Renewing instructor rating
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Renewing instructor rating
It's been 35 years since I last instructed as a grade 2 instructor. At the time I had enough experience for a grade 1 but another opportunity came up so I never did the test.
Interested to hear about others experience in renewing a long expired instructor rating. I am a current pilot so would appreciate any suggestions or insights.
Interested to hear about others experience in renewing a long expired instructor rating. I am a current pilot so would appreciate any suggestions or insights.
The rule changes are painful.
If you stick with it you will at least get some understanding of the MOS/Part 61 etc but the cost benefit is questionable (for me)
Trolling through that stuff drains the life out of me
If you stick with it you will at least get some understanding of the MOS/Part 61 etc but the cost benefit is questionable (for me)
Trolling through that stuff drains the life out of me
It all depends on who is conducting the renewal. It could go either way and having done the odd few renewals. in the last 4 decades I can tell you, there are some flight examiners who will thrown the book at you and there are some who are totally practical and just want to see experience returning to the training industry. The latter is common. Plan for the worst, hope for the best. Download the application form and the test report, read the MOS applicable to Day VFR PPL and hopefully find a current instructor who can help with a modern briefing and all should go very well. Look at the CASA training syllabus.
The big 3 briefings for renewals are: Effects of Controls, Forced Landings and Stalling. Get the Part 61 syllabus for these (from CASA) here Look at the required briefing items and you will be mostly there.
Ideally you should do a long briefing one one of the above, a short briefing on something similar then go out and do a bit of simulated instruction. Hope it goes well, the industry needs you!
The big 3 briefings for renewals are: Effects of Controls, Forced Landings and Stalling. Get the Part 61 syllabus for these (from CASA) here Look at the required briefing items and you will be mostly there.
Ideally you should do a long briefing one one of the above, a short briefing on something similar then go out and do a bit of simulated instruction. Hope it goes well, the industry needs you!
I renewed my Instructor rating a few years back after a 20 year break. It was a bit of hard work getting up to speed with Part 61 and the MOS and what CASA now wanted in briefings. I spent about a week at the local flying school practicing briefings and did about five hours in the aircraft getting my patter back up to speed and remembering what to teach. The test itself was fairly straight forward and very practical.
It counts as a flight review anyhow, so my approach has generally been to do a renewal rather than just a review. Instructors with real world life experience are always valuable too!
As others have said, compared to the old Day VFR syllabus, you'll probably find the MOS to be a mind-numbing list of stating the f**king obvious, but it's worth spending some time getting your head round it so you can regurgitate relevant parts of it to the examiner's satisfaction.
Get hold of the PPL and CPL flight test forms from the CASA website, they are basically a check sheet of what you're expected to teach students in a less wordy form. In a similar fashion, the instructor rating flight test form gives you a decent overview of what the examiner must consider when testing you for your rating.
Edited to add: Make sure you have a look at how 'Airmanship' is discussed these days - NTS or Non-Technical Skills from the MOS, risk management, human factors, are all ways of looking at that stuff. We are now expected to explicitly teach this, more so than was maybe the case thirty years ago (not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be easy to get tied up in fuzzy concepts sometimes). Get to know the terminology, and look for ways to explicitly put it into briefings and instructional flights.
As others have said, compared to the old Day VFR syllabus, you'll probably find the MOS to be a mind-numbing list of stating the f**king obvious, but it's worth spending some time getting your head round it so you can regurgitate relevant parts of it to the examiner's satisfaction.
Get hold of the PPL and CPL flight test forms from the CASA website, they are basically a check sheet of what you're expected to teach students in a less wordy form. In a similar fashion, the instructor rating flight test form gives you a decent overview of what the examiner must consider when testing you for your rating.
Edited to add: Make sure you have a look at how 'Airmanship' is discussed these days - NTS or Non-Technical Skills from the MOS, risk management, human factors, are all ways of looking at that stuff. We are now expected to explicitly teach this, more so than was maybe the case thirty years ago (not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be easy to get tied up in fuzzy concepts sometimes). Get to know the terminology, and look for ways to explicitly put it into briefings and instructional flights.
Mine wasn't long expired (only 2 years) but the prof check was easy as. Got there, talked to a briefing that was already on the board for about 3 minutes, then chatted a bit about the regs (mostly about liability if doing independent 61.385 training, and making sure not to do stuff outside of your privileges i.e. giving training in a CSU machine without a DF TA. I can't even remember how it works now. Can you give ab-initio training in a machine with a CSU, without a DF TA?). Air exercise was about 3-4 pattered manoeuvres with the rest of the time spent doing a completely unrelated air exercise (I do not wish to talk about what we did.) and also unpattered stuff to keep inside CTA and get to the T/A.
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Thanks very much for taking the time to give me your insights. It is extremely helpful and much appreciated.
It sounds like the rule changes will be my biggest hurdle but based on your replies at least I have some idea on what to expect if I decide it’s worth pursuing.
It sounds like the rule changes will be my biggest hurdle but based on your replies at least I have some idea on what to expect if I decide it’s worth pursuing.
Renewing an instructor rating
Consider putting a proposal to a flying school that you want to book an instructor for a week.
importantly make sure it includes all briefing and flying at solo rates (because you’ve already paid for the instructor.
Will probably take $120 per hour off the flying, which will probably be about 5 hours of flying (a guesstimate)
Overall possibly a better deal for you, and give you plenty of ground time.
That fixed rate may work out a far better deal. i used to own a school and suggest this to people in your situation. I would charge $1500 for the full five days.
Save $600 on the dual rate for 5 hours and for $900 your getting a lot of ground time.
It will quickly add up if your paying an hourly rate of $70 for briefing etc.
Also keeps you motivated to pack heaps into the week.
Good luck with it
importantly make sure it includes all briefing and flying at solo rates (because you’ve already paid for the instructor.
Will probably take $120 per hour off the flying, which will probably be about 5 hours of flying (a guesstimate)
Overall possibly a better deal for you, and give you plenty of ground time.
That fixed rate may work out a far better deal. i used to own a school and suggest this to people in your situation. I would charge $1500 for the full five days.
Save $600 on the dual rate for 5 hours and for $900 your getting a lot of ground time.
It will quickly add up if your paying an hourly rate of $70 for briefing etc.
Also keeps you motivated to pack heaps into the week.
Good luck with it
Great advice from Glen, and if you're not already aware, all the regs, MOS, flight instructor manual, flight examiner's handbook, flight test forms, 'plain English guide' for Part 91 (basic foundational rules for everyone), etc etc are all available for free download via the CASA website. As I mentioned earlier, it's figuring out how to find answers that's the tricky part, so time with a current knowledgeable instructor will be very well spent.
If you've been flying in Australia commercially in recent years you'll already be across a fair bit of this stuff, so apologies for telling you how to suck eggs if that's the case. If not, things like changed terminology for licences, ratings, endorsements, flight reviews and proficiency checks can be a bit of a head scratcher (eg. you don't renew your instrument rating any more, it's permanently valid but needs an annual proficiency check in a 'relevant aircraft' to allow you to exercise the privileges blah blah; instructor ratings are now a bare bones thing on which you hang a multitude of training endorsements, required to teach certain things. Your Grade 2 rating from years ago would now be a FIR (flight instructor rating) with a Grade 2 training endorsement.
I'd download some of the documentation and get stuck into puzzling it out early, then when you're primed, get an instructor to fill in the gaps.
Strangely enough though, aeroplanes fly the same as they always did, so the airborne stuff will hopefully fall back into place like putting on an old footy boot. Enjoy!
If you've been flying in Australia commercially in recent years you'll already be across a fair bit of this stuff, so apologies for telling you how to suck eggs if that's the case. If not, things like changed terminology for licences, ratings, endorsements, flight reviews and proficiency checks can be a bit of a head scratcher (eg. you don't renew your instrument rating any more, it's permanently valid but needs an annual proficiency check in a 'relevant aircraft' to allow you to exercise the privileges blah blah; instructor ratings are now a bare bones thing on which you hang a multitude of training endorsements, required to teach certain things. Your Grade 2 rating from years ago would now be a FIR (flight instructor rating) with a Grade 2 training endorsement.
I'd download some of the documentation and get stuck into puzzling it out early, then when you're primed, get an instructor to fill in the gaps.
Strangely enough though, aeroplanes fly the same as they always did, so the airborne stuff will hopefully fall back into place like putting on an old footy boot. Enjoy!
