CFIs

[LewisU_Pilot]

How long did it take for you to receive your CFI ticket? I plan on starting mine in a couple weeks. Just curious on a ball park time frame I am looking at. I know everyone is different and it all depends on how dedicated one is, but I am just curious to see how long it took others.

Thanks

I thought we had a poll option on this board? Guess not.

 

[WizardPilot]

It depends on the experience that you have in teaching or making lesson plans. I am working on mine right now, and I expect to have it within the month. Lots of flying and studying, but I am going to devote most of my time and training towards the written and the oral part of the CFI. I would say, IT DEPENDS!!! If you put all of your resources towards it and time and effort, I would bet less than a month. If not, i know guys that it took 3, but they were off and on training, and such like that. Good luck. Hope that helped out a little?

 

[User546]

I was doing my training full time, so when I got to my "CFI's" I was in the zone and stayed focused.

I did my CFII first, MEI second, and finished with my CFI.

CFII was probably the longest one, which took roughly two months to complete (had a learning curve on the FOI stuff and switching gears from student to instructor).

MEI was next, and I breezed thru that in about two weeks.

CFI took a bit longer, I'd say closer to a month to finish. At this point in the game I was losing steam and motivation fast, and I think I plateaued (sp?) for awhile towards the end and got hung up.

Hope this helps. If your starting first with the CFI, then I would think a month or so would be average - if your doing this full time. The thing that typically takes the longest is simply getting all your lesson plans done and perfected. The CFI has A LOT of different lessons to cover and will take a lot of good research and time to really understand the nuts and bolts of everything (you'll be suprised what you don't really know when you start getting into this!)

Good luck!

 

[Flechas]

I did the same as Abuser, CFII, then MEI, and CFI last.
The CFII took me about 4 months because I was working full time. Then the MEI was done in a week, and another week for the CFI.

 

[urflyingme?!]

Do u guys use the jeppeson sylabus?

 

[DrewBlows]

Figure on a month or two if you are currently flying, if you aren't it could take longer, if you go though a "program" it could take you less time but plan on learning on the job. The real meat and bones of the CFI is in the ground training, so if your instructor isn't into ground istruction (many are not understandably) you should spend extra time on it. It's not really that difficult to learn how to fly in the right seat. It's more difficult to learn how to communicate with a student than it is how to show them how to do a power-off stall.

 

[Flechas]

Do u guys use the jeppeson sylabus?

I didn't, I did my own lesson plans using the PTSs as a reference and used the info from all the books I could find (Jepp Comm, FAA flying handbook, Instrument flying handbook....). That way I could get the best out of all the versions.

 

[User546]

Do u guys use the jeppeson sylabus?

Ditto what Flechas said.

I had to hand write every single lesson plan and maneuvers plan from scratch.

Just opened up the ole PTS and started away. The PTS actually gives you a lot of good information about what specifically should be covered in each topic. And as an added bonus, come checkride time, the examiner won't be able to find any topics to have you teach that you won't be prepared for.

I personally think you learn 10 times more actually writing your own plans, digging thru the books for the accurate info, and learning the stuff cold. I think you lose a lot of that by already buying pre-made lesson plans.

 

[Flechas]

Ditto what Flechas said.

I had to hand write every single lesson plan and maneuvers plan from scratch.

Just opened up the ole PTS and started away. The PTS actually gives you a lot of good information about what specifically should be covered in each topic. And as an added bonus, come checkride time, the examiner won't be able to find any topics to have you teach that you won't be prepared for.

I personally think you learn 10 times more actually writing your own plans, digging thru the books for the accurate info, and learning the stuff cold. I think you lose a lot of that by already buying pre-made lesson plans.

True dat, when the time came for my ride I was very prepared, knew each lesson plan very well and my oral only lasted one hour and a half.

 

[illinipilot]

Does that mean that you're done with

your multi?

 

[Goose Egg]

...I had to hand write every single lesson plan and maneuvers plan from scratch... The PTS actually gives you a lot of good information about what specifically should be covered in each topic...I personally think you learn 10 times more actually writing your own plans, digging thru the books for the accurate info, and learning the stuff cold.

Same. I wrote everything myself, using mostly the CFI Maneuvers manual from Gliem for reference. I'd say it took me about 2 months of flying and constant lesson plan writing to get the CFI, about 5 months to get the CFII (long story), and about two months to get the CFIG (including the commercial glider). I still haven't done my MEI yet.

Funny story, the CFIG oral consisted of about two questions as the examiner was writing out my ticket.

-Goose

 

[LewisU_Pilot]

Thanks for the input. For some reason I thought it took longer when flying full time. Hopefully I will be down by mid-late summer

 

[Lil Jon]

I took a ground school class in college and used the notes from it to make my lesson plans. it was a typical 15 week class. then the flying and little bit of ground took a couple months because of weather and getting the plane. only about 6 hrs of right seat flying and spins and maybe 10 hrs oral showing i could teach all my lessons. its a bit of work but a very good experience. once you start teaching you'll probly find out that you really didnt know how to fly, you just could checkride was 3 hrs oral and 1 hr flight. the ii took about 4 hrs right seat flying, then the checkride was 45 min oral and an hour flight. good luck!