I'll be starting my CFI training in a few weeks. I was told that I should get the Fundamentals Of Instructing, and Airplane Instructor. I've tried to find these books online, through Sportys, FAA's website, Amazon, etc... and was unsuccessful, so does any one have sources? I've heard that the CFI training could take a few months to accomplish, is there a quicker way to do this? I've looked into American Flyers, but can't afford the $4K for the 30 day CFI and CFII program. They have a 2 week course, but can't afford the cost of going to Atlanta for this. What else do I need to know about training? Thanks for any info

 

http://www.gleim.com/aviation/flight_ground/

 

Learn from experience. Take the FOI first and get it done before your even halfway done with training. Its just one less thing to worry about.

 

The books you will need are the Fundamentals of Instructing, Airplane flying Handbood and Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge. All put out by the FAA. You can even locate these in Borders, Barnes and Noble, etc...

I took about 4 months before I was able to both be ready and go for my Checkride. There is alot to learn, and get very proficient at. Plus the lesson plans take a bit. You will have to come up with about 30 I believe. By the time I got my CFI I had spent about 6500. This was at an FBO in the Phoenix area. Trust me it will take a bit.

Good luck...

 

You see, thats something i can't get. I know everybody is different but how can a person get their CFI-II in one month @ American Flyers!!!!! and it take others 4 months. I mean 1-4 months it's a big difference.

 

I would also recommend ASA's Flight Instructor Test Prep Book. As far as learning the material the books listed above are what you need but practicing the test questions in ASAs book made the writtens a breeze espcially the FOI test, I actually got a 100

 

It all has to do with how often you are doing CFI lessons. If that's all you're doing is CFI 5 days a week and studying everyday without working and or other school work, yea it's possible in one month. It took me 6 months at 3-4 times a week while finishing my senior semester in college and that was relatively fast for my flight school.

 

It can, and has, been done. Many folks often take a few weeks longer after the academy ends to do more self-study. But it's still likely to be much quicker than doing it all on your own with minimal guidance.

 

Retention is a big deal here. If you do a quickie program, be sure you can line up a job post-haste. While the one week-to-one month programs will prepare you for the checkride, a lot of the knowledge is going to fall victim to disuse if you don't start teaching and putting it into practice immediately.

A longer program, with the ability to spread out your study and really think through and meditate on topics is better for longer term retention, not to mention it gives more opportunity to pick up "supporting knowledge"--things not directly in the PTS, but interesting and informative and which will make you a better teacher overall, especially if aren't going to be immediately putting your certificate to use.

Books: Fundamentals of Instruction, CFI PTS (I'd get the ASA PTS guide, as well), Airplane Flying Manual, Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge are mandatory. I'd also recommend Aircraft Systems for Pilots, the new edition of Weather Services and Stick and Rudder. Gleim books and/or software are handy for knowledge test prep. You should be able to pick up all of those at most decent-sized pilot shops, but between Sporty's and ASA's websites, you should be able to pick them all up online.

Stuff to know: Prepare to take your FOI knowledge test as soon as you can. The test is 100 questions with a question bank of less than 200. This is a test you can practically memorize without too much work. You don't need an endorsement to take any of the CFI knowledge tests (yet...), but you will need a sign-off from your CFI saying you went over the FOI together.

Also on knowledge tests, when you take your Flight Instructor Airplane test, schedule your Advanced Ground Instructor test, as well. AGI has the exact same test bank, plus 10 questions. The same goes for Flight Instructor Instrument and Instrument Ground Instructor (IGI adds a couple helicopter questions, but is otherwise identical). There's no practical test for the ground instructor certificates, so once you've completed your FOI, AGI and IGI tests (or your CFI-Initial practical and the ground knowledge tests), you can just schedule an appointment with the FSDO to pick up your AGI and IGI certs.

Last thing: If you can, find a place that teaches CFI in a plane with which you're familiar. The flight portion of CFI training should be simple--you're already a commercial pilot. All you're really doing with the air work is learning to fly from the right seat and teach while so doing. If you already know the airplane and its procedures, you can easily save yourself 5-10 hours of costly flight time.

Good luck!

ps. don't forget to get your spin endorsement. And, if you can, try to go up in an aerobatic plane for it.

 

JFS, I don't know if you already have your Commercial or not, but if you DO NOT, I suggest completing the Commercial from the Right seat. It can save you some flight time not having to learn the maneuvers from both seats. I had a couple of students do this, and they saved a bunch.

Why it takes longer at some schools than at others is mostly due to scheduling, weather, and the instructor's willingness to expidite you. Scheduling: if there aren't enough planes, find a place where there are more. Weather: if possible, choose a sunny place. The Instructor: When I taught CFIs I only worked about 20 hours per week. With a load of four or five students, it took about a month. There was no point in going much faster than that because it took at least a month to get a date for the checkride with the feds. But if we could have gotten dates faster, I probably could have gotten that down to about three weeks (with the same student load).