Flight Instructors' Organization Paid For Itself

by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

I'm about to join the ranks of FAA-licensed instructors -- and I had a question about international students, something we get a few of at my airfield. So I stopped into the National Association of Flight Instructors tent. I didn't get my question answered, but did get signed up for the organization.

Some years ago, NAFI, then an independent organization, was on the ropes, when it was absorbed into EAA. EAA has kept the organization alive, and it provides some benefits:

• Discounts on training materials and books (that caught my eye)
• Insurance for CFIs
• A lobbying voice for instructors' interests (perhaps more important inside EAA, with its larger membership, where it can sway the organization as a whole to lobby Congress when necessary)
• The NAFI Master Instructor program (see the website for more info; this differs from the FAA Gold Seal program in that it must be renewed by continuing educational activity).
• The NAFI magazine, Mentor (but based on the current issue, it's not bad but AOPA's Flight Training is better and certainly has more content). There's also an electronic version for members (e-Mentor, natch).
• Flying magazine -- just what you need if you ever wonder how some airplane compares to the SUVs the mag increasingly "tests". (Maybe we should do a comparison test between one of my school's 152s and my old Ford Ranger... same rate of climb on a hot day... but I digress).
• The Flight Instructor Hall of Fame. (Can a theme restaurant be far behind?)

If you signed up at Airventure, two vendors had freebies for you. ASA was offering a private pilot test book and Gleim a (transferable) free online Private course, a $100 value, which will be fulfilled by email. I'll be giving it away to a new student at our school. ASA was out of the private course books at their booth (I did this on the last day of the show), but they offered me a better deal in lieu of shipping the book -- I got an interesting book on weather in its place.

Of course, I bought more stuff from the vendors, which is probably why they are so generous with NAFI. ASA usually gives 20% off, Gleim "special flight instructor rates," and other participating vendors include Falcon Insurance Agency, CheckMate Aviation, Pilot Finance, Sportsplanes.com, Hamilton Flight Training Systems, LimpWindsock.com (I didn't name it, I'm just reporting here), AND Galvin Flying Services.

The NAFI tent seen at major fly-ins, also provides a place for instructors to hang out and share techniques, and at Oshkosh they had a bin of donated instructional materials free for the taking -- including technique books by such well-known scribes as Dick Collins (so, the book was copyrighted in 1980... it's still full of good tips) and training aids like E6Bs and protractors.

One unique "gimme" they had was a button that says, "I'm a Flight Instructor. Ask Me About Learning to Fly." What a great way to find prospects!

If you're not interested in teaching aviation, NAFI is probably not for you. And it's probably not for every flight and ground instructor.

It's not for Aero-News's John Ballantyne, for instance. John viewed me, I think, as incredibly green, from his perspective of many hours and many students trained. John teaches in conventional airplanes as a CFI and in trikes as a glider-trike CFI, USUA BFI and now as a Sport Pilot CFI and DE. He has let his NAFI membership lapse; there seems to be less in it for people at his end of grassroots aviation.

(One side note on the current Mentor magazine. I laughed to see an article on Technically Advanced Aircraft training in a Cirrus illustrated with a Cirrus, all right: a VK-30 homebuilt. That's the big, brawny, tail-driven pusher kit that the company withdrew from the market when Alan and Dale Klapmeier reevaluated their approach to flying and safety. The training, of course, took place in a certified Cirrus SR-22, and the panel of the SR-22 is illustrated correctly. Hey, everybody makes a mistake now and then).

But I thought that the NAFI discounts with training-materials publishers Gleim and ASA alone would repay the somewhat stiff $39 annual fee. I expect to use the discounts a good bit. Ballantyne understood that argument -- after all, he uses his AARP discount everywhere he goes.

For the time being, I can only look on with envy while he does that. For me, NAFI was the best bargain at Airventure.

FMI: www.nafinet.org