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Old October 28th, 2005, 00:52   #16
jrh
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Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: USA
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One of my coworkers swears by the Quinlan book and used it quite a lot when she was starting out as a CFI.

I looked it over and decided it wasn't for me. In my opinion, the lessons were obnoxiously detailed. There was so much text on a page, I'd get lost in the lists of concepts covered. There is no way I can remember all of those details in the plane and the book is a bit too hefty to comfortably carry with me in a C-152 during a lesson.

When I took my CFI checkride I used some pre-made plans my instructor printed off the internet and gave me. I told the examiner that I hadn't written them myself, but I'd studied them and was prepared to teach any of them. He had no problem with that. He asked me to pull out something I might use on a commercial lesson, so I pulled the sheet on chandelles. He just laughed and said, "Ok, so we're going to go do chandelles up up and away for an hour solid?" After I pulled out some other maneuvers and we talked about how to link them together in one flight, he was satisfied.

When I first started teaching I'd write notes out on a 5"x7" notepad and carry it with me in the plane in order to make sure I covered everything. I didn't follow the official FAA lesson plan format though--just thought through everything logically and wrote down the key points I thought were needed.

Now that I have more experience I just carry a 3"x5" spiral bound memo book and list the maneuvers I want to cover on that lesson, then do the actual teaching off the top of my head. The exception is for unusual flights like BFRs, aircraft checkouts, spin training, etc. I still write those out in detail in order to cover every little point since it's a "one time" sort of deal and I want to be especially thorough.

Back to my opinion of Quinlan's book...it's not bad, but I wouldn't order it sight unseen. Look it over in person and decide if you like it rather than buying it straight off the internet.
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