The Flight Instructor's Manual

William K. Kershner, William C. Kershner, William C. Kershner

• Publisher: Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc.
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781619546165
• Edition: 6
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Aviation
• Index: Technology & Engineering

An excellent instructor resource for information about the problems students and pilots encounter in flight training.

The Flight Instructor's Manual is an invaluable reference for flight instructor applicants and serves as an indispensable guide for both new and experienced instructors (CFIs). Organized so each chapter can be used as a stand-alone reference for a particular phase of instruction, allowing it to serve as a "how to teach" guide on topics including: fundamentals of flight instruction (FOI), presolo instruction, first solo to the private certificate, advanced VFR instruction, introduction to aerobatic instruction, and instrument instruction. The book also features a comprehensive spin syllabus, material on multi-engine airplanes, instructing international students, teaching ground school, and setting up tests.

With teaching tips on:
• Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI)
• Presolo
• First Solo to the Private Certificate
• Complex Single-Engine Airplanes
• Light Twins
• Spins
• Aerobatics
• Instruments

Part One: Fundamentals of Flight Instruction

Chapter 1: On Being a Flight Instructor

Background

THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR’S CERTIFICATE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE ISSUED. Unfortunately, it is not always viewed that way, but instead it is often thought of as a “license to build up time” for other flying jobs—or other certificates and ratings. If you’re going to be a flight instructor (for whatever reason), be the best while you are doing it.

THE BEST FLIGHT INSTRUCTORS HAVE THE FOLLOWING THINGS IN COMMON:

1. A KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT. They continually study to update themselves.

2. THE ABILITY TO TEACH. They know how people learn and provide instruction appropriate to the individual and the circumstance. Their instruction is accurate and properly sequenced.

3. A GENUINE INTEREST IN THE LEARNER. They like working with people. The instructor-student relationship is good and they have the confidence of those who are learning. They have consideration of the student’s point of view.

4. PROFESSIONALS IN THE AIR. They have skill and are self-disciplined in the airplane. Their relationship with students is that of friendly authority. (If they are authoritative only, that’s bad; if they are friendly without authority they are ineffective and the student will pay later.)

5. ADAPTABILITY. If the old “proven” methods don’t work with a particular student, professional flight instructors use new techniques, understanding that these new approaches apply only to these individuals.

6. CONSISTENCY. They don’t change personality but use the same standards from one flight to another.

7. UPDATED INSTRUCTING TECHNIQUES. Every once in a while they take a look at themselves to see if they’ve gotten in a rut and change their outlook to rejuvenate their attitudes toward instructing.

Successful instructors’ goals of teaching are to:

a. instill high standards in students;

b. teach precision habits;

c. reduce tolerances as instruction proceeds;

d. detect unsafe habits and correct them (or, more positively, teach safe habits from the beginning).

Your Influence

The flight instructor exerts more influence on flight safety than any other pilot. You may ask, “What about airline captains who fly thousands of passengers every year? Don’t they have more influence than people who may instruct, at most, 30 people in that time?” Remember that those airline captains didn’t spring fully rated into the left seat; much of their attitude toward flying, and their flying habits, are the result of the first few hours of their flight instruction. If they have been flight instructors at some point in their careers, be assured that they passed on some of the ideas they got in their early learning period. This passing of information by flight instructors includes bad ideas as well as good ones, unfortunately.

The student pilot tends to imitate his instructor: If you are the kind of person who thinks that Federal Aviation Regulations are for less-experienced pilots than you, think about the effect on the student if you buzz and show off at low altitudes. You might get away with it, but if a student gets in trouble because he was influenced by your actions, you’d feel low enough to put on a 10-gallon hat and walk under a snake’s belly (and that’s low).

It will bring the idea of your influence directly home when a student of 10 or 15 years ago stops by to say, “I’ll always remember that time we were doing stalls, and you taught me that…” You don’t even remember flying with him, it’s been so long ago, but it has stuck with him. Another time, you may hear about one of your ex-students who, after inadvertently flying into IFR conditions, saved himself and his passengers by using the emergency instrument flying instruction you hammered so hard at him. Your next reaction, though, after feeling that you’ve accomplished something, will be to wonder why you weren’t able to instill enough judgment so that he would avoid getting into such a situation requiring the emergency training.

Speaking of judgment, throughout this book scenarios will be used to show how to help the student or low time pilot set up his own ideas of aeronautical decision making (ADM) or judgment calls.

You will be an obvious example, and how you act during flight training will affect how the student pilot makes his or her decisions in later years. You, the instructor, may lecture about aviation safety, but unless you fly the way you talk, there will be faint hope of student pilots taking you seriously.

You may later see one of your private or commercial (or instrument, or instructor) trainees getting careless. Will your influence be enough to straighten him out?

It’s good to know that people come from miles around to get the word on flying because they know that you are the person who will give it to them straight. Use your influence to make these people fly safely.

General Responsibilities

As a flight instructor you will be responsible for:

1. Starting a student, giving him ground and flight instruction so that he may safely solo.

2. Overseeing his solo flights in the local area.

3. Giving periodic dual instruction to add to his knowledge and to check his progress.

4. Giving proper ground and flight instruction to assure him of safely flying the prerequisite amount of solo cross-country for the private certificate.

5. Preparing him to pass the private knowledge test and check ride.

That simple layout of requirements has a certain now aspect as it stands. It boils down to (1) assuring that he is safe to fly solo locally, (2) making sure that he is safe to fly solo cross-country, and (3) seeing that he can pass the private check ride and not embarrass you. What’s not listed in the earlier list is implied. You’ll make sure that (a) 2 years from now he doesn’t neglect to preflight the airplane properly, resulting in problems in flight, (b) 3 years from now he uses judgment and cancels a flight even at great inconvenience because of weather he feels he can’t handle, or (c) 4 years after he’s left you, he gets several hours of dual because he’s hit a slump and knows he needs instruction. Teach him to recognize his limitations.

The same thing applies when you are working with a person on the commercial, multiengine, or instrument rating or flight instructor’s certificate. You’ll actually have three goals to accomplish:

1. Teach the particular item so that he can move on to the next phase.

2. Give him knowledge so that he can continue to complete the requirements to get the particular certificate or rating.

3. Teach him an attitude toward flying that is fixed in his mind long after he’s forgotten exactly how to do a specific maneuver for the flight test.

You teach an instrument student basic instrument flying so that he will be ready to go on to radio work and take the practical test. After he takes the practical test, he will have to cope with the weather and ATC systems, so your real objective is for him to be successful in doing that, not just the short range aim to pass the practical test. The practical test is necessary because it covers areas of knowledge needed to cope with the system, but it’s poor policy for an instructor to train an individual strictly for a practical test and even worse to train for a particular check pilot. (“This check pilot is heavy on GPS work so we will work on that and won’t have to spend much time working on the VOR…” Both the instructor and check pilot are wrong in this case.)

You’ll see that your personal responsibility can be heavy. A long distance call from a town to which your student left on a cross-country an hour ago can be quite a jolt until you find out he’s okay, except that he had a flat tire when taxiing in there and will be delayed. Or, you’ll worry about the student who should have been back 30 minutes ago until (finally) you get his call on the Unicom, or he comes into view over the horizon. You’ll be relieved and just a little peeved at him but will give him a chance to explain before starting to discuss his shortcomings.

You’ll feel the pressure, too, when you’ve worked with a person for several weeks or months, recommended him for a particular certificate, and sent him up for the practical test. It can be a very long interval from the time he taxis out with the check pilot unti...