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
Which statement correctly interprets red and alternating red-and-green light-gun signals in flight?
Steady red means give way to other aircraft and continue circling; flashing red means airport unsafe, do not land; alternating red and green means exercise extreme caution.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
Why can a conventional magneto-ignition engine keep running after the aircraft alternator fails?
Rotating magnetos provide their own ignition energy. This does not apply universally to engines with electrically dependent ignition or controls.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
What airspace-boundary and military-route information is depicted on IFR Enroute Low Altitude Charts?
IFR Enroute Low Altitude Charts depict the limits of controlled airspace, special-use airspace, and military training routes.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
How do leading-edge slats generally improve low-speed wing performance?
Slats help the airflow remain attached at higher angles of attack, but the wing can still stall.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
What is the basic airflow sequence through the core of a gas-turbine engine?
The compressor raises pressure, combustion adds heat, and the turbine extracts energy before gases exhaust.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Question unavailable.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
What is the purpose of the IMSAFE checklist?
IMSAFE provides a structured personal assessment of illness, medication, stress, alcohol, fatigue, and emotion so a pilot can identify physical or mental conditions that may make a flight unsafe.
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
Power-Off 180 Approach And Landing: Power-off 180s demonstrate the judgment and skill necessary to safely and accurately fly an airplane following a loss of power in the traffic pattern.
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.
