The Savvy Flight Instructor: Secrets of the Successful CFI (ASA Training Manuals) [Paperback]

Gregory N. Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997 | Series: ASA Training Manuals

You've mastered the Flight Training Handbook, and wrapped up one of the toughest orals of your flying career. You can now fly and talk at the same time, all from the right seat. You can write lesson plans, enter mysterious endorsements in student logbooks, and actually explain the finer points of a lazy eight. That's everything you'll ever need to know to be a flight instructor... No more questions, right?
Yeah, right! If you're a little apprehensive about where those students are going to come from, and how you are going to teach them, you're not alone. The Savvy Flight Instructor is designed to help out with all those "other" flight instructing questions, like how to recruit new flight students. And once you've got 'em, how do you keep them flying? How can you optimize your pass rate on checkrides? What are the tricks for getting students to return for their advanced ratings?
Along with tips on how to attract and retain flight students, this book is about professionalism in flight instructing: how to advance your personal flying career by increasing the skills and satisfaction of your students, while promoting general aviation at the same time.

As a newly certified flight instructor (CFI), a pilot can be faced with a difficult prospect-how to make a living and keep flying to build up piloting hours. This book offers timely and humorous help for flight instructors to market their flight school, meet all those people who really want to fly, and keep them flying. Also emphasized is a broader understanding of the business of the flight school, including how flight schools can revamp marketing and student-recruiting strategies.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you want to know how to be a successful CFI, read this book. I am going to make it required reading for every instructor we hire..."
--Warren Smith, Flight Training Manager, FlightStar Corp

"Outstanding! This should be mandatory reading for all flight school managers... and for an independent CFI this book is worth its weight in gold!"
--Steve Lofgren, National Air Transportation Association

"how to attract students, how to teach 'em, and how to keep 'em. If CFIs follow the advice in this book, they will be successful... Every CFI ought to read it!" --Flight Training magazine

About the Author

Greg Brown has long wandered the skies of North America with family and friends. His love of flying is apparent to anyone who reads his "Flying Carpet" column in AOPA Flight Training magazine, or his stories in AOPA Pilot and other publications. An aviator since 1972, Greg was 2000 National Flight Instructor of the Year, winner of the 1999 NATA Excellence in Pilot Training Award, and the first NAFI Master Flight Instructor. He holds an airline transport pilot certificate with Boeing 737 type rating, and flight instructor certificate with all fixed-wing aircraft ratings. Despite such accomplishments, Greg has never lost touch with his roots as a new pilot flying light airplanes. To this day, every takeoff is as exciting for him as the first one. Of course he's not alone; all pilots feel that way. Other books by Greg Brown include Flying Carpet, The Turbine Pilot's Flight Manual, Job Hunting for Pilots, and You Can Fly!

Product Details

• Paperback: 213 pages
• Publisher: Aviation Supplies & Academics, Inc. (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560272961
• ISBN-13: 978-1560272960
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #448,929 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Greg Brown's love for flying is obvious to anyone who knows his "Flying Carpet" column in AOPA Flight Training magazine, or who has read his books, You Can Fly!, Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane, The Savvy Flight Instructor, The Turbine Pilot's Flight Manual, and Job Hunting for Pilots.

A CFI since 1979, Greg was 2000 Industry/FAA National Flight Instructor of the Year, and winner of the 1999 NATA Excellence in Pilot Training Award. He has flown professionally in both scheduled and corporate aviation, and holds an ATP pilot certificate with Boeing 737 type rating, and Flight Instructor certificate with all fixed-wing aircraft ratings. In addition, Greg was the first "Master CFI" designated by the National Association of Flight Instructors.

More recently Greg's activities have turned to non-fiction and creative writing. Author of five commercially published books with more in progress, Mr. Brown was named November 2003 Barnes & Noble Arizona Author of the Month. Some reviewers have compared his book, Flying Carpet, to sixties road-trip classics like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, and Jack Kerouac's On the Road. Mr. Brown is also in his tenth year as aviation adventure columnist for Flight Training, a national newsstand magazine published by the world's largest pilot association.

For those bewildered by Greg's schizophrenia between the arts and aviation, some understanding may be derived from one of his favorite quotes, taken from The War in the Air, 1922, by Sir Walter Raleigh: "The engine is the heart of an aeroplane, but the pilot is its soul."

Visit Greg's web page at http://www.GregBrownFlyingCarpet.com
Join his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/GregBrownFlyingCarpet

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read every flight instructor, August 27, 2000

By 

Jim Carson "http://www.jimcarson.com" (Bellevue, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Savvy Flight Instructor: Secrets of the Successful CFI (ASA Training Manuals) (Paperback)

Mr. Brown, a Master CFI and columnist in the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) explores flight instruction *as a business*. Viewed another way, The Savvy Flight Instructor picks up where the FAA's Fundamentals of Instruction left off.

In addition to discussing how to successfully build a career out of flight instruction, Mr Brown presents a marketing plan: how to position yourself, where to find prospective students (and how to advertise), determining how serious they are, closing "the deal" and maintaining "customer satisfaction."

Having worked with over 25 different instructors in the last five years, I found the customer satisfaction (and projecting professionalism) sections are wonderful. These should be required reading because too often we forget that students *are customers* - they need to feel important, should have their expectations set accurately, can be recurring customers, AND are the best form of advertising. We're not competing amongst each other as much as we are against other ways to use disposable income (e.g., a $6000 jjet-ski).

Finally, Mr Brown offers specific suggestions for flight schools. Some of these are no-brainers like "keep the airplanes well-maintained," but there are some more subtle ideas like incorporate a formal ground school (often overlooked), set expectations on how students will be billed (instructors are prone to not bill for time; this also encourages more efficient planning) and incentives for instructors to minimize burnout.

This is a great reference for the career instructor as well as the CFI building time for his or her airline job.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth its weight in gold, June 21, 2005

By 

Nicholas R. Frisch "Nick Frisch" (Seattle WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Savvy Flight Instructor: Secrets of the Successful CFI (ASA Training Manuals) (Paperback)

As a manager and chief instructor of a flight school, I found The Savvy Flight Instructor to be one of the best tools around to help instructors understand the real world of flight instruction - in particular handling customer relationships and creating a professional demeanor. I now ask each instructor applicant at our school for a "book report" on this book as a part of their employment interview, and we've made it required reading for our customer service people as well. This book is an absolute gem. I wish I'd read it when I became an instructor 22 years ago.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful information, February 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Savvy Flight Instructor: Secrets of the Successful CFI (ASA Training Manuals) (Paperback)

I recommend the book for it's insightful view into promoting not only yourself as an instructor - but also the flight school at which you may be working. There is a lot of common-sense type information, however there are even more 'tid-bits' of into that one would not even have thought about. It really altered the way I think with regard to marketing. Once you read it, you'll definitely want to be sure your fellow instructors (and flight school owners) get their own copies !