New CFII Questions

[DaytonaLynn]

Hi Everyone:
I am changing my CFII for some logistic reasons.

I wonder if there are any special type questions I should be asking, like how many crashes you been in,
what percentage of your students get sick LOL

Just kidding.
but seriously, any questions you recommend to ask

 

[Van Johnston]

How recently did a student of his pass the IR checkride?

(Turned out I was the first instrument student my instructor had endorsed in the IACRA era)

 

[Sam D]

I'd try to get a sense of how active an instrument instructor they are. In my opinion, the more active the better. Its easier for active instructors to spot common issues and correct rather than taking the long way around.

Secondly, get a sense of their availability. Nothing worse than you jonesing to fly and no CFII in sight!

 

[MarkL]

How much actual will we get?

 

[DaytonaLynn]

Thanks for the suggestions

 

[NineThreeKilo]

IFR instructor questions

What type of flying have you done?

How many hours TT do you have

How much in the last 90days

How much IMC time do you have?
Have you flown in ice?

Are you gold seal?

What's you view on flight time vs simulator time?

(you want to only fly in IMC and practice and analyze on the sim)

What are your future plans? How many hours do they want for that?
(compare to his current TT)

 

[wabower]

Can you hold a check until Thursday?

 

[flyingron]

"Let me see the syllabus you're going to use for my training."

The biggest waste of time and money is instrument instructors who just go out there and wing the lessons. Most people can master basic attitude flying under the hood in short order. The rest of the stuff requires a bit more lesson planning and absent some cohesive plan, you'll end up repeating some stuff and missing others to the point of burning up a lot of time.

 

[poadeleted20]

Are you gold seal?

What does also having an Advanced or Instrument Ground Instructor certificate bring to the party other than the experience of having passed one more written test?

What's you view on flight time vs simulator time?
(you want to only fly in IMC and practice and analyze on the sim)

Fly only in IMC? You could wait a long time for your training, and depending where you live, maybe never complete it at all that way.

But the general trend of the questions is good -- you want an instructor with both operational and instructing instrument flying experience, a track record of success giving instrument training, a schedule which fits your needs, and a professional attitude towards training (including structure, preparation, dedication, and documentation).

 

[NineThreeKilo]

What does also having an Advanced or Instrument Ground Instructor certificate bring to the party other than the experience of having passed one more written test?.

You should read up on the FAA Gold Seal, it's not just getting a AGI or IGI, it's the first time pass rate and number of students that are the more important part. Also it's the type of instructor that spends the time to get it, just s good sign that they have some pride and sense of furthering their tickets as a CFI.

Fly only in IMC? You could wait a long time for your training, and depending where you live, maybe never complete it at all that way..

IFR is procedure not flying, so if youre not flying in the soup your really not getting your total bang for the buck. If you live in So Cal or some where like that wheres it's sever clear, I'd try to fly at night then, paying to rent s plane for instrument training in CAVU conditions, having to wear foogles, I'd rather spend that time in a sim.

 

[poadeleted20]

You should read up on the FAA Gold Seal, it's not just getting a AGI or IGI, it's the first time pass rate and number of students that are the more important part.

Good questions to ask the instructor, but even a Gold Seal only requires an 80% pass rate, which is well below the national average 90% pass rate for IR.

Also it's the type of instructor that spends the time to get it, just s good sign that they have some pride and sense of furthering their tickets as a CFI.

"Furthering"? What privileges accrue to the holder of an AGI or IGI ticket that doe not accrue to the holder of a CFI-ASME-IA ticket?

IFR is procedure not flying, so if youre not flying in the soup your really not getting your total bang for the buck. If you live in So Cal or some where like that wheres it's sever clear, I'd try to fly at night then, paying to rent s plane for instrument training in CAVU conditions, having to wear foogles, I'd rather spend that time in a sim.

Well, I've only given a couple thousand hours of instrument flight training (plus uncounted hours of instrument training in sims), so maybe you know better than I about this.

However, I do know there are distinct limitations to what you can do in anything less than a multi-million dollar full flight simulator, and I doubt you're giving Warrior pilots training in one of those (not to mention that I don't think such even exists for a light single). OTOH, I can accomplish a lot with the trainee under the hood in flight which I cannot do on the ground (just try doing a circling approach in any AATD or FTD you can take with you to the trainee's location). If nothing else, personally owned planes today are almost all unique in their instrument layout and avionics installation, and too much training in a flight simulation device which varies (perhaps significantly) from the actual aircraft is counterproductive (see laws of primacy and exercise in your AIH). The FAA seems to recognize this by requiring at least 20-30 hours (depending on the certification of the sim involved) of your instrument time in an airplane in flight. I know a lot of places where you could wait years to accrue 30 hours of actual instrument time due to lack of actual instrument conditions in weather which allows safe light single flying.

And, BTW, night over SoCal is not actual instrument conditions. Not even close.

 

[NineThreeKilo]

Good questions to ask the instructor, but even a Gold Seal only requires an 80% pass rate, which is well below the national average 90% pass rate for IR.
"Furthering"? What privileges accrue to the holder of an AGI or IGI ticket that doe not accrue to the holder of a CFI-ASME-IA ticket?

Well you made my point.

Getting the gold seal gives you NO additional benefits as a CFI, it's mearly a title that is a little bit of a pain in the ass to get.

You need to show documentstion of that you have the 80% first time pass rate for over 8 guys in 2 years and you need to get the ground cert.

It's something some CFIs see as a challenge/another feather in their hat. IMO thats the personality type of the CFI you want.

Well, I've only given a couple thousand hours of (Blah blah blah)....
.... there are distinct limitations to what you can do in anything less than a multi-million dollar full flight simulator

You can teach scan, attitude flying, holding, tracking, U attitudes, basic VOR,GPS,ILS etc

You can also pause, rewind and print up the flight on most every sim.

Seems like that covers the meat and potatoes eh?

And, BTW, night over SoCal is not actual instrument conditions. Not even close.

It's still alot better then daytime CAVU with a crisp horizon line

 

[poadeleted20]

Well you made my point.

Getting the gold seal gives you NO additional benefits as a CFI, it's mearly a title that is a little bit of a pain in the ass to get.

You need to show documentstion of that you have the 80% first time pass rate for over 8 guys in 2 years and you need to get the ground cert.

Since the national average pass rate is much higher than that, and the GI does nothing, all this does is give the instructor another piece of paper to hang on the wall, and my wall's already full of much more meaningful paper.

It's something some CFIs see as a challenge/another feather in their hat. IMO thats the personality type of the CFI you want.

One who meets sub-average standards and is driven to add paper to the wall? Whatever you say.

You can teach scan, attitude flying, holding, tracking, U attitudes, basic VOR,GPS,ILS etc

You can teach the procedures, but you need to get in the real plane to practice them.

You can also pause, rewind and print up the flight on most every sim.

Yes, and those have value. I'm not saying you shouldn't take advantage of all a sim has to offer, but there are limits to what it offers, and you run out of things to do on the sim pretty quickly (say, after about 15-17 hours, in my considerable experience teaching instruments on sims).

It's still alot better then daytime CAVU with a crisp horizon line

...but not, once the procedures are learned, using a vision restricting device in a real airplane.

 

[DaytonaLynn]

I met with the CFII earlier today. We chatted about two hours.
1. He is going to use the Jeppesen syllabus as guide and refine if needed to my weakness or deficiencies. I liked that.
2. He claimed his passing rate first time through is about 80%, sounded high to me, but I will trust him not that.
3. H would not wait until Thursday for the check, lol
4. One thing that really made an impression on me was he did not try to impress me with his hours, credentials. Instead he answered my questions, asked questions of my flying, my goal of achieving the IR.
5. I asked most of the questions suggested and he took time answer them to my satisfaction without looking bored or bothers. I didn't ask about the gold seal.
That was not important to me. My PPL instructor, I was his first student, so gold seal didn't matter to me.

Thank you all for the suggestions a and questions. Hopefully in about 3 months I can say Guess what I got TODAY!

Lynn

 

[NineThreeKilo]

Since the national average pass rate is much higher than that.....

Then why does anyone use the firc courses?? They could just re-up based on their 90+ percent average pass rate.... How do these programs stay in business???


Ron, you're going to have to show me some stats where it shows the average instructor pass rate is over 90 percent, living in the aviation industry and seeing quite a bit of flight training, I just don't buy it.

 

[poadeleted20]

Then why does anyone use the firc courses??[

To advance their professional knowledge? Rather than take a test on irrelevant material they should already know?

Ron, you're going to have to show me some stats where it shows the average instructor pass rate is over 90 percent, living in the aviation industry and seeing quite a bit of flight training, I just don't buy it.

See http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2012/, Pass rate for additional ratings at the PP level is 86%, and additional IR's are 87% of the additional PP ratings issued. Might be a bit more, might be a bit less, but it's well above the 80% required for renewal or Gold Seal.

I'm sure you're very proud of your Gold Seal certificate, but it really doesn't mean a whole lot. Pretty much anyone instructing regularly can qualify fairly easily.

 

[ja_user]

To advance their professional knowledge? Rather than take a test on irrelevant material they should already know?

See http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2012/, Pass rate for additional ratings at the PP level is 86%, and additional IR's are 87% of the additional PP ratings issued. Might be a bit more, might be a bit less, but it's well above the 80% required for renewal or Gold Seal.

I'm sure you're very proud of your Gold Seal certificate, but it really doesn't mean a whole lot. Pretty much anyone instructing regularly can qualify fairly easily.

So at least it tells you that the instructor actually instructed regularly at one point, and wasn't far below the average pass rate. Isn't that something? Perhaps it should be the Bronze Seal?

 

[NineThreeKilo]

To advance their professional knowledge? Rather than take a test on irrelevant material they should already know?

That's not how it works Ron, the initial gold seal also re-ups your CFI once.

An active CFI with a good pass rate NEVER needs to take "test" to re-up, they simply provide the FTNs of at least 5 recommends with 80% first time pass ratio and it re-ups their CFI (61.97)

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2012/, Pass rate for additional ratings at the PP level is 86%, and additional IR's are 87% of the additional PP ratings issued. Might be a bit more, might be a bit less, but it's well above the 80% required for renewal or Gold Seal.

I'm sure you're very proud of your Gold Seal certificate, but it really doesn't mean a whole lot. Pretty much anyone instructing regularly can qualify fairly easily.

Well you obviously don't work at a busy flight school, as the bread and butter has always been the PPL.

The stats for the PPL (most popular ride, thus most recommended on average by a CFI) 75% pass by DPE, 65% pass by Inspector.

And yes I am proud of my gold seal, I more then had the numbers of students and more then had the pass rate, I'm proud of every certificate, license and degree I have, as I should be.

So for all the talk of how the Gold Seal is nothing, easy to get, blah blah blah, please tell me you atleast have the gold seal too, otherwise your arguments sound... well

 

[jordane93]

i would talk with the flight school. when i started instrument training, my dad and i spoke with the owner of the school and we both said what we wanted/expected and the owner basically picked out the guy he thought was a good match for me. Ended up being the best choice IMO.

 

[poadeleted20]

Youre probably the third person on this site to spout off about a license/rating/endorsement/etc that you dont even have.

This being the Internet, I guess that shouldnt surprise me

So how bout this bubba, go get your gold seal, THEN we can continue this conversation. Until then dont go mouthing off about things that arent on your ticket.

I think I'm done feeding this troll.

 

[wabower]

Just another clueless 20-something with all the career answers about stuff he's never done.

I think I'm done feeding this troll.

 

[NineThreeKilo]

Just another clueless 20-something with all the career answers about stuff he's never done.

I thought Ron was a lot older then 20???



.... since it was censored, so my comment still makes sense, Ron (unlike me) doesnt have a gold seal.


Anywho, this got derailed enough from the OPs post, I'll leave it be

 

[GCA319]

You kids are funny. Now get off my lawn.

 

[jesse]

I'm not a gold seal instructor and probably never will be. Pretty hard to meet the requirements when you have another full time career. My opinion is that it has more to do with the amount of time you can dedicate rather than how good of an instructor one actually is.

 

[jonnyjetprop]

My opinion (based on experience and evaluating possible FAR 135 cargo pilots for what is now a national company)

Are you instrument current and do you fly in actual IMC? I was shocked to see how many CFII flew very little IFR themselves and some were uncomfortable flying IFR in a single.

How do you feel about training in actual IMC conditions? I view it as a huge plus to fly in actual conditions. I had a standing arrangement with my IR students. Call if you see actual IMC and we'll find a way to get a lession in.

I would then ask all the other typical questions. Schedule, pass rate, student/instructor expectations, do you take checks, etc.