It’s been too long since I’ve posted an update on my flight training progress! That’s for a good reason… CFI training has been a ton of work. As a CFI student enrolled in AVIT 414 at UND, I’m lucky to get the chance to teach students in private pilot ground schools and follow a pretty rigid training course for CFI training. Once again, learning in a Part 141 environment has its upsides and downsides. There’s a lot of work outside of the classroom and airport, but the training is extremely thorough.

The first few weeks of CFI were rough. With seemingly endless lesson plans and outlines to be written, I felt like I was drowning in work. That same sentiment was shared by nearly all of my classmates. To put things in perspective, I now have over 35 outlines written for individual flight maneuvers required for private pilot and commercial students. Averaging 7 pages each, that’s 245 pages including diagrams and pictures.

Now that I’m about halfway through the course, much of my training has shifted to teaching. All of my flight lessons or ground briefings are led by me as a mock instructor, with my instructor playing the student. Each lesson, he role-plays a different type of student. That provides me unique challenges with each and every lesson, so I can adapt my teaching style to a number of personalities and skill levels.

All said and done, things are going really well! I should be done with CFI by early May. Stay tuned for more videos and posts to come soon!

-Swayne

About The Author

Swayne Martin
Founder

If you want to become a pilot, I want to make your journey just a little easier. I'm a First Officer for Envoy Air, one of the largest regional airlines in the world, and have partnered with industry leaders like the U.S. Air Force to teach about various aviation careers. For a full bio, click the "About" tab above. Use the "Contact" tab to shoot me a message.

5 Responses

  2. Ben Hall

    Next time i’m in the states, I’ll hit you up for a lesson. You can remind me how a yoke works. Well done mate!

    Reply
  3. Hugh

    You’ve come a long way in a relative short time. Keep up the good work and don’t forget where you came from, who you’ve met along the way and for god’s sake once you’ve become a professional pilot not do act like you’ve always been one and never struggled or made mistakes. I learned to fly as a teenager fresh out of the Army then again as an old man of 56-57; over the years I’ve met so many Pilots that have forgotten that they too had to learn to fly. These self-professed Aces cause many potential pilots to do an about face, go somewhere else or worse, never come back. Everybody I take flying is a potential pilot and I mentor and I treat them with the respect that just a hand full of Instructors treated me with. Watching your videos I think you will be that kind of Aviator. All the best Swayne.

    Reply
  5. Bill

    Hey really really great to see hear you got your first pro pilot job..awesome !. even we witness you’re signing up… pretty cooool… me and others are sooo green envy… good luck…HaveFUN… esp in Hawaii.. will be watchin….
    Did you seek out Hawaii fir job maybe too bc your buddies already work there ? Do you know the island geo ?… pls explain lots how what did for job searching selecting getting this first job…. super interesting. Thx for all your cool videos time and effort!!
    I’m another wannabe pilot lookin up…

    Reply

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