Advice for new CFIGs

[[email protected]]

A year ago I decided I was going to give something back to my club by becoming a CFIG. I was hoping that I might find several other club members who would take this journey together with me, but now, ready for my checkride, I am the only candidate. Why do so few people seem to want to do this? The number of CFIGs seems to be gradually diminishing as some younger ones move through to the airlines or older ones retire from teaching or flying. I worry about not having enough instructors to keep our training operations going, placing more and more responsibility on fewer and fewer CFIGs. Several of my fellow club members have stated that they would simply rather fly than instruct or have problems with the instructional organizational model we are using. Are there best practices out there for growing the next generation of instructors and organizing how they function in the club environment? What advice should we be giving to those who do step up?

[Charles Longley]

My number one bit of advice is don’t instruct for free. My club expects the instructors to work for free. It’s the main reason I don’t do my CFI-G. I feel that the student should pay for it. $40 per hour is a pretty reasonable rate. Leave the club out of it and have the student pay the instructors directly.

[Scott Manley[_3_]]

Happy to share my thoughts on your questions and concerns, but would prefer to do it off line.

Email me at smanley at wisc dot edu or
call me at six zero eight two two two six eight four three or
use the contact feature at my website gliderCFI dot com

Scott Manley CFIG

[[email protected]]

On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 9:42:58 PM UTC-5, Charles Longley wrote:
> My number one bit of advice is don’t instruct for free. My club expects the instructors to work for free. It’s the main reason I don’t do my CFI-G. I feel that the student should pay for it. $40 per hour is a pretty reasonable rate. Leave the club out of it and have the student pay the instructors directly.

- I received free instruction over many years in several clubs. Now I pay it forward as a part-time unpaid CFI-G. It's a good way to keep the sport going. My advice is: instruct for free, but limit your instruction activity so as to allow yourself some flying on your own. Instructors that "never" get to fly their own glider end up "burnt out".

[[email protected]]

On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 9:42:58 PM UTC-5, Charles Longley wrote:
> My number one bit of advice is don’t instruct for free. My club expects the instructors to work for free. It’s the main reason I don’t do my CFI-G. I feel that the student should pay for it. $40 per hour is a pretty reasonable rate. Leave the club out of it and have the student pay the instructors directly.

I disagree. Getting paid for it makes it a job, jobs suck. There is a circular problem, the less CFIs the less fun it is to be a CFI. Instructing is great when you have a large pool of instructors taking turns. I don't have an answer beyond encouraging those that you think would be good at it to go for it.

[Retting]

After Harris Hill paid me to learn how to teach using the Jr’s members as guinea pigs 🐷, I would go on to teach many in years pass without charging.
In a club situation, everyone has a part to play. Students certainly help as ground crew , doing things like clean barf out of a glider after a pax ride.
Plus being an instructor has a bit of Royalty attached to it, members bowing 🙇 and all that. I found it fun and rewarding.
Advice....be alert that everyone you fly with do not put items on floor that could interfere with the controls (pax rides).
Power to glider check-outs/flight reviews...pilots are a sensitive lot...have pilots acknowledge verbally to you what they will have to demonstrate to pass the check ride, before you begin. This saves the ‘I thought you meant...’ BS encounters. Having the student verbalize the areas needing improvements or what the goal is brings clarity to the lesson. Having students critique themselves will give you an idea of comprehension.
The rest is easy pezzie, so...get in there like the rest 👑 of us.. Off with their heads!
R

[Charles Longley]

I am associated with three clubs in the Pacific Northwest. (I’ve towed at all three and flown gliders at all three) Two of them do training one is cross country only. Of the two that do training one has free instruction the other has the students pay the instructors $40 per hour. (I think the students can double up for ground) Both clubs are located next to a large metro area.

The club that has free instruction is barely able to have one instructor available for their two L-23’s and one 103. Occasionally they have two instructors. Frequently they have none. They have two tow planes but only use one 95% of the time.

The club that has the students pay the instructors usually has 3-4 instructors going every weekend. They’re easily able to keep their two 2-33’s, three L-23’s, Grob 103 and two tow planes very busy.

Neither club has much problem with available wing runners and mandatory Field Managers.

So you tell me which club is offering better service to their members especially students? There’s that old saying, “You get what you pay for.”

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 11:25:40 AM UTC-5, wrote:
> On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 9:42:58 PM UTC-5, Charles Longley wrote:
> > My number one bit of advice is don’t instruct for free. My club expects the instructors to work for free. It’s the main reason I don’t do my CFI-G. I feel that the student should pay for it. $40 per hour is a pretty reasonable rate. Leave the club out of it and have the student pay the instructors directly.
>
> I disagree. Getting paid for it makes it a job, jobs suck. There is a circular problem, the less CFIs the less fun it is to be a CFI. Instructing is great when you have a large pool of instructors taking turns. I don't have an answer beyond encouraging those that you think would be good at it to go for it.

I completely agree.
44 years instructing because I like to do it.
Money would not make it a better experience for me.
UH

[Eric Greenwell[_4_]]

wrote on 11/8/2018 8:25 AM:
> On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 9:42:58 PM UTC-5, Charles Longley wrote:
>> My number one bit of advice is don’t instruct for free. My club expects the instructors to work for free. It’s the main reason I don’t do my CFI-G. I feel that the student should pay for it. $40 per hour is a pretty reasonable rate. Leave the club out of it and have the student pay the instructors directly.
>
> I disagree. Getting paid for it makes it a job, jobs suck. There is a circular problem, the less CFIs the less fun it is to be a CFI. Instructing is great when you have a large pool of instructors taking turns. I don't have an answer beyond encouraging those that you think would be good at it to go for it.

Nooo, it's a job if you are an employee; if you are boss, like doing it, AND you
are getting paid for it - Be Happy! Use the money to pay for car repairs or the
other things that need doing, but you don't have the time to do because you are
instructing. My wife thought was a clever way to go flying instead working on
"honey do's".

I instructed for our club for 16 years, learned a lot, had fun, club grew, and I
always charged for instruction. No one ever complained, and one student even gave
me a $150 tip after he got his license!


--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA (change ".netto" to ".us" to email me)
- "A Guide to Self-Launching Sailplane Operation"
https://sites.google.com/site/motorgliders/publications/download-the-guide-1
- "Transponders in Sailplanes - Dec 2014a" also ADS-B, PCAS, Flarm

http://soaringsafety.org/prevention/Guide-to-transponders-in-sailplanes-2014A.pdf

[waremark]

It was rather a shock to me to read the suggestion of charging for instruction. I think I would be far less likely to instruct if instructors were paid. I would feel that it was work and should be done by people who want to work for whatever the going rate might be. My very fortunate situation is such that I prefer to be appreciated than to be paid. If instructors are paid, what about all the other volunteer activities required to keep a club and airfield going? We have a great spirit at our club of about 250 flying members; it helps that we all contribute as volunteers in whatever way we are able. I admit that our average age is high and we have a lot of retirees among the active instructors.

[[email protected]]

From a student pilot point of view, paying for Instruction may be a better choice. In my case, I wanted to learn ASAP. The local club (Albuquerque Soaring Club) in Moriarty, NM offered free Instruction. But they only operated on weekends, and sometimes only had one day out of two with an Instructor scheduled. The local Commercial operator and FBO (Sundance Aviation) had Instructors available at least six days a week. I took initial training in January 1999 with Sundance and, being able to fly three or four days a week, soloed in a G-103 after 34 flights. It took a total of 13 days of Instruction, including Ground School, and was accomplished in less than a month. I had one Instructor throughout the course.

Free Instruction through the ASC, using these figures, would have taken place over 13 weeks, I would have had at least four different Instructors and I would have been forced to take training in the SGS 2-33, which I wanted to avoid at all costs.

End result: I bought my own sailplane and started soaring almost immediately, whereas I would have probably spent many more months in the 2-33, then a transition to the G-103, and eventually my own glider. I figure going commercial and paying for Instruction, as well as the higher hourly rate on the aircraft, saved me about a year and ended costing about the same dollarwise.

YMMV

[[email protected]]

Funny. I forgot I do get paid to teach. My club credits 2 bucks a flight. 3 days of instructing or so adds up to a free tow. Easy to forget about as you never see the money it just takes a bit off the tow bill. One could argue that low pay is more de-motivational than no pay. 2 dollars I want my 2 dollars.

[waremark]

Virtually all gliding clubs in the UK are member owned and operated and are not commercial. Ab initio training is always given for free - and is available 7 days a week at the larger clubs - in my club in K21s of which we own 7.

I guess this difference between UK and US parallels other cultural differences.

But power flying operations are almost or all commercial and I never resented paying for flight instruction.

[[email protected]]

I got my CFIG this spring. I spent a bunch of money to get it, so now I can instruct for free. And I’d do it again. For several reasons:

1. Instructing is lots more fun than any other club duty.
2. I learned a bunch of useful stuff in the process. Not just flying stuff. All that FOI comes in handy when you’re trying to train new engineers (or old managers).
3. It’s fun watching students get the hang of following the tow plane, landing, etc.

Go ahead and finish up your CFIG. You’ll be glad you did,

[CindyB[_2_]]

On Wednesday, November 7, 2018 at 2:05:29 PM UTC-8, wrote:

> <snip> Why do so few people seem to want to do this?

Lots of possibilities - mostly blended, seldom voiced - as follow:

Liability. If a student is later killed, the family may come back at you.
You may be named in the process of simply forcing an insurance settlement. That is emotionally and maybe financially an impact.

Expense too acquire and retain certification. But you're already there.
Time Commitment for back office, prep, ground schooling, logbooks, lesson prep if you are really doing a good job for continuity for your flyers. Time availability if sole or principal provider to an organization.

Lack of clarity in role in organization, lack of curriculum or consensus on curriculum and standards, if multiple CFIs.

Lack of sense of "payback", whether that is cash, club credits, social recognition, student advancement, or student "valuation" of your time invested.

Lack of clarity of process to become a CFIG. For a long while, it has been difficult to find a DPE or Inspector who was qualified or allowed to do CFIG checkrides. That should be resolved with the recent erosion of FSDO district lines.

Lack of confidence of teaching ability in candidates.


><snip> or have problems with the instructional organizational model we are using.

We can use straight traditional flight and ground training.
We can use simulator training to a great advantage with traditional programs.
I've had students arrive with logged simulator time and they progress rapidly.
This requires coordination between simulator trainer and flight trainer for consistent checklists and expectations/procedures.
There can be huge local resistance to this or any NIH ideas.


>Are there best practices out there for growing the next generation of instructors and organizing how they function in the club environment?

In my experience, it is pretty much a localized, insulated culture. There are great instructors who do mentor new teachers. This was a good first outreach. Use whomever you have found on a direct personal basis. The SSA's Club/Chapters newsgroup listing is another resource to find contacts.


> What advice should we be giving to those who do step up?

1. You can do it.
2. You don't have to be a World Champ/X-C pilot to teach well.
3. You can limit liability issues with insurance and by doing and documenting a good job of teaching. Make detailed training entries (use more lines, it's only paper). Keep good records. Have a thorough curriculum. (ALL the PTS.)
4. Use whatever technique you need to not burn out. Calendar teaching days, be paid, choose a student from club roster and take that one to rating. Etc.
5. Start simply. Do only the things you are comfortable with and nibble your way into more complex maneuvers. (We all did this.)

6. Before flying with a new student human, have them hold up their thumb. Grasp their thumb like a stick, your fingertips only, wag the thumb around till their wrist gets limp (like wet spaghetti, I say) and grip only as tight as you'd shake hands with your grandmother. Gesture like a glass of chablis pointing to art on the gallery wall, slow-progressive-no sloshing.. That's how they will hold and move a stick. Then tighten your grip--- till smooshing tite and say "No motocross." Like every first flyer wants to strangle the grip. Everybody laughs. Now they know what a grip should be... and invite them to do the same on the real stick. No banging stops, no cement grip. You are now less likely to have some ASEL geek PIO your glider for you. (My advice for you, and any others who read this far.)

7. Use a shirt with a chest pocket. Use a small 3 x 5 spiral notebook that fits your pocket. Make notes between flights about what you did with that student on that tow, and how they did. That's how you remember at day's end what goes in student logs and progress sheets. You can do it digital, if you are that fast on notes on your phone. But my phone never has big enough keys, or bright enough screen. My pencil is faster and can be used sometimes in flight. The pad also makes a handy illustration pad for concepts between flights. Or tear-off no peekie sheets.

8. Don't make up an answer. If you aren't sure, say so, and jointly go find their answer.

9. Make it safe for them to admit they don't know something. If you ask if they read homework, or if they understand -- and they say "no" - that's okay. That just defines the place where you begin teaching.

That's enough advice for tonight. I have to prep for tomorrow's flight student.

Why do I do it?
I love it.
I love seeing students advance, grow, smile and succeed.
I need the income.
I love the flying, even when they're doing a crummy job.
The club and the FBO asked me to do it.
I want to pass along the joy I find in soaring.
So now, you have me passing along the joy I find in teaching.

I wish it will bring you just as much reward.

Cindy B
So Calif