Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Sport aviation is growing rapidly. But the new sport pilot / light-sport aircraft rules are still a mystery to many flight schools and instructors. To locate a flight school offering sport pilot training and/or light-sport aircraft rentals, click on the "Flight School And Rental Finder" tab above. This is a great place to share ideas on learning to fly, flight schools, costs and anything else related to training.

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joey4420
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by joey4420 »

Just heard back from Tim Pence who is the head Flight Instructor and he said they have sold the 162 Sky Catcher so sporty's no longer has an LSA for sport pilot training. But stated if you have an LSA they would train you in your Aircraft. Of course with that option I would find someone closer.

Personally I would not do Rec pilot for the simple no more then 50 miles from departure airport, ugh.
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Merlinspop
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Merlinspop »

joey4420 wrote:Personally I would not do Rec pilot for the simple no more then 50 miles from departure airport, ugh.
I’ve always likened the Rec Pilot restriction to those little toy airplanes on a string that goes around and around you until you either got dizzy or bored. I had one, probably played with it twice.
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by 3Dreaming »

joey4420 wrote:Just heard back from Tim Pence who is the head Flight Instructor and he said they have sold the 162 Sky Catcher so sporty's no longer has an LSA for sport pilot training. But stated if you have an LSA they would train you in your Aircraft. Of course with that option I would find someone closer.

Personally I would not do Rec pilot for the simple no more then 50 miles from departure airport, ugh.
The 50 mile restriction can be easily removed with training and an endorsement. That is a change that was made because of the addition of sport pilot to the regulations. As I have said before I think a person could do recreational training in a Cessna 150 or 172, and have the 50 mile restriction removed in less flight time than it takes to complete a sport pilot certificate in a modern LSA. By picking the airports you fly to you could also do the airspace endorsement at the same time as the cross country endorsement.

(c) A person who holds a recreational pilot certificate may act as pilot in command of an aircraft on a flight that exceeds 50 nautical miles from the departure airport, provided that person has—

(1) Received ground and flight training from an authorized instructor on the cross-country training requirements of subpart E of this part that apply to the aircraft rating held;

(2) Been found proficient in cross-country flying; and

(3) Received from an authorized instructor a logbook endorsement, which is carried on the person's possession in the aircraft, that certifies the person has received and been found proficient in the cross-country training requirements of subpart E of this part that apply to the aircraft rating held.
HAPPYDAN
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by HAPPYDAN »

Merlinspop wrote:
joey4420 wrote:Personally I would not do Rec pilot for the simple no more then 50 miles from departure airport, ugh.
I’ve always likened the Rec Pilot restriction to those little toy airplanes on a string that goes around and around you until you either got dizzy or bored. I had one, probably played with it twice.
FAR 61.101(c) allows for unrestricted distance with proper cross country training and log book endorsement. Otherwise 50 nautical miles at +/- 120 knots goes by really fast.
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by 3Dreaming »

With a recreational pilot and the endorsements you basically have the same privileges as sport pilot with more aircraft options to fly. However just like private pilot you must have a medical or operate under BasicMed. You can also choose to operate as a sport pilot.

If you are one of the few recreational pilots and wish to operate as a sport pilot you must do the cross country endorsement I mentioned in my previous post.
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Warmi
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Warmi »

Forget the ATC ... FAA needs to be privatized to begin with.

Only people who have no job security constrains could come up with stupid nonsense like this ... 50 miles limit unless you get magical endorsement if you do your cross country as long as when you do your cross country you are not flying with passengers (cause ?) ... and only between the beginning of morning civil twilight end of evening civil twilight as long as you are not higher than 10 000 feet ( or 2000 AGL) and are not flying plane capable of flying faster than 120 knots etc ... etc ... etc ...etc ..

How about, if you are not flying commercially and your plane weights less than X you are good to go anywhere with this license you are working towards, as long as you follow "the rules of the road". Period.
Flying Sting S4 ( N184WA ) out of Illinois
Type47
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Type47 »

Regarding 2 week crash courses.
I am not at all sure I could have managed the accelerated course. I found that 2 one hour lessons in one day taxed my ability to absorb the information. By the middle of the second hour, I began to get worse and make small mistakes that would only frustrate me. I studied by myself hundreds of hours and even built my own sim in Minnesota with xplane where I flew over 100 hours practicing landings, crosswind, cross countries, etc.
Others may be able to consume info on that accelerated level, but not me, it seems.
Toward the end, I was doing one daily 3 hour block with about 2.5 actually flying.
I had to get so muscle memory was good enough to actually fly the plane so I could concentrate on communicating, navigation, gauges, etc.
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by 3Dreaming »

Warmi wrote:Forget the ATC ... FAA needs to be privatized to begin with.

Only people who have no job security constrains could come up with stupid nonsense like this ... 50 miles limit unless you get magical endorsement if you do your cross country as long as when you do your cross country you are not flying with passengers (cause ?) ... and only between the beginning of morning civil twilight end of evening civil twilight as long as you are not higher than 10 000 feet ( or 2000 AGL) and are not flying plane capable of flying faster than 120 knots etc ... etc ... etc ...etc ..

How about, if you are not flying commercially and your plane weights less than X you are good to go anywhere with this license you are working towards, as long as you follow "the rules of the road". Period.
Having a bad day? The stuff you are calling nonsense are "The rules of the road" that you must follow as a pilot. As with all regulations we don't have to like them, but we do need to follow them.
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Type47 »

If I was starting fresh,I would start by finding a local Eaa chapter or just go hang out at the local airport in order to find someone who is flying quite a bit and would like company. Believe it or not, Pilots find it difficult to find people to go flying with and end up flying around by themselves a lot of the time.
Flying like this is free and you can pick up seat of the pants feeling in the plane and sight picture that is invaluable. You can’t shut most pilots up, so they will tell you everything they are doing if you encourage them a little. I also try to get passengers to do radio calls when they are with me. Radio calls were challenging for me, so If I had gotten comfortable with them before actually starting lessons, that nervousness would be gone.
Obviously, these aren’t lessons, are from the right seat, and can’t be logged, but a few, or a lot of hours flying as passenger would have helped me.
Another thing in hindsight, is I would strongly consider buying my own plane before or shortly after starting lessons.
All of the rent ($5300) would have gone towards the $45,000 I paid for my plane, I would have been able to get lessons wherever I wanted, and I would be very comfortable in my own plane when it came time for the practical test.
The argument against buying is that if you are not sure, then you have a plane to get rid of. True, but I found the level of commitment needed just to complete the training is huge. If I wasn’t committed to flying a lot after i got my cert, i wasn’t going to finish my training. If I wanted to fly a lot, then I need a plane.
These are my thoughts, YMMV.
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Half Fast
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Half Fast »

Type47 wrote:I started with First Landings around April 2016 and finished in September. I think I was in Minnesota about 6 weeks during that time.
Joey was my Cfi and is excellent.

I finished up last month. Joey was my 4th and final instructor and did a fine job. Adam tried to convince me that the previous 3 CFIs left for airline jobs, but I'm pretty sure I scared them away from instructing. :mrgreen:

WX makes the accelerated program very uncertain. Nice if you want to try it, but be aware that WX, instructor availability, and airplane mechanical stuff can easily blow it away.

PM me as well if you'd like more info.
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WDD
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by WDD »

Thanks to all contributors - lots of good information, even on topic that I didn't know existed.

1) Buying your own airplane to start training - would solve a lot of problems, but I'm just starting this "bucket list" item. I may not actually be in to it that much. And $50 - $60 k, plus annuals, etc. is a lot of money to tie up if I end up selling it a year later. But definitely an "out of the box" idea! Maybe..... buy and re capture some of costs by renting it out??

2) Rec pilot - so few do that, only 150 or so in the entire country? I think the reason is that you're so close to PPL, and you've got that 3rd class medical covered, no real reason to stop at rec. So not feeling that as an option vs Sport which get's you a ticket in 30 hours (national average) vs PPL (national average 60 hours).

3) FAA Rules of the Road - from a newbie POV, it does seem arbitrary. But not much to do about it. Kind of like hating the desert because it doesn't have any water. Not going to change it, but work in the rules as best you can.

4) Thanks for checking out Sporty's. Shame.

5) Accelerated Training - Maybe instead of 2 weeks solid, I do 1 week, break, then go back for another week of vacation time. I've also read where you actually absorb more because you are in it all the time. Maybe it's different for each person. Other comments / past experiences appreciated. I know I don't want to do a hour one month, an hour a month later. I know I don't want to drag this out. Just not how I learn.
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WDD
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by WDD »

Half Fast wrote:
Type47 wrote:I started with First Landings around April 2016 and finished in September. I think I was in Minnesota about 6 weeks during that time.
Joey was my Cfi and is excellent.
WX makes the accelerated program very uncertain. Nice if you want to try it, but be aware that WX, instructor availability, and airplane mechanical stuff can easily blow it away.
WX is Weather?

Would a flight school offer an accelerated program but not take steps to ensure that pilots and planes would be available?
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Warmi
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Warmi »

3Dreaming wrote:
Warmi wrote:Forget the ATC ... FAA needs to be privatized to begin with.

Only people who have no job security constrains could come up with stupid nonsense like this ... 50 miles limit unless you get magical endorsement if you do your cross country as long as when you do your cross country you are not flying with passengers (cause ?) ... and only between the beginning of morning civil twilight end of evening civil twilight as long as you are not higher than 10 000 feet ( or 2000 AGL) and are not flying plane capable of flying faster than 120 knots etc ... etc ... etc ...etc ..

How about, if you are not flying commercially and your plane weights less than X you are good to go anywhere with this license you are working towards, as long as you follow "the rules of the road". Period.
Having a bad day? The stuff you are calling nonsense are "The rules of the road" that you must follow as a pilot. As with all regulations we don't have to like them, but we do need to follow them.
I am following the rules , I just don't like byzantine and arbitrary nature of these rules and express that dislike in my posts. That's what forums are for - discussing issues.
Flying Sting S4 ( N184WA ) out of Illinois
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by 3Dreaming »

Warmi wrote: I am following the rules , I just don't like byzantine and arbitrary nature of these rules and express that dislike in my posts. That's what forums are for - discussing issues.
Without knowing the history behind the rules they may seem arbitrary. Whether you know the reason or not there is a reason for the way each regulation is written.

For example the 50 mile restriction that can be removed with an endorsement. The 50 mile restriction has been a limit for recreational pilots since the rule was first introduced. The reason for the restriction is because the rating requires no cross country training. Since the FAA has set a limit of 50 miles for a cross country to be used for flight training they used that limit for recreational pilots. Move up to 2004 the FAA added the endorsement to remove the 50 mile limit so recreational pilots would have the cross country training they need to exercise sport pilot privileges.
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Warmi
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Re: Looking for a CFI - not that easy

Post by Warmi »

There are reasons for every insanity out there - just most are not very good reasons.

Why even bother with offering a license that skips on cross-country training ? Why create this maze of slightly different rules and licenses that don't really bring anything to the table ?

My point here is not to debate of this or that rule is out of date etc but rather to highlight that the non-commercial sector of aviation, as a whole, is way over-regulated and basically requires a reboot - all of it - hardware certification, medical aspects, licenses ...
Flying Sting S4 ( N184WA ) out of Illinois
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