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Initiatives in Learning to Fly
---Plan a course of action that gives an orderly sequence of things to do and to get going effectively.
---Get life insurance simply because as a pilot it will become more expensive for pilot to get coverage.
---Get your medical simply because you need it to get a pilots license.
---Get enough money to carry you through solo and better beyond your license. (2004 about 5-7 thousand}
---Understand that keeping your proficiency will annually cost as much as getting your license.
---Once you know how to fly you will never forget it but your timing and anticipation skills deteriorate.
---Locate a rental facility at small airport as close as possible with several planes to use as trainers.
---Do not buy an airplane, pay in advance, go into debt or fly less than 2-3 times a week.
---CFI experience has little long-term effect on quality of instruction.
---Most important that you be taught how to do things correctly and efficiently.
---You must become accepting of unexpected multiple delays that are endemic in learning to fly.
---A pilot must learn to overcome any tendency toward wavering decisions. Decisiveness is a virtue.
---The very nature of flying requires that anticipation be decisive. Know what to do ahead of time.
---Once of the character changes inherent in becoming a pilot is removal of indecision.
---The beginning pilot must make mistakes and learn from them what not to do next time.
---The instructor must create mistake situations to guide the student on a course to survival.
----The principle cause of indecision is the fear of making mistakes.
---Look forward to the making a mistake as a learning opportunity and not something to be feared.
---Signs of indecisiveness require instructional periods that include mistakes as learning opportunities.
---The habitual student indecisiveness can be corrected with examples of successful anticipation.
---The cardinal principle in forming proper habits is to allow no exceptions of any kind.
---The worst thing that can come of a mistake is to get-away-with-it.
---Correct habits of perception allow the pilot to anticipate what to do and thus improve flight efficiency.
---Decisiveness does not preclude smoothness in use of controls. Smoothness is a sign of skill.
---Do not fly hungry since fatigue is more than just feeling tired, it is also a mental condition.
---The hungry or thirsty pilot is both physically and mentally deficient in flying skills.
---Nutritional deficiencies will cause a pilot to distrust his capabilities and slow his responses.

Pilots Are Special
A pilot has overcome his fears. He has replaced superstition with rational thinking and knowledge. It takes a special degree of courage to face your instinctive fears, over come them only the face those things that deserve to be feared. The conquering of these fears must be approached gradually and can be proven to be partially overcome by passing the FAA flight test.

To become a pilot one must become a time and energy manager. Finding the time in this day and age requires sacrifice and perseverance. A pilot must forgo immediate pleasures. However, it is difficult to devote study and money into what can only be perceived as an improbable future.

As a pilot you become a different person. You have reached down into yourself and found new levels of self-reliance. New heights of confidence and assurance make it possible for you to challenge your teachers. Make them prove to you their way to perform works. You have learned to share responsibility if you must and to take total charge when required. You have confidence in doing those things you know you can do. You are also willing to accept your limitations by not doing those things you are not qualified for. You know what you know with certainty. You accept humbly that there is much you do know and much more may never know. You have learned to replace resignation and panic with planning and anticipation.

As a pilot you take care of your physical self just as you take care of your plane. You are moderate in your demands of your peers except when it comes to safety. Humor is a part of your personality. You can find a laugh in the direst of circumstance. The costs, waste, delay, and failures of the system are accepted as a fact of aviation life to be laughed at when there is no other recourse.

The joys of flying build with each experience. Experience builds on past experience in an ever-growing pyramid. Confidence builds in your own capability to deal successfully with the present and in anticipation of what the future offers. Flying success is built on faith. You have faith that the design and operation of the engine, the airplane, and all its parts will continue to operate in approved fashion. You have faith that the electronics of the plane and system will provide reliable guidance and communications. You have faith that at the certain speed the airplane will fly and that the runway will be below the wheels even though you cannot see it at touchdown. You have faith in yourself and confidence that what you have planned is both possible but worthy of doing. Together all things built on your faith makes flying the most rewarding individual achievement you will ever have.

Living Your Dream
---To most pilots flying is a dream come true and the only regret being that they couldn't start sooner.
---Aviation heroes of the past have the capability of inspiring dreams of accomplishment in others.
---The dangers of flight lie mostly in misconceptions, lack of perception and incomplete skills.
---You can repay your enjoyment of flying by finding ways to do it more safely for others.
---Flying is one activity that inspires planning in pleasant anticipation for an enjoyable experience.

How to Get Interested in Flying
---It helps to be able to do self-study about flying. Self-study still requires perseverance and aptitude.
---Aptitude can be gained but only by concentrated, intensive effort.
---Those who fail to acquire aptitude fail usually because interest in other things take precedence.
---No success follows a person who lacks an ideal sufficient to drive inspiration.
---Money, pleasure, and health do not drive success as well as does helping others to succeed.
---Knowledge is accumulative like a snowball. The push gets harder but the results multiply quickly.
---The accumulation of knowledge improves your insight, and attitude toward what is learned.
---This happens to flying and to any other subject that has personal satisfaction and social value.
---The more you join activities with others involved in flying the better you will appreciate its potential.
---The reading of biographies and autobiographies of famous pilots will give you visions for the future.
---In flying it is more important whom you know than what you know knowledge is contagious.
---You will be known by those you associate with as pilots as much as any other part of your flying future.
---Cultivate contact with the best instructors and pilots. Seek pearls of wisdom for future reference.
---Do as much as you can to make the acquisition of knowledge efficient.
---You should plan to turn your thinking about flying into something worthy of the name.

Selecting Your Instructor
Your instructor is but one essential leg to the flight-training program. An interview and perhaps demonstration flight can be very deceptive. I do believe that flying with the first person to say hello has a relatively high element of chance. I would first select the airport from which to fly. You are more likely to fly more often if the field is convenient. What kind of airport and how busy is not a major consideration. Perhaps the field selection may be a choice between several airports. If a simulator is involved, it will be only as good as the instructor.

You might want to interview your instructor selections in a non-flying situation over coffee. Find out where they trained and from whom. Ask what are they planning with their flying career and just how their teaching you fits into the picture. If the instructor is building hours for another occupation you might look elsewhere. All instructors are different and changing instructors is always an option you should hold open. Better to make the changes, once considered, sooner than later. Ask why is the instructor an instructor. Is the instructor working for you or for himself or is another skimming some of his pay? Is the planned program designed to give you economy and achievement? If the instructor charges for telling 'war stories', the talking can become expensive.

What you are looking for is communication skills, experience, dedication and professionalism. You want an instructor who is willing to fly you into weather. You are looking beyond theory for practical knowledge and applications not always available in textbooks. Basically, you are looking for a communicator with knowledge, creativity, discipline, patience with the ability to determine weaknesses and strengths.

The last major consideration is time. An instructor who is not available is like not having one at all. As a student, you must not begin flying unless you have both the money and time required for learning efficiently. You should demand that the instructor have both time and available aircraft. Reliability is essential. Be on time and give the instructor only two shots at being late. Let him know this during the interview. Waiting is what makes old age.

50% of students who get medical certificates do not get their licenses Why are we using the least experienced of our instructional prospects as the majority of our teachers? Teachers, regardless of what they teach are on the lowest rung of the career ladder. A teacher is good who has enthusiasm for his material and is eager to share it. Look for such a teacher.

Where to Go; What to Do
You can find whom to interview by talking to people around the airport. Pretty soon certain names will keep coming up. Those are the people you want to see. Compare at least three and then ask to talk to some of their present and past students. Contact the local designated examiner and ask for recommendations. You are far more likely to make a good choice using the opinions of relatively experienced pilots and students. If you plan to fly at a controlled airport, go to the tower on different shifts and get ATC opinion. The question to ask is, "Who would you select as your flight instructor?" "Why?"

Use your eyes, ears and nose during your meetings. I have flown with instructors with various physical handicaps and have found that the instructor who overcomes problems has much to offer any student. Appearance makes a difference. Consider whether you want to work out inclusion of some selected ground instruction. Having the same person teach you to fly and guide you through self-study of ground school has inherent coordination advantages to the student. Your flying will supplement your ground instruction and vice versa. Taking a ground school is not very efficient.

Don't take your demonstration ride right away. Make an arrangement that will allow the instructor an opportunity to assign home study and a preflight review of what will be flown. Confusion has a negative effect on learning. Most instructors are above average pilots. Being able to fly is not nearly as important as being able to teach flying. The best teaching will occur before and after the flight. The airplane is a very poor classroom.

Money spent on a demonstration lesson can be informative. Try to take the same lesson from all instructors so you can relate comparisons. Have a set of identical questions to ask each instructor. Grade the explanations for each question. Questions should vary from highly technical to stupid. Listen for a change in voice tone and body language as the questions vary. A good instructor is not averse to admitting ignorance. Knowing where to find information is just as important as knowing. Good flight instructors learned on the job.

The type of aircraft is mostly a matter of personal preference. The instructor is often limited in his selection by what is available. You are not so limited. Some aircraft are somewhat too easy to fly. Others like taildraggers offer difficulties. Ask as many pilots as you can about their training preferences and then use your own judgment. Having a plane you feel comfortable with will improve your learning.

NAFI (National Association of Flight Instructors) has a wide range of information, including NAFI flight instructor names, hometowns and contact telephone numbers. Html://

Evaluation of CFIs
Where did you train?
Discuss experience and background
Why do you instruct?
Do you belong to a professional organization?
What is your own recurrent training program?
What flying sources do you use regularly?

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