Hi everyone!
My name is Meghan, I’m a CFI out in California who is passionate about promoting aviation through humor and education. Surprisingly, the two go very well together.
I’ve been a CFI for about a year now, and have worked with students who have a hard time studying on their own. I get it, studying ground knowledge isn’t exactly “riveting”.
While it isn’t exciting, it’s absolutely necessary.
When I first began instructing, I admittedly had a bad habit of spoon feeding knowledge to my students. I just wanted them to do well and thrive so that we could get to flying (everyone’s favorite part).
However, this doesn’t help anyone and is only frustrating for a CFI. I got burnt out very quickly and knew I was doing something wrong.
My previous CFI and Chief Pilot emphasized that an instructor’s job isn’t to motivate students, they need to figure out their own motivations. No, my job is to not DE-MOTIVATE them. This lesson has stuck with me throughout the past year every day when I’m teaching. I can’t study for these students, I can’t fly the plane for them. They have to figure out their own reasons and motives that get their asses moving. It’s my job to keep things interesting and encourage them when they get things right, and guide them when they get it wrong.
That being said, I love being a resource for people. I enjoy creating digital content such as study guides or cheat sheets. It helps me retain information that I’ve learned over the years and pass it on to people in a way that they can physically save it and refer to it when they need to. I’ve decided to take it a step further and create a product that is SPECIFICALLY for student pilots.
I created the Aviator’s Notebook with some help from my partner, who is also a pilot, to help organize a student pilot’s studying. Sometimes flight training can feel like drinking from a fire hose, it’s a lot of information! I hear it all the time, it’s overwhelming.
The Aviator’s Notebook keeps your notes on track and to the point to help you retain the important details that make you a safe and precise pilot.
This way, no CFI is spoon feeding their students the subject matter they need to be familiar with. In addition, no student is getting lost in their piles of notes and drowning in the amount of information that they’re exposed to. The Aviator’s Notebook specifically outlines a structure of note taking that will keep the studying efficient and effective. It even has a section where students can jot down helpful tips that their CFIs will throw out occasionally. (Sometimes us CFIs know what we’re talking about, believe it or not.)
Don’t get me wrong, you still have to do the work! You still have to read books, watch videos, and put in the effort to study. However, now you don’t have to organize your notes in any which way because we’ve done that for you! Think of it like single pilot resource management. You still have to aviate, navigate and communicate; an organized flight deck just makes it way easier to do all of that.
Anyway, thanks for stopping by! If you have any questions on the notebook, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Happy flying!
- Meghan