CFI-A Lesson Plans - ACS Update Notes

  The following lesson plans are designed around the newly-published CFI Airplane Airman Certification Standards (ACS), dated November 2023, effective May 31st, 2024 (FAA-S-ACS-25). These lessons were originally prepared between December 2019 and March 2020 for the CFI-A PTS (Change 6), however they have been updated to conform to the CFI-A ACS.

The ACS mostly covers the same content as the PTS, with a few structural/organizational changes, and one totally new task. A summary of the changes is below:

 

• I have reviewed and updated every individual lesson to confirm that it matches the required Knowledge and Skill items from the CFI ACS.
• Lessons have had the relevant Risk Management items added to them. It is not realistically possible for every lesson to hit every Risk Management item for each task, since these are so repetitive on a task-by-task basis, so I have chosen the most relevant ones. The others you should refer to the appropriate lesson. (i.e. every lesson can't have a 10 minute aside on Collision Avoidance).
• The CFI ACS now contains skill areas, and therefore maneuver standards, for every maneuver, whereas the PTS previously implied the Commercial ACS standards. Each lesson has been updated to ensure that the completion standards match the new ACS standards.
• I have mostly retained the Common Errors from the PTS. Although these are no longer part of the ACS, they are still useful, and they are a large part of the Airplane Flying Handbook.
• The structure of the Areas has been adjusted, in particular to combine Performance and Ground Reference maneuvers. Areas have had their Tasks re-arranged to match the PPL and CPL ACS documents.
• Developed a lesson for the totally new task, "Demonstration of Flight at Various Configurations and Airspeeds" (Area X, Task B), which is a CFI demonstration maneuver and includes a detailed discussion of Energy Management, as a companion to the newly-added Chapter 4 of the Airplane Flying Handbook. This chapter is really good and I think this is a very useful maneuver.
• The various PPL Ground Reference tasks (Turns Around A Point, Rectangular Course, and S-Turns) have all been combined to a single mega-lesson, as in the PPL ACS.
• The CFI Demonstration Stalls now have actual performance standards, in particular minimum altitudes. These lessons have been updated to align (raise) the minimum altitudes to comply with the new standards.
• Updated all references to the newer versions of the Airplane Flying Handbook (AFH), Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge (PHAK), and Aviation Instructor's Handbook (AIH), using the current version of those publications as of April 2024.
• Updated references to the Private Pilot ACS and Commercial Pilot ACS to match the new versions which also become current on May 31st, 2024.
• Updated a few miscellaneous Advisory Circular publication references, the most important of which is AC 90-66C (Non-Towered Airport Operations).
• Updated the Navigation and Cross-Country Flight Planning lesson to have a section on EFB (ForeFlight) usage.
• Weight & Balance and Performance are now combined in the CFI ACS.
• The Fundamentals of Instructing have been reorganized and partially combined. Added a mention of Flight Risk Assessment Tools (FRATs). They have also been updated with a few items from the newest edition of the Aviation Instructor's Handbook.
• Split the High Altitude Operations task into 2 to match the CFI ACS, now Oxygen Systems and Pressurization are covered separately.
• The lesson on Taxiing now includes a detailed discussion of Airport Lighting, since the separate Task for Airport Lighting and Signage has been removed from the CFI ACS.  
  
  Please feel free to use these as you like. Nearly all of the images contained within are from FAA publications or are of my own creation, so they should be safe to distribute.
  
  These PDF lesson plans will always be free. Fully editiable (MS Word) versions of these lesson plans are available for a small fee here.
  
      -Ryan, April 21, 2024