Certified Flight Instructor

By now you will have completed your training and passed the exams for your Private Pilot's License, your Commercial Pilot's License and your Instrument Rating. For some the next step will be adding some additional Endorsements or even the Multi-Engine Rating, but for many, the next step will be coming a Certified Instructor. This will not only allow your to build the required flight time to get the ATP and that coveted Airline Job, but also get paid while doing it. Although there are a number of different Flight Instructor Ratings, the first will usually be CFI- Single Engine Land. We will cover the other instructor rating further down. You will already have your 2nd Class Medical, which is not even needed in most cases to instruct, but that is for another section. So what you will have to do is: o Learn how to safely control the airplane from the right or Co-Pilot seat. This will take a few hours to get at ease with as many of the controls and instruments are installed with the pilot in mind and not the right seat occupant. o Demonstrate all the maneuvers required for the Private Pilot's License, and Commercial Pilot's License. o Be able to get a new student to accomplish all the prerequisites required to start training as well as to fly solo when the time is right. o Teach a new student how to safely prepare an aircraft for flight and then accomplish the ability to safely demonstrate all of those required maneuvers and pass the various tests and check rides. o And one of the most important areas, the ability to let a student safely learn through their mistakes. This is the hardest to teach, as new instructors will tend to take over the controls in many cases too soon., o This time, there will be two written tests, though the first one, the FOI (fundamentals of instruction) will only have to be taken one regardless of how many instructor ratings you obtain. This test covers methods or teaching in general and not specific to flying. The second test will be an Aeronautical Knowledge Test, similar to the one taken for the Commercial License. o Although the requirements of Dual Instruction time for the CFI is limited, you will be required to have done basic Spin Training, requiring that you enter a spin at least once to the right and once to the left. o There will be another oral exam, which will typically be more comprehensive than any of the ones you have already taken as you will have to know all the things you learned while also knowing how to teach them. And you can expect that your examiner, acting like am untrained pilot, will most likely intentionally screw some things up to see how you react and train others. The instructor who provides you with the CFI instruction will have to have been an instructor for a minimum number of years and will have to have given a minimum number of hours of dual instruction themselves. While the initial CFI flight test, used to have to be conducted by an FAA employee, many DPE's are not authorized to give the initial CFI ride. Beyond CFI Single Engine Land there are other instructor ratings including: o Certified Flight Instructor Instrument - CFII o Certified Flight Instructor Glider - CFIG o Certified Multi-Engine Instructor - MEI o Basic Ground Instructor o Advanced Ground Instructor o Instrument Ground Instructor Although any CFI can give Ground Instruction, These ratings are required if you are going to give Ground Instruction at a Part 141 Certified Flight Center, which allows students to train with lower flight time requirements.