The best thing I got from my CFI/CFII

AggieMike88

AggieMike88

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The original "I don't know it all" of aviation.
In a spin off of the "Most difficult thing in training..." thread, let's here from you guys about "The best thing I got from my CFI/CFII..."

"Getting my license or rating" is too obvious. I'm hoping you will share things like key sayings, something in how they taught a skill that even to this day sticks with you, what they did to make you a good pilot, etc.

Though I have had only three lessons with my instructor out of 5TX0, I can contribute:

  1. Constantly busting my chops on not clearing the airspace before beginning a manuever (a sure fail on the checkride).
  2. Doing a great job teaching the skills by "layers". This really shows the benefit of 44 years of instructing. Each layer adds to something on the prior lesson and is grounded in a key item necessary to be a good pilot
  3. Willingness to provide quality instruction at affordable rates.
  4. Having fun on Flight #3 after telling me to line up on the centerline and smoothly apply power and right rudder by saying (as we climb through 500-ft for 3000) "Oops! I forgot to tell you you were doing the takeoff! Good job!"
What do the rest of you guys have to share?
 
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I had two great CFI's in my primary training and IR (started right after PP checkride). Have had a few since then also for different things.

There are so many, it is hard to come up with just a few, but:

1. Doing preflight the SAME way EVERY TIME. Using a "method" to do it. So the check list is just that. Do it, then check your list at the end.

2. You fly the plane, not ATC.

3. The center line is for professionals, but you can use it too.

4. (OBVIOUS) But sometimes need the reminder, FLY THE PLANE, "quick screwing around with the timer", FLY THE D&*N PLANE!

The more I think about it, the more I could go on and on. But those come to mind quickly.
 
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Sending me on my long x-country to two airports I'd never been to - the first 180nm and three sectionals away.

Why? "Because that's the kind of flying you're going to do when you get your certificate."
He sends all of his other students on similar (but not the same) x-countries.
 
Great thread!!

I've learned plenty from every one of my CFIs, but if I had to choose...


  • Learning how to fly an airplane slowly
  • Learning how to land with minimal ground roll
  • Confidence in the clouds
One comment that changed my perspective a while ago was, "I love turbulence! I let's me know I'm in the air! Otherwise, it all gets rather dull..."

:yesnod:
 
JoeSelch said:
Sending me on my long x-country to two airports I'd never been to - the first 180nm and three sectionals away.

Why? "Because that's the kind of flying you're going to do when you get your certificate."
He sends all of his other students on similar (but not the same) x-countries.
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Good on your instructor!! My first instructor said he would never let a student do a x-c to a field that he hadn't actually been to with them. That was one reason I switched instructors (but only one, it actually had more to do with the only plane he had access to at the time, which I didn't feel was really airworthy, but anyway...)

After I convinced him that I could navigate by pilotage or VORs, my second instructor actually encouraged me to go places I'd never been. I wound up overdoing that a bit -- 7 solo x-c's, mostly due to delaying my checkride out of test anxiety -- but I don't think I'll ever forget my long solo x-c, which was a real trip and one of the most fun flights I've ever made.
 
azure said:
After I convinced him that I could navigate by pilotage or VORs, my second instructor actually encouraged me to go places I'd never been.
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I always thought that was the point, to go to someplace you had never been before. I didn't realize people did it any other way until I started reading internet boards. I guess I lead a sheltered, or maybe unsheltered, life. :confused:

I think I got a lot of things from my first CFI. He made things interesting and taught me that challenges are fun. He also encouraged me to progress with my flying. He told me to fly a lot, get my instrument, get my commercial, get my CFI and go on to fly for a living. My reaction was, "Hahaha, yeah right, OK." I lost touch with him after my private because I moved away but we reconnected about 10 years ago. I don't know if he was surprised or not that I followed his advice or if he even remembered that he had given it to me.
 
Everskyward said:
I always thought that was the point, to go to someplace you had never been before. I didn't realize people did it any other way until I started reading internet boards. I guess I lead a sheltered, or maybe unsheltered, life. :confused:
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Actually I think I understand where my first instructor is coming from. He had a student once that nearly cost him his certificate -- returned after dark, busted the DTW Bravo, and pretty much put the fear of God in him. Since then he's kept all of his students on a VERY tight leash. Sad, since otherwise he's a very good instructor.

One of the best things I got from my second instructor was spin training... getting a windshield full of green in that 172 was a scary experience, and seeing how much altitude it took to recover made me all the more determined never to enter one unintentionally (actually I didn't enjoy it enough to want to ever do it again intentionally, but that's another matter...)
 
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azure said:
One of the best things I got from my second instructor was spin training... getting a windshield full of green in that 172 was a scary experience, and seeing how much altitude it took to recover made me all the more determined never to enter one unintentionally (actually I didn't enjoy it enough to want to ever do it again intentionally, but that's another matter...)
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I got spin training from my CFI during my private too. It seems like I was shown a spin before solo and I was expected to be able to spin and recover before I went for my checkride. This was a long time ago but it wasn't in the PTS or whatever they called it back then (it was a really small, skinny booklet). I actually liked spins although I have not done many. I couple years ago I took some aerobatic lessons and got back into it which was pretty cool.
 
I'm sure there are things I'm forgetting, but most important for me was my last CFI being flexible enough to throw the book out and work through what I needed to get done.
 
Liz's comment on pilotage is another "plus" for my CFI. We're flying out of 5TX0 and our flights have been with a box described by Denton, TX (KDTO), Gainesville, Sherman, and McKinney. Each flight he has pointed out at least 4 or 5 major land marks and how to make use of them to get from where we are now to home or where we want to go.

Not only does this help make the flight more enjoyable (seeing my home area from altitude) but I'm building up a good picture of how to navigate this area with pilotage alone.

My CFI feels GPS's are a useful tool, but can't be replaced with good basic navigation skills. He wants his students to know where they are and how to get where they are going on those days when the GPS decides to not function.
 
Been thinking about this... it's hard to point out any one thing.

But perhaps the best thing any CFI ever did for me was give me chances to screw up a little. :D

I mean, there's learning (flight mechanics, systems, rules and regs, maneuvers), and then there's learning (the stuff that only really becomes clear when you meet a challenge on your own).

My least favorite CFI of the five I had during my PPASEL training had a tendency to pluck at the controls and perform tasks just as I was about to do them, and was a little too vocal in general. I don't think he was nervous (I started with him post-solo, and already had decent control of the airplane); he just liked to micro-manage. He knew his stuff and was a damn good pilot, but his teaching style just didn't help me very much.

My favorite instructor was inclined to sit quietly with his hands in his lap and then ask me, either after a maneuver or even after we parked the plane, what I thought about my performance. Much more effective, for me, anyway. It forced me to think more, and gave me more "space" to do so. I had him early on, and during that period I think I progressed quickly.


It could be that not micro-managing the early hours of training helps a student develop the most important skill of all: command-quality decision making.
 
JoeSelch said:
Sending me on my long x-country to two airports I'd never been to - the first 180nm and three sectionals away.

Why? "Because that's the kind of flying you're going to do when you get your certificate."
He sends all of his other students on similar (but not the same) x-countries.
Click to expand...

Three sectionals away??? Glad I had my cross countries done before I changed instructors... :D I did go one sectional over but didn't do three.
 
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On of the best things I got from my instructors was a lesson to remember it's suppose to be fun.

After struggling with wheel landings durring my tailwheel endorsment for several lessons, I arrived and my instructor decideds to go get some grass time. It was the picture perfect flying day and I while I was enjoying myself, I finally got a good wheel landing.

The grass was more forgiving then the pavement and the wheel landings that day back on the pavement sucked, but now I knew what I was shooting for and the text lesson I got them on the pavement.
 
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Dear Penthouse,

I never thought these stories were true until I had this 21 year old female flight instructor...
 
The one saying that comes to mind at the moment is, "Don't live on the edge, Adam!"
As I was approaching +/- 100' off my assigned altitude during IR training.
 
Joy of flight.

One day, it's hot, we're motoring along all sweaty in a 172, headed for an outlying field for touch & goes, and he suddenly says, with conviction, "God, I love flying!"

If you can feel that way as an instructor, it's pretty real.

He also did me the favor of reminding me that he never wanted to read about me in the papers.

He flies for Delta, now.
 
AggieMike88 said:
In a spin off of the
* Willingness to provide quality instruction at affordable rates.
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WHAT!?!? No no. He's not "affordable rates". He's less expensive than that. The price for instructor and plane is less than I can rent a comparable plane from any FBO and many clubs within a 30 mile range. He likes to fly, and at his rates, it offsets his flying costs and buys him a sandwich afterwards, but only because his planes aren't on a bank note. Heck, his rates on the Commanche 250 are only $4 over the DA40 at KDTO.


AggieMike88 said:
Liz's comment on pilotage is another "plus" for my CFI. We're flying out of 5TX0 and our flights have been with a box described by Denton, TX (KDTO), Gainesville, Sherman, and McKinney. Each flight he has pointed out at least 4 or 5 major land marks and how to make use of them to get from where we are now to home or where we want to go.

Not only does this help make the flight more enjoyable (seeing my home area from altitude) but I'm building up a good picture of how to navigate this area with pilotage alone.

My CFI feels GPS's are a useful tool, but can't be replaced with good basic navigation skills. He wants his students to know where they are and how to get where they are going on those days when the GPS decides to not function.
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Yah, this is good stuff. I flew in GPS planes, and there's no way to turn off the map and still have radios. But then, there's a magic trick. If you're used to flying with the map always showing where you are, then keep your finger on the sectional, or have a sticky for where you were at last check. It saves a lot of heads down time and even at 1700MSL, there's enough landmarks in view to use the sectional for navigation.

rottydaddy said:
My favorite instructor was inclined to sit quietly with his hands in his lap and then ask me, either after a maneuver or even after we parked the plane, what I thought about my performance. Much more effective, for me, anyway. It forced me to think more, and gave me more "space" to do so. I had him early on, and during that period I think I progressed quickly.
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I agree. The guy Mike and I have been flying with lately takes this approach. The only time he's managing your immediate activities is if you're having trouble on a landing. Everything else is a demo of how he does it if you'd like it, and then he lets you do it. Then he'll ask you about it. He'll lead you by questions into good self assessment.

EdFred said:
Dear Penthouse,

I never thought these stories were true until I had this 21 year old female flight instructor...
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Haha. Only in my dreams. Well, ok, 21 is too young for me now*, but go back in time... oh, well, I probably didn't have the focus back then. Ok, whatever. Nice dream.

* Dirty Old Man Equation: She must be at least (MyAge / 2) + 7.
 
dmccormack said:
Actually, it's fairly easy to hide map mode -- page through to some Aux page and leave it there.

No heading info, no map info -- no nuttin.

Very useful :D
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I wish my earlier CFIs had done that for some cross country work. I was too afraid to even consider such an option on my own.

When I got my cert, I could fly with a GPS. I think now, just with another 6 hours, I could fly with a paper map and a single com.

Last weekend, I trekked 42nm with just a paper map. Next weekend, I'm hoping to go 130nm and land on the other side of a class C using just a paper map and a com.
 
xaminmo said:
Yah, this is good stuff. I flew in GPS planes, and there's no way to turn off the map and still have radios.
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Depends on the GPS. It was really easy with my old one to turn it off, a KLN90B, and not affect the radios at all. Now if you are talking about a GPS/Comm combine unit then yes it can be a little harder. But it is also real easy to jsut change the page displayed to something that has nothing to do with navigation. Or even better, cover it up with a piece of paper.
 
Best thing I got my instructor was knowing where the limits are so as not to operate within them.
 
Good to know that my brain is connected to my fingers today! :redface:

"...not operate outside of them."

Should make more sense now.
 
dmccormack said:
Well of course -- I just wanted to be sure others shared in my dementia.

:D
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We all share a certain amount of dementia, that's what makes us family. :D

Plus we all have the same smile. ;)
 
Had an instructor take us off the end of the runway at KLAM, using the slope downward to build up enough speed to successfully fly. Had it not been for the slope, we would have run off the end of the runway and crashed.

I learned what no to do that day. I also learned how to pick an abort point.

In all honestly, aside from flying with Tony working on commercial maneuvers, and flying with a retired Piedmont Airlines pilot learning wingovers, I haven't learned a damn thing from a flight instructor except what not to do.
 
Another comment about pilotage and landmarks.

I'm to the stage in my lessons where we're flying between Hidden Valley (5TX0) and Alliance (KAFW) so we can do T-n-G's at Alliance. After we're done with our RH pattern on 16R, we are cleared to a LH turn to head back to 5TX0. This path takes between Northwest Regional (52F) and the western edge of Lake Grapevine. We're motoring along at 2000ft.

Not knowing any different I set a course which was going to overfly a small portion of the lake.

"Steer a bit to the left," coached Tom. "Lake Grapevine 'belongs' to DFW airport. And they are busy enough without worrying about handling us too."

When I got home, I checked the sectional, and sure enough, the entire lake is within one of the rings surrounding DFW.

So Instructor Tom continues to do a good job pointing out the landmarks so I can not only find my way from point A and point B, but I can do so entering any airspaces I shouldn't be.
 
Too many to share, but one sticks out is to make use of all the tools in the plane. Unlike the pilotage snobs out there, my CFI-I wanted me to use all the equipment, after all it's paid for. So, I learned to tune the VORs to double check position, to use the glideslope and localizer even if we were cleared for the visual, using the "extended" centerline of the GPS to fly a good tight pattern... both radios/alternate freqs set... checking ASOS/AWOS of surrounding airports enroute... listening to the approach chatter to get a mind's eye view of the traffic, conditions and etc. Y'all get the picture.

I agree that having "analog" skills is good, but I've met a many pilot that relied on just one peice of equipment (usually the GPS). My guy wanted me to have complete knowledge of all the equipment and to use it all. There's no such thing as too much situational awareness.

And there wasn't a button in the cockpit that I didn't understand and could apply if it was appropriate.
 
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You all have covered most of this topic well...good job:

Best things my CFI/CFII's have done is let me fly the plane and make mistakes.

My CFI kicked my butt in the plane about procedures and awareness and held me to a high standard. We also shared alot of fun flying just to enjoy the experience. Still fly together to this day.

He let me make mistakes and figure out how to recover from them. Took me into actual during my PP training and let me get us out. Also, we did spin training in the 172 to experience that as well.

My CFII also pushes the workload alot. We will piggyback 3 or 4 different type approaches in a sequence on a flight and I will have to deal with the misses, holds, and then on to the next approach, pretty much without much time between them other than enroute to the next fix. Real world stuff, including the radio work. I have never worked so hard in the plane. Also in flight, he will throw in an approach that we did not prep on the ground and have me execute it, to an airport we did not go to previously. Talk about sweating. But I am learning alot!
 
The best CFI's have been the ones that will work with my crazy schedule and go flying and teach me something when I call up at 5 PM on a Sunday and say "Hey, I'm gonna be in town in two hours, can we go fly some approaches?"

Another thing is letting me get into stuff and learn. My primary CFI took me up in actual as I was ticking over 10 hours. Instrument CFI took me on a long trip for free and really kicked my butt, but it was a GREAT learning experience. Commercial CFI - Well, y'all know him and he's a great instructor, but one of the best things he did for me was to tell me to get my ass down to Ames and finish my commercial "this weekend." And I did! :rofl: Actually, some of my best learning experiences from Tony came at other times, while I was doing an IPC with him (that one taught me to not only use every piece of available equipment, but to use it all to its fullest potential) and a flight where I wasn't even in the front seat but I learned some valuable things about weather just by sitting in the back and observing.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
...and a flight where I wasn't even in the front seat but I learned some valuable things about weather just by sitting in the back and observing.
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I learned some good stuff about CFIing from Tony that way. I've found in general that many of the best learning experiences I've had have not been as PIC.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I've found in general that many of the best learning experiences I've had have not been as PIC.
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I found that a lot of my best learning experiences were not even as a pilot, but as a passenger. I got to observe all kinds of different things when I was a camera operator.
 
Everskyward said:
I found that a lot of my best learning experiences were not even as a pilot, but as a passenger. I got to observe all kinds of different things when I was a camera operator.
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We're saying the same thing, you just said it better than me. :)
 
Ted DuPuis said:
We're saying the same thing, you just said it better than me. :)
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I'm also not implying that all, or even the majority of things I learned as an observer were bad examples. It was just interesting for me to see how situations developed and how some solutions worked better than others. I flew with a number of pilots, some who tried to teach me things and others who didn't, but I think I ended up learning much of what I know through observation and experimentation, that is, until I was forced into a more formal learning environment.
 
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