r/CFILounge

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!

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 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

I’m not sure if it’s because of me constantly scouring this sub and seeing that CFI was people’s hardest CR that’s doing it, or if it’s just burnout kicking in, but I’ve been feeling a deep sense of something recently that I haven’t told my instructors or anyone about, and I just feel like yelling into the void even if this post gets shadowbanned lol

I’ve gotten thru PPL, IR, and Comm SEL with no hiccups or failures, and I’m almost done with Part 61 CFI flights with my flight school (ground school completed too), but I’ve been feeling extreme worry and fear about completing my EOC check and subsequent checkride.

Up to this point I’ve had complete guidance thru my training with a syllabus under 141 training and one singular instructor, but starting with CFI it’s all 61 and I’ve been changing instructors left and right because of some internal changes within my school. I haven’t unsat any flights or anything, and both my written test scores average out to decent, but the workload that I must complete independently feels extremely daunting to me, and I just don’t feel confident that I can explain 6-8 hours of flight material without messing up during my CR oral.

Frankly I don’t know how people do it, and I hear sometimes that it’s okay, that I’ve gotten to THIS point, that the DPE knows I know how to fly, and it’s just having to teach it that’s the kicker, but how do I present myself confidently when I’m this nervous? I’ve been putting off flights because of this horrible fear of failure, and I feel like my current instructor is getting sick of me, but it’s just extremely hard to face reality.

I know I’ve been struggling with imposter syndrome a lot, and that feeling has slowly increased in intensity the closer I get to being put on that checkride list. I can tell that getting through to this point is the most my parents have been proud of me, and the thought of messing this up is killing me. I don’t know how I’d react if I failed, and everyone around me is so nonchalant about this super long oral that it confuses the hell outta me. How does one memorize all these FOI terms? How are you able to talk through a steep turn while staying within parameters after such a long oral? I just don’t understand.

It’s so hard to motivate to study and keep working on my CFI binder when every page reminds me of the magnitude of this task. I’ve been burying myself in my other jobs and trying my best with them just to feel some sense of accomplishment. I love flying so very much, and it kills me to be this afraid of it right now, but even just looking at my online flight scheduler makes my heart start racing. All I want is to be the confident student I was before.

I’d love if anyone could share some advice with me or anything. Thank you.

Hi All,

Curious to see if anyone has been seeing the same scenario given by any DPEs for their commercial students.

I had a student pass their Commercial checkride relatively recently, but in the debrief the DPE mentioned that the student has gotten a question regarding Common vs. Private carriage incorrect. The scenario was as follows:

"A man runs into your FBO and asks you if you are a pilot. You say you are. He asks if you can fly him to an airport 60 nm away for a wedding that he absolutely cannot miss. You tell him you are a commercial pilot but you do not own a plane. He says he will buy a C-172 at the FBO for you to take him in, as he has never piloted an aircraft before and has no background in aviation. You have had a flight review in the last 24 calendar months, are IFR-rated and satisfy 66HITs, and have had 3 takeoffs and landings in the daytime in the last 90 days. Is this a legal operation?"

My immediate thought, and the student's as well, was that this was a legal operation as the passenger is providing the aircraft. However, the DPE stated that that was in fact incorrect, because the passenger had an "obvious lack of understanding of aviation safety and thus could not legally exercise operational control of the aircraft, therefore operational control would fall to you as the pilot."

Has anyone else heard this from their DPEs? Is there an AC that perhaps goes into more detail about this? I'd like to make sure my future commercial students go in with a more current understanding of these regs!

Thanks in advance!

Once you get a bachelors degree, do they?

Hey everyone. I recently passed my CFI. I’m very proud to say I impressed my Dpe and on the day of receiving my cert he asked me if I wanted to work for his flight school. I jumped on the opportunity right away knowing the job market and I don’t have much money left for CFII.

They have 1 plane and I’ve already been checked out in it. It’s an older 63’ 172 but flies great. The problem I’m having with this flight school is the pricing and structure for students. They have told me they charge a flat rate of the plane for 245 including instructor. I asked what about when they solo’ “ you are still there so they are paying for your time and, We have found they are more willing to ask for help if it’s not more money. “ that is what the owner has told me. I did both 61 in HS and 141 to finish my certs. I would feel getting ripped off if I had to pay the instructor rate while I solo.

Just doesn’t feel right to me but knowing there’s no other jobs out there right now I’m not entirely sure what to do. It does seem like the school isn’t that busy and they hired me to get them going and everything so maybe I can tell them by splitting the cost student retention may be higher. What are your thoughts? What would you do?

Hello!! I just signed up as a part 141 student at a local flight school near me. I’m a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information I have to learn. How do I go about structuring my day to day in terms of learning & studying..etc? I’ve only had two lessons so far, my CFI didn’t walk through kinda like what the next lesson is going to be like and what I should do to come prepared. I chose part 141 for structure, I’m confused as to where the structure is.

The school has KINGS for ground school and that’s what I’m doing plus going through the ACS to direct me what to read etc..

I’m going through Flight Schedule Pro, and under lessons I can see all the stage checks and lessons contents, do I just follow that in terms of reading and coming to lessons prepared?

We did my first Sim training the last lesson was that supposed to be logged into my logbook? My CFI didn’t mentioned anything about logging that time.

I would like to knock out PPl in a few months while I still have the funds to do it and not get dragged with my lack of knowledge and unpreparedness.

*sigh* help please

I’m a pretty brand new CFI-I at a 141 school. So far, I’ve been logging simulator lessons under both “dual given” and “ground trainer” (my log book doesn’t have separate “ground instruction” and “flight instruction” columns). I’ve been asking around, and I’ve heard that some people don’t log simulator lessons at all, some only log as dual given, some only as ground trainer, some have completely separate log books for simulator logging, etc. everyone has their own way of logging those lessons.

My question is, is the way I’m currently logging it potentially going to lead to confusion later down the road, and is there a better, more clear way of logging simulator lessons?

My thinking is on my digital log book (excel) at home, I’ll go and add a new column for “simulator instruction” or “ground instruction”. That way I have something that is a little more accurate and somewhere I can go to find a clear answer when I end up needing it.

Another worry I have is that if I do start logging it a different way, it’ll be inconsistent which I know the airlines/other employers aren’t a big fan of.

Trying to clean my messy logbook up. I have 2 check rides in question PPL and multi.
Based on what I’ve read check rides you are considered PIC unless the examiner agrees to be prior to the flight otherwise they’re considered a passenger. Based on that a check ride should be logged as PIC and not duel received.

However the way it was logged in my logbook several years ago was as only duel received. Which leads me to believe I wasn’t PIC and therefore shouldn’t log it as PIC. I did not verbally agree to not be PIC before these flights. Also may or may not be relevant but these were all done under part 141.

At the end of the day I don’t care that much as it’s only about 3 hours so I’m totally fine with advice telling me to just let it be, more hoping for a better understanding.

Anyone have a good approach or departure plate that has some odd ball stuff to it? Trying to up the level critical thinking for some students. Maybe increase my own knowledge while we’re at it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Does anyone have a current source for the statement that an LPV approach could be used as precision for training purposes? Myself and several instructors remember this being mentioned in the IRA ACS but cannot find it anymore.

started flying casually at 36, went full time at 37 now 38. just over 300hr and about to checkride for commercial 61 at a good school. got thru comm time reqs pretty quick and was almost cr ready with maneuvers then had to take a 3 week break. then weeks of re-practice flights after landings went to shit and instructor had me on what felt like a quest for the perfect chandelle.
after weeks of refresher flights and more weeks waiting for a cr date while paying out of pocket for practice flights to stay current, 2 dpe reschedules and a discontinued cr flight it feels like my school/instructor are giving up on me. supposed to go into CFI right after comm but starting to feel like im not as good at this as you need to/should be to make a career out of it. lots of stress being away from family and home working remotely out of state. would like to get thru CFI, CFII in 6 weeks. have had some typical setbacks in training but now starting to think just save the money and stop now. dont know anyone who flies and dont know who to ask outside of the school.

Any insight on a CSEL checkride with Greg Collins out of KLQK? I’ve seen reviews for private & instrument, but not any for commercial. Any insight would help, thanks!

I'm a junior in high school from Ohio, I want to apply to UND, Saint Louis University, Ohio University, Purdue, and FIT. I was wondering if anybody is doing flight training at these universities and could give me some insight into what training is like there. I'm working on my ppl right now and have good grades for reference. I'm mostly think about OU because I could go there for a lot less money than anywhere else and when I toured their program it looked pretty good (New planes and a new hangar being built). Plus they cap the amount of people they let in at 50 so overcrowding might not be as bad.

So, if for example my CFI expired last month and it had an expiration date of April 30, 2026, I can do an FIRC up till July 31,2026 if I’m reading the regulation correctly. Has anyone renewed in there grace period and it’s gone smoothly with American Flyers since it is new? Even though I got my CFI before the recency date came out, we’re grandfathered in to the grace period.

I’m new to being a CFI and I’ve been told that I need to make an FTSP account as an independent CFI. Can anyone help me with understanding what’s necessary and unnecessary and what ever else you may think that I need to know?

Where can I find a flight school that will teach and endorse the completion of full-down autos? Yes, I asked Google, but I’m looking for real knowledge, not website info.

Even better if the school is near Seattle, Dallas, or D.C.

My flight school lost the last instructor who would teach those. If I want to complete CFI at home, I’ll have to get autorotation training endorsed somewhere else.