Flight Instructor Guide

Quick Guide to BasicMed

I’ve put together this quick Guide to explain the FAA Extension, Safety, Security Act of 2016 (FESSA), or what’s being called BasicMed, which goes into effect May 1, 2017. It cuts straight to the point and includes the FAA’s most frequently asked questions. It’s nothing fancy, but that’s not what I’m aiming for. Download it, then let me know what you think about BasicMed by leaving your comment…

How to Use FAA Publications Effectively

As a CFI, you must not only know where and how to access appropriate flight training information, you must also know how to incorporate the information into each lesson you’re teaching.

[easy-tweet tweet=”Understanding where to find information is just as important as knowing the information itself.” user=”CFIGuide” usehashtags=”no”]

  Using FAA publications effectively comes down to four…

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Performing a Post-Flight-Run-up Check and Why It’s Important

  Do you perform a Post-Flight-Run-up Check after each flight?

  I’d be willing to bet that 95% of most general aviation pilots don’t. And I’d also be willing to bet that most of you who are CFIs don’t either.

  I say this because on just about every flight review, IPC, or aircraft checkout I give, most pilots don’t perform a post-flight-run-up-check because it’s either not on their checklist…

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New Student Pilot Certificate Changes

[bctt tweet=”Getting a student pilot certificate is about to become a pain in the ass.”]

  Effective April 1, 2016, Aviation Medical Examiners (AME) will no longer issue student pilot certificates. And no, it isn’t an April fool’s joke.

  The FAA released the final rule which will now require student pilots to apply for a plastic student pilot certificatefrom a FSDO, DPE, a Part 141 flight…

How to Easily Calculate Top of Descent Altitude

  Have you ever wondered when you should begin your descent to your destination airport, to arrive at traffic pattern altitude?

  Well, here are two quick ways to figure out your Top of Descent Altitude. One method uses altitude and the other uses time.

  Common Standards

Descent rate is based on 500-feet-per-minute.

Altitude on arrival is based on field elevation and traffic pattern altitude,…

How to PASS Your FAA Knowledge Exam With A Great Score and WHY It’s Important

  I get a lot of students who don’t care what their written exam score is.

  They’ll say something like: “Hey, I don’t care what I get, just as long as I pass.” They’re perfectly OK with just making the minimum passing score (70%). And for the life of me, I don’t understand that way of thinking at all.

  As if that weren’t bad enough, I also get a few who are perfectly OK with taking the test…

First Solo Flight: A Student & Instructor Guide

  Like most pilots, I still remember the day of my initial solo flight like it was yesterday.

  I don’t remember much about the actual flight itself mind you, except that I was nervous as hell and busier than a 3-peckered goat.

  It was June 18, 2003. I had just seven hours total in my logbook, with calm winds, blue skies, 6,000 feet of runway to play with, and the airport all to myself. It…

Video: Inside the Greatest Show on Earth

Video: Inside the Greatest Show on Earth. I’d happily donate an appendage for the chance to strap my ass atop 5.3 million pounds of thrust and go on the world’s greatest roller coaster ride aboard the space shuttle.   On second thought, you could just go ahead and kill me immediately after landing.  Nothing I could ever do afterwards could come anywhere near that level of badassery.  I mean…

Can You Log That Instrument Approach?

Instrument Currency Requirements Simplified Can You Log That Instrument Approach? What makes an instrument approach loggable?  A visual approach is technically an approach, but it means nothing in the eyes of the FAA when it comes to currency.   So what approaches can you legally log?   This question gets asked a lot. And until recently, the FAA didn’t really define it in a way that even remotely…

Balancing Pitch and Power

BALANCING PITCH AND POWER   [box] This article originally appeared in the October 2012 issue of Aviation Safety Magazine. It has been edited and reprinted in basic format only.[/box]   What they do and how they work together is one of aviation’s great debates. The answer is they must be coordinated to achieve the desired performance.   Seemingly for generations pilots have argued over which…

Runway Incursions   Runway Incursions are one of the FAA’s highest priorities and includes pilots, air traffic controllers and airport vehicle drivers.    Whenever we think of Runway Incursions, the first picture that comes to mind is usually 2 aircraft at the same place, at the same time.   But, that isn’t always the case.   The 1977 Tenerife airport disaster, which is the deadliest accident in…

9 Ways to Renew Your CFI Certificate

  Here are nine ways to renew your CFI certificate before it expires, and one way to renew if it’s already expired. You may already know about some of them, but a few may be new to you.   I don’t recommend one way over another because everyone is different. What works for me, may not work for you.   Three Things to Keep In Mind 1.) You are required to renew your certificate every two years (24…

When an IDIOT Writes About Aviation – This is What Happens

8 Tips for Making Better Landings

  These are eight simple tips I give my students for making better landings.

  Try them out and see if any of them work for you.

  1. Maintain the Same Sight Picture

  Adjust your seat so that you have the same sight picture every time you fly,

This one little technique is sometimes the only difference between “greasing” the landing or leaving parts of the airplane behind you, on the runway.

2.…

  Here are 8 weird and interesting facts that you may have never heard of.  

  1. Forget Snakes On A Plane, We’ve Got Crocodiles!

On August 25, 2010, a passenger thought it was a good idea to smuggle a crocodile onto an airplane inside of a duffel bag, as if it couldn’t possibly get out.

  When it escaped, all hell broke loose and the passengers stampeded towards the cockpit, affecting the…