Certified Flight Instructor

The CFI

The Flight Instructor rating is usually the first opportunity for most pilots to get paid to fly rather than pay someone to fly. Learning to fly in the civilian market, the CFI is the next logical step in the path to becoming a professional pilot. At this point, most new CFI’s have between 350 to 500 hours of flight experience. They’re going to need between 1,000 to 1,500 hours of experience in their logbooks to become eligible and maybe more to become marketable for those coveted pilot positions. This is a great way to bridge that gap and earn a little income. Besides building time, there is an old saying that if you want to learn about a subject, try teaching it to someone. Flight training is no exception. You’ll be teaching everything from basic Private Pilot knowledge test subjects to complex maneuvers inflight. Your foundational knowledge and skills will be perfected and will help you throughout your career. Pilots who have a lot of instructing time usually don’t have any difficulty transitioning into more complex and faster airplanes and tend to make very good pilots. 

Becoming a CFI is not an easy certificate to obtain. You must first have your Commercial license and an instrument rating. Two knowledge tests are required for most people, the first being a Fundamentals of Instructing test. This is more of the psychology behind teaching. The second test is the subject matter. You will receive flight training in all maneuvers from Private Pilot thru Commercial Pilot and will be expected to perform these maneuvers and teach them inflight. Flight training is usually between 15 hours and can be as much as 40 hours depending on the applicant. Remember, the instructor doesn’t sit in the pilot’s seat, they sit in the front passenger seat. This is like telling someone who is right-handed to learn to write all over again with their left hand. They won’t have to learn sentence structure and English again, but they will have to learn how write using their other hand.

The CFI allows you to teach ground and flight school to Recreational, Private, and Commercial Pilots in a single engine airplane. After instructing for 24 months and meeting a few other qualifications, they can also instruct someone who is working towards their CFI rating.

The CFII (Certified Flight Instrument Instructor) allows you to instruct a pilot who is seeking their instrument rating in a single engine airplane. This is usually a private pilot. Again, you need to pass a knowledge test and receive training and pass a practical test to receive your Instrument Instructor Rating.

The CFMEI (Certified Flight Multi Engine Instructor) allows you to instruct a pilot who is seeking their multi engine rating, either on their private or commercial license. You must receive training in a multi engine airplane and pass a practical test to receive your CFMEI. If you have your CFII, you can also instruct towards an instrument rating in a multi engine airplane and after meeting a few restrictions, you can teach a pilot who is seeking their Airline Transport Pilot license (ATP).