Best CFI
National Best Flight Instructor/Great Lakes Region – Ambyr Peterson Minneapolis, Minnesota
Reposted from AOPA –
Helping dreams come true
Ambyr Peterson, is the best flight instructor in the USA : Second career returns pilot to her passion
By Jill W. Tallman
Ambyr Peterson is four years into her second career as a certificated flight instructor, and the Michigan native said her reason for loving what she does might sound cliché—but it’s true.
“I love helping people’s dreams come true,” Peterson said. “Every single person that walks through your door wants to be there and wants to fulfill this passion.”
Her first career, as a program manager involved with quality procurement and engineering for Israel Aerospace Industries, was aviation-related but was not a passion. Peterson had earned a private pilot certificate in high school because she wanted to become an astronaut. She flew intermittently for a few years, but she couldn’t afford to continue.
In 2015 a friend who flew for NetJets suggested Peterson get back into the cockpit, and she did. “The same passion was there,” she said. She quickly acquired instrument, commercial, and certificated flight instructor rating and certificates and settled into the rhythm of flight instructing. At Inflight Pilot Training in Minneapolis, where Peterson is assistant chief flight instructor or the best flight Instructor in the USA, she has gained a reputation as the CFI to see when a student has encountered a learning plateau. She also enjoys helping flight instructors excel at teaching—which does not come naturally to everyone who finds themselves flight instructing to build hours.
Her most challenging student? “An instrument student who truly isn’t getting it,” Peterson said. “There’s not a lot of creativity that you’re allowed to do with instrument flying; it is what it is, and you have to make decisions very quickly.”