In short: Rod Machado offers four recommendations for new CFIs who want to get better at their craft: read widely and ask experienced people questions, study good teachers while they teach, talk less in the cockpit, and teach stick-and-rudder skills before anything else. He believes following even one of them can noticeably improve your instruction.
Video: “How to Become a Good Flight Instructor” by Rod Machado, from his YouTube channel.
What you’ll learn
- Rod’s short reading list for new flight instructors, from Dale Carnegie to Daniel Kahneman
- Why reading makes you smart but asking questions makes you wise
- How to find great teachers to observe, and what Rod learned by studying top aviation writers
- Why excessive cockpit talk works like a magician’s misdirection
- Why every pilot should be able to land without looking at the airspeed indicator
Read the right books, then ask the right people
Rod says there are only two ways to get smart: read a lot and ask a lot of questions. His must-read list for new instructors includes The Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L’Amour, How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, The Savvy Flight Instructor by Greg Brown, a flight instructor survival guide he calls a real sleeper for its practical advice, and Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman for its depth of psychology.
Reading builds knowledge, but Rod argues that wisdom comes from asking questions of older, more experienced people who know things that aren’t in the books.
Watch the masters, and talk less
Rod has spent decades sitting at the back of classrooms and airplanes to watch great instructors work. Good teachers are easy to spot by reputation, full classes and crowded schedules. He did the same when he began writing, studying famous aviation columnists such as Richard Bach, Len Morgan, Gordon Baxter and Barry Schiff to see what made their work great. Today, he notes, YouTube makes it easy to watch outstanding teachers, and he shares a clip of physicist Richard Feynman as an example.
His third tip is to talk less and teach more. Rod compares unnecessary chatter to a magician’s misdirection: it pulls attention away from what the student needs to learn. He describes a friend’s program teaching high school students in J-3 Cubs, where the group taught without headsets or intercoms soloed in roughly 15 percent less time. Say what you need to say, Rod advises, then let the student fly.
Stick and rudder before screens
Finally, Rod urges instructors to teach airplane control first: attitude flying and seat-of-the-pants skills. He worries that training focused on glass panels and autopilots leaves some pilots afraid of their airplanes. On flight reviews he covers the airspeed indicator on downwind and asks for a normal landing, a skill he believes every pilot should have. He mentions his free Stick and Rudder Flight Training Syllabus and points viewers to his companion video on the five-step teaching process. A shorter version of this video is also available on his channel.
Go deeper with Rod Machado
For instructors who want to present ground lessons more clearly, Rod offers a set of his own private pilot ground school illustrations made for use in teaching. Learn more in Private Pilot Ground School Images for Flight Instructors.
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