NormalSpeed From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 23 hours ago) and read 1460 times:
Hey folks,
This question is addressed mainly to other CFIs, but if anyone wants to contribute their opinion, feel free.
Ok, the question is: Now that I have passed my CFI and CFII checkrides, should I keep my lesson plans? When I ask this, I'm only referring to the hard copy. I will, of course, keep a backed-up copy of each on my computer.
I guess what I'm trying to find out is if any of you actually use all the lesson plans that you wrote in preparation for your checkrides. (Geeze, I hope that I wasn't the only one who did all that stuff!)
Ralgha From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 1614 posts, RR: 6 Reply 1, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 22 hours ago) and read 1377 times:
I haven't looked at the lesson plans I made for my CFI training ever again. In all honesty, I know the material well enough that I often just use the syllabus as my notes. If I want more, then I just have my own written list of subjects I want to make sure I cover.
Mostly my "real lesson plans" are notes just to remind me everything I need to hit in the lesson. The whole thing with objective and times and stuff that went into the "training lesson plans" that I did is pretty worthless to me. When I'm giving a presentation, I make sure I know the material well enough to talk it, then form an outline covering what I want to cover to make sure I don't miss anything. From that point on, I just formulate in my mind how I'm going to talk about it and really just make the time come out almost subconsiously. That's just the way I work though, some people may like to plan it more, but it's personal preference.
Sushka From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 4784 posts, RR: 16 Reply 3, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 21 hours ago) and read 1351 times:
Im just about ready to start making my lesson plans. All of my training has been 61 so far and I never have had a training flight that went along with a plan. Other than learning how to teach, they really do seem worthless to me.
Question: Do you need lesson plans for the CFII, and MEI, or just CFI?
NormalSpeed From , joined Dec 1969, posts, RR: Reply 4, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 1311 times:
Actually, if you go by the CFII PTS, you don't have to teach a ground lesson on a maneuver if you already have the intitial CFI complete. I actually did have to teach a lesson plan on my CFII checkride, but it was because my examiner was being a jerk.
Sushka From United States of America, joined Nov 1999, 4784 posts, RR: 16 Reply 5, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 1300 times:
JBirdAV8r From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 4459 posts, RR: 22 Reply 6, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 19 hours ago) and read 1297 times:
As others have mentioned, a lot of the lesson plans you compiled for CFI/II have no real value. When I fly with someone, I learned to have a pretty good idea how long I need to spend on each task with him. Like Ralgha, I take a "hit list" for the lesson...usually nothing but notes I've scratched on a legal pad prior to the flight. I'll review my notes from our previous lessons and go from there. The "20 minutes on turns around a point, 10 minutes on power-off stalls" I see as nothing more than politics...a little overkill. So insofar as the lesson plans, I say they'll probably do little more than collect dust on your shelf.
I am not, however, going to say "throw them out". Heck, you never know...you might need to review it some day. I know lots of people who go back over old ground briefs on a regular basis. Does this mean they're bad CFI's? No way. Just means they want to be sure. Can't hardly argue with that.
Plus, it looks really cool to have a 3.5" binder bursting at the seams with stuff you wrote.
Lymanm From Canada, joined Jan 2001, 1133 posts, RR: 1 Reply 7, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 1262 times:
Wow, you guys must be super CFIs, I routinely look up information, ACs, charts, diagrams, etc, that I included in my lesson plans. Perhaps I'm a bit slow, but there's no way I can commit everything in that binder to memory.
As far as the actual lesson schedule, I disregard that as it's asinine to assume everyone wil learn slow flight dirty in precisely 15 minutes. One woman I taught took 15 lessons to learn slow flight. Yet another mastered it in 5 minutes. The variation is massive.
JBirdAV8r From United States of America, joined Jun 2001, 4459 posts, RR: 22 Reply 8, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 11 hours ago) and read 1246 times:
Lymanm,
No way do I claim to be a "super CFI"....lol....I am far from knowing everything. In fact, I keep about three milk crates in my trunk that are completely full of books, lesson plans, ground briefs, etc. I reference my "in-car library" all the time! If a student asks me something, and I don't know the answer completely and 100% positively, I look it up. No questions asked. These are future pilots. I want to give them the best I can.
If a CFI ever claimed to know everything so well that he NEVER had to look anything up, well, he's lying.
So don't feel bad! I daresay I look stuff up more than you. I can be really dense in some areas...but rest assured, if I am not sure, I ALWAYS look it up.
Lymanm From Canada, joined Jan 2001, 1133 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (9 years 2 months 1 week 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 1229 times:
"...but rest assured, if I am not sure, I ALWAYS look it up."
Haha, I hear ya, JBirdAV8r! I'm *especially* reliant on that when it comes to theoretical meteorology, ugh.
However, one thing I am guilty of not looking up more than a handful of times is my FOI theory. I don't have any CFI students, but I always thought when I was doing my initial CFI that I would always reference the FOI to see how I'm doing, teaching-wise. Any one out there feel the same, or am I being neglectful?
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