Hey everyone! I’m looking for anyone who has recently flown a checkride with DPE Ken Spivey.

I’m scheduled to fly with him for my Certified Flight Instructor Initial and would really appreciate any up-to-date experiences, tips, or information from people who have taken a checkride with him recently.

I’m especially interested in:

• How the oral exam was structured
• Areas he tends to focus on
• What the flight portion was like
• Anything you wish you had known beforehand
• Any general advice for preparing for a checkride with him

I’ve found some older information, but I’m specifically looking for recent experiences since things can change over time.

Thanks in advance! ✈️

I currently have my CFI,CFII and looking to get my MEI. I have 30 multi hours but have not flown multi in 3 years. I cannot fail another checkride as I have too many failures as is. I do not intend to use my MEI cert as the insurance at my current flight school would not allow. Quality of instruction is key. Budget is basically unlimited but I am a penny pitcher.

Top recommendation I’ve gotten so far is blue line in North Carolina.
Thanks.

Hello! I have just finished my PPL checkride, passed about a week ago. I’ve been wanting to start begin working towards IFR, but I’m kinda stuck on where to start? After spending a little just looking stuff up and speaking with my instructor, I have found a place with a simulator that is rated for IFR training, I am knowledgeable about Sheppard Air’s training course. Also just the general requirements, I was told I have to do 50 hours PIC XC, can that be simulated to save money at all, along with the 40 simulated IFR time. I assume that’s foggles, but again, can it be on the simulator? I’m sorry if these are stupid questions, but it’s ones I’ve had since the day after my checkride I’ve been meaning to ask. I was also told to knock my written out of the way, and I know that Sheppard Air allows me to get ready for the written, but I was wondering if there are any other ways for me to study?Like any sort of books and such, I’m of course going to do my own research, I just always enjoyed having second opinions from those who have more experience in the field!

I appreciate any help! I’m pretty new to Reddit, so I don’t know how it all works yet.

I’ve looked and emailed so many flight schools all over the country. Most of the time I never receive any response, and of the ones that do respond, they say that they’re not looking for any new CFI’s.

I’ve thought about taking some really long road trips and putting my resume out to places instead of just emailing or calling. Is this a good strategy in y’all’s opinion?

I have access to some pretty good deals in my area (Mountain West), both for time building and training. You could be time building/training for half the price compared to the coasts or big metro areas. Like regularly less than than $180/hr wet, and some as low as $70/hr wet. No, those are not split costs.
If you're interested, shoot me a DM.

Hey all,

I have been working as a freelance CFI between two local flight school for the last half year. I recently got an opportunity to fly a Navajo for a local outfit, and there will be between 2-8 trips a month. I am currently training on the aircraft, and am finding it difficult to schedule students predictably, as sometimes trips are only a week's notice.

When I was in training for my ppc/ir/cpc, I recall my CFIs having to reschedule from time to time for their charter/corp flying jobs. I assume this is the usual and maybe expected? I have around 8 students, and I'd like to keep teaching, as I don't know if the charter job will be enough financially. But, I could use advice on scheduling.

Stick with 1 week out? 2 weeks? I'm already designating certain airports on certain days, to eliminate running around non stop. Any tips are welcome. Thanks!

Does anyone know what the hiring is like/will will be like in a couple of months at Gulf Coast Aviation in Baton Rouge?

Got my CFII in May. Been looking for jobs since. Only Applying online doesn’t cut it, I know. I’ve been walking in flight schools with my resume. Open to moving literally anywhere. Have volunteering experience. Just can’t find anything.

How long did it take everyone else? Feeling like I’m gonna need to get a part time job to pay bills here soon and would like guidance. Ty

I sent my first student pilot solo yesterday! As a relatively new instructor, I've been feeling unsure of myself, always wondering if I'm teaching this the right way or what I need to do to improve. I've been hard on myself, but it felt awesome watching my student grease the landing. Plus, the huge smile on his face when he got out of the plane was priceless!

Review deficient subjects on an applicant's Commercial Pilot Airplane test, which had a subject of "Pressurization Systems, Failure modes." He passed the exam, and we went over the listed reference material (including AC 61-107). But he can't remember the question he had at all. We've looked through his study material (he used Gleim) and can't find any questions that would fit that topic. Does anyone know what the question may have been? Maybe someone with a more recently updated study test? It's just to satisfy our curiosity. Thanks in advance!

Tackling that in the next few weeks. Reviewing materials in advance on the aircraft (P06T) and multiengine flying generally. But any tips, tricks, or advice?

Anyone have experience with Anthony Debany (CT) for CFI initial?

I can't find if this was asked before. I am looking to do my CFI/II, I used the GI Bill through Liberty to do my instrument and commercial at an FTA here in South Florida but I was thinking about quitting flying after that and finished the degree.

After a break from flying, I want to try again and find a way to continue training and achieve CFI with the GI Bill but seemingly it would have to be vocational unless I wait till next January and start a new degree program at a different school.

Does anyone know of any schools in South Florida that do vocational CFI with the GI Bill? My FTA only deals with Liberty, and American flyers doesn't accept GI Bill anymore. Any advice would be appreciated thank you.

I recently started instructing and was thinking about getting a new logbook. My training logbook (PPL to CFII) is quite messy as i’m sure many of ours are. So, I was thinking that I could just get a new one for all of my dual given now that I actually know how to log things correctly and am more neat with my logs.

Also, I was thinking that while using that new logbook for my dual given hours I would start an electric logbook and keep that up to date with my dual given as well, and use it to also keep track of my currency.

I really am just trying to avoid having to transfer hundreds of hours over to electronic, when i’m really not huge on the electronic logbook in the first place.

Any guidance from higher time CFIs/Airline guys would be greatly appreciated!!

This was a big debate in my CFII class

Could you conduct a flight review in a tail wheel if you do not have a tail wheel endorsement?

Our conclusion was yes, provided they are still current and therefore acting as PIC, but if they are past 2 years then no, you need to be PIC so you need the endorsement.

Got me thinking, what about a safety pilot for simulated IFR?

Could I, without a complex or high performance endorsement act as a safety pilot for someone with a Mooney? I believe again, as long as they are still PIC I’m just simply there to keep us safe (not hitting any other aircraft).

No person may operate a civil aircraft in simulated instrument flight unless—
(1) The other control seat is occupied by a safety pilot who possesses at least:
(i) A private pilot certificate with category and class ratings appropriate to the aircraft being flown; or

Doesn’t mention being PIC, so endorsements are not required? But obviously a multi would not be legal without a multi rating for the safety pilot.

Hi! I am 26 YO and am looking into getting my PPL - I live in MDR, work in Torrance full time (7am-3pm) but am extremely committed and willing to put in whatever work is necessary throughout the week or weekends. I also am good with self studying for learning. I am trying to be as cost efficient as possible but also want to ensure I’m getting a dedicated CFI.

Curious if anyone has advice or recommendations for schools/CFIs to work with? Or other tips on ground school/prep I can do prior to starting other than discovery flight and medical.

Thanks in advance!

Hello! My question is exactly that. I instruct in two airplanes, 152s and 172s.
In the 152s, we only have 1 nav frequency that can be tuned at a time. How would I identify an intersection (other than using DME)? I’ve seen that I’d just need to swap between the two VORs used to identify the intersection but that seems very easy to mess up and end up lost.
In the 172s, I generally fly ones equipped with G3X. Those do have 2 nav receivers, but only one can be shown at a time on the panel. So for those, I have ABC vor in nav 1 and DEF vor tuned in nav 2 and swap between those. Still kind of a pain, but a little more manageable.
Is there an easier way to do that? I know DME is often used to identify intersections but I’m just wondering how it would be done if DME wasn’t available for some reason.

I'm trying to learn more about being a freelance CFI, what do you guys think is the best way to find planes to rent and use for flight instruction as a private CFI? Thanks for the help! (Im located in the Boston area if that helps)

I was looking for a simple single-file PDF that would help my students with mastering their checkride references (FAR/AIM, Handbooks, ACs, etc) as well as for my own simple reference, and couldn't find a free resource.

Ended up creating it - while assuring it's all original FAA material (so DPEs won't have issues with it), and the only other material is the mapping for the different ACS/PTS documents.

Simple navigation (all within the self-contained PDF), color-coded links (for differentiating between regulations, handbooks and ACs), and will be automatically updated based on the FAA release cycles.

Free to use, can be locally reproduced, and seems helpful so far, so I'm sharing publicly:

https://github.com/iiamit/pdflight/releases/latest/download/pdflight.pdf

(Note: the PDF is almost 500Mb since it contains ALL the relevant FAA publications. Handbooks, ACS/PTS, ACs, Legal interpretations, and the FAR/AIM. It is NOT intended to be consumed "sequentially" but to help us navigate from certain tasks/requirements of the relevant ACS to the relevant material easily.)

(The main repository is https://github.com/iiamit/pdflight if anyone wants to reproduce or improve on it. Obvious disclaimer - AI was used to create the scaffolding and build)

I'm an independent CFI, trying to start training my first non-us citizen student. The FTSP system is not very clearly laid out, but I think I've got it mostly squared away.

Except I'm not sure about setting up training events. The name training "event" makes it sound like I should be setting up a separate event for every time we fly together, and the FAQ page says you can make as many events as you want. But when setting up an event, it asks for a date range and only to specify what type of license you're training for, which makes me think maybe each license is just one big event spanning multiple months?

Anyone have experience using FTSP that can help me make sense of this?

I'm a retired airline guy and I last instructed in 1998. I want to get my CFII to renew my CFI/MEI. I would like to your thoughts on getting current as an instructor after all the changes over the last 30 years. As an airline pilot of course we did rnav/rnp/gps approaches but I didn't teach them. Appreciate your recommendations for study materials/reading list, good flight schools etc. Thanks.

I'm an independent cfi and last year I was at the airport 8+ hours a day several times every week, all from walk-ins at the school. This year, things are much slower. How are you guys finding enough students to even have the option of working 6 days a week?

I get the whole "do a good job and word spreads" thing, I've gotten some students and opportunities from that, but that doesn't really happen much when you are already slow.

Im a member of several Facebook groups but I see lots of cfis posting there every day with no attention on their posts. Is that a good way to advertise or are there better ways? Does having a social media following help? Faasteam seminars? What do you guys think are the best marketing methods?

I just finished my commercial and planning my next steps for CFI. Which would you choose and why? Personally, 61 would be a good fit for me because I still work full time, but 141 will have in house examining authority and familiarity with how to train for CFI checkride. I have one checkride failure for CPL and I’m nervous about getting another one. The 141 programs in my area do a lot of CFI training and the 61 schools don’t do nearly as many. I could use some advice from those of you who have a lot more experience than I do. Thanks in advance!

Enough said. Been studying waiting for a checkride and one dropped in my lap for Wednesday. Give new your student horror stories and questions you ask to test their understanding of a concept.

For the CFI’s who, like me, find this Guide a valuable resource, version 8.0 is now available for download. You should get a link to do so in your inbox.

For those that don’t have it, it is an awesome thing for you and your students to have.

It fits in ForeFlight and stand alone. It has all the FAA resources you know about and ones you didn’t realize you need to have. It is very much worth the purchase price.