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3 Answers

Best Syllabus for CFIs

Asked by: 7196 views
Flight Instructor, Instrument Rating, Student Pilot

Hello,

I am an all military trained pilot who now is retired and flying for a major airline.  During my time in the AF, I taught Undergraduate Pilot Training, and I also was an instructor on other multi-engine jets.  I have my CFII, but it is only in multi-engine aircraft.  I never taught in a single engine.  As my boys are getting to "that" age, I would like to teach them how to fly...which means I need to get my single engine CFI.  And, it has been over 15 years since I have soloed someone out in the military, so I definitely need to brush up on what to teach and when.  Instead of re-creating the wheel, I thought I would use a syllabus out there and go through it as I prepare for my single engine CFI certification, and also hopefully use it to teach my boys.  So with that said, are any syllabi out there that come highly recommended in teaching others how to fly from step one? 

Please forgive my ignorance...I happened to find this site through a google search.

Thank you,

Allison Sutter

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3 Answers



  1. Eric H on Jan 26, 2017

    Allison,

    Congratulations on completing one career and moving on into your next one, that is awesome!

    There are TONS of resources available to you, the trick is finding the one that works best for you. ASA has a free syllabus online that you can download and review, Sporty’s and Jeppesen have one, but you will need to purchase them.

    You can also Google Private Pilot Syllabus and you will find a number of them out there as well. Another good resource is the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) or The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) also have online resources. You might want to also look at MZeroA.com, I believe they might have resources for you as well.

    Good luck!

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  2. Jeff on Jan 26, 2017

    I’ve used a few third-party syllabi, and I ultimately settled on Gleim’s. I like it because it’s clear and straightforward, ties together nicely with the Gleim books, and the Gleim materials are generally more affordable for students.

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  3. Mark Kolber on Jan 28, 2017

    If you examine commercially published syllabi you will discover they are substantially identical. That’s for two reasons. One is simply that generations of flight instruction has given us a pretty good idea what stepping stones are needed to effectively learn skills and procedures to meet standards. Second, most of these are designed to be incorporated into 141 programs so they have, in a sense, been approved by the FAA. Between the two, don’t expect to find too much variation.

    Which syllabus I use kind of depends on the student. Most of the training I’ve done has been with people who are in non-aviation careers and can’t do optimum lesson spacing, so a good self-study program is valuable. If, for example, they are using the Sporty’s Learn to Fly course (which includes the ground portion of a flight training program in addition to knowledge test prep) it only makes sense to me use the Sporty’s syllabus. (And, btw, Eric is incorrect; the Sporty’s syllabus is available free. And why not? They want CFIs to use their program. They are available at http://www.sportys.com/pilotshop/syllabus)

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