Greg Brown's Flying Carpet Blog
Greg Brown's Adventure of Flying!
Many thanks to Russell Still of Gold Seal Ground School, David St. George, Chairman of SAFE (The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators), and renowned aviation author and entertainer Rod Machado for the great experience doing our recent live-stream webinar, “CFI Professionalism: Making the Most of Your Career.”
Check out the archived presentation video for valuable tips on how to succeed as a CFI!
For more guidance on this topic, see Greg’s book, The Savvy Flight Instructor 2nd Edition.
Check out my density-altitude and mountain flying tips on this week’s AOPA Live aviation news broadcast!
Greg
I had the pleasure of being Bob Meder’s guest on this month’s NAFI Chairman’s Webinar. (National Association of Flight Instructors)
As you’d expect, we spoke primarily on flight training and flight instructor topics, with emphasis on key marketing, motivational, and pricing ideas and insights from my new book, The Savvy Flight Instructor Second Edition.
CFIs and flight school operators should find this material particularly relevant.
So if those topics interest you, please have a listen by clicking below! (Also available as MP3.)
Thanks to Bob and NAFI for inviting me to participate!
Greg
For more guidance on this topic, see Greg’s book, The Savvy Flight Instructor 2nd Edition.
On weddings and flight tests…
Flight tests are a bit like weddings. Everyone wants theirs to go perfectly, but sometimes problems or distractions, when successfully resolved, add richness to the experience.
Although each of these life events usually goes smoothly, you’ll occasionally hear horror stories. Jean and I once attended a wedding reception where the restaurant caught fire, forcing the bridal party and guests onto the lawn with firefighters.
As with weddings, you can never know whether pilot checkrides are “good,” or “bad,” until afterward. The obvious measure is whether you pass or fail. Common wisdom says that sooner or later every pilot fails a flight test – fortunately that’s not the blot on one’s record pilots often worry about. But it’s not always that simple. Sometimes a failed test teaches valuable lessons. My own worst flight test was not the one I failed, but one I passed.
On my instrument practical years ago, I confused my position on an instrument approach, turned, and started down at the wrong fix. The examiner’s questioning helped me figure it out, but afterward I pondered if and when I’d have caught the error on my own. Although I learned the relevant lesson, it seemed at the time I should have failed so there was little joy in taking the new rating home. The experience haunted me until I got more instrument flying under my belt.
Colorado pilot Tom Fuller is well qualified to contemplate good checkrides versus bad. A 10-year Air Force veteran, Tom earned his private three years ago and is working toward a pro-pilot career.
“I passed the oral portion of my initial Flight Instructor Practical Test last month, but did horribly on the flight portion. This came down to being at an unfamiliar airport, having little recent time in the Cessna 182RG I tested in, general checkride jitters, and fatigue. Any one of those I’d have probably been able to deal with, but all three was too much. Live and learn. So I rescheduled the flight portion for two weeks out, and committed to flying the RG as much as possible until then, which ended up approaching 20 hours…”
Top photo: CFI Tom Fuller at Telluride Airport, Colorado. (KTEX)
Lower photo: Tom’s checkride airplane at Denver’s Centennial Airport. (KAPA)
(This column first appeared in AOPA Flight Training magazine.)
Greg
©2016 Gregory N.Brown
If you enjoyed this story, you’ll love Greg’s book, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane. Autographed copies available!
Based on the number of questions I get, I thought it worth explaining US Part 61 vs Part 141 pilot training programs.
Training under Part 61 is virtually unregulated except for meeting the specific objectives defined in the FAA regulations — that boils down to covering required maneuvers, aeronautical experience, and meeting test standards, pretty much however a given flight instructor sees fit.
Part 141 programs, on the other hand, are individually FAA approved, meaning each flight school must develop a detailed pilot training curriculum including lesson-by-lesson syllabus and extensive record-keeping requirements, and submit it to the FAA for approval. Part 141 programs must by definition be highly structured to be approved by the FAA. As a result, they are one-size-fits-all, meaning that every student must be trained precisely within each flight scool’s approved syllabus. Part 141 programs theoretically can graduate pilots in slightly fewer hours than under Part 61 (35 vs 40) and are required for those seeking government funding of their training, most notably to qualify for VA benefits.
My longtime-CFI buddy Jim Hackman likes to observe that “the best and the worst pilot training take place under Part 61 [because instruction quality can vary across the spectrum], while Part 141 trains for the lowest common denominator.” These days Part 61 programs increasingly incorporate some of the best Part 141 features such as written syllabi and stage checks.
Incidentally, well-run Part 141 programs are great places for beginning instructors to cut their teeth because rigorous syllabi and standardization help them learn to structure training for their students.
Greg
©2016, 2024 Gregory N. Brown
For you Airplane Geeks podcast fans, I had the pleasure of being their guest this week.
We spoke mostly on flight training and flight instructor topics, along with their usual news and industry features. Here’s the link for those interested in listening.
Thanks to Max, Max, Rob, and David for having me!
Greg
For more guidance on this topic, see Greg’s book, The Savvy Flight Instructor 2nd Edition.
This is one of the better US aviation airspace depictions I’ve seen… I like the way it relates airspace definitions to what we see on the Sectional chart.
You may wonder why all those magenta airspace areas exist on aviation Sectional charts, and why we must learn different VFR weather minima for them. Well here’s the practical answer:
Where Class E drops to 700 feet AGL (magenta shading) or to the surface (magenta dashed line), instrument approach procedures are authorized, which is why the VFR weather minima are higher there, and why we must be extra vigilant when flying VFR into airports falling within magenta areas.
Now look at your Sectional chart again, and for the first time all that magenta makes sense: those are airports with instrument approaches. Better keep your eyes open when flying there!
©2015, 2022 Greg Brown
(graphic from ravepad.com / gliderbooks.com )
For more guidance on this topic, see Greg’s book, The Savvy Flight Instructor 2nd Edition.
For all you pro and aspiring-pro pilots, here’s an excellent video explanation of the new ATP (airline transport pilot) certification and training requirements, from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.
Finally, the speculation (if not the controversy) is nearly over!
Greg
Recently I was invited by Shannon Yeager and Brittney Miculka of AOPA’s Center to Advance the Pilot Community, to present a webinar for the professional flight training community.
View my archived 1-hour presentation, “Making the Most of your Flight Instructor Team.”
Those who’d like to learn about succeeding as a flight instructor and in the flight training business as a whole, please consider my book, The Savvy Flight Instructor, available in both print and ebook versions.
Sincerely, Greg
©2013 Gregory N. Brown
Greg’s take on how to improve the student pilot dropout rate
“The PilotCast crew banters around ideas with respected author and CFI Greg Brown, to discover ways to bring the sense of adventure back into flight training.
“From building a sense of community for new students, to rethinking the flight training curriculum, CFI pay, and becoming a pep-talk-giver yourself, no topics are off limits in this exciting episode.”
Play or download Greg’s interview here (via playback bar at bottom of PilotCast page).
Many thanks to PilotCast‘s Tiffany, Kent, and Bill, for inviting me to join this worthy discussion!
©2011 Gregory N. Brown
For more guidance on this topic, see Greg’s book, The Savvy Flight Instructor 2nd Edition.