This page contains information intended to be useful for Flight Instructors or Flight Instructor candidates. However, there’s no reason it won’t be useful to all pilots.
Make sure to check-out the Student Pilot pages, you may find material there you can use with your Students.
Reference Materials
To study for the Flight Instructor oral, or in practicing your profession as a Flight Instructor you’re going to need some reference material.
- Index of CFI documents - the reference material list from the CFI PTS.
- Aviation Magazines
- Designee Updates - intended as update information for Designated Examiners it’s useful information for Flight Instructors as well.
- Logging Pilot Time - for CFI’s and their clients on logging pilot time.
The Practical CFI
Private Pilot Certificate
- Private Pilot Syllabus and A Better Private Pilot Syllabus.
- Solo and Cross-Country Requirements - check you’ve taught what’s required.
- Pre-solo written test - yet another pre-solo written test.
- Syllabus for Solo flight.
- Advice for the Post Solo Student - just one instructors personal opinions.
- Private Pilots Reading List - from the PTS
- Cross country planning - an article.
- Cross country checklist - use when signing a student off for a solo cross-country.
- Tracking Student Endorsements - sheet for tracking endorsements by student.
- Private Pilot Aeronautical Experience Checklist - check that your student is ready for the checkride.
- Private Pilot PTS Table of Contents - use as a checklist in those 3 hours of checkride preparation.
- Weight and Balance quiz.
- Private Pilot Oral Checklist - use to make sure you’ve covered all the items for the oral.
- Ready for the Checkride - an article.
Commercial Pilot Certificate
- Commercial Pilot Syllabus
- Commercial Pilot PTS Checklist
- Commercial Requirements Checklist - check you meet the requirements for your initial Commercial certificate.
Instrument Rating
- Instrument Rating Syllabus and An Unfinished Instrument Rating Syllabus.
- Pattern A and B
- Instrument Training Record
- Instrument Reading List
- PTS Table of Contents and Procedure Evaluation Sheets - can be used for checkride preparation as well as evaluating procedures.
- PTS Table of Contents
- Checklist for Evaluating an IFR flight (WORD)
Other Documents
- Flight Review Checklist - a checklist for conducting Flight Reviews or aircraft checkouts.
- Instrument Proficiency Check - a checklist for the conducting an IPC.
- Instrument Flight Review (WORD)
- CFI checklists - a discussion of the memory checklist CFI’s might want to use.
- Pairing up for IFR training - an article intended for instrument students looking to share time with another pilot as part of their instrument training.
- Global Positioning System - various articles and reference documents.
- Proficiency Training
- Lesson Notes
- Endorsement Records (Excel)
Teaching Materials
Syllabuses
- Introduction to the Private Pilot Syllabus
- Private Pilot Syllabus or A Better Private Pilot Syllabus.
- Instrument Rating Syllabus or An Unfinished Instrument Rating Syllabus.
A curriculum and syllabus for CFI training:
Ground School Lesson Outlines for use when you can’t fly.
Lesson Planning
- Lesson Plan Template - used for making note prior to a lesson.
- CFI Binder
Ground School Teaching Notes.
- Teaching notes for the KLN89/94
- Aeronautical Charts (WORD)
- Aeronautical Decision Making (WORD)
- Flight Planning (WORD)
- Takeoff and Landing (WORD)
- VFR Training Scenarios - best used for Flight Reviews (at least that’s what I use them for).
- IFR Training Scenarios - likewise for an IPC.
Other miscellaneous documents:
- Learning to Use Your GPS – discussion on what features of your GPS you need to learn.
- Emergency Procedures - the ABCDE approach.
- Teaching the NDB/ADF - notes from George Scheer.
- Teaching Notes for the KLN89B
- Learning Radio Communications
- Weather Briefing Internet Sites
- Teaching weather briefings - 8 “slides” in WORD format.
Here are some sites with CFI lesson plans on line. I STRONGLY recommend that you sit down and write your own lesson plans. The main purpose of that is if you organize them and write them down you’ll know the material. If you just print out somebody else’s lesson plan, well you’ll have lesson plans, but will you know the material? Anyway – having other people’s lesson plans to look at is still useful, so here they are:
- Lesson plans from John Price.
- Jedi Nein’s Private Pilot lesson plans, Commercial lesson plans, and Instrument lesson plans.
Here are some other really useful CFI links.
- http://www.thecfi.com/
- http://www.cyberair.com/audio/safety/inst/index.html
- http://www.cyberair.com/tower/faa/cfi/index.html
- http://www.northwestschoolofaviation.com/courses.htm
This is a list of questions and answers from Rod Machado that were originally published in AOPA’s Flight Training magazine.
Some useful other Internet sites for Flight Instructors.
If you’re a CFI, consider joining the National Association of Flight Instructors.
You should definitely consider being a member of AOPA.