Flight Instructor Rating? What to prepare?

[Grumbler]

Hello guys

I'm about to start my FI Rating within a couple of months. So just want to hear if somebody could tell me something about the syllabus and what to prepare and study before I commence my training?

[nick14]

First off, it's a certificate now. Start looking through what you can and cannot do in the Aircrew Regulation, Annex I (Part FCL), Subpart J. In particular when your restricted and how you remove your restriction.

Dig out some PPL books both technical and syllabus related and think about how you would present/train/demonstrate some simple exercises like turning, straight and level, pressure instruments, stalling etc.

Hope that helps

[Ex Oggie]

Ask the school (you will be doing the instructor course at) to send you pre-course recommended reading and suggested preparation material.

Most ATO's will have this prepared as a package to send by email.

XO

[n.dave]

I'm currently doing fic and have about 6 hours to go. My advice is restudy the ppl knowledge as you will be asked some questions during the course and you also have do a lecture presentation (could be any of your choice or the examiner may pick one). Read the correct flying techniques from the books and make sure you do not have bad habits developed from your previous flying. As Ex Oggie mentioned, get the school to provide you some reading materials for the course. The school have certain ways to teach students to fly
e.g. Ex9 Medium level turns, demo left turn: precheck, lookout, enter the turn, maintain (ask the student to feel the pressure), and exit. Now we break the exercise up in 3 parts; enter, maintain, and exit. Teach the student how to enter and then you roll out. You ask the student to enter and then you teach how to roll out. The student enters the roll, you teach how to maintain (LAI) and what to do if altitude is lost, and then the student rolls out. The student then then do the turns all by himself successfully. You then teach how to roll towards ref. Point and DI headings. And, then tyou teach right turn.
As for briefing nick14 already covered them.
Hope it helps.

[Pull what]

As a FIC instructor I can offer you the following advice.

By far the majority of candidates whom I see do not fly very well because they seem to spend too much time building hours on cross country flying rather than general handling, more time needs to be spent on

Crosswind landings
Go arounds from the approach and runway
Practical slow flight
Accurate turning- 30 deg turns with correct rudder input on entry and exit
Loss of control/stalling
Performance landings
Abnormal & Emergencies
Forced landings
Precautionary landings
Advanced turning, both 45 & 60 and emergency breaks
Comprehensive pre flight planning

Candidates also seem to think that the course is designed to teach them how to fly, it isnt. You are supposed to be able to already fly the above to a better than average PPL standard. In the same way you are supposed to have an above average knowledge of the PPL ground subjects and most make the mistake of thinking that just because they passed the professional examinations they have sufficient knowledge to teach the subjects. I can assure you that the knowledge you need to teach the ground subjects is far more comprehensive than you need to pass the multi choice answer professional examinations, in the equivalent PPL subjects.

Try to spend some time understanding HP and in particular
Threat & Error
Situational Awareness
Aviation Decision Making

Finally in my opinion, obtaining the certificate makes you a trainee flying instructor not an instructor although your ego may tell you otherwise. If you think of an apprenticeship as being 3 years you can see straight away that until you have around 2-3000 hours instructional time you're not what I would call a qualified instructor as I believe as a true practical measure you qualify by experience, not by flight test.