the NAFI hat

Click here to order and while you're there check out the entire NAFI merchandise collection.

Do you know a pilot, aspiring flight instructor or CFI you believe may benefit from a NAFI membership? If so then purchase them a gift membership! Click here to begin and be sure to have your recipient's email and address information available. Remember, even your non-CFI friends may benefit, since all aviators can improve their flying by learning more about flight instruction! 

 lookout for opportunities to assist our members. Please contact NAFI if you have job listings to share.  

MentorLIVE Will Broadcast

Join flight school owner, university lecturer, and four-time Master Flight Instructor Aaron Dabney as he highlights some of the top teaching lessons learned from his first decade in this profession. He'll also outline tips for sharing these strategies and tactics with newer instructors to help them be better, earlier.

MentorLIVE is NAFI's monthly, live-streaming broadcast airing the third Wednesday of every month at 8 p.m. Eastern. These programs feature subject matter experts from many aspects of the flight instruction industry to help CFIs be more successful in their training endeavors. MentorLIVE is free of charge to all aviators as a NAFI community service. To help support the production of these courses click here and join NAFI today. All presentations are WINGS-approved.  

at your convenience at: www.nafinet.org/mentorlive  

Ten aviation organizations, including NAFI are urging the FAA to revisit its perspective on a decision against Warbird Adventures, saying the agency’s standpoint has “serious and negative implications” on the broader flight-training community.

In a joint letter (click here) to FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, the organizations objected to guidelines laid out in a June 4 agency letter (click here) that stated a flight instructor operating a limited category aircraft and carrying a paying student is acting contrary to federal regulation, even if that compensation is for the instruction and not carriage. The FAA letter added that these prohibitions could extend to an instructor providing flight training in an experimental or primary category aircraft.

Due to the “enormous confusion” created by the FAA guidance, the organizations are urging the agency to issue a statement that it would not take legal enforcement action until a resolution has been reached.

In addition to NAFI, the letter was signed by the AOPA, EAA, GAMA, NATA, FSANA, International Council of Airshows, Helicopter Association International, North American Trainer Association, SAFE and NBAA. More here.

Median annual wages for airline pilots and first officers in 2020 were nearly four times the national average. The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) issued its 2020 Occupational Outlook Handbook showing that “airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers” had a median annual wage of $160,970, nearly four times the median wage for all U.S. workers, who earned $41,950 on average.

In May 2020, the median annual wages for airline pilots, first officers, and flight engineers were highest in the category of “scheduled air transportation” at $173,780, while those in the “nonscheduled air transportation” category earned $117,030 on average.

The 2020 BLS data showed a median annual wage for “commercial pilots” at $93,300, with the lowest 10 percent earning less than $47,570, and the highest 10 percent earning more than $200,920. The Handbook considers a commercial pilot as “being involved in unscheduled flight activities, such as aerial application, charter flights, and aerial tours.” More here.

The NAFI Pulse Poll is a collaborative educational effort with Gleim Aviation intended to check the "pulse" of NAFI members on flight instruction topics, current events, new initiatives, events, government regulation and more. If you'd like to suggest subject areas of interest, please send them to nafi@nafinet.org.

A series of events that began with a swinging firefighting snorkel preceded the fatal crash of a 1981 Sikorsky UH-60A last month in Leesburg, Florida, that killed all four aboard, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report. N9FH, registered to Brainerd Helicopters, was conducting the first flight of a new STC-approved firefighting system. After six uneventful water drops, things went askew on the seventh run, when the snorkel was observed swinging “violently” and then apparently hitting the main rotor blades, causing at least two of them to separate. Either the blades or the snorkel then caused the tail boom to also separate in flight. More here.

The FAA will host a Runway Safety Town Hall for General Aviation pilots online this afternoon that will offer best practices and discussion from GA pilots, air traffic controllers and runway safety experts to help pilots reduce the risk of airfield errors. The Runway Safety Town Hall will run from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. Eastern today, Wednesday, June 16. The event is free. You may register here. Participants registered on the livestream will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists and will receive FAA WINGS credit for attending . The Town Hall also will be livestreamed on FAA’s YouTube channel here.

Southwest said a third-party weather data provider "experienced intermittent performance issues," and it grounded flights for safety reasons on Monday night. It resumed some flights after three hours, NPR reported. A company spokesperson did not identify the third-party provider. More here.

Vertical Aerospace, a UK electric aircraft manufacturer, has won the backing of American Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Microsoft in its bid to make urban air travel a reality. The startup revealed it has pre-orders for up to 1,000 of its zero-emissions VA-X4 vertical takeoff aircraft, worth as much as $4 billion, as it announced plans to go public. The VA-X4 will travel at speeds over 200 miles per hour and be "near silent" when in flight, according to the company. A prototype of the aircraft, which has a range of over 100 miles, is currently in production and the first test flight is planned for later this year.

American Airlines has agreed to pre-order up to 250 aircraft, with an option for an additional 100. Dublin-based aircraft leasing company Avolon has pre-orders and options for 500 aircraft, while Virgin Atlantic has a pre-order option for up to 150. Pre-orders are subject to certain conditions and milestones being met, including certification by aviation safety regulators. More here.

The next SpaceX launch will feature a milestone, as the Pentagon is allowing Elon Musk's company to send a national security satellite to orbit with a reused rocket for the first time. SpaceX is set to launch the GPS III SV05 satellite for the U.S. Space Force tomorrow from Florida, using the Falcon 9 rocket booster that launched the GPS III SV04 satellite last November. The company's Falcon 9 rockets are partially reusable, as SpaceX regularly lands the boosters – the largest and most expensive part of the rocket – and then launches again. More here.