The Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) indicate a flight instructor needs to be a minimum of 18 years old when they apply for their CFI ticket. There are many instructors who earn their certificates in their teens, which to me shows dedication and initiative. Spending thousands of dollars to learn a trade—like flight instruction—means you are committed to practicing the trade.
It takes time, money, and focus.
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According to some of my aviation mentees who are on the young side, one of the challenges of being a younger, inexperienced CFI is that the mindset of some flight schools or would-be clients is that youth equates to a lack of maturity and responsibility.
I submit the responsibility of being an instructor is not age related.
I have worked with younger instructors who were very responsible—texting me when they were going to be late, asking for assistance with a troubling learner, taking care to make sure the learner’s logbooks were filled out correctly, and always being conservative with aircraft performance. They had good mentors during training and learned it would take awhile for them to become comfortable in the right seat, because flight instruction involves a lot more than flying from the right side of the aircraft and endorsing a logbook.
CFI Is a Teacher First
The learners’ needs come first. Read that again and make sure it sinks in.
You are being hired to be a teacher of flight, and if the learner is not making progress, you are not doing your job. Either find another way to teach the material or help them find another CFI. Please don’t run them out of money by providing junk instruction—many hours but little progress.
If you discover you don’t like teaching, find a job doing pipeline patrol, fire watch, or aerial tours to build your hours. The aviation world is littered with student pilots who dropped out of training discouraged because they could tell the CFI didn’t want to be there.
Know Your Limitations
Consider requests for training carefully.
How would you handle this scenario: You just got your tailwheel endorsement in a 65 hp J-3 Cub and have approximately 10 hours of experience flying it. A client with no flight experience but a new-to-them Piper PA-18 Super Cub hears you have a tailwheel endorsement and asks if you will train them. The Super Cub is sporting a 160 hp engine.
Would you feel comfortable and confident teaching the client in their airplane?
Keep Good Records
Recordkeeping is a skill a flight instructor needs to have. It begins with the endorsements you give. And if you are busy, you will be giving a lot of them.
You may want to print out or at least download the latest copy of Advisory Circular 61-65 Certification: Pilots and Flight and Ground Instructors. In the appendix you will find a list of required endorsements for each certificate, beginning with the TSA endorsement.
A CFI is required to keep a record of the TSA endorsement for five years, with the rest of the CFI records, from training given to solo endorsements to check ride recommendations, kept for three years.
Before endorsing the applicant for the check ride, the CFI and the applicant should go through the applicant’s logbook together to make sure the requirements for it have been met and the required endorsements are in the logbook and properly worded per the current AC 61-65. Be very careful about logbooks that have preprinted endorsements, because depending on when it was printed, the FAA-approved wording may have changed.
Pro tip: While you can go digital for recordkeeping, as a backup you may want to invest in a large three-ring binder to hold photocopies of the endorsements and check ride recommendations you have given. I have one such book—the Big Book of Sign Offs, which is kept under lock and key in my home office. Each client has their own section, with one page for each certificate or rating they have earned.
The lesson is not over until you endorse the logbook and, if you are “running late,” you are running late. Finish with the client before moving on to the next. If you are consistently late, expect to lose clients and possibly your job. Try to avoid the “leave a line for me” route. Please. That’s like dropping your prom date off a block from her house because you are about to break curfew.
Be responsible enough to complete the lesson. It is not uncommon for both the CFI and the learner to forget about “the line” until the learner is going for a check ride and realizes they are missing several precious and required hours—and the CFI is now several states away.
Model Good Behavior
Demonstrate how to look up the information. Use the FAR/Aeronautical Information Manual (AIM) pilot’s operating handbook (POH), Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK), etc. Seriously, we have digital FAA texts with a search function, and the hard copy of the books never runs out of batteries.
Demonstrate good airmanship by avoiding shortcuts. Use the checklists, taxi at an appropriate speed, use the safety pin on the towbar, tow the aircraft behind the golf cart at an appropriate speed, and double-check the fuel before takeoff although the learner has already completed the preflight inspection.
Enhance and Protect Your Skills
If you really want to improve your instructing skills, teach a ground school or aviation seminar. There is a big difference between demonstrating a maneuver in the aircraft and the learner copying what you did and using words to explain something. For best results, use complete sentences and visual displays.
Schedule a skill-build for yourself. It is easy to get complacent as an instructor, building hours one lesson at a time. Schedule time for your own flying for both proficiency and skill growth. Get your CFII ticket, pursue multiengine and high performance ratings if you don’t have them yet, or get a seaplane rating. The more ratings and types of aircraft you have flown, the more job opportunities you will find.