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The Instructor's Rating is not something that should be done just because "it will look good on your CV". You owe it to your students and the aviation industry as a whole to be dedicated and committed to the training of aspirant pilots to the best of your ability – to walk the extra mile.

If you are interested in going the instructor route, it is again no news that you have a lot of work lying ahead of you! I never imagined this rating - that consists of about 20 hours of flight patter and 20 hours of ground briefing - (although the law is a bit ambiguous about this) would actually involve so much! My theoretical knowledge has improved vastly – more so than when I studied for my Commercial Pilot Technical exams – as one has to really understand the principles involved thoroughly enough to be able to explain them to and be asked questions on them from students. My flying improved greatly from the theory side as well – now when I perform a manoeuvre, I actually understand fully the principles involved. It’s scary to think that I’ve been flying for over 200 hours almost oblivious to certain things! You also learn to critique your own and other’s flying and notice certain things a lot more. If you find yourself in a situation, you can actually talk yourself through it – in other words, you become much more methodical in your doings, I find.

The best idea, if you are keen to become an instructor, is to speak to someone in the know at the flight school of your choice, as most training organisations do things differently and have different requirements. For example, some flight schools do not allow the student to begin with the patter until he/she has passed the written Instructor’s Rating exams. This is actually pretty practical advice in that if you don’t manage to pass the exams first time (which are written at certain times throughout the year – in other words it is not like the CPL exams where you can choose when to write - there are only about 3 or 4 ‘sittings’ a year) and you then have to wait another couple of months before attempting a re-write, you at least haven’t started the flight training, in other words, having saved costs in the long run. I didn’t go this route though.

I began firstly with the briefings. This part involves a tremendous amount of work and research on your part. You will have to prepare your own briefings (lessons to the student) on the relevant Flight Instructor’s syllabus topics, e.g. Straight and Level (don’t let this one fool you – it sounds basic, but it’s one of the lessons that involve the most information!), Climbing etc. You will then have to present these briefings to an instructor who acts as clueless as he/she possibly can! It really is awkward “teaching” your instructor who knows so much more (or at least that should be the case!) than yourself. I definitely don’t remember having the amount of information I brief now being briefed to me at my PPL level – but then again, at that stage I was sitting in the classroom wondering when my instructor would stop talking and when we could start flying!

After my instructor and I felt I was proficient in the theoretical side of things, I started the flying part, which I am currently still busy with. Do not lose faith while doing the briefings – this part is very tedious and you may get frustrated that you haven’t got air between yourself and the ground - but the flying (fun) bit will come! The actual flight instruction is termed “patter”. The thesaurus equates the word “patter” to “jabber” and “yak”! And this is really what patter is - you are constantly talking and telling your “clueless instructor-student” what you are doing, how you are doing it and what you are going to do next. It may sound relatively simple, but when you can successfully patter a student through a power-off full flap stall before the stall warning sounds, I am pretty sure that you could qualify for a job as a commentator at the horse races! Your instructor will teach you the correct way of pattering a student in the air. You will also learn to fly accurately from the right-hand seat. This takes a lot of getting used to.

All that is left now is to pass the written exams and the practical flight test. You will write two papers on the following topics: ‘Applied Meteorology and Navigation’ and then ‘Principles of Flying Instruction, Legislation and Airmanship’. Courses are available to attend or there is also the option of obtaining self-study notes. I am currently studying from my CPL notes and any other books and material I can get my hands on! Excellent books that I would recommend are the Trevor Thom series, The Air Pilot’s Manual. “Aviation Law and Meteorology” (book no.2 in the series) “ and The Aeroplane Technical” (book no.4) are especially helpful. Getting hold of past exam papers is invaluable.

What a wonderful reward it must be to stand back and see the look on your student’s face when he/she has completed their first solo! If you have what it takes and are prepared to give what becoming a genuinely professional instructor requires then may you have many hours of happy and satisfying instruction!

Questions? Comments? Email me: ngarden