A day in the life of a CFI

I thought I’d share a day in the life of a CFI.

7:30am Get up and get ready to go. I don’t live too far from the airport, so I have time to relax at home for a while before I leave. I don’t feel like making breakfast today, so I stop and get some fast food on the way to the airport.

9am I get to the airport and find that two students have turned up for the same time slot. While one preflights the plane, I rush around trying to find another instructor to take the other student flying. Not an easy task at 9:08am on a Saturday, but it gets done. The temp is already 33C, and I’m glad I have a Nalgene bottle full of ice with me. It will be mostly melted before the flight ends.

My 9am student isn’t the world’s fastest learner- mostly because he doesn’t seem to study. I schedule him early so I can just get his flight behind me. We take off, and rapidly drift WAY to the left of the extended centerline because he refuses to use rudder. I prompt him to correct the situation by asking “where is the runway relative to the airplane?” He responds by saying “it’s behind us.”

Thank you Captain Obvious! Now what are you going to do about it? My question falls on deaf ears. I take the plane from him before the tower has a chance to call and ask wtf.

11am I’m flying with a student for his second lesson. He isn’t my student, and I’ve been warned that he gets airsick, so I have a sick bag on hand. We depart, and even at this early stage, his control of the airplane is quite good. He makes a few rookie mistakes on the radio and while flying, but that is to be expected. We’re in the air about 40 minutes when he says he needs to et back on the ground.

That’s all I need to hear. I firewall the throttle and go directly to the airport. He starts to feel a bit better, and so I let him fly the approach down from about 2000ft. Somewhere around 200ft, he starts to get sick again, so I have to land. As we vacate the runway, he uses the sick bag. Was my landing really that bad?!?

As we taxi to the ramp, he says he’d like to fly with me instead of his regular instructor because I’m more patient. I wouldn’t mind flying with him, but out of professional courtesy, I tell him to stick to his regular CFI. If he still has a problem after a few hours, we’ll see what can be worked out. Overall, a fun lesson.

1pm I’m doing ground with 4 student pilots. I’m trying to teach them how to read sectional charts. This sort of thing is best done with a small group. With one student, it’s just boring, and with too many students, it gets out of hand. I like doing groundschool every now and again. I get to revise a topic, and even get to learn something new once in a while. Fun times.

3pm brings the 5th student I’ve endorsed for solo flight. Last time we met, I introduced specialty landings, and today I finished that lesson, and went over everything else he’s learned so far. He does everything pretty well despite not having done the maneuvers in several weeks. He’ll be doing cross country flights in a few weeks.

He’s already thinking about his instrument rating. I suggest doing it under part 61 instead of part 141. Even though the part 141 route will make me more money, I explained to him why I think part 61 is the better choice. He doesn’t have to decide right away- he’s still got several weeks.

5pm This guy is getting ready to be my 6th solo student. He’s just turned 17, and is my 2nd youngest student. He’s very dedicated, but today he’s not really feeling the flying bug, and I can sense it. It so happens that after spending all day in the heat, I’m not too excited to go sit in a hot airplane either. The heat really wears you down. I cancel my 5pm and 7pm flights, and head home early.

Tomorrow’s going to be pretty similar, but with a different set of students.

I've dotted both i's

I finally did it. I took another checkride, and now the FAA allows me to teach instrument students. Preparing for my CFII (or “double I” as it’s usually referred to) didn’t take as long as my initial CFI, but it was still fun nevertheless. I’m glad to finally have it, as it breaks the monotony of VFR lessons, and expands my student base. I get the feeling I’ll prefer teaching instrument flying- it seems so much more like actual flying.

I already have an instrument student, who we'll call KA. He already completed all the requirements, but never got around to doing the checkride, so I’m doing a few flights with him and getting him ready for the oral exam. He’s a good student- he’ll actually study when I tell him to study. We’re aiming to do his checkride next week. He will be my first signoff. Let’s hope he does well.

Business is picking up a bit. Tomorrow I'm doing 5 lessons with different students. They're all at different stages, so it should be pretty fun.

1. send a fourth student for his first solo (we'll call him AM)
2. instrument approaches with KA
3. landings with CT
4. stalls and slow flight with AC (he's new- just learned straight & level last week)
5. basic instrument work with EP (not "real" instrument flying- he's only doing his private)