Earning the CFI rating is unlike obtaining any rating a pilot already has. Until going after the CFI, a pilot has faced a maneuver and checkride completion standard of “demonstrating satisfactory knowledge of a task or flight operation.” Suddenly, you, the applicant, are going to have to demonstrate what the FAA refers to as “instructional knowledge” of that task or flight operation—you’re going to have to know the why and how, not just have enough understanding to get by.
What does that mean? Putting it simply, you’re going to have to know all of the material required for a private and commercial rating and be able to explain it clearly as we’ll as be able to demonstrate the ability to modify your teaching method to meet the learning method of an individual student.
Huh? What does that have to do with flying? If it’s an airplane, lead me to it and I’ll fly it so we’ll that it will sing. What’s all this about meeting learning needs of individual students? All they need to do is watch me and they’ll learn. The rest of that is touchy-feely mumbo jumbo.
Welcome to human factors 101. For the last 100-plus years of powered flight, organizations that teach people how to fly, especially the military and on-purpose civilian aeronautical educators, have learned a great deal about how human beings learn and how to teach them effectively. One upshot of learning how to teach people how to teach is that despite what is said about good old days, pilots are doing a better job being pilots than any time in history. That includes not just wrapping their sweaty palms around the flight controls but making good decisions and exercising appropriate judgment. The general aviation accident rate has been steadily declining and it’s been nearly 15 years since the last fatal U.S. airline accident.
CFIs and Flight Safety
We think that good-quality flight instruction has played a significant role in making aviation safer. That’s the good news.
Where it gets challenging is that the FAA agrees that good instructors and flight instruction is vital for aviation safety. Accordingly, the FAA considers flight instructors to be conduits to general aviation pilots. So it demands a great deal of anyone who wants to become an instructor. That’s why becoming a CFI is no walk in the park.
With that as preamble, we’ll note that the realities of the current general aviation market are that the route to a position as a professional pilot includes becoming a flight instructor. The jobs hauling canceled checks in clapped-out Beech 18s dried up long ago—if you need to build time for your dream flying job, the odds are that you’ll do it as a flight instructor.
That means two things, in our opinion: first, a recognition that you’ll have to work hard to become a CFI. Second, a solid understanding that as a CFI you have a great deal of responsibility to those you fly with and influence. That means you must have a willingness to live up to that responsibility. Human beings will be relying on you to keep them alive and teach them judgment and skills that they’ll need for the rest of their lives. Living up to that responsibility of being a CFI will go a long way, in our opinion, toward living up to the responsibility you may someday have to an airliner full of passengers relying on you for their immediate future.
The Ratings
There are three CFI ratings for airplanes—for space, we’re limiting this discussion to airplanes—airplane single-engine, airplane multi-engine and instrument airplane.
There are three written examinations applicable to the various CFI airplane ratings. The Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI) must be completed by all CFI applicants unless she or he meets one of the FAR 61.185(b) requirements to be exempted from the test—by already holding a flight or ground instructor certificate or being a teacher or college professor at the level set out in the reg.
The second is Flight Instructor Airplane (FIA) and the third is Flight Instructor Instrument Airplane (FIIA).
Most pilots go about becoming an instructor by first jumping through the hoops for the CFI Airplane rating, which involves passing the FOI and FIA exams. Taking the next step to become an instrument instructor requires passing the FIIA exam. Having then taken three written exams for two flight instructor ratings, it is nice to learn that to add on the multi-engine flight instructor rating to an existing CFI rating, the pilot does not have to take another written.
It’s all communication
Before we go into study materials for the various CFI ratings, we’ll take a moment to point out that only a fairly small percentage of the time a pilot spends obtaining her or his first CFI rating will involve flying. The vast majority will be spent on the ground learning how to teach. We can’t emphasize this fact too much.
An applicant will need to learn how to speak effectively in one-on-one situations, to small groups and in classrooms. Preparing this article we spoke with numerous instructors about how to become a good CFI. One of the most important lessons we learned was that a CFI applicant needs to be willing to take the time necessary to learn how to be an effective communicator. New CFI Nicole Blackmore summed up the challenge of learning to be an effective communicator when she told us, “I didn’t think talking out loud would be so hard.” We heard another instructor say to a new CFI student, “Right now you only think that you know how to talk. Getting your CFI is where you’ll learn.”
We’ll talk more about this below in the section on preparation for the practical test, but we’ll note now that the vast majority of preparation for the CFI practical test involves practice teaching. A good way to save money doing so if you are not in a dedicated CFI ground school course is to get together with other CFI students and take turns teaching.
Teach in small and large groups. Also give ground instruction to students working on their private and commercial ratings. They will learn, you will learn and you’ll do the most important thing you can when working on the CFI rating—get off your seat and learn how to convey information verbally. Doing that has the added benefit of getting real questions from real learners. A lot of CFIs told us that it was hard to do practice teaching to a CFI because the CFI already knows the stuff.
Training Courses
Some of the formal CFI schools we surveyed have their own study materials; however, most use at least one of the commercially available CFI training courses. We’ll go into the most common, noting which are truly training courses and which are test prep materials. We’ll state up front that the one thing that none of the courses offers is the opportunity to practice teaching—something essential for a successful CFI applicant.
King Schools
One of the two heavyweights in flight training (surprisingly, Sporty’s, the other, does not have a CFI course), King Schools (www.kingschools.com) has video training materials that, in our opinion, turn out well-rounded pilots who can teach aviation concepts. The King courses are organized into a recommended flow through subject areas with topics broken into digestible bits. Review questions appear immediately along with instant feedback and an ongoing report card of success on review questions and the need for additional study.
There are several packages offered by King, from test prep through the “Flight Instructor Get It All Kit” for $649 that includes what we consider to be an impressive collection of material that will not only be used for CFI training but be the basis for a library that a CFI refers to with some frequency after getting the rating. Some of the materials included are CFI ground school and test prep; Fundamentals of Instruction ground school and test prep; Practical Test (Checkride) Prep; Practical Risk Management course; Takeoffs and Landings Made Easy; Airspace Review; Private and Commercial Maneuvers; and Taming Stalls and Spins.
We like that once you buy a King course, you have lifetime access to the course and its materials. King also offers a guarantee that you’ll pass the written exams. In our opinion, the King CFI Get It All package is worth the investment.
Test Prep
ASA
With a deserved reputation for high-quality aviation textbooks and test prep books, ASA (www.asa2fly.com) offers its Virtual Test Prep series and Prepware designed to prepare the student to take the FOI and FIA knowledge exams.
Offered on multiple platforms, ASA’s test prep software is priced at $69.95 and includes a textbook and a two-year subscription to ASA’s Prepware software with FAA-style questions and answers and feedback for further study. We have found ASA to have consistently high standards with high-quality graphics and clear explanations of answers.
Gleim
Gleim’s (www.gleim.com) style is quite focused, with little extraneous language or material, so much so that it is often stilted. Nevertheless, its test prep material is high quality and reliable. For the CFI it offers a number of packages that rely on its Knowledge Transfer System. For the FIA online course, the price is $155.95; the FOI online ground school course is $69.95. Each provides a one-year subscription to the online materials, one of the shortest periods we’ve seen.
Gleim’s Flight Instructor plus FOI Kit is priced at $259.95 and includes the online ground schools as we’ll as several hard-copy publications and a flight bag.
The courses involve reading form an e-book and taking practice quizzes and practice tests that we consider realistic. There are no videos.
Once in the question bank, in study mode, the student can call up all or some of the questions for a particular topic. Clicking on an answer provides instant feedback, in what we consider impressive detail. A running tab of questions missed is kept. Passing all of the required questions correctly allows the student to receive an endorsement to take the FAA knowledge test.
Dauntless
Offering “active learning by doing” and “learning by simulated testing,” Dauntless (www.dauntless-soft.com) offers downloadable software for FAA knowledge test preparation. The student selects one of the knowledge areas within the particular test prep and starts with “test/study” mode, which introduces the student to the material with FAA-style questions, the correct answer and an extensive explanation and high-quality graphics.
The student then moves to “learning and practice” mode, answering questions and getting immediate feedback. Finally the student takes FAA-style tests that simulate the real thing. Dauntless advertises that it provides just the materials to learn what is necessary to pass a knowledge test and nothing more.
Test preps for the FOI and FIA are priced at $54.99 each for new users ($49.99 for returning customers) and can be bundled at two for $94.99.
Sheppard Air
As with Dauntless, we admire the fact that Sheppard Air (www.sheppardair.com) doesn’t pretend to turn someone into a well-rounded flight instructor; it provides only what is necessary to pass the FAA knowledge tests.
One studies by first going through the questions with only the correct answer displayed—a brief explanation is available, if desired, with one click. The next step is going through the questions again with all answers showing as the student learns to recognize the correct answer.
Price for the FOI course is (effective April 1, 2024) $40—the FIA, same date, is $50.
Sheppard provides a money-back guarantee that you’ll pass your writtens and, something that impresses the heck out of us—and friends have used with positive feedback to us—they have CFIs on duty 24 hours a day to take calls and answer questions.
We had a young CFI student based at a rural Kansas airport with not much in the way of educational support for his rating call us and praise Sheppard for its CFI-on-call arrangement. Having been the baby CFI at a rural Iowa airport many years ago, we like that there is a way to talk to a human 24 hours a day when things get rough or confusing while working on a rating.
Practical hints
While some of the training courses and prep materials mentioned above claim to get a person ready for the checkride, they don’t. We don’t think we can emphasize enough that the majority of the work a pilot goes through to get the CFI is on the ground, and the majority of that work is practice teaching in a classroom environment, one-on-one and in small groups. As with any learning environment, repetition matters.
Scott Dyer, who went through a monthlong dedicated CFI ground training program with six other CFI students, brought up an important fact. He said that much of what he learned was from the other students in the class. The diversity of their aeronautical experience enriched and enhanced the learning environment. The other students, and the instructor, also provided valuable feedback on teaching techniques and the quality and usefulness of lesson plans the CFI students prepared.
CFI Ed Pataky told us that he kept the cost of getting his CFI under control by reading everything he could get his hands on to make sure he had the broadest possible knowledge base.
Nicole Blackmore told us that she kept the cost down by starting to fly from the right seat while she was still working on her commercial ticket. She also got the word out at her airport that she was available as a safety pilot so she could build PIC time while the other pilot was under the hood and get used to the perspective of the right seat. She said that doing so cut down on the time she had to spend flying with an instructor once working on the CFI.
Instructor Johannes Snyder said that the switch from the left seat to the right was more challenging than he anticipated and he wished he followed Ms. Blackmore’s example of flying more often as safety pilot. Snyder, now a check airman for an air freight operator, also told us that when he is flying with new pilots with the company he can tell which ones had been flight instructors because they have a better grasp of the FARs and ATC communications.
Formal Programs
The extraordinary failure rate for new CFI applicants of about 10 years ago has gotten better. We think that is because schools are better understanding what an applicant should know before going for the checkride.
We think highly of formal CFI training programs and recommend them, although the time commitment may make them unrealistic for some.
In our survey of flight schools for the CFI ticket we found that most offered 40 to 60 hours of ground instruction and up to ten hours of flight instruction over about 15 days. Most also required that the student have passed the appropriate written exams and have a spin endorsement before coming to school. To our surprise we noticed that many of the schools charge only a fraction of the cost of a CFI rating if the student immediately goes on for the instrument instructor rating.
For example, American Flyers (www.americanflyers.com) offers a 15-day CFI course for $4400 while the 30-day CFI and instrument instructor course is $6950. We note that the rates do not include meals, lodging and the fee for the designated examiner. The CFI Academy (www.cfiacademy.com) only gives training for CFI ratings. Its three-week course is $7499 and offers assistance for students to find housing. American Flight Schools (www.americanflightschools.com) recognizes that students don’t all learn at the same rate so it quotes about $4400 for its course.
Conclusion
When it’s time to for you to become a CFI be ready to work harder than you have for any other rating. We think that getting the rating is worth it. Not just because you’ll be able to build time to get the airline job you want, but you’ll get the satisfaction of positively affecting the lives of people who want to fly as badly as you do.
Plus, there’s a good chance that you’ll make some of the best friends you’ll ever have.
Yes, that’s a photo of a spin from inside. Yes, as a CFI, you will almost certainly have a student screw up and put you into a spin—when you least expect it. After all, students exist to try to kill CFIs. It’s one of the little known laws of nature.
You’ve sweated through the CFI checkride and have the temporary certificate in hand. You’ve already received offers to instruct at two flight schools and you’re more than a little excited about getting paid to fly. Now what? Can you really get in an airplane with someone who doesn’t know how to fly and teach them? After all, you’ve got less than 300 hours and are just hours past being a student yourself.
The answer is yes. For the past 100 years or so military aviation has taken a percentage of their newly winged pilots and made them instructors, and military flight training is said to be some of the best in the world. Large flight schools put their just graduated CFIs in with new students right away.
The secret is a good training syllabus and CFIs that understand that lesson plans aren’t just for showing the examiner on a checkride. They are your secret weapons for training students in an organized, effective fashion. As you use a lesson plan and watch the student learn—and you’re going to love those aha! moments as a student masters something—your level of confidence increases and you become a progressively better instructor.
We talked with a large group of instructors as we put this article together and we had consensus opinions on a number of subjects. The first was that in your first 200 hours of dual given your students will learn a lot. You’ll learn even more. Instructors who went on to airline and corporate jobs told us that they were at their peak in skills and general aviation knowledge when they were instructors because they were so often called upon to answer wildly varying questions and demonstrate flight maneuvers throughout the aircraft’s envelope.
So what did experienced instructors tell us that they wished they’d known when they first started instructing? In no particular order, we were told:
If you are anywhere near or in an airplane with a student, be alert and ready for anything. Complacency will bite you when you’re looking the other way. Every instructor has at least a couple of student-related scary stories ranging from walking into turning propellers, through overenthusiastic stall recoveries that resulted in spins or inverted flight, to students who flared 40 feet above the runway and then froze on the yoke.
Altitude is your friend. You can extract yourself from just about anything a student does to the airplane if you’ve got a couple of thousand feet of air beneath you.
While it’s rare, have a plan for dealing with a student who freezes on the controls, especially if the student is bigger than you are—and be willing to execute it without delay. The idea is to effectively distract the student so she or he relaxes the death grip or lets go of the controls. We heard of CFIs forcefully applying an elbow to the student, of pulling the nearer ear muff of the student’s headset off the student’s ear, and of using your hand to cover the student’s eyes.
Use extreme caution on first flights out of maintenance—that’s where you’re most likely to have a problem with the airplane. Plus you can teach your student how to manage the risks by doing such things as climbing out over the airport and staying within gliding distance for the first 10 or 15 minutes of the flight.
Students miss things on preflights. Don’t you miss the same things.
Establish a good working relationship with the A&Ps in the shop where you instruct. Students will find discrepancies on preflights that are outside of your knowledge. Being able to talk with an A&P may save your bacon. Plus it helps teach your student not to take an airplane into the air when there is uncertainty about its condition.
If you sabotage an airplane before your student preflights, write down or photograph everything you did.
You will have students and flight review clients who think that they are far greater pilots than they are. Establish measurable standards (altitude, airspeed, etc.) for successful completion so they are forced to be realistic in self-evaluation. Sadly you will find one or two that are psychologically unable to admit ever making a mistake. Those are pilots you don’t want to sign off for a flight review and students you may want to decline to instruct.
If you instruct in a number of different types of airplanes, have a cheat sheet for each one with speeds and system notes. Then, before you fly one you haven’t been in for a week or so, give yourself five minutes of alone time to program yourself for that airplane.
Never let your CFI ticket lapse. There will be a time when you’re glad that you didn’t.
You have an obligation to your students to be the best that you can. If you can’t, it’s time to take a break from instructing.
Be humble and constantly willing to learn. There is always something you don’t know and should.
