Assistant Flying Instructor Course

SO, YOU WANT TO BE ONE OF THE GODS DO YOU? !!

The mystery that surrounds the business of teaching people to fly encourages the students to believe that instructors are all-seeing and all-knowing Supermen. Little do they realise that it is not that difficult to become an instructor and with the current spate of adverts for full and part-time instructors appearing in Flight Line, there is a definite demand for this esteemed qualification.

There can be a variety of reasons for pilots wanting to become instructors. Many are attracted by the free flying, some want to fly at someone else's expense, and a few want to do it simply because they want to instruct. If you fit into the last category you will be welcomed with open arms. Go for it; there is a club or school that needs you.

The minimum experience requirement before anyone can commence the AFI training course is 100 hours P1, and of course a full PPL (microlights). Also, with regard to tandem seated Flexwings it is necessary to be able to fly competently all manoeuvres and all phases of flight from the rear seat.

Before starting the course, you are required to take the Pre-entry Test consisting of a General Flying Test and a written exam. The GFT is just a flight test to ensure that you haven't forgotten everything you learnt whilst getting your PPL. The written test is basically all the PPL exams rolled into one. It still remains a multiple choice paper with four answers to choose from, which at least gives you a 25% chance of getting the right answer before you even read the question, but even so, you'll still have to do some swatting beforehand even though the pass mark is only 70%.

Once you have successfully completed the test, your Flying Instructor Course can begin. This is in two parts - one is the flying syllabus, and the other is the ground school syllabus. The flying syllabus is a re run of the PPL syllabus over a minimum of 15 hours, but you'll fly from the rear seat in a Flexwing or the right-hand seat in the case of a 3-axis aircraft. The aim of the course is to teach you how to split up and demonstrate all the required elements of the PPL Training Syllabus, and to learn how to assess your student's progress, and how to correct mistakes.

A big problem can be getting right, what is known in the trade, as "the patter", whilst at the same time you are demonstrating a manoeuvre, checking your position, keeping a lookout for other aircraft, and remembering to check your fuel, together with a myriad of other considerations. As you can see from this, you aren't being taught how to fly, You're being taught how to teach.

With regard to the ground subjects, although you'll be expected to have a good sound knowledge of these, there will be a bit more emphasis on ensuring that you really do know the subject matter. Also of course we teach you how to do the pre-flight and post-flight briefings.

Once you have completed 15 hours of flying and 40 hours of lectures (actually it takes more like 75 hours to get through all the required syllabus) you should be ready for the test with an Examiner of Instructors. Contrary to popular belief these people are human beings, so don't let them frighten you, but they usually manage to get you into a cold sweat, after all they are the very high ranking gods!

The examiner will give you about ten minutes to prepare yourself for the subject he wants to see you brief and then teach in the air. Once he is satisfied with this stage he will ask you to demonstrate various other exercises taken at random from the syllabus.

When the flight test is complete, there follows a series of technical questions which test your understanding of the finer points of the art. At this stage you will be able to expound freely on the reasons for wing-drops at the stall with power on, the need to hold off bank, the effects of sideslipping on the ASI and the virtues of flexible membrane wings etc, etc.

Having passed the test, and armed with yet another bit of paper from the CAA, you can now, as an assistant flying instructor (AFI) at an established school, be let loose on the unsuspecting public and into the scary situation of your first student. If the CFI is in a good mood, he will probably give you someone easy to start with, and you should try to remember that the victim probably does not know just how new you really are. Keep your cool and quite quickly you will realise that this mysterious instructors' godlike aura has surrounded you too. People will actually listen to what you say and in fact hang on to every word.

So what you say has got to be right.

After a time you will come to realise that the only real prerequisites for this job are enthusiasm and a very good sense of humour. These you will need, particularly the latter when on your fifth lesson of the day in the circuit you see that bush at the side of the runway reaching for your wingtip for the fiftieth time! The next step, after a mandatory one year's apprenticeship as an AFI, is to upgrade to a "qualified" flying instructor (QFI). This is no big deal but by that stage people really do start expecting you to know what you are talking about!

A PPL holder with an AFI rating can actually earn money, either full or part-time. An inspection of recent adverts will reveal that the job market is expanding fast at present. However, before becoming too excited about the full-time money, bear in mind that you would be paid more money as a private soldier in the army and often in winter you can be grounded for several weeks waiting for the gales to die down, and then the pay could drop to dole-queue level.

Examine carefully your motives for wanting to become a microlight instructor. The monetary reward is very low, but the job satisfaction is one of the highest of any occupation. No other job is as demanding and full of excitement. There is so much action, concentration, and personal involvement that one never becomes bored with this vocation, and whereas most people are desperately trying to earn enough money to escape from the dull, monotonous routine of their daily work, you'll be enjoying a unique freedom and way of life that is the envy of everyone. For many people this can be payment enough in itself.