LastXdeth

Next semester at my college's Part 141 flight school, I will start flight training for the first time. Even though my priority is to become a great learner and student pilot, I do want to jump a little bit and discover what makes a good CFI.

I've heard many people claiming that young CFIs are often "selfish" and only have intentions of making it to the airlines ASAP, often neglecting the student. I'm not going to lie; I have the same intentions too, but I also want to genuinely care for my future student pilots, providing quality instruction and making a mark in the next generation of professional aviators (not trying to sound corny).

In other words, what should I pay attention to as a student pilot that I can bring with me when I become a CFI? What are things I should emulate from a good CFI?

TurboWill

Pass the CFI-A checkride

JohnBurke

Don't settle for being a good CFI. Anyone can do that.

There are instructors, and there are teachers. Instructors administer a syllabus. Teachers do far, far more. Teachers are students of students; the teacher seeks to find the needs of the individual student and meet them, to explain on an elementary level and tailor it to the particular student, to open doors, and windows and the world. An instructor goes through the motions, whereas a teacher guides a student. Instructors are a dime a dozen; teachers are priceless. Don't settle for being a good instructor. Make it a life-long mission to teach. You'll use that skill at every level of your career, and it's not something you simply pass through on a checkride. If you start now and stay with it, you'll still be learning it when you retire, just as it should be.

A good teacher understands the needs of the student because the good teacher is a student.

USMCmech

Your skill as a pilot has little to do with your skill as a teacher.

In fact having struggled some during your training is an asset when teaching students. The guys who breezed through on talent alone often have trouble empathizing with students who are struggling, fearful, or having trouble grasping a concept.

Panzon

In every interaction with your students never, ever, make them feel put down or inferior. Nothing shuts the door on learning faster than making someone feel small.

whataclub

Have a deep enough understanding of all the material that you could go through an entire lesson without looking at a lesson plan. Not only will it make you look like a more competent instructor to your students but also at that level of knowledge you’ll be able to present the material in the best way your student learns as opposed to doing the exact same way every time by just going by a lesson plan. Also, just think of the teachers you had growing up, did you like the one who just read from the book or the one who was more engaged, had a conversation, and really taught more than what could be read in just the book? I’m certainly not saying they need to be done by rote memory, but you shouldn’t be using them as a crutch.

You should also know who you are teaching and set the expectation levels according. Yes, everyone needs to meet the PTS standards but I certainly taught differently to a private candidate who was looking to start an airline career vs. the 40 year old guy just looking to earn a private for fun. In the former I held them to a higher knowledge level vs. the latter where I didn’t really care if they remember what positive static stability was 5 minutes after the written. I more cared that they knew how to interpret weather, airspace, and FAR’s so they wouldn’t kill orviolate themselves.

TheFly

The pursuit of knowledge, integrity and dedication to name a few. Why the pursuit? Because, you will find out that you don’t know everything. So a good CFI is always on the path of greater knowledge to better serve his or her students.

Stimpy the Kat

It seems you will be answering your own question as you begin training..

You will have different Instructors all of whom will show you first hand what makes a "good" CFI or not.

Pay attention and emulate what works while making sure to never do in your CFI days those things that you found to be undesirable or that had a negative effect on your training experience.

Later, watch and do the same with every Captain you fly with. Catalog those experiences and use them in the same manner as above when it is time to upgrade.

Have Fun all along the way, it's just " airplane stuff "...




Stimpy

bamike

Forget about what makes a good CFI, you haven't even solo yet. By the time you get to that level, you'll know what makes a good CFI.

The number one issue I noticed as a student was that many students (myself included in the beginning) treated aviation as a hobby or something they do for fun, and didn't study for it they way they would an exam or something at school.

The CFI would ask a basic question like how does an airplane stall and some students have no clue. Or they have never opened the FAR AIM and don't know where to find any basic VFR items in part 91.

My main piece of advice for myself if I could go back and do it again: I would make sure to do the reading/studying before I went to the airport. This will save tons of money, because you won't be learning book knowledge in the airplane, wasting gas and money. If you don't know what Vy or Vx is in the Cessna 172, the correct place to learn that is at home, not when you're in the traffic pattern.

This advice becomes even more important for your Instrument ticket, and that's where I really buckled down and hit the books. There is so much good information available for free online that the student nowadays has a huge advantage. You can go on Youtube and learn how to use an E6B or plan a cross country without having to pay your CFI. Take advantage of it.

Delta Echo

Hi there!

What makes a good instructor (in general, not only in flying) .... I ve learnt a lot about it from my dad as he was a CFI ( I was instructor also, not in flying, but tried my best)

He told me the most important in flying, diving, any extreme sports etc is to have a relationship with your student that he is not afraid to be honest. If the student has a broken heart, sadness, may stress in pivate life, it can affect his/her performance.
Some people can switch off and concentrate of the task.... but mostly if we have some bigger private life problems, it really affects, as it can cause mistakes, more mistakes, fatalities as well.

Know your student, know his/her inward state, and know what you can expect.

Also to know till what time the performance is growing... some people can concentrate for 10minutes in the beginning, some 30, some two hours.
Don't push always the student, let him rest and enjoy flying... after many exercies my instructor also takes over, check his garden from above, shows me some interesting stuff in the city or in the flight area etc and let me rest and just look around for some minutes. After the tasks.

And.. the instructor needs to be also enough enthusiastic to explain all small details, like to never forget which for him is obvious, for a student is not...


And be patient of course, but consequent and exacting up in the air, but a good friend and a mentor on the ground.

<3