CFI Notebook
CFI Notebook
The Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) Notebook provides "Higher" education, bridging the gap between flight training and the airplane, enhancing your aeronautical experience with articles, multimedia, lessons, and references.
Get into it by reading our notebook articles or following along with our lesson plans.
Review the CFI Notebook
The CFI Notebook is an instructor's guide to navigating the sea of resources to provide helpful guidance for their students and themselves. Our notebook aims to enhance pilots' aeronautical knowledge by explaining various topics and referencing their sources to enable further learning.
Instructors recall this knowledge when building lesson plans. More important than knowledge is connecting the topics so that the student can appreciate the "why" behind the facts.
CFI Lesson Plans
Trivia of the Day
Trivia rolls over daily at midnight, Mountain Standard Time.
Private Pilot Question of the Day
After a charging failure, what determines which electrical loads the pilot should retain?
Use the aircraft checklist and the equipment needed for safe flight and landing in the actual conditions, including engine dependencies, instruments, communications, lighting, and configuration needs. Shed nonessential loads without disabling needed capability.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
How can airplane design affect the way a stall develops?
Wing shape, twist, stall-control devices, and control-surface design can affect where airflow separation begins, how the stall progresses, and the airplane's pitch, roll, and control response.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
Why is a second display not automatically an independent backup after an electrical failure?
It may share a bus, sensor, or other power dependency with the failed equipment. Verify the actual power sources and standby limitations before relying on it.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
How does clear ice form?
Clear ice forms when relatively large supercooled water droplets strike an aircraft, spread across the surface, and freeze comparatively slowly. The resulting ice is dense, hard, and glossy, clear, or translucent.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
How does a propeller produce forward thrust?
Blade aerodynamics convert shaft power into thrust; rotation alone without the appropriate aerodynamic loading is not the explanation.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Question unavailable.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
What type of airspace contains unusual, often invisible hazards to aircraft, such as artillery firing, aerial gunnery, or guided-missile operations?
Restricted Airspace
Advice of the Day
Maintain a consistent flight training schedule. Long breaks in any kind of training, but especially aviation, will cause a dramatic loss of progress.
System of the Day
Cabin Heating and Cooling Systems: Cabin Heating and cooling systems provide conditioned air for comfortable operations during various weather conditions
Maneuver of the Day
Instrument Approach Procedures: Instrument approach procedures cover approach segments, fixes, course guidance, altitude restrictions, minimums, and missed approaches.
Emergency of the Day
Engine Failure: The total loss of power requires immediate actions which depend upon speed (life) and altitude (life insurance)
Mishap of the Day
ERA14LA450: The NTSB determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be: The pilot's inadequate preflight planning, which resulted in a takeoff with the airplane's center of gravity aft of its limit and led the airplane to exceed its critical angle of attack and experience an aerodynamic stall during the initial climb.
