Learning to Teach Flying: Flight Instructor

Obtaining the flight instructor certificate provides a pilot the first opportunity to earn back some of the money invested in this flying enterprise. A common misconception is to believe that this is "just another test involving flying and proficiency". Learning and testing for the CFI (Certificated Flight Instructor) is all about teaching! You are flying the same maneuvers as private and commercial (which you already know and proved you can fly) but you are instructing them...while simultaneously flying them. The CFI rating is really a knowledge test, where you demonstrate your ability to instruct and the subject matter just happens to be aviation. The challenges are not obvious; simultaneously teaching and flying, analyzing, evaluating but in a flexible and fun manner. Hopefully you are also bringing along your student to a higher level of understanding and proficiency. Being a successful flight instructor has more to do with psychology than flight physics.

The nuts and bolts of this rating are found in the regulations under 61.185 and 61.187. There are two knowledge tests, a standard display of aviation knowledge identical to the commercial and the Fundamentals of Instructing which deals with teaching and the psychology of conveying information in the fast-paced world of flight. You fly this test in a complex aircraft and learn to fly and teach from the right seat. We usually do a few hours in a Cessna and then jump in the Mooney and have you start to fly and teach from a new perspective. Often the new visual cues from the right seat create a little ineptitude and this is good. Our new flight instructor candidate hopefully gains a little empathy for their new potential "student" who will be suffering to learn in the other seat.