How to be a successful CFI

[Toy Soldier]

(Recently Updated 9-16-03)

If anyone has any ideas to add, let me know. Let's see how big this list can grow. Other poster's ideas have been incorporated into the list.

HOW TO BE A SUCCESSFUL CFI:

PROFESSIONALISM
1. Be serious about the profession.
2. Learn all you can and get all the ratings that you can.
3. Become a Master CFI through NAFI.
4. Join AOPA and NAFI (National Association of Flight Instructors).
5. Wear collared shirts with "Flight Instructor" sewn above the pocket.
6. Be sincere
7. Never get complacent and remember, we are all lifetime students.
8. Don’t become best friends with your students. You will have students who are the nicest people in the world but you must maintain a professional boundary.
9. Don’t use a student as a time builder. I've known many instructors to skip ground simply to build a few more hours on their resume.
10. Develop and print out the following sheets - as handouts for your students: PVT requirements, Instrument requirements, Commercial requirements, Student-Instructor agreement and expectations.

SELF IMPROVEMENT
1. Read the book "The Savy CFI".
2. Do aviation community service activities (CAP, Boy Scouts, etc.)
3. Read about instructing every chance you get.
4. Read the FAR/AIM while using the John!
5. Be an AOPA Project Pilot Mentor.
6. Earn your CFI Gold Seal.
7. Don't "build flight time", gain "quality flying experience". This means getting into different types of flying.

QUALITY INSTRUCTION
1. Use the resources that AOPA and NAFI have to offer.
2. Use a syllabus
3. Develop a goals timeline with the student. Don't just "train away". Help them to establish "dates" for written tests, pre-solo written, checkride, etc.
4. Sign up your students for the Flight Training Magazine thru AOPA.
5. Plan long cross country trips with your students to accellerate their training.
6. Take your multi, instrument students, etc., on a coast-to-coast for an awesome experience and to build time.
7. Preach PTS guidelines to your students like its the bible.

MARKETING
1. Advertise in the AOPA CFI directory.
2. Use Landings.com to target your students.
3. Find students that already own airplanes.
4. Market yourself to the folks that can afford to fly 3 days a week. This will keep food on the table.
5. Market yourself to those that can only fly once in a while - to fill in the blanks of those that fly 3 days a week.
6. Don't sit at the flight school and WAIT for potential students to show up. SEEK them.
7. Do post articles of yourself and your students in the local papers. Network with the local reporters.
8. Interview potential students. Setup an interview methodology that outlines what your student can expect from you and what you expect from the student.
9. Join NAFI and have them give you a listing.

ECONOMICS
1. Charge for all of your flight and ground time.
2. Sell pilot kits to your students.
3. Charge professional rates. IE; $45/hr or more! Give professional instruction!
4. Find students that are willing to buy planes.
5. Conduct ground schools or seminars.
6. Offer specialized instruction. IE; tailwheel, etc.
7. Schedule your students. Don't let them schedule you (within reason). In other words, try to schedule your appointments "back to back" instead of having three a day at different times. Use the calendar to schedule LONG TERM as far out as reason allows.
8. Find your own students and then contract through the FBO for a higher rate.
9. Conduct group ground school on rainy days and charge EACH student an appropriate rate.
10. Convince your students to get a loan, etc., so that they can accellerate their training and fly DAILY without having to "cut grass" to make a flight lesson.

TEACHING TECHNIQUES
1. Use 3X5 cards to outline opportunity training. Use them to "fill
in the blanks" when time allows during a lesson. (Keep them in your shirt pocket)
2. Use powerpoint training aides when teaching ground school(slides).
3. Scan pertinent illustrations into your computer and print them out as enlargements.
4. Use a syllabus. Use a syllabus. Use a syllabus.
5. Make training aides of the airport environment. The have your students "walk" you through a flight. These aides can be the traffic pattern, VOR's, etc.
6. Use the training aides listed in number 5 to have instrument students walk through an approach.
7. Occassionally, have your students "teach" you the maneuvers during flight.
8. Have your students teach you ground school topics.
9. Use 3X5 cards to "breakdown" the syllabus into "bite size" pocket cards. This will prevent you from having to take the syllabus into the plane with you.
10. During each lesson, "sabotage" something in the plane to see if the student catches it. Ensure that the sabotaged item is on the checklist. This can be as simple as pulling a breaker, turning the auto-pilot switch on, etc.
11. Before a students' checkride, have them use 3X5 cards to write down ALL navaids, airport info, frequencies, etc., for the route and area of the checkride. This way they will have handy reference cards already filled out for use during the checkride.

SAFETY
1. Ensure that your students get a full weather brief from 1-800-WX-BRIEF. This way you can "track" the briefs that they get.
2. Learn to "block" the controls to prevent inadvertant or excessive control inputs by the student.
3. Ensure that you and your student do a "final walkaround" before climbing into the plane.
4. Have the student jot down their "safety brief" onto a 3X5 card so that it fits in their shirt pocket.

 

[CitationLover]

i love the #35 BS!

i'll bet someone didn't say that after spending a whole day teaching pvt pilot student show to land.

#21 is right on. especially when studying for the atp.

 

[tarp]

TS:

You have been thumping the pulpit pretty hard.

I was of that school and have since calmed down a bit. A prophet yelling in the wind is not heard as loud as he hears himself.

Here's my take. All those young kids out there have stars in their eyes. Some of them will be my customers. Some of them will go on and get advanced ratings and be my competition.

Now, here I am an independent businessman working hard as a professional giving a quality product to my customers. I have no lack of people willing to throw money at me to keep ME as their instructor because what I give them is quality and dedication.

My competition (if you want to call it that) is some young buck who only has visions of driving big iron and making big bucks in the airlines. They will give away their time, free instruction, free ferry flights, free charter work, heck they will even buy PFT from mills just to bow at the shrine of some dream that will probably never happen.

Am I mad that they are "giving it away"? Not really. Because they are not giving anything away. Unless the individual truly becomes a professional, the service they provide is a sham. Their customers will eventually become my customers - and those customers will be mad! They will feel cheated because the "airline wannabe" did not care, did not know enough, did not give a product worth paying anything for. I'm happy they are out there because I can just point to the differences in my curriculum and teaching style. I will have customers for life.

Like you said - YOU have plenty of business. I have plenty of business. Let's keep it our little secret, because if everyone figures out that by caring for customers, giving them a quality product, being prepared and being professional - they may get ideas and actually try to mimick us.

 

[Toy Soldier]

Hey Tarp

Where do you CFI and what are your rates? I charge $45/hr, flight or ground.

Also, I know what you mean about "keeping it to ourselves". I just know that those that are out there complaining don't have the energy or willpower to take our "sandwhich" from us! ha

Oh, I ain't trying to preach even though it might look like it. I just want to let the "naysayers" know that the system does work - if they apply themselves.

Good luck in your endeavers...

 

[bobbysamd]

On being a CFI

Very good discussion and excellent posts above.

The long and short of it is to enjoy your work. When I think back, there were very few days when I did not look forward to meeting with my students and working with them. I put in the qualifier because no job is perfect and there will be days when you would rather do something else than work (I've had a few days like that lately. ). Especially when dealing with the mickeymouse that's a part of so many flight schools. But what better work is there to instruct a new generation of pilots and maybe exerting a positive influence on them? Based on some of the instruction I received, I made it a point not to teach in some of the same ways I learned.

There are far worst jobs to be had. Think about it. How many questions about career changing do we see here? I would submit that a great many of these individuals are "bowing to the shrine," as Tarp so aptly and elegantly puts it, but there are others who would find it a privilege just to be out flying and instructing.

I agree with Tarp, keep the secret to yourselves. I'd like to think that I, too, knew that secret.

 

[Toy Soldier]

Hello bobbysamd & Tarp

Are you guys offering that I delete the post?

 

[bobbysamd]

Shhhhh!!!

Hello bobbysamd & Tarp

Are you guys offering that I delete the post?

Maybe if you do delete your post the secret will remain safe that by viewing flight instructing as a learning experience and a chance to serve the aviation community, and by doing so being able to enjoy one's work and make money, that the glut of undedicated flight instructors will lessen and you and Tarp will have the market to yourselves!

 

[stlpilot]

All good advice, Ill add a few things of my own. But from a different perspective and that is things I saw CFI’s do over the years that I thought could use improvement.

1.) Don’t use a student as a time builder. Iv known many instructors to skip ground simply to build a few more hours on their resume.

2.) If you work at an airport in the high $$$ part of town with equally high $$ customers don’t take advantage of them nor let them try to manage you. Many a CEO or Company president would come in trying to run the show, stand your ground and let them know in a professional manor that YOU are the instructor and if they are not ready to follow instructions then you will not provide services. You may think you struck gold getting a bling bling student but if the student is of any decent moral character then in the end they will respect you 10 times more by making them follow the rules like anyone else. One of the new instructors who we hired had a first student who was a Top dog at A.G. Edwards, this guy had his own jets to fly him around but he wanted to take lessons. He came in trying to throw money in the CFI’s face to get him done in the 40 hour minimum. He found out real quick that it does not work that way, and in the end he offered the CFI a flight job with him and even said it was only b/c he made it clear on how things work and stood up to him..

3.) Don’t become best friends with your students. You will have students who are the nicest people in the world but you must maintain a professional boundary or it will come back to haunt you when it comes to something like critique of the student. Back when I was Assistant Chief at a decent size flight school this issue came into play two times and the effects were not good. The first instructor who broke this rule was going to football games, overnight vacation trips, and spending personal time with students with out our knowing. Needless to say his students had the lowest performance on stage checks and the highest failure rate among the DE’s that tested at our school. One of his students is now dead. Dead b/c the CFI was not professional? Who knows. But I’m sure it did not help. The other case was similar, the CFI was recruiting personal friends for instruction, sure it’s possible, but tough to be as regimented as you might be with other students. All this being said does not mean you cant be a nice person or mean you have to be a jerk all the time, it just means to be an instructor and nothing more nor less.

4.) If you charge your students make sure they get their moneys worth. Is your instruction as good and current as anyone else? Man is it really up to 45 per hour now, sheesh I must be a dinosaur now. When I first started I was personally unsatisfied with how much all the CFII’s did not know about the IFR system. So I made it a point to acquire all the knowledge I could and after a while other CFII consulted me on instrument regs and so forth. That’s not me bragging, just my effort to make sure I know the system so well that I am able to explain to the student a concept beyond the text book explanation. Now they are getting their moneys worth and I feel fine charging them what I’m worth. Not saying I’m gonna require them to know as much as I do, but once in a while you get a person you must explain something very in depths too, like a CFII student who is usually broke to begin with.

5.) Never get complacent and remember, we are all lifetime students. If you feel you will never have anything more to learn, then its time to get out of the business.

6.) Preach PTS guidelines to your students like its the bible A good book read was “Eye of the Examiner” by Howard Freid, he gives a DE perspective of a check ride, and takes a lot of the unknowns out for you and your students.

7.) Last but not least, don’t be a dork or tool bag! Sure know the regs forwards and back but be cool at the same time. Know one likes a know it all or someone who appears to have no life outside being a CFI. Drink a beer with your fellow CFI after a hard day and talk about something other then work. This is just a bit of advice to get along with co-workers, not so much for your students benefit. Good luck.

 

[tarp]

TS,

Let it stand - see the 4 stars - not bad.

Those that get it, get it - those that don't will never understand.

 

[Toy Soldier]

Let it stand - see the 4 stars - not bad.
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Where do those stars come from? I really don't know