CFI Checkride Prep
Plan to teach each topic from the FAA standard, check what the learner understands, and explain corrections clearly. Review the knowledge you will need to teach.
Choose what to review
Plan lessons that get the learner thinking
The FAA lists Flight Instructor for Airplane Category ACS FAA-S-ACS-25. It begins with Fundamentals of Instructing and then asks the applicant to teach and demonstrate aeronautical knowledge, risk management, and flight skills. A CFI lesson that is technically correct but confusing is still a weak lesson.
A lesson outline
- State the objective in plain language: what should the learner be able to explain or do at the end?
- Find out what the learner already understands before filling ten minutes with material they know.
- Use a short explanation, a real example, and a chance for the learner to make a decision.
- Ask questions that reveal understanding instead of questions that can be answered with one memorized word.
- Give specific feedback and connect the correction to the standard or safety reason.
Tools for flight instruction
Instructor Resource Pack
Direct links and embeddable tools you can put on a school or instructor resource page.
Embeddable Calculators
Put selected training calculators on a website without maintaining your own formula code.
Checklist Trainer
Build repetitions around checklist discipline while still using the actual aircraft checklist.
POH Chart Studio
Practice reading performance charts and explaining interpolation and assumptions.
Checkride Study Guides
Use the topic links as lesson references, then teach from the FAA source and aircraft documents.
Teaching prompts
How would you explain adverse yaw to someone who has never heard the term? What question would reveal whether a student really understands density altitude? How would you correct a student who can recite the checklist but misses the reason for an item? What risk-management habit are you trying to build during this lesson, not just what maneuver are you trying to finish?
FAA references
Find the current standard for your certificate on the FAA Airman Certification Standards page. Use relevant chapters from the FAA handbooks, the AIM, current regulations, and aircraft documents. The FAA Aviation Instructor’s Handbook, linked on the FAA handbooks page, is a primary reference for Fundamentals of Instruction.