FI(A) Rating, need guidance please

[StOrMsCaTcHeR]

calling all instructors for guidance and advice on this.

having spoken to a particular flying club, i have been offered a place to instruct over the weekends. So i have decided to take this FI rating course, which i will be starting soon within a week.

I did my PPL in 2009, passed ATPL theory in early 2014, and CPL/IR (both SE) in late 2015. Last time i flew was over 6 months ago, so i will have to fly 2-3 hours for currency, before i start the course, which i have no problem.

Now the thing is, i am at the age, where soon in few years i will have my medical every 6 months, so keeping in view, i do not see any chance to go to the airlines. I am self employed, so obviously i am not thinking of making big bucks out of flying. The only way to keep my passion of flying active is by instructing on weekends, and/or whenever i have free time and i would like to do it with full potential, and would try to give my best to my students.

my concern is what shall i expect in this one month course? what do i expect in these 30 hours? and there are approx 125 hours ground school. I have been told that it is mainly summary of the PPL syllabus, how to instruct it to students, and teaching methods on briefing and de briefing the students etc.

I need advice from all of you, as to what shall i prepare in this next one week, which i have free, before i start, to keep my memory refreshed. As i did my ATPLs a while ago, so my memory has become little rusty on the theoretical/technical side, but my practical knowledge about flying is still fresh.

Any guidance, and advice is much appreciated.

Thank you all.

[TheOddOne]

Hi,

Firstly, good luck with the course. I found it the hardest yet most rewarding flying that I had done in the previous 500 hours. Of course, instructional flying is even harder and more rewarding, so it's worth the effort (and expense!)
I found that every aspect of my flying was deconstructed and then put back together again. One surprise for me was that I we didn't do the exercises in order, we hopped about from say, ex 6 to ex 15, back to 7 & 8 as conditions dictated. This of course is exactly what happens in real life.
So, how to spend your week and 2-3 hours flying time? You will spend your 30 hours on the course (and your instructional career) flying from the right seat, so it might be a good idea to do some from there. Even just being a passenger in the RHS can help; spend the time trying to overcome the parallax error reading the instruments, especially the balance ball. That's the one instrument I wish I had duplicated on my side, but eventually, you'll get used to telling with a fine degree if the a/c is out of balance. You ought to be able to consistently fly plus or minus 50 feet and 5 deg whilst chatting with a mate.
In my view, it's a waste of time having to have CPL or higher Theoretical Knowledge for PPL instruction. What is needed is a thorough knowledge of all the subjects as understood at the PPL level - get hold of a confuser and make sure you can do all the questions as seen by a PPL. We got regular tests from a question bank and it was an eye-opener as to how much I had forgotten about the basics. The less time you spend on the course re-learning forgotten PPL TK, the more time you'll have to learn how to put it across.

By the way, if you have no more flying ambition than to instruct, you'll only need a medical every year, rather than every 6 months. I let my Class 1 go on reaching 65, as the CAA wanted me to spend loads on a stress EGC, back to Class 2 now for instruction.

TOO

[mykul10]

calling all instructors for guidance and advice on this.

having spoken to a particular flying club, i have been offered a place to instruct over the weekends. So i have decided to take this FI rating course, which i will be starting soon within a week.

I did my PPL in 2009, passed ATPL theory in early 2014, and CPL/IR (both SE) in late 2015. Last time i flew was over 6 months ago, so i will have to fly 2-3 hours for currency, before i start the course, which i have no problem.

Now the thing is, i am at the age, where soon in few years i will have my medical every 6 months, so keeping in view, i do not see any chance to go to the airlines. I am self employed, so obviously i am not thinking of making big bucks out of flying. The only way to keep my passion of flying active is by instructing on weekends, and/or whenever i have free time and i would like to do it with full potential, and would try to give my best to my students.

my concern is what shall i expect in this one month course? what do i expect in these 30 hours? and there are approx 125 hours ground school. I have been told that it is mainly summary of the PPL syllabus, how to instruct it to students, and teaching methods on briefing and de briefing the students etc.

I need advice from all of you, as to what shall i prepare in this next one week, which i have free, before i start, to keep my memory refreshed. As i did my ATPLs a while ago, so my memory has become little rusty on the theoretical/technical side, but my practical knowledge about flying is still fresh.

Any guidance, and advice is much appreciated.

Thank you all.

It's a great job so enjoy it! You can instruct on a PPL now, so only class 2 medical is required. As far a currency requiremements go, yo must have (amongst other things) 5 hours SEP in the 6 months preceding the pre-entry flight test. By far the best thing you can do on this time is to ensure your flying skills are brushed up. Can you slow from cruise to a slow cruise speed, then take flaps one stage at a time whilst maintaining altitude, heading and speed? Do you know exactly where the horizon is in the climb, the attitude for left at right turns....

I start off with Ex 9 (Medium Turns) as it is easier for a potential FI to teach. Then back to Ex 4 and keep in order at least until circuits, so the FI can learn how lessons relate to each other. Linking is an important part of teaching.

The ground school includes 25 hours teaching and learning, giving pre-flight briefings and should include a couple of long briefings. Then there's plenty of ad-hoc briefings (eg give me an overview of the pitot-static system)

Standards Doc 10 and the appendix is a great reference document.

Enjoy the course.

[Airgus]

Very nice course to do. I was like you before starting the course, worrying what should I read and refresh before the course.
Well, the very same course "flew me" and I learned and refreshed on the go.
You have the knowledge and the ideas inside, with this course you learn how to share them in a standardized way.
There is a nice book (some people disagree) that is called Patter Manual (it will give you a nice idea of what you are going to do).

Enjoy the flying!

PS:
have a look in youtube, you will be doing something like this but instead of an student there will be an instructor showing you first how to "Patter" and then he/she will play the roll as a student so you can instruct him/her.
example of an FI lesson in UK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgbTliiY7Ss

[Big Pistons Forever]

I thought I knew how to fly an airplane after I passed my commercial flight test. I found out just how little I knew on the first day of my flight instructor rating. Even if I never worked a day as an instructor I still would have considered the money I spent on the course worth it.

I second the advice regarding preparation. Every flight instructor rating candidate I have ever taught needed some remedial instruction in their stick and rudder skills even though they met the course prerequisites

2 exercises I recommend. Cover the airspeed indicator and practice climbing and descending at various airspeeds. You should be able to guess the airspeed within + - 2 knots for all the standard configurations.

The other is, traffic permitting, turn a 2 mile final at circuit altitude at cruise speed and power. Your aim is to fly a stable flight path to a full flap on speed touch down at a selected point.