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
How frequently are contiguous-U.S. Convective SIGMET bulletins normally issued, and how long is the forecast valid under the current AIM?
Hourly at 55 minutes past the hour; valid up to one hour.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
Under 14 CFR 91.117(a), what is the general civil speed limit below 10,000 feet MSL?
No more than 250 knots indicated airspeed, unless otherwise authorized by the Administrator.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
Unless a higher climb gradient is published, what minimum climb gradient underlies continued obstacle clearance on a conventional airplane departure?
200 feet per nautical mile until reaching the minimum IFR altitude.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
What is hypoxic hypoxia, and why can it occur at altitude even though oxygen remains approximately 21 percent of the atmosphere?
Hypoxic hypoxia occurs when insufficient oxygen is available to the body. As altitude increases, atmospheric pressure decreases. Although oxygen remains approximately 21 percent of the atmosphere, its partial pressure decreases, reducing the amount of oxygen transferred from the lungs into the bloodstream.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
How are Temporary Flight Restrictions issued, and where should a pilot obtain current authoritative TFR information?
TFRs are issued by NOTAM under the applicable part 91 authority. Obtain current TFR information from an FAA briefing source, the FAA TFR website, Flight Service, and current NOTAM data immediately before flight; most TFRs are temporary and not permanently charted.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Which practice best manages risk when an instructor conducts a simulated emergency in an airplane?
Prebrief how the simulation will be introduced and terminated, use aircraft-specific limits and recovery criteria, preserve safe margins, and intervene before the exercise creates an actual emergency.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
Under 14 CFR part 107, what makes a small unmanned aircraft system different from the small unmanned aircraft alone?
The system includes the aircraft and the associated communication links and control components required for safe and efficient operation in the NAS.
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
Cruise Flight: Cruise flight is more than just the space between takeoff and landing but is instead the predominant phase of flight.
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.
