CFII training

[Buffettpilot]

Anyone have some good info on CFII training, specifically, what to expect on the checkride (besides a sore neck), how to effectively teach instrument flying, holds, etc.. while flying and demo.

I just started my CFII and basically talking through what I am doing i.e. the old MICE ATM acronym for flying an approach
Marker
Ident
Course
Entry
Altitudes
Timing
Missed

What are other good hints when trying to teach someone instrument flying.

Thanks

 

[bobbysamd]

CFI-I practical

The CFI-I flight is basically an instrument ride from the right seat. You have to execute all procedures while "teaching" them. An important caveat is your teaching methods must follow the FAA's line in every way. Take it from someone who knows.

The FAA's position is always the final word on what to know, why it's done, and especially how to do it. Item: Go read up on attitude instrument flying in the Instrument Flying Handbook. Know primary and supporting inside out and forward and backwards. While control-performance with emphasis on the AI may be how it's really done and how Alitalia might teach instrument flying, control-performance gets scant mention in the Handbook and is heresy to the FAA. Actually, primary-and-supporting helps control-performance because it helps you understand what you need to do to get the airplane to perform the way you want.

A vital thing to know is how to analyze why a student's parameters are always off. Learn and understand the common errors of instrument cross-check (Yeah, I know it's "scan," but the FAA says it's "cross-check."). I.e., emphasis, omission, fixation, etc.

Teaching BAI is a bit of a sales job. You have to sell your students that the AI is a substitute for outside references. You demonstrate outside references for a particular flight regime and show how and where they appear on the panel. You will also have various pitch and power settings for constant-airspeed climbs and decents, rate climbs and decents, cruise, and holding. You could create a table of these settings for your airplane and have your students memorize them. Then try them, in the airplane and/or sim. The airplane becomes predictable. Someone said that when one becomes an instrument pilot he/she is no longer a test pilot.

One final point. Be sure to teach your students to tune and identify navaids. The obvious safety issues notwithstanding, not doing so is a bust. Same for not keeping the ADF volume up when working with NDBs.

If you have taken your instrument practical relatively recently you should do fine after a thorough review and drill by your instructor. Also, be prepared to answer some FOI questions. Although you have demonstrated that you can teach and know the fundamentals of instructing, plenty of examiners still grill add-on applicants on the FOI.

Hope these points help. Good luck with your rating.

 

[Doozer]

Buffettpilot:

With respect to the practical test, if you find yourself in danger of straying from PTS standards or having difficulty flying whatever the examiner is asking you to do, start discussing the common errors & act like you've chosen that time to demonstrate them to the examiner.

With respect to actually teaching, about the only thing I'd add to Bobbysamd's recommendations would be to make absolutely sure that your students can fly the practice maneuvers described in the Instrument Flying Handbook to PTS before moving on to intercepts, holding, approaches, etc.

I've found that if they can't fly the aircraft without thinking, they won't have any mental reserve left for problem solving. If they've got to think about both flying the aircraft & determining an intercept heading or a holding entry or whatever, you're both in for a long lesson. I've had engineers--who eat, sleep & breathe math--who can't subtract 18 from 31 while they're trying to fly the aircraft. If they can't do it, what about us mere arithmetic mortals?

Hope this helps.