I will the next time we do training! Now at 78 years old and lots of grey hair and well over 50 years of flight instructing I am still learning!
Chuck Stone, Retired AA pilot, former FAA check airman, ASI and DPE, I currently volunteer as a USAF Auxiliary/Civil Air Patrol flight instructor, check pilot and examiner.
Semper fi
If you want to learn something, teach it. You will have to find multiple ways to explain the same things. Not everyone learns the way you did. Students will ask questions about stuff you never thought about. And often times they are smarter than you.
New instructors, especially in large flight schools, need to realize how little they really know. Their CFI instructor may have been a student pilot 6 months ago, as was their instructor, and their instructor, etc. Their experience consists of hundreds of hours doing laps in the traffic pattern, the same maneuvers in the same practice area, the same cross countrys always in VFR conditions. But they do it really well! I know it’s just the nature of the beast. I was there 50 years ago. But my instructors had thousands of hours of real world flying experience and were able to teach me things that were not in the syllabus. Find one of us gray beards to mentor you if you can.
Mark:
Don’t give up!
As a 70+ year -old Class 1 instructor, I fly a lot with student pilots who are struggling with landings and their instructors have passed them on to me, to get them past this problem..
At an airport with a 1900- foot runway, we don’t use the techniques mentioned in these comments as the experience would be too fleeting.
The issues you describe are the classic symptoms of the last step that everyone goes through just before soloing:not looking up to at least the far end of the runway as we flare out.
And this habit is easily understandable as we’ve been staring at our desired touchdown point since turning final.
At our tiny airport, we have a road at one end of the runway and traffic signals at the other.
At the point where the pilot should transition from looking st their point of zero movement to at least the other end of the runway, I’ll ask them what colour is the traffic signal or the vehicle on the road, depending upon landing direction.
The result is always the same: a smooth pitch up to level flight, wait only a second or two for the energy to bleed enough to create a slight sinking sensation and then a final, small increase in pitch to the landing attitude.
Most important to resist the temptation to further pitch up. Doing so will result in a long landing or losing control as the aircraft stalls and falls. Just hold that slightly-nose up attitude and let the sink continue. The cushioning effect of ground effect will make your landing better than you expected.
About 3-4 landings like this to cement this new technique and I hop out; your good to go.
Thirty-five years ago a buddy and I bought a Cessna 150 for $7500 because we both wanted to fly. We hired a young CFI (CFI’s aren’t used to being interviewed). On my first lesson she put me into an intentional spin. I didn’t learn anything from the experience. I just saw the world going around. I fired her. We ended up finding an old gentleman who had been an Airforce instructor. He had more hours flying than I’d been alive. He was in flappable. My buddy and I both got our tickets with him. It was a wonderful experience.
PS. We both got our PPL and I got my instrument rating it that plane. We flew it from So. Cal. to Michigan and back and even landed at LAX! Sold it for $12,000!! Excellent choice.
Mark,
As others stated, flying down the runway at low level is helpful to get the sight picture. Work with your instructor on how far to look down the runway to help see the sink rate. You can also use the rate of runway width growth as you descend to help know when to start the round out and flare. Also, if set up to fly just above the runway with power off and try not to touch down, the energy will bleed off as you keep pulling back to “not land” you will end up touching down gently. Last, difficulty with round out, flare and landing is very common problem. Don’t get discouraged and best wishes for your training.
Excellent article. I emphasize the most important job a person has is the job you’re doing today, not the job you had or hope to get but what you’re doing now.
We should all strive to do our best regardless of where we are in the career ladder. A good positive attitude is worth more than a thousand hours of flight time. This is very true for flight instructors.
I obtained an instructor certificate when I was 70 years old. This is after a 54 year career in military aviation, airline flying and general aviation. Now, at 74, I am still contributing to aviation as an instructor. I try to help bring individuals into the aviation industry without a preoccupation with time building. We should be encouraging those of us that have been there and done that to give back to those who wish to be in our industry.
Those instructors who are working through time building to move on to a more appealing job is a part of aviation that is accepted, but maybe we elders of aviation can be a stable force contributing our experience to those beginning their careers.
Think about a second career that can be very rewarding. Helping people to obtain what I had in my career has been a wonderful experience.
I am currently a 73yr old student pilot. Over 60hrs no where near to soloing. Have been through six cfis as either they get their hours to move to pilot jobs or I try to find one I’m more comfortable with. I would rather look forward to a lesson then dread it. Through my life I have had decent abilities at various skills and didn’t think I was a complete moron but flying makes me feel like it. Obviously my age is a big reason I’m such a slow learner here but I have over 130 landings logged and still struggling with the round out and flare. Either pull back too soon or too hard and balloon or not soon enough or hard enough and land flat-footed. Trying to find The Sweet spot… Are there any tips or secrets you guys can think of that might help?
See flour instructor will show you how to fly very low over the runway without touching down. Basically slow flight down low over the runway. After a couple passes ease the power off and increase pitch to touchdown. In the flare transition to looking down the runway a good ways to judge your flare.
My advice is to stop any more lessons and find a different interest! There are some people who simply don’t have what it is that is necessary to be a very competent pilot and safe pilot. You may end up soloing but down the road something bad will happen.
I loved teaching; I loved seeing the lights come on in a student’s head. Loved. Past tense. I didn’t renew last year after 42 years but it wasn’t because I didn’t love the job; it was because I didn’t love the FAA’s emphasis on rote items (acronyms, etc) rather than real world stick and rudder skills, airmanship and practical decision making.. There are great career instructors out there who feel the pressure and I feel for them.
I’m with you 100% because I too have given up my CFI after more than 50 years of flying with more than 25k hours for the very same reasons you site!
“Talk to your students, not at them.” I agree — though as an aging CFI, I’m hearing “I really don’t want to listen to your stories, just tell me what I need to do,” Hangar talk seems to be yielding to societal changes. Yet as an old guy I still feel an urge to impart some degree of wisdom … and regarding giving flight instruction, this urge could very well save a life or two.
Learn from your students because how the learn depends on what they known. Teaching a Naval Aviator to be a CFIASEL. depends on motivation and CORELATION. Teaching a tanker pilot simple transition from CP AMEL 707 how to find a 2000 foot grass strip requires you the CFI. Present the difference and similarities.
Teaching a surgeon to feel the control as the can get feedback from a scalpl helps.
Here’s the thing. In aviation, like most walks of life, most people aren’t necessarily good at teaching even though they may be good at flying. However, aviation is a unique industry that effectively forces all young inexperienced “teachers” to become CFI’s, even though I would say the vast majority have little to no interest; they are simply using the tool created by the FAA and industry to help them rack required hours. By the time most have developed the soft skills necessary to actually teach properly, their hours are complete and they are moving on to the airlines. I recently switched from a “standard” school to a much smaller outfit with much more experienced (and as side note, far better compensated) instructors. It is a fair amount more expensive, but the quality of teaching is night and day.
Good motivational reading.👍 . I’m not heading towards the teaching department. Although I’m not it’s good as a students perspective to know the cfi are dedicated to those with wings. ..
I appreciate the good reading of the aviation group that provides good news and entertainment. Definitely looking forward to more reading in my career paths to aviation. …
I have subscribed and looking for more opportunities to learn fo further experience. Thanks to all in the general aviation news group.