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Certified Flight Instructor

To become a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI), you must be 18 years old and hold a commercial or airline transport certificate with an instrument rating. You must pass a written examination and an FAA checkride.

As a Flight Instructor you may instruct students in becoming a Private Pilot or Commercial Pilot. If you would also like to teach instrument flying, you must gain that rating on your flight instructor certificate.

What instructor certificates are available for me to obtain and what do they allow me to do?

Once you have your Commercial certificate, you will be able to move on to obtain you instructor certificates, which include:

  • Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) – This allows you to instruct Private and Commercial applicants, as well as to perform flight reviews, all in a single-engine airplane.
  • Certified Flight Instructor Instrument (CFII) – This allows you to instruct Instrument Rating applicants in a single-engine or multi-engine airplane (whichever you are rated to instruct in).
  • Multi Engine Instructor (MEI) – This allows you to instruct Private and Commercial applicants, as well as to perform flight reviews, all in a multi-engine airplane.

Must I complete my CFI certificate first?

No, there is no rule as to which certificate you must do first, although the general progression is to complete your CFI, CFII, and finally MEI.

What can I expect in my training to obtain my CFI Certificate?

While doing your initial flight instructor certificate, you will start out learning to fly and teach from the right seat. You will be doing all the same maneuvers you did as a commercial pilot, only teaching your way through them as well. You will need to create a whole set of lesson plans as well as to do some practice ground training sessions with your instructor.

This time you will have two written knowledge tests as well as a practical exam, including an oral and practical section. The first written exam covers the fundamentals of instruction itself, i.e. the principles of teaching. There is a test bank of almost 200 questions (all published), of which you are asked 50 random questions. You are allotted an hour and one half to complete these. The second exam (if you are doing your CFI or MEI initially) is the Flight/Ground Instructor, which is 100 questions with two and one half hours to complete it. These questions come from a test bank of approximately 855 questions (all published). If you complete your CFII as your first instructor certificate, then you would take the instrument written exam, which is 60 questions out of a bank of 900.