CFI Care, with Brian Schiff
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CFI Care offers bite-sized nuggets of knowledge to increase aviation safety. Aviation educator and NAFI board member Brian Schiff teaches misunderstood topics that pilots need to know in a brief, easy to understand way.
Schiff draws from 20,000 hours of flight time and multiple instructor ratings to share techniques, tips, and advice to help make you a better CFI. His contagious enthusiasm for teaching and sense of humor makes learning fun and impactful.
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Pitch, Power, and the Wrong Question
• October 21, 2026“Which controls airspeed during a descent or approach — pitch or power?” If someone springs this question on you with the satisfied expression of a prosecutor introducing Exhibit A, your first answer should be “It depends.” Not because you’re dodging the question. Because the question is incomplete — and possibly because your interrogator is more… -
Mastering the Glide
• September 16, 2026Learning to fly means mastering four fundamentals: climbs, descents, turns, and straight-and-level flight. Today, I’ll discuss one type of descent: the glide. Gliding is an underrated skill that too few pilots understand or practice. Regularly practicing gliding descents teaches pilots one of an airplane’s important limits and builds confidence. Knowing how far an airplane can… -
Not Yet, Not Yet, Now: The Art of Knowing When to Flare
• August 19, 2026Teaching a student pilot when to flare is as important as teaching them how to flare and is equally challenging. Students often start the flare too soon, balloon, float, or settle in with excess speed; start too late, and the landing becomes firm or flat. The instructor’s job is to turn a vague visual problem… -
The Humble Compass: Your Low-Tech Lifeline
• July 15, 2026Let’s be honest. In a cockpit loaded with GPS moving maps, synthetic vision, and glass panels that practically fly the airplane, the magnetic compass gets about as much attention as the ashtray. It is there. It is required by FAR 91.205. And most pilots treat it like a fire extinguisher — glad it exists but… -
Are You an Aviator or an Airplane Driver?
• June 17, 2026Every instructor has seen it. The preflight feels like a chore. The checklist was recited from memory rather than read aloud. The taxi looks more like a commute than a deliberate operation. And then the inevitable phrase in the debrief: “I’ve done it that way a hundred times.” That’s not an aviator talking. That is… -
The Lift String
• May 20, 2026Imagine your airplane is hanging from the sky on an invisible string. That string isn’t attached to the tail, the nose, or the cabin door your passenger keeps slamming. It’s attached to a point somewhere above the wing, aligned with the lift vector. The wing’s job is to keep that string taut — pulling the… -
Taming Left Turning Tendencies Part Four: Gyroscopic Precession – The Final Twist
• April 22, 2026Of all the forces that seem determined to pull your airplane to the left, like a shopping cart with a stubborn wheel, gyroscopic precession is the most misunderstood. It sounds exotic, maybe even mystical, but it’s just Sir Isaac Newton reminding us that he’s still in charge. Your propeller is not just a wind generator… -
Taming Left Turning Tendencies: Part Three, P-Factor
• March 18, 2026P-factor, or asymmetric propeller loading, mainly occurs when the airplane is at large angles of attack. As the propeller disk tilts upward during a climb, the descending blade on the right side takes a larger bite of air than the ascending blade on the left. This causes greater thrust on the right side of the… -
Taming Left Turning Tendencies: Part 2, Slipstream
• February 18, 2026Every pilot has felt that mysterious nudge to the left when power is applied during takeoff. The nose yaws slightly, the runway centerline begins to drift right, and the instructor yells, “Right rudder!” But what exactly is pushing your nose left? Meet the mischievous culprit: the spiraling slipstream. When the propeller spins, it doesn’t simply push…