The Flight Instructor's Survival Guide: true, witty, insightful stories illustrating the fundamentals of instructing

I almost never get on here just to make a review about anything. Period. However, I have taken this as necessary to fulfill my Instructor Responsibilities (it's in the AIH, look it up), and so I need to make this heard: This book really is necessary reading for any instructor. It reads like a very good novel, with a lesson to be learned with each story the author tells. It is memorable. Much more impressively, Arlynn's writing style would please any reader, knowledgeable of aviation or not, with the intent of becoming an instructor or not. The FAA should require students to supplement the Aviation Instructr's Handbook with this book. It incorporates every lesson from the AIH, yet is not nearly as dry or technical.To be clear, this should be used as a supplement to the AIH, not as a first-stop in learning about the psychology of learning. The AIH gives you the knowledge (dare I say, the rote and understanding levels) of the psychology of teaching, and thus should be the first thing any instructor should read. But, and let's be honest, the AIH is a HORRIBLE how-to guide to apply the psychology of teaching. I often wonder aloud why the FAA even requires instructor's to regurgitate something they have absolutely no idea how to use. I have fired my share of instructors that failed to use basic instructional principles. The AIH is well written; no one can argue that. But it falls short of the objectives it claims every instructor should have: to not stop at the rote and understanding levels of learning and teaching. Perhaps that is no accident. The FAA mustn't color its publications with too much humor and actual stories. But then there must be someone to pick up where it leaves off. That person is, thankfully, Arlynn. Arlynn's book ties all that knowledge from the AIH together so that you are able to recognize and remedy problems with your students. It thrusts you up to,dare I say it, the application and correlation levels of learning how to teach students. Reading Arlynn's book, I feel as though I have an experienced instructor standing in front of me telling me all of her secrets to teaching students. Doesn't the AIH say something about telling stories and making things memorable? In many aspects the FAA failed to follow their own philosophy, but Arlynn picked up where the AIH left off (HOORAY!!!).Don't pass over this book. You will regret it when your career is three quarters of the way through and you realize how you could have better served your students. That is what I imagine some teachers or instructors saying to themselves when they realize how they could have done better by their students. I was lucky enough to come across this book at the beginning of my career.

New flight instructors can enhance their store of professional wisdom with this book. Arlynn McMahon shares insights she’s gained from three decades of flight instruction in a series of fast-paced vignettes.A flat tire encountered by an instructor and student pilot late at night while taxiing an airplane at a rural airport isn’t an emergency, even if they can’t get a cell phone signal. But having some “convenience gear” (like a sill cock key) in one’s flight bag can— and in a story recounted in this book, did— make the wait for a nearby airport control tower to open up and receive a radio call much more comfortable. Being prepared for this kind of situation is one way for instructors to demonstrate their professionalism and teach clients to be prepared, too.How does a relatively new flight instructor modify lesson plans to work with a newly retired airline captain transitioning to single-engine airplanes? How does one safely manage a 16-year-old student pilot’s first solo upon learning that the parents have invited dozens of family friends to a “watch party” on the terminal building’s observation deck?The Flight Instructor’s Survival Guide is a gem of a book about the real-life application of the fundamentals of instruction to these and other situations.FYI: I completed the requirements for a private pilot certificate, instrument rating and ground instructor certificate at the flight school where Arlynn was part-owner and chief flight instructor. I am a fan and friend.

This book is written from a wealth of experience and helps me, a future CFI, understand flight instruction's lows and highs. I will re-read it often.

This book gripped me like a suspense novel. Though I am not a flight instructor (or even a pilot) my husband and one of my sons are. This book helps me ask them more meaningful questions about how a day of flight instruction goes. It gives us a frame of reference (“That sounds like that story about the student from Zimbabwe or the kid on his 16th birthday!” Spoiler alert: both stories end well). It also gave me great insight into giving and receiving instruction on *any* topic and many basics of human nature. I plan to buy this for everyone I know when they receive their private pilot’s license!

I originally got this to help understand the FOI’s better, but I got so much more out of it than that. New CFI and this book has already helped so much, reading this book feels like hearing stories from a trusted mentor. Love the tone, the pacing, and which FOI’s were at play in each anecdote. Highly recommend - for those from CFI’s that have been at it awhile or aspiring CFI’s.

Well worth reading if you are an aspiring flight instructor. The author shares her experiences with broad range of flight students, good and bad, and links the stories to the fundamentals of instructing and the FAA's Aviation Instructor's Handbook. She does a good job of providing memorable real life examples of key concepts. Recommended.

The material in the FAA Aviation Instructors Handbook is a very important but very boring read for those seeing an instructor certificate.The Survival Guide is the complete opposite. Arlynn's style of writing and storytelling takes the subject matter of the Fundamentals of Instruction and makes it an entertaining read. In addition to getting a better handle on the FOIs, her stories include tips, tricks, and ideas on how to become a really good flight instructor.I put this as a must read for anyone seeking to be a CFI.

I can't stop reading this book until finish it! All the true experiences and stories plus author's thoughts will help every flight instructor and flight instructor candidate.

This is one of the best books on flying instructing I have read in 15 years as an instructor. By way of case studies, it covers a wide range of the most important issues a flying instructor might encounter. Careful study of this book will undoubtedly make you a better instructor. I recommend you buy it now.