Working document
The Student File Audit Checklist
Work this list once per student per stage and no examiner will find a gap you did not already know about.
Free resources
Resources for Instructors and Small Flight Schools
Free working tools for the paperwork, the pricing and the readiness calls that fill an instructor week.
Everything here is free and none of it requires an account. There are two calculators, one for what an hour of dual actually leaves the school after fuel, reserves and unpaid ground time, and one for how many weeks a student really is from a practical test once cancellations and the examiner wait are counted.
There is also a student file audit checklist that runs from enrollment through the recommendation, and a set of straight comparisons against the other kinds of software instructors evaluate. If you want the deeper reporting behind these topics, The Right Seat covers the craft, the paperwork and the economics of flight instruction in more detail.
Free tools
Calculators for Instructors and Small Flight Schools
Free tools for the two questions every small flight school argues about: what an hour of dual actually earns, and when a student will really be ready.
Comparisons
How PreflightLog Compares to the Alternatives
Three honest comparisons for instructors deciding where student progress, endorsements and checkride readiness should live.
Main guide
The Private Pilot Checkride Paperwork Checklist for Instructors
It settles exactly what has to be true, dated and signed in a student file before an instructor writes a recommendation for a private pilot practical test.
Magazine
The Right Seat
Reporting on the craft, paperwork and economics of flight instruction at independent CFIs and small US flight schools.
About
Who writes all of this
Who writes The Right Seat, the hours in the right seat behind the endorsement and checkride guidance on this site, and how to put a question in front of us.
Free is where this starts
The calculators, the audit checklist and the comparisons stay open with nothing attached to them. What none of them can do is remember which student is three tenths short on night cross country time while you are flying with somebody else. That part is PreflightLog, and a demo takes about twenty minutes with your own roster.