CFI kits/materials
 

Hey all,

I'm really excited to finally get started on my CFI rating. My plan is to hopefully save a bunch of money by studying for the written exams, reading the books, starting on lesson plans, etc... before going to the airport. I figure that should save money on ground time by doing a lot at home.

Can anyone suggest some CFI training material that is good? Both Gleim and Jeppesen have full CFI kits, with Gleim's being significantly cheaper. I've used Jeppesen until now, but sometimes feel like I'm paying extra for pretty pictures. I'm open to other options also. Thanks, as always.

Lifter, this is a GREAT IDEA.

its really nice to see a CFI candidate that realizes that this is about knowledge and not about spending a lot of money on a quick course "Get Your CFI/I/MEI ind 47 minutes!"

That being said, you do have a lot of studying to do. The Gliem, etc are nice, but really you are studying not only for your checkride, but also for the information that you are really going to use once you get a job. Books that you need to read and probably tab and highlight include, but are not limited to:

FAR/AIM <-this is the biggie
Airplane Flying Handbook (Instrument Flying Handbook)
Pvt and Commercial PTS
Fundamentals of Instructing

And just about any aviation theory book you can.

After this, the next step would be lesson plans, which will be laid out in the FOI. Put some time into these. Some people use them while instructing and some don't, but the exercise of catching yourself up on how to teach each specific subject will be priceless when it comes to checkride and job time.

So I went ahead and ordered a small selection of books separately, instead of a kit...that way I didn't pay for another FAR/AIM, a flight bag, and was able to put in some other books instead.

I got the:

FAA Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge
CFI, Comm., and PVT PTS books
Gleim CFI flight maneuvers
Jeppesen flight instructor manual
Gleim ground/flight instructor test prep
and the FOI prep I already owned.

Altogether, relatively inexpensive and should give me a strong foundation and lots to do for the next month or so.

Thanks

Don't just do the FOI prep, actually read the book that its associated with. Theres a lot of common sense stuff in there, but also some stuff you wouldn't have though of before

Absolutely...working on those sections right now. I kind of feel that they should have put that section towards the front of the book, rather than the more outlined section first. Either way works though.

I put together a "Ten Steps to CFI" page that has helped hundreds of CFIs get their tickets: Jedi Nein's CFI Page. It's the basic information I give to my CFI wannabes and seems to help them out a lot.

Get the writtens out of the way with or without pretty pictures, then get cracking on your lesson plans. The goal is to gain "instructional knowledge" and creating the plans is a good way to do it.