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
In a piston airplane with a constant-speed propeller, what do the tachometer and manifold-pressure gauge indicate?
These indications are used together with aircraft power-setting guidance; manifold pressure alone is not a universal power measurement.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
Why can an airplane experience an accelerated stall above its published 1-G stall speed?
Increased positive load factor requires greater lift, so the wing can reach critical angle of attack at a higher airspeed.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
If both the pitot inlet and drain are blocked but the static source remains open, what happens to indicated airspeed during a climb at unchanged actual airspeed?
Trapped pitot pressure is compared with decreasing ambient static pressure, making the airspeed instrument behave like an altimeter.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
After changing an autopilot or flight-director mode, what confirms what it is actually doing?
Selected, armed, and active modes may differ; verify the resulting guidance rather than assuming engagement.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
What weather factors should a VFR pilot evaluate before deciding a planned flight is safe?
Evaluate ceilings, visibility, winds, turbulence, thunderstorms, icing risk, temperature and density altitude, and forecast trends along the route and at departure, destination, and alternatives. Compare them with aircraft capability, pilot proficiency, and personal minimums.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Question unavailable.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
Are prohibited area times of use listed on a Sectional Chart in local time or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC/Zulu)?
Local
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
Overhead Approach Maneuver: Overhead approach maneuvers permit the expeditious recovery of aircraft, especially in the case of multiple aircraft arriving simultaneously.
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.
