CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 11 Issue 4 - 27

CFI'S POINT OF VIEW
who seemed not to respond to his or her instruction? The thrill of being paid for
flying and the joy of being aloft in a small Cessna or Piper becomes stale all too
soon. Giving 20 or so hours of flight instruction each week, plus the necessary
ground instruction to make time in the aircraft productive, is hard work even
for the most ambitious aviator. Pay is poor, and burnout is a real possibility.
What was once a dream job can become a nightmare, particularly when
students fail to respond to instruction. For the aspiring airline or corporate pilot
interested solely in building flight hours, the slide to instructor frustration is
understandable and inevitable. Furthermore, COVID-19 has greatly impacted
the demand for airline travel, thereby diminishing the need for new first
officers. The likelihood that today's
CFI will be hired soon after filling a
FINDING THE WAY TO HAVE YOUR STUDENT logbook with 1,500 hours is low.

SUCCEED IS YOUR PATH TO AVOIDING
FRUSTRATION. FURTHERMORE, THE
TEACHING AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS
YOU DEVELOP AS A CFI TRANSLATE TO
OTHER ASPECTS OF YOUR PROFESSIONAL
AND PERSONAL CAREER, OUTSIDE AS
WELL AS INSIDE THE COCKPIT.

Salvation, at least from
frustration, comes from focusing
on the primary reason the FAA
issues aviators the privilege
of being a certificated flight
instructor: namely, being a
professional teacher.

FIRST, BE A TEACHER

Being a teacher is a worthy profession that belies staleness. No two students are
identical. Each student is different, with different abilities and shortcomings.
Each presents his or her own challenges, and every flight encompasses the
stimulating and often daunting task of communicating effectively.
CFIs know that a lack of common experience is the greatest barrier to
understanding between teacher and student, and lack of understanding

leads to frustration. For example, as aviators, we have experience flying
airplanes. Prior to beginning flight training, the average student has
experience driving cars. Understandably, students often assume that what
they know about driving cars transfers directly to flying airplanes, and they
view the CFI's instructions through the lens of a person who has operated
automobiles (possibly for many years).
But flying is not driving. Consider turns: Aside from the obvious difference
between maneuvering in three-dimensional space in the air and negotiating
turns in two dimensions on the ground, the control that turns an aircraft-
its ailerons-affects rate of roll while a car's steering wheel positions the
auto's front wheels to achieve a turn. Initiating a heading change of an
aircraft by establishing a banking motion and holding that motion (i.e.,
roll rate) only until the desired bank angle is achieved is different from
positioning a car's steering wheel in a fixed position and holding the wheel
there until the turn is completed.
Consider the vocabulary differences between flying and driving. To a driver,
stalling refers to the engine stopping. To a pilot, stalling means the aircraft
has slowed to a speed where the wing no longer produces sufficient lift to
sustain controlled flight, but the engine has not stopped.
Improper analogies and aeronautical jargon easily distort communications
between CFI and student, thereby impeding the transfer of knowledge and
adding to CFI frustration.
As teachers, CFIs accept the challenge of communicating effectively. They
identify the barriers that interfere with student understanding. They define
all aeronautical terms. They approach teaching obstacles as a maze to be
traversed-a puzzle to be solved.
CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 11 Issue 4

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CFI-to-CFI Newsletter - Volume 11 Issue 4
