21 Posts
Well, it's been a couple months since completing Basic Med, freshening up the flight review and being signed off, and spending some quality time practicing my take offs, landings, maneuvers, and xc work. Feels GREAT to be back in the saddle...so, took the next step.
The field I soloed (30 years ago last Monday, 17 July 1987), did all my ratings, and based my planes at asked if I was interested in teaching part-time on weekends.
Fly and get paid to teach? Where do I sign up?
Check out by the Chief Pilot...ran it as a CFI checkride...short discussion afterwards...
I start next Saturday as a part-time CFI! Back in the right seat of 152s (luckily I"m skinny enough) and 172s. Partial pay credit in a multi-engine training account...
I'm chuffed. 61 years old, getting a chance to pass on my experiences...maybe a multi rating somewhere down the road...and back in the air again!
How cool is that?
Safe flying, everyone!
Bryan CFI-IA
The field I soloed (30 years ago last Monday, 17 July 1987), did all my ratings, and based my planes at asked if I was interested in teaching part-time on weekends.
Fly and get paid to teach? Where do I sign up?
Check out by the Chief Pilot...ran it as a CFI checkride...short discussion afterwards...
I start next Saturday as a part-time CFI! Back in the right seat of 152s (luckily I"m skinny enough) and 172s. Partial pay credit in a multi-engine training account...
I'm chuffed. 61 years old, getting a chance to pass on my experiences...maybe a multi rating somewhere down the road...and back in the air again!
How cool is that?
Safe flying, everyone!
Bryan CFI-IA
7 Replies
23 Posts
Congratulations, Bryan! It's so great to hear that you have decided to start teaching part-time. Best of luck :)
10 Posts
Congratulations and welcome back! What a tremendous achievement. Thanks for sharing your story here in the Hangar. It's sure to inspire others.
21 Posts
Meghan McCutcheon:
Congratulations, Bryan! It's so great to hear that you have decided to start teaching part-time. Best of luck :)
OMG...3 Hrs on Saturday (one prog check, 1 intro, one fill-in lesson...and 5 hours today...4 hours worth of intros on probably the most spectacular day in central NJ...really...cavu, couple puffy cumulus at 4000', and just a few bumps to remind you that it's summer...) and a diagnostic flight with a 3-hr student (what?) who hadn't even started to get the basics (what are the 4 forces of flight? Blank stare... What does the elevator do? Make the plane go up?) discussed either on the ground or in the air. Not good. I like teaching basic stick and rudder and at least a basic understanding (pitch/power/trim/airspeed) in the first few hours...but...I did my ratings in the days of filmstrips and cassette tapes in the Cessna Pilot Center days. Didn't even get to the slow flight or stall series... All in all, a typical day, right?
But, on both intros (one was a husband and wife...the other were 2 young adult 'friends'...all four received their first hour in the log...fly an hour out doing basic airwork...land, shut down, swap left seats, start up again...fly home...)...I don't think the smiles could have been any larger on all of them at the end. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Made the blank stare worthwile.
More next week. 8 more hours dual given in the log this week. If you're a non-active CFI reading this and sitting on the bench...what are you waiting for? Get out there. There is a need for seasoned teachers!
Airport newsletter announcement:
But, on both intros (one was a husband and wife...the other were 2 young adult 'friends'...all four received their first hour in the log...fly an hour out doing basic airwork...land, shut down, swap left seats, start up again...fly home...)...I don't think the smiles could have been any larger on all of them at the end. Isn't that what we're supposed to do? Made the blank stare worthwile.
More next week. 8 more hours dual given in the log this week. If you're a non-active CFI reading this and sitting on the bench...what are you waiting for? Get out there. There is a need for seasoned teachers!
Airport newsletter announcement:
21 Posts
OK...couple months on...
Took a good friend who, at our age, has NEVER been flying in a GA aircraft before. She's been talking about it...and I did nothing to disuade her from taking the plunge. Not an intro lesson (though, her 15-year-old daughter has expressed interest and wants to try...), but a nice ride/flight over the NJ countryside (before POTUS shows up in Bedminster...you can see his golf course from the downwind of rwy 12 at KSMQ, which obviously shuts down the field..) of an hour or so...down to the Delaware River...south towards the Class D at Trenton....up to my home field to stop by for a cold soda...and then up to the Raritan Bay, back to SMQ.
I wish you could have seen her face when we took off from SMQ...didn't need the strobes on, it was that big of a smile. Constant comment of "wow", "you can see everything', and "now I know why you love doing this...".
No doubt, the primary task of an instructor is to teach...but it's also to share the joy of flight. I think we sometimes get so wrapped up in the syllabus, ACS, maneuvers, procedures, regulations...important as they are...that we forget that what we're also passing on is (or it should be) a passion to experience life on a different plane. Maybe, just maybe, we should also work in (at the proper place in the training, based on student progress and interest...) something fun: flight to a breakfast fly-in...another airport to meet a student's friend or family...something that incudes the 'fun' part of GA...not to downplay the importance of our educational part of what we do...but also to show both the utility and advantages of gaining that certificate.
Thoughts?
Took a good friend who, at our age, has NEVER been flying in a GA aircraft before. She's been talking about it...and I did nothing to disuade her from taking the plunge. Not an intro lesson (though, her 15-year-old daughter has expressed interest and wants to try...), but a nice ride/flight over the NJ countryside (before POTUS shows up in Bedminster...you can see his golf course from the downwind of rwy 12 at KSMQ, which obviously shuts down the field..) of an hour or so...down to the Delaware River...south towards the Class D at Trenton....up to my home field to stop by for a cold soda...and then up to the Raritan Bay, back to SMQ.
I wish you could have seen her face when we took off from SMQ...didn't need the strobes on, it was that big of a smile. Constant comment of "wow", "you can see everything', and "now I know why you love doing this...".
No doubt, the primary task of an instructor is to teach...but it's also to share the joy of flight. I think we sometimes get so wrapped up in the syllabus, ACS, maneuvers, procedures, regulations...important as they are...that we forget that what we're also passing on is (or it should be) a passion to experience life on a different plane. Maybe, just maybe, we should also work in (at the proper place in the training, based on student progress and interest...) something fun: flight to a breakfast fly-in...another airport to meet a student's friend or family...something that incudes the 'fun' part of GA...not to downplay the importance of our educational part of what we do...but also to show both the utility and advantages of gaining that certificate.
Thoughts?
4 Posts
Congratulations, Bryan! I'm in a similar situation - went through the BasicMed process and took a handful of flights to get reacquainted with the right seat. The stick-and-rudder skills came back quickly...it's the teaching skills (practicing on other CFI in the left seat) that are lagging behind, but I'm getting there. Soon I'll be ready to take students again!