From the Logbook
Well-Earned Respect Is Available For Flight Instructors.
For too many years, a Federal Aviation Administration Certificated Flight Instructor was usually an airport hanger-on who had let themselves get old and tired in the business of teaching. They made little money, rarely expanded their knowledge base, seldom added another certificate, rating or flying machine to their ticket or actually attempted anything to attract new students or improve their standing in the aviation community. Now the FAA is stepping in and making some educational demands that will cause CFIs to either get smarter or get out.
Feel free to use this article to make up a list of questions as you go shopping for someone to help you get better in your chosen profession. If you are wondering why we don’t use young instructors more to take advantage of their recent training and their youth, it is because we are aware that most of them only use this certificate as a stepping stone to fly for the biggies and most likely will never return to the role of teacher again. Who can blame them since we lack the money, the glory, and the great machines they get to fly. Most will never know the rewards that an FAA CFI enjoys watching a ground pounder turn slowly but surely into a pilot, but truthfully both branches have their rewards.
To better explain why we insist on getting you the best instruction from the get-go, remember this statement: If an aviation emergency rears its ugly head, you will react exactly as you were trained . . . no better, no worse! If the instructor you are working with is not current, you are missing something each time you train. You are actually wasting both time and money. The good thing about getting a bad instructor, or one that just has trouble keeping up with what’s new, is that they are as easy to get rid of as they are to attract. You really need to make a checklist of what you are looking for and accept no less.
First, we are getting new applications, Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application (IACRA). These new forms, like most everything else that is coming out new, require the use of a computer. The aim of our government is to go paperless after all those years of sign this, copy this, save that. You will be amazed at the amount of information that is available to you and the public by logging on to www.faa.gov. There is a mass of information at your fingertips if you own a computer and a printer.
Next, we are being asked to support and promote aviation safety by being a part of FAASTeam (www.faasafety.gov). This is the Federal Aviation Administration Safety Team. We can become Representatives or be appointed as Lead Representatives. All this is a takeoff from the old FAA Aviation Safety Counselors program. Here again there is a lot of computer usage as we work with and promote safety awareness. They are finally agreeing with the common knowledge that a Flight Instructor has a lot of value in our industry and is trained on how to pass it on to others.
When we add all this to the extensive use of the Practical Test Standards (PTS) that is printed for most all the Ratings and Certificates, we have at our disposal all the questions to be asked, their source, and the recommended government answers that the examiners like to hear. You will never know how hard the industry worked to get these documents certified and accepted. It locked in what the instructor should be teaching and what the examiners should be asking. The value to all aspects of aviation teaching is tremendous.
Don’t let any opportunity slip by to increase your knowledge or use of the beast that we call the computer. This timesaving device is invaluable to those of us who teach. It is nothing more than a storehouse of information that you can access whenever you have the need. With great search engines from sites such as Google and Ask.com, along with many others, you will be better prepared for your next session than you have ever been before, whether student, instructor or examiner. If someone tries to tell you that the teaching and the examination process have not been changed in years, just let them pull up a free copy of the most basic written exam and see how well they do.
These and many more helpful hints have been added to our syllabus and we would be wise to use them. When you add in the various seminars and offerings from the alphabet groups you will see that everyone is expecting a more advanced performance from you and eventually the aviator that you are teaching. It is getting back to what I have always believed and that is, “A monkey can fly an airplane, but without the proper ground training they will get lost and probably crash.” The importance of Prior Planning Prevents P--- P--- Performance is still with us.
The selection process for your next teacher/instructor takes on a new importance when you realize that the help that you are getting, or not, can reflect on the caliber of pilot produced. The sad fact is that not all instructors can teach, at least not to the degree and level that they need to. Take your own sweet time when you are looking because this marriage is important to you as an aviator and mistakes learned when you are first starting out are very difficult to be unlearned. They linger and pop out when least expected or needed.
I long for the day that the display of a pilot’s certificate is as important as any sheepskin that we frame and hang on our wall. If we would just look at the responsibility for human life that we take on with each flight, maybe our respect for our industry would climb.
JAM