{"id":5648,"date":"2019-11-29T12:21:57","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T20:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.mechadigital.net\/?p=5648"},"modified":"2021-08-26T20:37:50","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T20:37:50","slug":"254-flight-instructors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/254-flight-instructors\/","title":{"rendered":"#254 Flight Instructors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Written in December, 2017<\/p>\n

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A talented pilot who graduated last year from my master class, makes a large part of her living as a tour pilot in Alaska.\u00a0 She\u2019d like to add \u201cCFI\u201d to her list of ratings and she has some people who want to take instruction from her.\u00a0 I think she\u2019d be a good teacher.<\/p>\n

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Rebuilding a Cessna wing leading edge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When he was much younger, Hooper Lansburgh was repairing the leading edge on a C 210.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Jamie Klaes gets some back-seat time from Brian.\u00a0 Back seat time is important to the development of a new CFI.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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A friend of mine was taught by the same guy who taught me.\u00a0He has a Champ, on which he does some maintenance.\u00a0 I think he\u2019s a gifted teacher and as he gets older and closer to retirement from his non-flying career, the more I think he should consider flight instruction<\/p>\n

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Jim Boeckl checks the fuel in his Champ.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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What do all of these examples, plus many others have in common?\u00a0 Just this:\u00a0It\u2019s harder than hell and fraught with stupid difficulties to become a Certificated Flight Instructor, that\u2019s what.\u00a0Now, those who know me know that when confronted with a problem, I\u2019m far more interested in finding a solution than I am in figuring out who to blame.\u00a0 The current situation with flight instructors is different.\u00a0 I know exactly who is to blame with the current situation and I know what to do about it.\u00a0 And before I give you the answer, let me give you an example of how crappy the situation is:\u00a0Every Student Pilot should receive some instruction in maintenance.\u00a0 Every student and every commercial pilot should receive some instruction in Formation Flying.<\/p>\n

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Amal Ajmi checks the rotor on a set of brakes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Cammi Benson rivets a set of linings to bring Cessna 140’s brakes up to snuff<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Likewise, they should all understand spins and flight at minimum controllable airspeed.\u00a0 They don\u2019t.\u00a0 Virtually all pilots are currently trained to minimum standards.\u00a0And here\u2019s the news you\u2019ve been waiting for.\u00a0 I know who\u2019s fault this is.\u00a0 I bet you do, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s the FAA.\u00a0 Do you know that if you want to take a check ride in order to become a CFI, you have to contact the nearest FSDO and THEY will assign a DPE to you? <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Janet Lansburgh closes in on Mike Macon\u2019s Carbon Cub.\u00a0 Mike makes himself available for young pilots to fly formation on.\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

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Ya know why? \u2018Cause it\u2019s considered SO important that they have to be part of the process of certifying Flight Instructors.\u00a0 Of course, they don\u2019t know much about flying or teaching, so they\u2019ve slowed this process so much that the number of flight instructors may very well be plummeting.<\/p>\n

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Evidently the powers that be have partially come to their senses and are making some changes which will result in more CFIs as well as commercial pilots.\u00a0 By the way, since this article was written, my pall Jamie Klaes has not only become a flight instructor, but she is now in charge of a program to teach indigenous kids from villages all over Alaska to fly.\u00a0A better person could not have been found.\u00a0 I wish her the best<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“By the way, since this article was written, my pall Jamie Klaes has not only become a flight instructor, but she is now in charge of a program to teach indigenous kids from villages all over Alaska to fly.\u00a0A better person could not have been found”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5655,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[35,38,67,94,173],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5655"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tailwheelersjournal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}