Hello all,
I recently took the 15 day CFI course in Pompano Beach, Florida. There is a 15 day CFI-A only and a 30 day CFI-A & CFII academy. This post is basically an update to this previous write-up on the course which can be found here, under "snowpilot" post:
CFI course online | Ask a Flight Instructor
The lead instructor, Patrick Connell, is a very good communicator and knows how to hit the major points home. He is that old-school aviation instructor that you wish you would have had during your primary training. As of November 2016 he was leaving to have surgery so he may not return for the rest of 2016. He will be teaching most of your ground school, where you will be taking a lot of notes and questioning a lot of concepts that you were taught previously -- especially if you were brought up in part 61 like me, where a lot of your ground training was in some ghetto trailer surrounded by questionable trainer aircraft. If you can type, come with a laptop as well as a new notepad because your hands will get tired from writing.
The students I was in class with were a diverse group. There were a few prior military, retired police, mixed with foreign students going from zero to hero, ATP flight school transplants and Embry Riddle types. After the first few days of instruction, the class will divide into two groups and you will spend half of the day taking turns teaching the other students in your group. It is important to note that you cannot divert from the way the program is outlined: when I say you take turns teaching each other, it is
not one on one instruction with a fellow classmate, you are teaching many students simultaneously in front of a white board like you would at a college or university. So get used to talking and making an ass out of yourself in front of a group of people, everybody does during the course.
AF in Pompano Beach does CFI-A as the initial rating and II as the add-on. When I had talked to other AF academies months before, II was the initial. So I'm not sure if it's just a PMP thing or if it's across the board. The curriculum seems very standardized so CFI-A is likely to be the initial at all locations.
The cost of the 15 day program is $3195. That includes something like 5 hours of ground which is eaten up by preflight/postflight briefing. 7 hours of flight time in a C172RG. It also includes your spin endorsement (done in a C172S). It does not include your writtens or practical test. The 30 day program is $3995 and includes 10 hours of flight time and some more included ground. They do offer your money back within the first 2 or 3 days if you feel that you've bitten off more than you can chew with the curriculum. The days are long and hard and count on getting 4-5 hours of sleep every night tops.
I highly recommend having all of your writtens done beforehand. I had my FOI written done and took my FIA written the day I arrived in Florida, before training started. If I hadn't done that I probably would have quit halfway through the program just from being overwhelmed. Also if you have your own lesson plans written it will take an enormous load of your shoulders. It's important to make sure you can teach just using your lesson plans as an occasional reference every 30 seconds or so.
Checkrides were scheduled as neatly as could be done. South Florida isn't Arizona, there are thunderstorms almost every evening. There were a total of 3 DPE's who administered the checkrides, and they are assigned by the FSDO so you have no say in who you're taking your checkide with. The fee's were 900 dollars for the checkride if with a DPE. There is also about a 5 percent chance that you will take your checkride with an inspector from the FSDO. At the beginning of the course, they say there's about a 90 to 95 percent pass rate on average. However it really depends per class, and I had heard that the August class had dragged their feet a lot and 5 out of 20 had failed their rides. One of the examiners is really tough and had a reputation for screaming during the flight portion of checkrides. Orals averaged at 4 hours at the least up to 8 hours followed by 1.5 to 2 hours of flight. American Flyers does not provide gouges on examiners and they do not allow their instructors to give you a gouge on an examiner. However, you can just ask a student who took the ride, or listen in on a checkride.
All in all I would highly recommend going to the American Flyers Pompano Beach CFI Academy. The CFI rating is very tough and a big jump from Commercial. There were a couple of guys who came unprepared and had to drop out or alter their plans halfway through the course.
I wish that the program dedicated more time to the FOI's. The FOI's are a huge part of the transition from a commercial pilot to CFI, and easily half of the oral during the checkride. As it stands they only allocate 2 full days to FOI instruction.
Any questions, feel free to post them here and I will answer to the best of my ability.
- scorpius