CFIcare

Wow.

Good for you for really wanting to be a good instructor. Many people look ate their CFI days as a torturous, necessary stepping stone. Fact is, it's a great opportunity to really develop an understanding of the fundamentals, while learning to work with different personality types and helping them to achieve their goals.

I've ben out of the CFI arena for 5 years, but my former students still call and e-mail me regularly with updates on how they are doing. (Everything from "hey I got an interview" to "I just bought an Ercoupe")

For you as a CFI, I would highly recommend you get and read Kershners Student Pilot Flight Manual in addition to his Flight Instructor's Manual.
http://www.kershnerflightmanuals.com/

In this day of CD-ROMs and flashy presentations, your students may have a hard time focusing on Kershner's old school back and white text and hand drawn illustrations. Rod Machado's primary color texts do better in that regard. But Kershner's books for instructional value are gold. The Flight Instructor Manual is like a companion book to the Student Pilot Manual. In the Instructor Manual it goes into the nitty gritty that YOU need to understand, but you don't necessarily need to overwhelm your timid, nervous, slightly airsick student with it all. Then you look at what the Student Pilot manual has to say, and it distills it down a bit. You can take that and formulate a lesson plan, hitting the important points, and bolstering your knowledge of the mechanics of how/why stuff happens.

Even so, you will inevitable get a student that asks you something like: "Does the sodium gas in the old radio number displays expand with altitude and does it affect the brightness of the numbers?" An engineer-type student asked me that in all seriousness. Never tell them "You don't need to know that" even if that's the gawdhonest truth. I always asked stuff that gave my instructors fits, and I still do. Last year whilst getting another type, I had an instructor (jokingly) wad up some paper and throw it at me in the classroom for asking questions that kept him hunting for answers during our 10 minute breaks. Say, " I have no idea, but I'll find out for you" ....then actually do it. The sodium gas question involved walking down to maintenance and bugging one of the avionics guys. He said the gas is sealed in there and the only dimming you'll get is from a rheostat. Armed with the answer, I tell the student and now I've just ensured credibility, NOT because I know everything, but because I don't, I said I'd find the answer, and I did.

Doing what you say you will do is a two way street, whether it's an instructor finding the answer to a question, or a student doing the assigned reading. Hopefully your students will recognize your commitment to their success and they will step up and give their best as well.

Of course that isn't always the case, and sometimes you get people who want to do no work and have you wave a magic wand and make them a pilot. Unfortunately you still have to deliver the same quality instruction and standards as you would for the motivated ones. Some will step up and meet the challenge, some will decide it's too much effort.

Best advice here is to "give them their money's worth." Always be instructing. Don't BS in the ground briefing, or the taxi out. Always be showing them something new. Also, never compromise your standards of expectation to "baby" a student that you are afraid of losing. They need to know that this hobby/career is all about learning discipline and improving on the last lesson. If they fail to prepare, don't even read the 5 pages you assigned, and show up with a bad attitude, it's easy: You repeat the last lesson again until they show up prepared for the next one. You waste their time and yours by going unprepared into new maneuvers.

Honestly, these cases were few. Most were hard working, never quitting, great people to teach, and like I said, I still talk to many of them.

In fact just yesterday I got a call from a student I soloed back in 2001. He was getting ready to go in for his first type rating checkride with his airline and he was just calling up his old CFI for a pep talk.

I gave him the same one I gave him for his Private: You would not be signed off if you were not ready. Go in there and give 'em hell. And if you embarass me, I will personally beat your a$$... (I'm 5'6", he's 6"5)

He called me back a few hours later to say he did a great job and thanks for the motivational kick start.

You'll find that you will have a lasting effect on the lives and careers of some of those students you have. Those CFIs you had that did nothing for you? Use them as an example of how NOT to be. The good ones that really lit the fire and made it fun...take those qualities and make them yours.Keep that in mind through the slow flight, the stalls and the endless trips around the pattern.

Best of luck to ya.

Photon

Ah, nice lengthy post, thank you!
I really love you guys sharing experiences with me, will be sure to check in on this topic frequently during my instructor course.
Got the end of course for my commercial tomorrow, hope that goes ok so I can sit and wait for the FAA finally =)

block30

I echo the kudos to you for embracing instruction. Somewhat of a rarity, but in a good way. Your care will certainly show through and I think the student sees that as being 'in this together.'

I feel that as an insructor, my biggest role in teaching a student isn't in teaching very technical subjects, but rather building proper habit patterns. For example, clearing the area before turning every time is more important than memorizing every little stipulation of the FARs or what have you (in my opinion). So establish the habit patterns and the rest will come later. And heck, the habit pattern items are usually simple, the trick is doing them consistently!

Also, I give students written feedback on the lesson and tell them to armchair fly the flight again at home because visualization is powerful (and cheap!). I then ask for them to give a written critique of their own performance, questions they have, concerns they have, and a critique of MY performance during the lesson. The students then bring back their written feedback on their next lesson. Their feedback puts me at hour 3, or 9, or 20, etc., in order to remind me of what it's like to be 'back then.'

Be ready for the students not pointing the nose down the runway on touchdown during landings and sometimes on takeoff. I find Kershner's words about directional control being a problem to be true. So be ready with your feet! Do not put up with those who fight back for control. Inform students you may be applying correcting pressures to the controls so they know to expect that, especially in the early stages.

Have fun, and let me, if not all of us know what you learn about being a great instructor! I'd like to know what you experience.

Photon

I will be sure too keep you guys updated as I progress
Something I've seen from my own instructor - that has kind of hampered me in a way now in my later stages of training - is that, in my opinion he has helped me too much when I fly.
He has always been the one to do the position reports before doing maneuvers, and he always sets the transponder for me, and I would say he doesn't nag enough about me doing the checklists consistently, identifying VORs consistently, pre maneuver checklists and other things. He basically lets me "get away with" too many things. I guess I could blame myself as well for not demanding it of myself, but that only goes so far.
This became apparent too me a few times when I'm on a checkride, or when I'm going out for a rental flight. I'm at a position right before take-off and I notice I haven't set the transponder code. Or basically having to force myself to remember to do the important things like checklists and identification of VORs when I'm on a checkride. Makes it hard when it's not engraved as a habit.

So, I had a question regarding all of this, how much help do you guys usually give the students in the different stages of training?
As to helping student pilots with rudder pressure that might be a good thing in the beginning, but if the student begins to expect the airplane to magically align with the runway, when do you start to let him do the mistakes to make him learn to do it right?
Also regarding things like checklists, transponder, radio calls, etc etc, how much do you help the student with. When the student is in an advanced stage of training, like instrument, commercial etc, how much do you really help with?
Hope my question wasn't all too confusing, thanks again guys =)

CFIcare

It's temping to "help" at first, but as you have discovered, you just reinforce that magically the transponder will turn itself on, or the ball will magically stayed centered. As a student I hated when the CFI would just "do" stuff and set stuff up. Let me do it. I have to do it on the checkride, right?

You get a feel of a new student's ability and learning curve pretty quickly after you've been instructing for a few months. With most people on their first few lessons, I might have had to help on taxi and takeoff with the rudder until they got the coordination down. Most could do the first takeoff, and after an hour of climbs and descents referencing the horizon (not the instruments), I could usually talk them through a descent and landing, with one hand ready to help if needed. In most cases, if the winds were good, they could hold a 65kt descent with the flaps in just fine. I'd call when to throttle back, tell them when to gently level off, then thanks to an hour of practicing referencing the cowling and the horizon, I'd tell them when to keep the cowling on the horizon at the end of the runway until the tires chirped. They didn't know about flaring, airspeeds, sink rate, ...just outside reference and RPM. The only time I'd help is if they were a little timid on holding the nose up. Don't wanna bounce it, especially on those flight school nosewheels...probably would break off.

The student leaves completely stoked that on their first or second lesson, they feel that they have done a takeoff and landing practically unassisted. Soon enough they will learn about all the details and variables, but I'll tell ya what they are raring to come back and do it again.

Make it fun, let them learn, know when to step in, and don't let them feel bad when you do. Explain, teach, reinforce and reward them when they do well.

The first lessons are crucial. You know about the law of primacy. If you get their head inside on the gauges it may be a hard habit to break. I had a great instructor once who sensed me getting fixated on instruments during my commercial maneuvers. He brought a huge pillowcase and covered the whole instrument panel of the 172. He was right in that I oughta know approximately what airspeed and RPM I'm at by the sound of the engine and the outside sight picture. We flew patterns and he'd peek under the pillowcase every once in a while and show me...look you're at 800'...1700rpm...all that by feel and listening to the airplane. I added that to my bag of tricks and when I became a CFI, my students knew what was up when the "Pillowcase of Doom" showed up.

So back to the original question. Don't help them if they don't need help. Do help if safety is an issue, or they are developing a bad habit. Remember that 99.9% of them really do not want disappoint you, and your approval is important. When you are critiquing them, keep this in mind. Some egos are more fragile than others.

CFIcare

It's temping to "help" at first, but as you have discovered, you just reinforce that magically the transponder will turn itself on, or the ball will magically stayed centered. As a student I hated when the CFI would just "do" stuff and set stuff up. Let me do it. I have to do it on the checkride, right?

You get a feel of someone's ability and learning curve pretty quickly after you've been instructing for a few months. With most people on their first few lessons, I might have to help on taxi and takeoff with the rudder until they got the coordination down, but most could do the first takeoff, and after an hour of climbs and descents referencing the horizon (not the instruments), I could usually talk them through a descent and landing, with one hand ready to help if needed. In most cases, if the winds were good, they could hold a 65kt descent with the flaps in just fine. I'd call when to throttle back, tell them when to gently level off, then thanks to an hour of practicing referencing the cowling and the horizon, I'd tell them when to keep the cowling on the horizon at the end of the runway. They didn't know about flaring, airspeeds, sink rate, ...just outside reference and RPM. The only time I'd help is if they were a little timid on holding the nose up. Don't wanna bounce it, especially on those flight school nosewheels. Probably would break off.

Student leaves completely stoked that on their first or second lesson, they feel that they have done a takeoff and landing practically unassisted. Soon enough they will learn about all the details and variables, but I'll tell ya what they are raring to come back and do it again.

Make it fun, let them learn, know when to step in, and don't let them feel bad when you do. Explain, teach, reinforce and reward them when they do well.

The first lessons are crucial. You know about the law of primacy. If you get their head inside on the gauges it may be a hard habit to break. I had a great instructor once who sensed me getting fixated on instruments during my commercial maneuvers. He brought a huge pillowcase and covered the whole instrument panel of the 172. He was right in that I oughta know approximately what airspeed and RPM I'm at by the sound of the engine and the outside sight picture. We flew patterns and he'd peek under the pillowcase every once in a while and show me...look you're at 800'...1700rpm...all that by feel and listening to the airplane. I added that to my bag of tricks and when I became a CFI, my students knew what was up when the "Pillowcase of Doom" showed up.

So back to the original question. Don't help them if they don't need help. Do help if safety is an issue, or they are developing a bad habit. Remember that 99.9% of them really do not want disappoint you, and your approval is important. When you are critiquing them, keep this in mind. Some egos are more fragile than others.

Swat

Enjoy teaching and you will be successful.
Cover all the instruments eventually with the student and teach them how to fly by feel, sight and sound. It will save their life some day.
Conversly start teaching them how to use all the instruments from the beginning even though they may not be a IFR student, it will allow them to get out of a bad situation competently.
Start routinely throwing emergencies at them way before they solo. It will help their confidence.
Really Spin and unusual attitude all your students. It's a life saver!
Teach them what their feet and the rudder pedals are for unless you can teach in a taildragger which is the way it should be done.
Always encourage, never yell and tell them that you appreciate them!

Photon

That's all very good advice, makes me wish it had been one to me at some point :P.
In any case, another thing that sprung to mind.
At this point I'm still looking at all of this from a pretty ignorant perspective, but knowing the person I am and what I enjoy doing, seeing myself as an instructor seems like something I could really enjoy doing, and something I would want to keep doing to some extent. Keeping that in mind, after I'm done with my two years here in Florida, my US Visa is expired and I have to go back to Norway, I can see myself getting the European instructor licenses at some point down to road if I get a job and have the time.
From what I know, most companies in Norway have a 5 week on, 5 week off, 5 weeks on, 4 weeks off etc kind of schedule, does flight instructing to some extent in the weeks off sound like something that someone could do?
If I really enjoy it, which I hope I will, it would be something I would like to continue doing in some way if I can

celticpilot

The best thing that you can do is to find a flight school that has career instructors. Ones that are old school and do know just about everything. Do not, do not, do not work for a pilot mill that teaches airline checklists and procedures to a student flying a warrior or skyhawk. For the love of God, it is a warrior, not an airbus.

Honestly, it takes about 1000 or so hours to get really good at it. Get tailwheel and aerobatic training (so you really know what the pilot and the airplane are capable of doing). I am sooooo tired of students who come to us with tales of complete garbage instruction.

The latest is the power on stall in a 172, where the student told me that at their old school (large multiengine school with locations throughout the U.S.) would only allow them to put the power at 1800 RPM's max and would not do turning stalls as they were dangerous. Really???????

Base your teaching on knowledge, not B.S. If I had my way, alot of schools would be indicted for fraud for the amount of money they take from a student and yet how little instruction they actually give.

Good luck to you.

IFly17

First thing, be prepared for a question a couple times a week you have no idea what you are being asked and have no idea about the answer. I had an instructor in college who would say he'd find it for our next lesson and it bothered me. I'd often forget, and so would he. As an instructor, when I was asked those questions, I would be honest say I don't know and let's look it up together.

Secondly, Cubdriver is right on with his remarks about the FAA pubs and the commercially available stuff. The Jep/King/ASA/Rod Machado books are often better, but you need to know what the FAA says for your checkride. An inspector on your checkride can't argue with what the FAA books say, but they can with a non-FAA pub. I did not even take my Jep books on my CFI ride, but I used them a lot more when I was instructing.

Good luck! Keep an open mind cause you will learn an awful lot from your students!