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 data set should be used to plan aircraft takeoff, climb, cruise, and landing performance?
The aircraft's POH or AFM data applied to forecast conditions, expected loading and configuration, and the actual runway environment.
Commercial Pilot Question of the Day
What communication technique best supports safety on a congested Center frequency?
Listen before transmitting, make concise necessary calls, use standard phraseology, and avoid blocking or repeatedly stepping on transmissions.
Instrument Rating 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.
Sport Pilot Question of the Day
Which statement correctly describes how to complete an aircraft-specific engine-shutdown sequence?
Use the AFM/POH shutdown checklist, including the aircraft-specific power, avionics, electrical, fuel or mixture, and ignition sequence; do not substitute a memorized sequence from another model.
Flight Instructor Question of the Day
How is an installed ELT intended to assist after an accident, and what should occupants know?
When armed, it is designed to activate from crash forces and transmit a distress signal, but pilots and passengers should know its location and how to activate it manually if needed.
Flight Instructor Instrument Question of the Day
Why may ATC protect an ILS critical area from aircraft or vehicle movement?
To prevent interference that could disturb the localizer or glideslope signal received by an approaching aircraft.
Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems Question of the Day
What two primary pieces of information can an aircraft's position lights provide to other pilots?
Its relative position and its orientation or direction of travel.
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
Maneuvering During Slow Flight: Slow Flight develops the ability to recognize changes in aircraft flight characteristics and control effectiveness at critically slow airspeeds.
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.
