r/CFILounge

Hello everyone!

Myself and my business partners have been working really hard over the past 6 months to put together our flight school in the Tampa Bay Area. I myself am a CFI/I and will be the chief pilot of this flight school. One of my other partners is a captain at a legacy carrier and the other is also a CFI/I/MEI, and partially owns another aviation business in the area.

We’ve established a virtual ground course for every rating IAW the Gleim Syllabus for each rating. The goal is that anyone from around the country can sign up and complete the ground training requirements for their rating, virtually. Additionally, those who are seeking checkride prep or maybe a refresher on a topic/topics can be put in contact with one of our CFIs for any ground they may need. Students are actively enrolled in this program, and for the first 3 months it’s been a great product for our students and we’d like to open it up even further.

In July we aim to have 2-3 C152s to fly locally. Tampa area CFIs, I invite you to apply to fly with us! If you are a CFI that’s not from the Tampa area, that’s ok! Still apply, I’d love to grow our virtual CFI base to a large number.

Although there’s no flying for this position right now, if you are a new CFI that wants to get paid to teach, this is a great opportunity we’ve worked hard to put together. Suggestions are welcome!

Email: andrew@skyfleetaviation.us

Hey guys, recently got hired at a flight school and they only have 1 plane. It is a 1963 c172D. It was refitted with dual g5 and has a g430 with waas. Was doing some digging and found that the g5 don’t allow the plane to be certified for imc nor is the plane rates for IFR. It still has everything in the plane to shoot approaches and everything so was wondering if I can do my cfii in it? It’s late night thought, I’ll dive into the regs deep tmr and find out just wanted to ask y’all. Thanks

Hi everyone. I am a CFI / CFII / MEI. I am currently located in the Los Angeles area but am open to relocating for a job.

I have been looking locally — first by emailing and more recently by visiting flight schools in person. Yet, I have not been able to land an interview or discussion. I have around 250 hours total, with 25 multi. I believe I have a good resume, though with low flight hours, and no dual given yet. I am currently in a flight-related job and have lots of references — but the reality seems to be that there are practically no jobs, at least locally, and no interviews.

I wonder how others find jobs away from where they live. When I email about CFI positions, flight schools usually do not respond. The few that do respond say that they are currently not hiring. Do you look for open positions, or do you just find any flight school's website and cold email them? I hate bothering people needlessly, but I'm not sure how best to approach this.

Another option I have considered is going the independent CFI route. I have friends who want to learn how to fly and have asked me. However, I have not been able to find a plane that I would be allowed to teach in. I have been checked out at a number of local flight schools to rent, but they do not allow teaching when renting one of their planes. For those who have gone that route — do you have any advice on finding a good, well-maintained plane for training?

Hello,

I need some guidance. I have a commercial pilot who hasn't flown in 20 years and I have been working to get him back to proficiency following the guidelines of the FAA that for every year not flown, add 1 hour for flight training.

I broke down the plan and the first thing I wanted to accomplish is a solo flight in the pattern. However, according to 61.56(c), the candidate cannot do a solo and be PIC unless I give him the endorsement for the flight review. I wanted to endorse him after we do a cross country together, which would be the next step after the solo.

Since he is not a student pilot, I'm assuming I would not give him the A-3 to A-8 endorsements. Thoughts?

Just a shoutout to u/txaggiemike! What a blessing this guy is... The Guardian Angel of CFI students! Thanks Mike!

Flight school has a non-certified sim that they’d like to upgrade into a BATD. From AC 61-136B the process doesn’t seem THAT intense but it also looks like almost exclusively sim manufacturers go through the process. Is it possible to get a sim fully-built out with consumer hardware that can be certified?

u/txaggiemike if you're reading this, I'm all ears! (and thank you for all your help). I've seen many of Mike's posts on CFI training, and in many of them he mentions that (for the purposes of a CFI checkride) you can control the length of your lesson plans ("training summaries"). How could I possibly condense this lesson on the NAS to 30 minutes? I have to include a schedule, and it just seems like wishful thinking to get it even under an hour. Any tips are appreciated, TIA

https://preview.redd.it/3yucqblnzy1h1.png?width=1312&format=png&auto=webp&s=2cd5176e5d653f0ee384001fc9126c2de780ac96

Not super proud to admit this as a CFI but when going to a new airport with a student I draw out the traffic patterns on my iPad / sectional, partly to show them it’s best to double check and ensure they enter on the correct side, but because, unbeknownst to them, it still trips me up sometimes. I’d confuse left and right pattern a lot during my ppl and cpl and god forbid I’d do it again as a CFI.

Wondering if I’m the only one

So I have a student that is inflexible schedule-wise starting to talk back at me and giving me a hard time. Not sure if I should drop them, or try to talk to them first setting clear expectations/boundaries.

Basically, this student schedules me 2-3 times per week. I let him make the reservation since he has particular availibilities, but I often have to move them 1-2h to fit my schedule and the plane's scheudule. He's been not super accomodating

Recently, I had to give one of his flights to another student because we cancelled on that other one 3-4 times. He was not happy about that, and was saying "It doesn't look too professional/serious when you give my booking to another student".

I'm just frustrated trying to please/accomodate everyone and no one is happy.

I feel like just dropping them because I am booked through the wazoo and this is not worth the hassle, but I feel bad since other instructors at my school are NOT good (they just don't care) and this kid is sharp otherwise. This would hinder his progress.

Hey everyone, I’m currently working on my CFI. I’m enrolled in a CFI ground school where we teach sections of the CFI ACS to each other to prepare for the CFI oral and to get the ground endorsement. This week one of my tasks is to teach atmospheric composition and stability through clouds in task c of area of operation 3. I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what the best order to teach each section is to make it flow well and comprehendible to student pilots. I tried finding lesson plans online, but none I looked at were what I was looking for.

Hey everyone. I’m wrapping up my CFI training at an accelerated course and should have my checkride within a week (and then hopefully a job after that).

With some posts I read lately about students “trying to kill” their CFIs, I’m very interested on why to look out for specifically as far as mistakes students will commonly make that quickly put the aircraft in a very dangerous situation. I tried searching but couldn’t find many posts on this, and many experienced CFIs I’ve talked to have said basically that you figure out pretty quick what to look out for. I know the classics, such as “base to final overshoot, stall-spin,” “dumping all flaps at once on short field or go around,” “student freezing on controls holding them with superhuman strength,” and of course “poor airspeed management in the pattern.” I’d love to hear some other examples, crazy stories are great but especially common scenarios are what I’m looking for so I have a good idea of things to look out for.

Thanks all

Hey y’all me again, wanna get some insight on a flight review as a newly minted CFI. I understand FR are to make sure the pilot is proficient in most of not all areas to be good to fly. Now, doung the ground portion is it supposed to be like a checkride style? Where they can lookup info and whatnot and I don’t teach/say anything or is it more of a conversation? Same thing for the flight. I would hold them to acs but do you guys allow for re try on certain maneuvers or is it cut and dry kinda thing? I would say they get a second try for most stuff as-long as they can prove they are safe. Looking for genuine feedback cause I don’t want to sign someone off if they could be a safety hazard of course. Thanks y’all!

Title: What was the most confusing part about starting flight training?

For those of you who started from zero, what was the hardest or most confusing part when beginning flight training?

Examples:

• choosing a school
• understanding total cost
• medical/student pilot cert process
• scheduling
• training pace
• financing
• checkride prep
• something else?

I’ve noticed a lot of people interested in flying seem overwhelmed at the beginning, and I’m curious what the biggest pain points actually are from people who’ve gone through it.

I am always conflicted about this. As a CFI, I don’t make much as it is and I’m only payed when I’m with a student so part of me feels like the entire block that is not spent flying should be charged as ground time.

However, as a student I was annoyed when instructors charged me for ground time that wasn’t actually used for teaching something.

Scenario: 3 hour block, student shows up 10 minutes late, takes 20 minutes for preflight. By the time engine is started 45 minutes have passed since their start time. Fly for 1.8 hours, last 30 minutes are spent securing the plane, filling out logbook etc.

Logically I should charge 1.2 hours of ground, but that doesn’t feel right to me, so I charge them 0.5 or maybe 0.7 but now I’m not getting paid for 30 minutes, which obviously adds up and I’m not getting paid that much as it is.

Pursuing my MEI. School has 2 multi engines. Both planes are the same make and model, just different N numbers. Two months ago, I had 12 reservations on Plane A. Due to issues with maintenance and scheduling constrains, I only managed to complete 2 dual flights out of 12 that I had originally booked. Then I had to stop because I ran out of bookings with my instructor, effectively placing me at the rear of the line. Waited 2 months. Now Im about to re-start training next week. As if last time wasn’t frustrating enough, it looks like they’re doing the switcharoo with the planes once again. I just got several emails from scheduling that the school has moved my reservations to the other plane (Plane B) not the one I had the reservations on (A), not the one I’ve flown before (A). I’m not getting a good vibe this time around. Now I’m supposed to do the majority of the training in Plane B and then switch and do the checkride in Plane A. It does concern me, i mean.. as an MEI candidate I’m being held to the highest of standards..It’s probably not that big of a deal for a CFI to teach across several different tails within a fleet, but to prepare and make sure I nail the upcoming checkride is another thing, let alone the fact that the “backup” is down and if anything were to happen to the remaining plane and it goes down for Mx, i’ll be s.o.l. again, and out of few thousand dollars, back to square one. The planes are similar, but not identical to each other, one is in mph, the other one is in knots, the cockpit layout and avionics are different though, and each has its own quirks. I just feel it’s one more variable i have to deal with, stacking the odds against me and I feel will be risky to proceed under these circumstances. Am I being a cry baby or do I valid reason for concern? As long as they get their money, the school doesn’t seem to care after that.

I’m looking for work in the Baton Rouge area. I am not able to relocate right now. I need a way to build flight time. I received my CFI certificate in September and I’ve applied at all of the schools but they are still not hiring. I’m washing crawfish at a small place just to make some money at the moment

Hey all, looking for advice to understand students and how to ease them into flight training and build on blocks of learning. I just got my CFI a few weeks ago and got a job instructing. I’ve had only disco flights so far and 3/4 people really were excited to fly. I showed them steep turns and slow flights and additionally ( lmk ur thoughts on this plz cause I’ve been debating this) showing how much time you have in the plane when you lose an engine. Pitching for vg and flying the plane down.

3/4 people liked me showing them that you have so much time and don’t fall out of the sky. The other guy was scared once we took off. We didn’t do steep turns or power idle. I tried getting him to do steep turns as he wanted to get his PPL and j told him hey man we have to do these maneuvers for your test so it’s best to see if your comfortable at 45* bank and he said nah so I was like okay we’ll build up from 20-30-45 etc. the guy even on normal turns would legit lean onto me in the opposite direction of the turn. We would turn left and he would genuinely lean to the right on me. Didn’t laugh it was just different. And that’s something I have to get used to. What do you guys do for disco flights? We don’t have much in the area to show.

I instruct at a 61 school and after a disco flight today i went over to a guy preflighting a sling Lsa, he was on the phone with the owner and I was able to talked to the owner of the plane and he offered mea job as an independent contractor. We talked for a good hour and he asked me how I would structure flights and when would they solo, when would I introduce pattern work. I said when they can demonstrate proficiency in all the maneuvers since they all come together in the pattern. Anyways the one flight school I work at uses Jepson PPL syllabus but if I also do the independent route what would you guys recommend to use for flight training syllabus aswell as an app or website to keep track of the students progress.

Yes I want to build hours to airlines but in the meanwhile as a CFI I want to be the best I can be. Thank you!

Title. How do yall other instructors manage being incorrect about something in front of a student? I recently relayed information that was only partially correct to a student about an aircraft procedure, and the student (who is quite studious which I love) discovered the full information after being questioned on the topic during a stage check.

I apologized for being wrong, accepted the new information, and told the student that even CFIs are constantly learning. I just want to have a way I can deal with scenarios like this going forward. Because they have happened before and I know they will happen again. I just want to be sure my students don’t assume everything I say is wrong because I make a mistake occasionally.

I’ve been getting a lot of conflicting opinions on getting your MEI certificate. It’s one thing to have it, but it’s another thing to use it. If there’s no guarantee of using it, is it still a worthwhile investment? How do airlines or even charter companies view those with the MEI certificate as opposed to a regular commercial multi rated pilot? Regardless, it seems to be the easiest way to get multi time, yet it still proves to be difficult to actually get the time even if you do have your MEI certificate. Thoughts?

I’m currently a student at an 141 college, about 33% through my Commercial rating. I already have a $30k private loan, but I need about 40k to continue. My freshman year grades were pretty rough, but I’ve done a total 180 and have been "hitting the grindstone" with a solid GPA for the last two years. Between \*\*Meritize\*\* and \*\*College Ave\*\*, which is the better move? I’ve heard Meritize actually looks at your academic "comeback" and flight progress to help with approval, while College Ave seems more traditional. Given the recent denial and my specific academic history, where should I prioritize my next application to make sure I don't lose my proficiency? And if anyone knows other options I’m all ears