SECRETS TO FINDING SUCCESS AS A CFI 

It would be great if my instructors cared as much about my training as they do about going to the airlines.

I have yet to have a CFI give a pre or post flight briefing. I would love to find a CFI who isn't just building hours for the airlines.

We all make mistakes but being open to learning from them is key! Thank you for the lesson and letting me fly the beautiful 23MZ! 💙✈️

A good cfi doesn't take the controls away from you when you make a mistake unless of course you're starting to deviate from safety or breaking an FAR. My instrument cfi at my 141 school literally never took the controls but let me fly and make that mistake and some of my worst mistakes I never made again. Great attribute for a cfi is letting your student make mistakes and sometimes lessons can be learned without even being verbalized. Another great attribute is probably being comfortable and relaxed during the lesson.

One of my hero’s was my flight instructor from South Florida Aviation along time ago. The one thing my instructor instilled in me from day one was, alway take an HONEST assessment of myself and the airplane and conditions every single time I flew. On the morning of my first solo cross country for 25 days straight he would look up at the sky and say, “not today, not today, not today, patience and love for his students was so touching and wonderful. He told me that I was the best pilot he has ever seen and during my FAA private pilot checkride we lost our alternator during slow flight but I remember that I never panicked and the examiner asked me in the emergency, what do we do now. I can tell you that we slow flighted it back to KHWO and that day I became a private pilot. Now after all these years I am becoming a Commercial Pilot, ( I already have my instrument rating) also a CFII starting this month. I can honestly say that the few CFI’s as have trained with recently are extremely dangerous so I have made the decision to become a CFII. I would love to here back from you since I see your videos and your a great flight instructor

I went through 5 instructors and over 155 hours of dual work before getting my private ticket at last with the “right” instructor at the “School of the Ozarks” 30+ yrs ago. Afterwards I blazed through all the way to MEII Commercial within the year afterwards. Jason’s teaching is now gearing me up to get my CFI !!!

As a learner, I wish my CFI connected slow flight & power off stalls to the approach speed on final. If the plane stalls at 45 kts with full flaps, then, with full flaps, why go 70 kts on final in calm. I failed my checkride for the short field landing due to going 70 kts. It was the examiner that clued me in to this. I changed my tactic to 60-65 kts on final for short field. Nailed the spot nearly every time. Passed my next exam the next day.

I’m grateful my instructors always called me a “student” instead of a “learner”. I think changing a name from student to learner was a waste of time and resources. A pilot should always consider themselves a student…..a student of the craft not a learner, whatever that is.

I wish my primary instructor had insisted on more flights to, and pattern work at, different airports. I was super comfortable at my home airport. It was non-towered, standard left pattern, with standard call-outs and basically zero obstacles to contend with. We did the obligatory Class C and D work, but we had every possible airport/airspace type, except Class B, within 75 miles. I would have benefited from getting more experience in at a variety of fields. It would have built my confidence earlier on.

Thank you for this great piece of advice. I'm expected to have my CFI checkride in about a month, and I hope I can become the good kind of instructor.

Great video Jason, thank you

To slow it down. Going fast when they are doing something sets a tone in the plane. Feeling like you have to go as fast....even when they say slow it down, the pace is set. Also when aiding the learner in the air explain what you did and said. Ex. Taking a complex radio call whilst learner is setting up the plane to land. Explain what the learner missed next appropriate time. Biggest is, CARE and actually CARE....you were there once too. Care about your learner. Longer debrief, hard at a 141...I wonder if 141 is better sometimes or not, kind of dehumanizes the flight training experience.

Can’t wait to become a CFI myself and not be milking my students so I can build my time as if that were the main goal. CFIs to-be, need to be trained on focusing on the student and making their learning a priority - not building their time to move on to the airlines. 🙄Also, let them make mistakes (as long as it’s not endangering you both). Jason, I love how much you seem to enjoy teaching.

But having a shorter, more focused flight time and then a more thorough, dedicated debrief is very helpful for a student to learn. It's hard at a packed 141 school sometimes bc the instructors have so many back to back students

Teach to use the GPS more and how to fuel the aircraft

I wish my CFI had a model of an airplane to preflight/debrief me on maneuvers. I also wish he explained WHY we do power on and power off stalls - before and after we did them. I want to know the WHY - not just go through the motions.

More in depth debreifing is very important even though the flight went fine, cuz when I'm given explanations in the action, I tend not to remember much cuz as a beginner in the circuit in a busy controlled airport I'm still very focused on my procedures, following a traffic, listening/answering instructions from tower etc. So oftentimes, when I get back home sit and relax then I remember ''Yeah, when my CFI explained me this, then I'm not sure/I don't remember what he meant exactly by that...'' 🤔 If we debreifed in more details, then I think we may have gone through those details, that to me are important to have a better understanding of the situations. For sure I try to note my question down for next time, but I feel it's more effective (to me at least) to talk about something right after engine shutdown 😊

I wish they taught me many things I came to learn after I passed my check-ride. Including, the actual relative wind in different flight phases and attitudes. I always thought the relative wind was where the airplane nose is pointed. Never was told there is a delay in relative wind direction after immediate attitude change because of airplane inertia. This is a very important thing to better understand different types of aerodynamic stalls. Another thing, I wish they taught me to never fly below 1.4 times my airplanes Vs0 speed until im on final to land. Understanding the above could save so many lives lost because of base-to-final stall spin accidents. I wish they taught me to use (aerial view map on foreflight) when I need to fly single engine night VFR trips to log the required time. Having aerial map ready when losing an engine will give you a much better chance to glide to an open farm field rather than a densely forested area. There are a few things I only learned through thorough research after I became a pilot. Granted they were not required for private pilot (VFR only) level. But knowing these basic concepts makes you a much better and safer pilot.

Why am i terrified with the thought of a mock checkride with Jason 😂😂

I wish my instructor(s)- taught me the granular aspect of landing...approach, roundout and flare....they just concentrated on the approach, and flare, leaving out the roundout...I had to learn that on my own, literally...once I did incorporate the roundout. I found landing wee much better...why not tell me about the roundout to start with???? Geeeeeze!!!!

Slow flight in ground effect

Wish my instructor didn’t yell so much !! 😄 He had good intentions though.

Success as a CFI? Start an online ground school website…just my 2 cents.

1ST HAHA