CFI/II Lesson Plans

[socal_pilot]

Thanks OTTO, I couldn't agree more!!!!!

 

[JAFI]

Alimbo, I hate to break this to you but as far as I know for the last 30 plus years if a student screws up the FAA looks directly at the CFI. This is nothing new. Teaching Instruments only was always something the experienced CFI got to do, the "new" guy taught primary how to fly stuff.

Regardles which CFI exam you take first, you better have your act together. Know everything a new CFI needs to know and where to find it.

As far as some of the "quick" schools failure rates, I administered enough exams through one that we just planned on them failing because the school did not even come close to prepareing them for the exam, they just sold them X number of hours of instruction then sent them off for the ride. It was really sad.

 

[ALIMBO]

I'm honestly not doing it anymore so it doesn't matter. As for more experienced people teaching instrument it makes sense but my knack is in instrument. Thanks for the help.

 

[Sig]

Alimbo, I hate to break this to you but as far as I know for the last 30 plus years if a student screws up the FAA looks directly at the CFI.

I've only been in the flying game for a few years (just over a decade), but I saw that lesson in bright technicolor at an early stage. So very, very true.

I passed my initial CFI the first time. It was as grueling as any I've heard. 7+ hour oral on day one (ONE). At the end of the ride on day 2, I was so blasted tired I didn't really give a dang if I'd passed or not- I just wanted to know what I needed to focus on next: Ale (yay!), Lager (well, try again), or Liquor (hang 'em up).

As it turns out, I passed the last unknown: Will he give up before or after engine shutdown on the ramp?

Tough ride, but I freaking earned it.

 

[ALIMBO]

Guess Ill never know I may try the ride but I wont pursue it if I don't pass it. Might as well take a shot at it since I dropped 4g's on this crap.

 

[socal_pilot]

Anyone want to bet that Alimbo is going to fail both rides and once he does get his ticket he won't be able to find a job because he's such a tool?

 

[ALIMBO]

Wanna bet that if/when I fail I wont retake it?

 

[avbug]

Actually I'm just not guna do it anymore not worth the time. In fact I think I'm just guna finish up my degree and get whatever job I can and build time in other ways. Being a CFI is not what I thought it would be. If I pass my CFII then I will instruct but nothing more than instrument students. The FAA is imposing new rules to screw over CFI's if your student screws up apparantly it takes effect in Feb. So I'm not taking the chance of losing my certificate because of another person making a mistake and quite frankly I know my skill at teaching students other than instruments and its just not worth.

Wow...failed before you even took the test, and gave up already. Amazing. That's dedication. Your recent sob story about all your sacrifice and dedication...and now you just give up. Beautiful. Clearly you were in it for the long run.

Newsflash; the FAA has always looked hard at the flight instructor when a student fails, and a failure record on the part of your students has always meant that the CFI comes under "surveillance," meaning that the CFI is closely watched to determine if he or she is indeed the problem. This may even include retesting, or in some cases suspension or revocation of the instructor certificate or a 709 ride.

This is news to you, apparently...but not to the rest of the flying community, where it's been policy for over 30 years.

Now you're blaming the student you don't even have yet, for your own failures. You're not going to take a chance on this imaginary student who might ruin you...blame thrown on the imaginary student already...you're just going to give up. One excuse after another.

You know your own skill outside of teaching instruments, you say. You have decided it's poor. Interesting that your own instructor doesn't want you to have an instrument student, though. Seems your teaching skill is extremely poor, period...clearly so if you've already given up.

Another newsflash for you. It's not your skill, it's your attitude. Skills can be learned, and skills can be taught. Even you could be taught, if you'd permit it. You run your mouth too much, display too much teenage attitude, to be teachable. You are your own worst enemy, and you are the reason for your failure here. You are also the only one who can preven this failure and turn it around. Get it? It's all up to you.

Can you pass the test? Yes, you can...but not with your present level of immaturity and foolishness. You've got some growing up to do. Once you commit to that, chances are that you can certainly learn to do it...but the only obstacle between you and a successful career in aviation, as an instructor...is YOU. There is NO reason why you can't pass the test. Others have done so. Why not you?

Everything you write and type about this event has been an excuse and a preparation to fail. You haven't been preparing to succeed at all...but laying the groundwork to have excuse upon excuse on which you can fall back, when you fail. Did it ever occur to you to prepare for, and plan for success? Have you been preparing lesson plans and gathering friends and family to practice teaching? Do you get on sites such as flightinfo, find questions that need answering, and do the research to properly answer? It's excellent preparation and practice for teaching. Have you built training aids, and model airplanes which you can use to teach students? Or have you simply looked for quick, free lesson plans to copy in order to get through it as easily as possible?

The four grand you drop on preparation is the easy part. The preparation involves mental, and often physical sweat. You need to step outside yourself, lose your ego, and learn the material. You need to understand the basic laws of learning, among which is the simple fact that the way you present yourself has a direct bearing on the way a student receives instruction from you. If you can't do that here on an anonymous web board, most certainly you can't do it in the cockpit...the cockpit being the worst classroom there is.

If you can't perform basic flight instruction, you certainly can't teach instruments. Flight instruction is built upon precept after precept, building block upon building block. You can't teach timed turns without knowing how to teach coordination and the basic aerodynamics of the turn...it's not enough to simply tell the student to step on the ball and keep the pointer lined up with the doghouse. It's not enough to tell the student to scan. You need to be able to help the student correlate where he or she has been and what the student has been taught in the past, with what's being taught now....and that means you've got to be able to teach the past as well as the present.

Flight instruction isn't about flying. It isn't about instruments. It's about teaching. It's the ability to break down a subject for a student in a way the student can understand and receive it...and most importantly, it's all about teaching.

Instructing is administering a syllabus. A primate can do that. What's needed is a teacher, and a teacher exists for the student. You exist for yourself, your ego, your pride, and your smart mouth. You can't see beyond yourself. When you learn to do that, you'll be in the right track to learn to teach. Teaching doesn't come first time right out of the box; it's a learned skill, and you can learn it, if you'll get over yourself and concentrate on your student instead.

It's up to you. Sounds like you planned to fail and therefore met your goals. This is unfortunate and sad. Perhaps one day you'll get over that hurdle and do it properly, and be pleasantly surprised that you have the same capability as the rest of us. We're all essentially the same; you're no different. Stop trying to be different, cooperate, graduate, and learn to teach like the rest.

Short story: you can, but you won't. When you will, you'll win. Think about it.

 

[JAFI]

As for more experienced people teaching instrument it makes sense but my knack is in instrument.

I do not know how to put this any other way. You really have no clue about Instructing. There are two groups that will tell you what you are going to teach, your boss(s) and your students. Your boss will decide what level you work depending on your perceived ability, school staffing, and student need. Your students will decide what they want you to teach them and if at all.

Teaching is not for everyone, nor should it be. You have to want to teach for more than time building or a paycheck. To use the word "crap" for learning to be a CFI tells me you need to pick another vocation.

As for how hard aviation is. The best answer I have is a discussion I had with a Grandmother down the block. I made the comment some people think the FAA makes getting a certificate hard. She looked at me like I was going to be slapped in the face for saying something stupid. She said "It is suppose to be hard, peoples lives are at stake". Then she turned and walked away as if to say I was "dismissed" and there was no further need for discussion.

Good luck.

JAFI

 

[ALIMBO]

Exactly the reasons why I'm not taking up flight instructing.

 

[WMUchickenhawk]

Why the sudden change of heart? Just a few days ago you were pretty confidant, now you seem to have given up. are you quiting aviation all together? Whats your next step if you don't pass the ride?

 

[Sig]

ALIMBO-

Did you read avbug's post carefully? He's (albeit begrudgingly) giving you encouragement in there.

Much like it is more important to be a gracious guest than a gracious host, if you can take advice (and criticism) and use it you have started becoming a career student.

And that, really, is all we are.

*** HIGH WIND ADVISORY ***

It seems you're going to take a break at the very least. It's pretty lame to get up to the verge of a checkride and bang out, unless you know there's a real threat to your success... So, man up. I said it before: Head down, study hard, learn a little, and talk even less. Avbug's a very real, very valuable resource that you frittered away with a shabby comment or two (dozen); so here's a freebie: DON'T ALIENATE RESOURCES EVER AGAIN.

Be humble when it counts- a mega senior 767I captain once told me, "Never pass up an opportunity to STFU. You'll go a lot farther. But never pass up an opportunity to say the right thing, either." When you have a wet commercial ticket, the opportunities to be humble present themselves quite often.

You've been knocked down a peg or two, and that's a good start. Man up and get back to work, or just keep flying as a hobby.

 

[Sig]

A lesson:

This one guy drove the rattiest, smelliest, smokiest little rustbucket pickup to the airport. He dressed in cuttoffs and tee-shirts. He was always smiling. So instead of being like the other annoying CFIs that clustered around corporate fellas trying to endear themselves, I just started talking to the guy who got out of the pickup truck.

Just to shoot the breeze. Just to say "Hey, look at that DC-9..."

I was getting turbine time in ONE of his planes two days later and having a blast.

Opportunities...

 

[ALIMBO]

Why the sudden change of heart? Just a few days ago you were pretty confidant, now you seem to have given up. are you quiting aviation all together? Whats your next step if you don't pass the ride?

The day I quit aviation is the day the AME says I can't pass my medical exam. I'm confident on the CFII ride. The CFIA well thats a whole new story. I took my first flight in the 172RG yesterday and even though my instructor said I did just fine I believe it was a horrible flight. His honest opinion was this "it was your first flight in that airplane ever and you havent done commercial maneuvers since August you did just how I expected and it was fine." Well in my opinion just because I have never flown the plane at all doesn't mean thats an excuse for the way I performed. Neither is the fact that I haven't done the Commercial Maneuvers since August an excuse either. The more frustrating part of the flight was trying to teach simple ground ref maneuvers. Are you kidding me all you have to do is fly the maneuver and explain what your doing. Not the most difficult thing to do. Well to me it was like learning to fly all over again. Long story short I'm not getting out of flying Im guna pass the CFII and try to pass the CFIA if I do well thats great. If not Ill just instruct instrument students if I'm given the opportunity. I'm going to probably go for my MEI also unless I majoryly suck at that also. So I'll find ways to build time whats the ruch anyways there isn't going to be any sort of hiring for at least a few years anyways.

 

[ALIMBO]

ALIMBO-

Did you read avbug's post carefully? He's (albeit begrudgingly) giving you encouragement in there.

Much like it is more important to be a gracious guest than a gracious host, if you can take advice (and criticism) and use it you have started becoming a career student.

And that, really, is all we are.

*** HIGH WIND ADVISORY ***

It seems you're going to take a break at the very least. It's pretty lame to get up to the verge of a checkride and bang out, unless you know there's a real threat to your success... So, man up. I said it before: Head down, study hard, learn a little, and talk even less. Avbug's a very real, very valuable resource that you frittered away with a shabby comment or two (dozen); so here's a freebie: DON'T ALIENATE RESOURCES EVER AGAIN.

Be humble when it counts- a mega senior 767I captain once told me, "Never pass up an opportunity to STFU. You'll go a lot farther. But never pass up an opportunity to say the right thing, either." When you have a wet commercial ticket, the opportunities to be humble present themselves quite often.

You've been knocked down a peg or two, and that's a good start. Man up and get back to work, or just keep flying as a hobby.

Ive been in the books for the past 20 or so odd days straight. Only breaks I've been taking are food and sleep. This weekend is rough I've been studying a lot lately. I'm going to at least try the checkride no sense not ever seeing if you could have done it. But sometimes some people are meant to do certain things in life my calling is aviation. Is my calling being a flight instructor well now were going to just have to wait a week to find out. That is if the damn FAA ever calls me for a checkride.

 

[7574EVER]

Just watch out for those ice patches on the concrete....don't want to get a concussion right before your checkride.

 

[ALIMBO]

I hate you. Thanks for the ride.

 

[Sig]

I give up.

I have no earthly idea why I invested a few calories typing, because I clearly went wide on giving you the benefit of the doubt. I had no idea your tussle was going on in another thread, and your CRI is chronic, not acute. (Cranio-Rectal Inversion)

I thought you were "getting it."

You aren't. You won't. And sadly, for someone who claims their calling is this game, you probably never will.

Hello, ignore list!

As I told a former boss when I quit after being pushed a little too far (whom I was working for when I spoke my signature line):

"When you kill yourself in an airplane, make sure you're alone. "

It was prophetic. He's a quadraplegic now- but he did that on the way to the plane before he flew it hammered on whiskey. I'd bet your answer will be just as colorful and sophomoric as his was.

AMF.

*You failed to adopt and utilize the freebie lesson from a few posts ago... You will not learn until you grow the heck up, if you don't make a smoking hole somewhere in IMC because your "knack" will save you from that silly severe icing pirep...

 

[great cornholio]

Alimbo

First of all I've been on here for a while now, and know that Avbug has made lots of enemies. I have also read a lot of what he has said over the years and find that most of the stuff he says is at least semi-useful. The really long post that he just wrote you is worth more than the 4 grand you dropped on your CFI stuff...but it is up to you to listen to it.

I've been reading your crap for about a year now I think. I also think I remember seeing on here that you wanted to fly at TSA. I will say this right now... I hope I never have to share a cockpit with you. Although I doubt I have to worry about that since you quit after 20 days of studying for your CFI there is no way you will make it thru 121 training. Your attitude is horrible. You need to grow a pair and grow up. You give me the impression that when it hits the fan if I'm flying with you I will look over to my right and see a ghost, and that is why I don't want to share a cockpit with you.

Heres the deal and why I'm being kinda harsh. I've been there and done that....and so have pretty much everyone else thats responded to you. It took me almost 6 months to get my CFI. And I did it at the same time as going to college full time and working part time at the school to help pay for my CFI. I spent so many late nights looking stuff up and typing up lesson plans and other stuff for my "CFI binder" that my fingers were almost bloody. In order to pass this ride you have to put work into it.

So you think you're gonna suck at teaching...you probably will, but that will get fixed. I know I sucked at first, but you learn and get better. By the time I left central FL I had guys driving over 2 hours just to do a few lessons with me cause somehow I was able to take a look at them tell them how to fix stuff, and then send them back to their original CFI's. However my first 5 students probably should have got a half price discount cause I was still learning the ropes. I only got better because I learned as much or more than my student did each flight for the first few months. The only reason I got better was because I always had the attitude that my students deserved the best and I was gonna do what it took to give them the best.

Then I got my fist 121 job. Holy crap was it a change in pace. The training was like trying to drink from a fire hose and made my CFI training seem like kindergarten. But with a good attitude I was able to get thru it. Also I have seen first hand guys with crap attitude fail out just cause they are too cocky to get help or they are so cocky that it was hard for them to find someone to give them help.

Now its time for IOE and line flying. Lets face it. Actually flying is like 5% of the job. 45% of the job is "not crashing airplanes" and the other 50% is all about attitude...towards yourself, the other crew members, pax, etc. With the attitude you have now you will get no where. In order to make it anywhere in aviation you must change your attitude. You must be humble and confident, but not cocky...or at least those are the best words I can think of right now.

I'm sure you think I'm a dick and are gonna quote me and come back with some cocky remark and thats cool. I hope one day you grow a pair and grow up. Change you attitude and I'll be more than happy to share a cockpit and some beers on the overnight with you. Until then though have fun quitting anything hard.

 

[ALIMBO]

You like Sigs?

 

[ALIMBO]

For the sake of page space conrholio im cool with you. You know how avbug is he says little things that get on my nerves becoming a responsible adult is learning to shut your mouth when you don't hear what you want to hear or don't agree with. And I will agree biting my tongue is one thing I hate doing. Hate it hate it hate it. But sometimes there is only so much you can take. Avbug was the basis of that. It started with him making comments on another thread and now its carried into a bunch of threads. Do I have to like the guy of course not will I listen to him sure why not what harm is it going to do. I went and did some studying with another member of the forum and it definetly calmed my nerves that this checkride isnt going to be the end of the world. But from what many many others have told me this ride and training is way more challenging than 121 training. I don't know I guess Ill make up my own opinion if and when I get there. Thanks for the response are you still at TSA? I have a friend that used to be there but with the furloughs is no longer there unfortunatly.

 

[Sig]

This message is hidden because ALIMBO is on your ignore list.

SEE YA!

Have a nice day. Good luck, I mean it. I truly do. But luck only goes so far... ask avbug. Wait- he'll confuse you with weird things like "energy dissipation during a forced off-airport landing," or "load factor," or "what I know from flying WW2 era bombers," or "this is how you will NOT die when something happens."

I'm truly peeved at you. No, wait. I'm truly peeved at myself. I was hoping you could salvage your training and make an aviator out of yourself despite your best efforts. I was silly for thinking so. See? Lesson learned, lesson applied.

You're just too damned stupid to fix right now. Some day, maybe.

WTH do I know? Just a few thousand hours of flying, a few thousand turbine, a couple hundred in icing, a few thousand landings, a few engine failures, a few dozen checkrides, a couple of vacuum failures in IMC, a few friends dead, a few non-friends dead, two former roommates, DEAD...

Guess where I think you are headed?

Sig, out.

 

[ALIMBO]

If you woulda unignored me maybe you would have seen what I said it wasn't an ignorant comment just a simple friendly question. But ok ignore if you like you don't have to like everyone in this world.

 

[Sig]

Excellent post, Cornholio.

I've found in my short time actually driving planes that the more "abrasive" folks had a real reason to be so.

This might sound inane, but- it is because they learned some serious lessons, and get pissed really quick when an obvious one is being ignored by anyone with capability.

Man, I wish my grandfather was still alive. He could be a real sumbeech when I was shooting the aviation breeze- because he was one of the highest time P38 IPs in history. I learned a lot from him before I ever started a Lycoming engine! And he loved the fact that I was flying a very VERY rough approximation of a trike configured prop aircraft he knew so well.

Great post. Exactly what I don't have the calm perspective to say right now.

 

[JAFI]

Some quotes I think are worthy here from better perople than I:

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."
-- Albert Einstein

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in reative expression and knowledge. Albert Einstein

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. Albert Einstein

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. Winston Churchill

And one of my favorate quotes of all time:

Mark Twain
When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learnt in seven years.

 

[Sig]

When I was a boy of 14 my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learnt in seven years.

MY GOD. Perfect.

Just Another Flight Instructor? Yeah, right. S. Clemens is one of my heroes, and I can't recall ever reading that quote.

I remember feeling the same way, but 15-22 for me. I was a year behind, I suppose...

 

[Princedietrich]

One thing that I have discovered during my years on this board is this:

When avbug takes notice of you and starts tearing you up, it would be wise to listen. Yeah, he's got the tact and subtlety of a rhino but there's plenty of marbles still rolling around in that brain case of his. How I've managed to not incur his wrath with some of my bonehead comments is way beyond me.

And Alimbo, if you think the avbug treatment you're getting is bad, you should have seen it when he was going rounds with The Russian. That was epic.

Here's the bit of advice that I'll toss out. Page back to that really long posting that he made, turn off your emotions, and read it line by line. He's got some good nuggets of common sense in there that may prove useful. And don't give up either. Whether you pass the checkride or not, take the ride anyway because pass or fail you WILL learn a helluva lot.

There's a reason the FAA comes down hard on new CFI candidates. These are people that are going to be training the next generation of airline pilots and medevac pilots and airshow pilots. That's a lot of responsibility and a lot of potential to do good or to do serious damage. Don't fear the FAA, they're not all bad (admittedly, some of them are) and even though it's an age-old punchline they really are there to help you. Work with them, not against them. Just be honest and don't try to BS.

 

[Sig]

Jesus. I thought of something...

Hey, ALIMBO...

Do a search here on "Duke Elegant". Forget hydroplaning, forget shifting CG to affect the best coefficient of friction, forget getting the job done, forget knowing everything there is to know. Just read.

Read it.

He was amazing.

His life might save yours.


**Dammit.

Nice post, PD.

 

[great cornholio]

For the sake of page space conrholio im cool with you. You know how avbug is he says little things that get on my nerves becoming a responsible adult is learning to shut your mouth when you don't hear what you want to hear or don't agree with. And I will agree biting my tongue is one thing I hate doing. Hate it hate it hate it. But sometimes there is only so much you can take. Avbug was the basis of that. It started with him making comments on another thread and now its carried into a bunch of threads. Do I have to like the guy of course not will I listen to him sure why not what harm is it going to do. I went and did some studying with another member of the forum and it definetly calmed my nerves that this checkride isnt going to be the end of the world. But from what many many others have told me this ride and training is way more challenging than 121 training. I don't know I guess Ill make up my own opinion if and when I get there. Thanks for the response are you still at TSA? I have a friend that used to be there but with the furloughs is no longer there unfortunatly.

I'm still here for now. Might be looking at another downgrade soon, but thats the name of the game. Both the CFI and 121 training are challenging, but in different ways. CFI training is like kindergarten in the sense that it teaches you to look at the overall basics and how to "play nice". 121 training is like a high level college class. It assumes you already know the basics and focuses ridiculously deep on a very specific subject. In my opinion being a CFI is a great way to get ready to fly for the airlines. You get to really know the basics and you get a great understanding of whats going on in other peoples minds, which can come in handy with the CRM and dealing with a crew thing.

As far as which is harder its hard to say. I personally have seen more people bust 121 training than I've seen bust anything else. With you CFI training you are a customer so they will take some of your BS. At the airlines they own you and any BS will get you shoved out the door faster than you can imagine.

I just was pi$$ed that you quit. You make it sound like the main reason you quit was because you put 20 days of studying into it and the checkride still seems like it will be hard. All 121 training is more than 20 days of nothing but studying...I know I as well as most of my buddies fall off of the face of the earth when we switch a/c cause studying and training is all there is time for if you want to pass the ride at the end. If you quit because you truly feel that you would never ever be able to teach then thats a good reason to quit, but you should be able to learn how to teach. Hopefully you didn't quit because it seems like it would be a hard checkride. Anyways good luck on the ride.

Oh yeah almost forgot. You said your flight today in a new plane went horrible. If the CFI said you did fine you probably did fine. I know everytime I have a 1st sim in a new plane I feel like it went horrible and that I should just tear my certificates up...on a side note the plastic ones are much harder to tear. And pretty much every sim partner and everyone I've talked too always feels the same way after the first sim or two. Just thought I'd share that cause having a horrible first flight is not a reason to quit anything.

 

[great cornholio]

Jesus. I thought of something...

Hey, ALIMBO...

Do a search here on "Duke Elegant". Forget hydroplaning, forget shifting CG to affect the best coefficient of friction, forget getting the job done, forget knowing everything there is to know. Just read.

Read it.

He was amazing.

His life might save yours.


**Dammit.

Nice post, PD.

I forgot all about Duke. Now I'll have something to read on my next trip. I know if I do the search at home I'll spend too much time in front of the computer.