group ground instruction for flight review?

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david
If I have several pilots looking to do a flight review, is there any reason I can't do the ground instruction part of that with a small group instead of one on one with each of them?

Assuming this is ok, has anyone done this? How did it work out?
 
I am not a CFI, and wouldn't try to speak to the rules. However as a long time PPL, I wouldn't care for this approach. I look forward to spending time focusing on areas that I would like to improve. I think a group setting would be too generic for it to be beneficial for everyone.

However I approach everything as a learning opportunity, so to me a checkbox type of BFR wouldn't have much value.

If I was a CFI, I would think I would question whether I could determine if all of the pilots where able to demonstrate their knowledge of applicable procedures enough to sign my name in their log books.
 
Do they get a discount or are you looking to get six hours pay for one hour work? As a pilot I'd have no problem with the group if it saved me forty bucks. I don't see anything specific in the regs that would make it illegal to do it that way.
 
How do you get full participation from the pilots involved? Could be an embarrassing situation for some of the pilots.
 
Classroom FIRCS count as FR ground so in theory it should be OK. Everyone will need an individual endorsement of course. Might not be useful if everyone has varying experience/activity. FR ground should cover the stuff the particular pilot does.
 
I've considered doing this as well, but haven't yet. In my situation, the audience I've had in mind would be maybe 3 or 4 people, at a small local fly-in camp-out, so there is time to do the flights as well.

I see no reason it's not legit, as long as like Reed points out, you make sure each person demonstrates applicable levels of knowledge. Heck, many flight instructors renew their CFI certificates by going to FIRCs every two years that have many people in attendance. Also, Wings programs count for ground credit, and they can be attended by dozens of people - so there's precedence there.

Some considerations I've come up with:
- Must be a fairly homogeneous group as far as type of flying. I feel it's necessary to tailor the FR (even the ground part) to the type of flying the person does. So, holding a ground session useful for both the Cessna 120 hamburger-run pilot and the TBM "fly to large airports everywhere IFR at FL 200" might be an insurmountable challenge.
- Ensuring roughly equal participation - you'd have to make sure you're asking questions at random but covering everybody pretty much equally.
- Great benefit if, after the ground, you do the flights and have them ride along with each other.
- Timing - my idea was to do it in one day, so it would almost HAVE to be at some kind of event. If you have 4 pilots, it will take a minimum of probably 5 hours between the end of the ground portion and the start of the last pilot's flight portion.
- Managing expectations - I'm sure you tell every pilot who comes to you for a FR the deal that it doesn't necessarily only take one hour of flight. But in my example, if you have a few lined up one after another, you can see where this might be a problem.
- Generally in my experience, pilots only approach a CFI for a flight review when they need it, like by tomorrow. So doing a group ground session on one day and then flying several days later would require the right personalities and advance scheduling.

Edit: I see Phoenix beat me to a lot of these points, and briefer too!
 
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Nothing wrong with group classes. Sometimes someone would ask a question that I needed to know as well, but didn't know at the time.

I would pair flight instructor candidates with students, that is CFI with private students, II with instrument students, along those lines.
 
Sure!

As long as your group isn't too big and you make sure everyone is somewhat involved, sounds like a smart way to work it.


Only thing I'd do would be to make sure it was somewhat of a discussion like setting, and I wouldn't expect this to only take you one hour, might go a bit over.

Email everyone a page with a few questions, what type of flying do you do, what do you fly, what ratings do you have, how many hours a year do you fly, what your TT, and what's a area you would like to see addressed in this ground session.


Mash all the forums up as you get them back, make your ground based on that and the required FARs.
 
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Some great points people have brought up. To expand a bit on my motivation, the people I have in mind are fairly new pilots, don't fly a ton, and have roughly the same mission and flying experience. I feel they'd all benefit from more than the minimum hour. Doing a small group program lets them get more than the minimum time without raising the cost (actually, will likely be cheaper). I'm also hoping they'd learn from each other's questions and discussion with each other.

They happen to know each other already so I'm not so worried about any of them feeling uncomfortable speaking up in a small group setting.

I hadn't thought about the timing of the flying part. They are all local and I don't think anyone needs it done by tomorrow, so I probably won't need to get everyone scheduled one after another.
 
I do it regularly with our local glider pilots. We usually have between 4 to 7 pilots doing a flight review at once. Works well with the glider since we help launch each other for the flying portion. We often have pilots sit in that aren't doing their flight review just because they like to sit in on them.

I usually write up a quiz that I give to each pilot. They can do it before the instruction or during, many of the questions won't be the same for each pilot. For example, What is that useful load of the aircraft you most often fly or will use for the flight review?

Or what kind of ELT does your aircraft have installed?
Do you have any other emergency equipment in you aircraft?

Going through the quizzes means everyone is involved and can't just sleep through it. The can't always copy someone else answers but I often encourage them helping each other.

Brian
 
I've done two glider pilots in one ground session. Lasted a little longer than the required hour. It takes the instructor to get both involved, one can't just sit like a bump on a log and expect to get credit. There are certain required/recommended subjects to cover. Then they each ran ground ops for the other to fly.

I have a checklist I use to make sure everything gets covered, they sign my copy when we are done.

How many ask to see the pilot certificate ? I do, I did a Flight review on an individual this year that was not "non current". But he had the paper certificate! Who let that go by on his last Flight Review, I figured it out and consulted the errant instructor.
 
I've often recommended it to flight schools as a way to get business.

First one I was involved in was led by AOPA's John Yodice and given to a group of lawyer-pilots at a conference.
 
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