https://www.listennotes.com/e/1aa21396e44f4ae8992c78b891095aee
29 Jan 2025 · 12 min
A flight instructor breaks down how to build CFI lesson plans, weighing handwritten notes against digital formats and sharing techniques for teaching helicopter students. Covers practical strategies for organizing lessons and resources for instructor prep.
This next one is from Kenny Sullivan. For a CFI rating, what is the best way to make the training outline book? Probably meaning lesson plans, I'm guessing. Well, I can show you what I did. You know, most people build a big book with lesson plans. Some people buy lesson plans. And you can certainly do that, but one of the recent check rides that we did, the applicant had purchased CFI lesson plans. And the examiner questioned it. During the debrief that day, he said, well, you brought in, you know, a pre-purchased lesson plan book today. And the kid's like, yeah, I did. And he goes, well, why did you do that? We, you know, prefer that students make their own lesson plans, right? So that you're really familiar with them. And he was just like, oh, well, you know, I just, you know, I thought this would be good. And, and the examiner made a comment to me, right? He's like, We'd rather that they have a lesson plan book that they made up. And I can tell you what I did, and I can show you. My old fancy notebook I talk about all the time that I used after I failed, and I used this to study over and over and over and over to go back and retest. I did all my lesson plans right here in my notebook. And what I did is I just sat down and I used, you know, now would be the helicopter flying handbook. Back then it would've been called the Rotorcraft Flying Handbook. and I just went through and I did all the aerodynamic lessons. I did a lesson for every single maneuver that there is. That's how I did my lesson plans. I just opened up the notebook and I just went through here and I just started making them. Lesson plan, you know, steep approach. So I went through every single maneuver, all the aerodynamic stuff, and I just used the, used the books, you know, the, again, the helicopter flying handbook or. whatever the case is. And I just went through and made them. And I hand wrote everything out because we learned through repetition, we learned through writing. So the best way to do it is just to sit down and start doing it because you're going to learn more than just buying some pre-printed lesson plan book. So some people are going to do it, and I get it. I get it. People don't want to take the time, but the examiner is going to be more appreciative of hand-built lesson plans versus you just go and buy in a book. Because if you just go buy a lesson plan book, maybe you go through it and you know the material in it really well. But I think most of the time, an examiner is going to expect that, oh, you just bought some lesson plans and you probably, you know, have you really went through those? How well do you know those lesson plans? So that would be my main take on that is It's a lot of hard work, but you know what? It pays off in the end. And I went as far as I also went in and wrote down what I was gonna say for example, a normal pickup. I just sat down in my notebook and went, okay, normal pickup. All right, let's see. Look ahead 50 to 75 feet. Wrote that down. And just thought through the process of the way I'd been taught to do a proper pickup by my instructors, but then put it down in my own verbiage. and wrote out everything I was going to say for that maneuver for a lift for a pickup. And what's funny, if I go back and look at it today, I'm pretty much quoting, not quoting, I'm just the way I say it is the way I wrote it out and I'm still using that same verbiage today when I'm in the helicopter. I'm using the verbiage that I wrote and that helps you get in the aircraft if you think through them and put it down your lesson plans and write through the, I would say all the maneuvers is really, really smart because that way it helps you become more and more versed in how you're going to speak in the aircraft. So there's my take on that. To tack onto it, LP asked if examiners prefer paper lesson plans or if they can do digital. I think that can go both ways. In the CFIs we've done just here, one of them, I think it was Todd, used our Our screens we have on the wall, the Hogsback Fame screens, TVs, and he had his lesson plans on his laptop and we just used HDMI, ran it to the screen and he taught right from the screen. I think that's totally acceptable. Way back when, when I did my R44 sign off with the instructor or the DPE, he's like, we'll come with a lesson plan today on SFAR. So I made it all on computer. And I just took the laptop in and sat it down and like, okay, well here's, he's like, let's see your lesson plan on the S-VAR. Okay, so I opened it up and then I just scrolled through the PowerPoint as I talked. So I think digital lesson plans are fine. I think handwritten is fine. I think either way it's fine. Here's what examiners are looking for. They want you to be animated. And whether you're using paper, you're using a chart you bring in. We've got a big giant tablet here that's on a stand where we write stuff out. We make sure the person always has the helicopter. And the worst thing is when somebody's here for a CFI and I say, well, teach me, oh, low G. And they go, okay, well, low G, let's see. And they just start talking to me and they're not using any kind of a visual aid or nothing. I'm like, I'm sitting there going, come on, pick up the helicopter, you know? And so that's the last thing you want to do is just sit and talk to the examiner, right? You want to be very visual using your arms and you have as many visual aids as possible, which you're taught that or should be taught that in your CFI training, is you want to be super visible. You know, you're talking about the advancing blade, you're using your arm, you're talking about the retreating blade, you're using your arm, the helicopter we always have sitting right here, I think it's over. I moved it over to the table because yesterday we were using it to teach when we had the gentleman here for half day of training. I always have the helicopter nearby. Pick up the helicopter, show them. So whether you're using a helicopter, handwritten lesson plan that you have right here, opening up the helicopter flying handbook and showing them a diagram, using a PowerPoint and putting up on a screen or a PowerPoint that's on your laptop or your, or your iPad or whatever, knowing the material is the big key, right? So I think digital is just fine. I think it's about being the CFI is about being a teacher and it's about trying to be making the presentation a little more, I'm not going to say necessarily exciting, but it is more entertaining and I also tell my people to stand up, right, if they can. They can sit and teach if they want to, but if you're standing up and you're doing this and you've got your board that you're drawing on right here, and then you're turning to look at your, it's the person you're teaching, and you can come over here and you can write something down, you're conferred to that. You have your helicopter flying handbook in your hand or your lesson plan by moving around, being visual, standing up to me, I think is important. And I just think it helps, it helps make the presentation. More exciting. Exciting, interesting. You know, keeps the person awake. If you're up, moving around, using your arms, using your visual tools, using everything in your power, would be my take on that one. And our clone is located at askhogs.com youm can go below and click on the link to go check it out. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can ask training related questions, flight and ground, 14 years of my contents loaded in this thing. Blogs, podcasts, videos, paid content, free content, there's over 6 million words piped into my clone. It's amazing. Go down below askhogs.com the clone is free to everyone and the clone is also inside of our hog site on every video, every page so you can be in viewing videos and you can always ask the clone a question while you're at it so you can get an immediate answer. First right here is free. Free PDF, Private Pilot 101 Helicopter Training Blueprint. That's why we created this. And let me cover what's in the first chapter. Since you ask and you're at the beginning, that's why we created this. The first chapter are questions that we took like the top 10 questions that we get all the time. Like, is learning how to fly a helicopter difficult? How long will it take to become a private pilot? How much will it cost to become a private pilot? What is the best approach to selecting a flight school? What are the key differences between helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. How many tests will I have to take? How many hours for solo and the license? Kenny's recommended training supplies. 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It has both the R22 and R44 sections in there. And since we have an R22 available to us and an R44 available to us, we thought, why not get the content updated in those courses with some fresh videos, fresh images. And also want to mention hogs pay me.com this is passive income. You want to earn some money particularly if you're a flight instructor, anybody can use the hogs affiliate link. You go to hogs pay me.com that links down below. You'll sign up for it. It'll give you access to a dashboard inside that you'll see your link and a link to share with others. So when they sign up, you receive 50% off our online memberships. Private Pilot, Commercial Pilot, Instrument Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor and/or Professional Pilot, that's 2800 bucks. If you share your link with one of your students and they buy ProPilot, it's lifetime membership for all courses, you will get $1400 shipped to your PayPal account after the 30 days. So we have a few spots left for the spring of 2025, so you got to get in now if you want one of these. because of course, as we're moving into spring, people are talking, they're calling. So we've got like three spots left for the spring. If you want to get in, we're going to put a link down below this video. We've got a short questionnaire to see if you qualify for the final approach course. Go through that, the link below, answer the question, and we'll get back to you if you look like you're a good fit or we're a good fit to get you finished up. We got three spots basically for the spring so we can make you number 20, number 21 and number 22 on the Hogs Wall of Fame. When you feel the pressure to fly, but know the right decision is to stay on the ground, hit the Hogs no-go and live to fly another day. Helicopterground.com.
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Episode 409: "What is the Best Way to Reinstate Helicopter CFI Expired License?"