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
An airport forecast calls for a ceiling of 4,000 feet AGL and visibility of 6 statute miles. What weather reporting category applies?
VFR: ceiling above 3,000 feet AGL and visibility above 5 SM. This reporting category does not replace the operation's regulatory VFR weather minimums.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
What are the vertical limits of Class A airspace?
Class A airspace generally extends from 18,000 feet MSL up to and including flight level 600.
Instrument Rating Question of the Day
What does atmospheric stability describe?
The atmosphere's tendency to resist or encourage vertical displacement of an air parcel.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
Except when necessary for takeoff or landing, what minimum altitude applies over other-than-congested areas under § 91.119(c)?
Generally 500 feet above the surface; over open water or sparsely populated areas, remain at least 500 feet from any person, vessel, vehicle, or structure.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
How does a well-constructed syllabus help an instructor prepare lesson plans?
It already supplies much of each lesson plan's essential framework, particularly the objectives, content, sequence, and completion standards.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Which ATIS information most directly applies to landing performance?
Runway assignment or condition, wind, visibility, temperature, altimeter, and pertinent braking information when provided.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
What distinguishes a Category 2 operation over people under Part 107?
The aircraft must meet the Category 2 injury-severity, exposed-rotor, and safety-defect standards, be properly labeled, and be listed on an FAA-accepted declaration of compliance; sustained flight over an open-air assembly also requires Remote ID compliance.
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 Turning Climbs: Straight and turning climbs demonstrate basic airmanship necessary to conduct climb and departure procedures.
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.
