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 suspected cockpit carbon monoxide exposure, symptoms improve in fresh air. What must be considered before another flight?
Seek appropriate medical evaluation and have the aircraft's suspected exhaust or heating defect investigated and corrected by qualified maintenance personnel. Symptom improvement does not establish that the aircraft or occupants are ready to fly.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
When should an arriving pilot normally obtain ATIS?
Early enough to listen during a low-workload period, evaluate the information, and prepare before making the applicable initial contact.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
Why is latent heat important to cloud and thunderstorm development?
Condensation and freezing release stored heat to the air, while evaporation and melting absorb heat; these phase changes affect parcel buoyancy.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
How does fuel starvation differ from fuel exhaustion?
Starvation is interruption of delivery despite fuel being available; exhaustion is depletion of usable fuel.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
Where should a pilot obtain current authoritative procedures for a Special Flight Rules Area?
Use current regulations, NOTAMs, FAA SFRA publications and charts, and preflight briefings. Procedures can change; a lesson page or old chart is not sufficient authority.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
What should an instructor do after discovering an instructional error?
Acknowledge it honestly, correct it using an authoritative source, and communicate the correction to the learner rather than bluffing or concealing the mistake.
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
Straight And Level Flight: Straight and level flight is a fundamental skill, whereby a pilot maintains constant heading and altitude.
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.
