The most visible Certified Flight instructors (CFIs) are often the aspiring airline pilots who populate flight schools on their way to a jet cockpit. Despite occasional concerns about "time-building," the vast majority of those folks do a super job.
But the current airline hiring boom is soaking up flight instructors faster than they can be replaced, and there's no end in sight. That means fewer CFIs to provide the quality instruction we need in, both general and professional aviation.
Where can we find flight instructors with the commitment and long-term interest to meet the needs of general aviation? The answer is that more CFIs must sprout from the enthusiastic general aviation pilots we meet every day at the airport. You know, people like us, who find flying a 172, a Kitfox, or a Baron to be a blast. Pilots who delight in doing a professional job of piloting even while sustaining other full-time careers. Aviators who'd love a professional flying career, but who aren't interested in flying the "heavy iron."
Many student and private pilots wonder about the feasibility of one day becoming a CFI. Well, with the CFI shortage upon us and deepening rapidly, that advert up above has your name on it! Let's consider why becoming a flight instructor is a worthy mission for you to pursue right now:
We've already touched upon some reasons for becoming a CFI: (1) demand is high, and (2) your experience and dedication can benefit the industry.
But there are other great reasons to become a flight instructor.
First, the old adage, "The best way to master a subject is to teach it," is most definitely true. As an active CFI your knowledge and flight proficiency will rapidly exceed your greatest expectations as a Private Pilot. By teaching others you will truly learn to fly as a pro.
Next comes the reward of setting goals and achieving them. Many of us find ourselves sitting at home on a given day, thinking, "Gee, I wish there was a reason to go flying today." Well, there is! Start working toward that CFI and you've got a meaningful personal and professional objective to justify the time, effort, and investment in continuing regular flying.
Then there is the contribution to be made to the aviation community. Not only can you as a CFI personally impact the safety and proficiency of pilots that train, but there is also the critically important role CFIs serve in recruiting new blood to aviation. The vast majority of new pilots sign up through the direct or indirect efforts of active CFIs, and we need your help carrying the flag.
Best of all, here's your big chance to become an honest-to-goodness pro. Almost every active pilot harbors the dream of flying professionally, But for many reasons - age, fam- ily and lifestyle considerations, or success in another occu- pation - onlv a certain percentage of pilots are in position to pursue, say, the captain's seat in a Boeing or a Learjet. Well here's your opportunity to fly professionally under schedule and conditions more or less of your own choos- ing, all while having someone pay you to do it.
"But hold on a minute," you say, "becoming a CFI takes years of full-time study, arid many thousands of flight hours, right?`
Not at all! With dedication and concentrated effort one can become a CFI relatively cluickly. After earning your Private Pilot certificate, it takes only three more steps to become a primary flight instructor: an Instrument rating, the Commercial Pilot certificate, and then the Flight Instructor certificate itself. That's certainly not a long path.
Recent regulations allow new Private Pilots to begin training for the iristrument rating as soon as they like. All CFII (Instrument Instructor) applicants must be instrument rated, even if they never plan to fly IFR. The Instrument rating is roughly comparable in flight training hours to earning one's Private certificate, and is something many of us plan to earn anyway. As with the Private, FAA Knowledge written) and Practical (oral and flight) Tests are required. But once earning your instrument rating the route to flight instructor status can be a quick one.
You'll need some flight experience to be eligible for your Commercial Pilot Certificate. 190 to 250 hours total flight time are required by the time you complete your training. But earning the rating itself requires only a fraction of the effort required to earn a Private; it's entirely feasible to earn your Commercial in fifteen hours or less, if you set your mind to it. Again there are Knowledge and Practical tests to pass, and then you're ready to pursue your Flight Instructor Certificate.
There is no minimum training requirement for the Flight Instructor certificate itself, but it will probably take you some fifteen to twenty flight hours to earn, plus a good deal of ground instruction. Along with Knowledge and Practical Tests there is an additional FAA written challenge: "Fundamentals of Instruction".
The oral portion of the CFI Practical Test is notoriously challenging, but, what's covered there is largely material you've seen before, so keep a sharp eye on the Private and Commercial Pilot material you've learned, and you'll have little trouble mastering the CFI tests. Of course teaching technique is an important element of the test, too. If there's one certificate where you should seek out a truly outstanding instructor, the CFI is it.
AS for flight physicals, CFIs fall into the most favorable regulatory status of almost any professional pilot. With recent regulation changes, one can instruct with a third-class medical certificate, so if you qualify medically for a student pilot certificate you can instruct. What's more, some instruction can even be conducted without a medical.
And other than the fact that you must be eighteen to earn your Commercial and therefore CFI Certificates, there are no age limits on instructing. This is one case where the experience and maturity of older pilots is,desirabte and unrestricted. You're a sixty-year-old student pilot? Cool! Move right along and earn your CFI.
And for those who plan to knock off their Commercial and CFI certificates in short order, heres a little trick, to accelerate your progress. Arrange with your CFI and pilot examiner to train for and take your Commercial Pilot Practical Test from the RIGHT seat. That way your right-seat flying skills will already be nailed when you dive into CFI training - doing it this way could save you five or even ten hours of training. Ask at your flight school about the details for your situation.
Your initial Flight Instructor certificate will allow you to train Private and Commercial Pilot applicants through to their certificates, and also authorize you to perform flight reviews, (Imagine, you giving the flight review!) Additional instructor ratings, such as instrument, multiengine, and those for other aircraft categories such as glider and helicopter, are relatively easy to add if you have journeyman skills in the ratings sought.
The really great news is that given todays demand for flight instructors, you can be assured of employability in most locations the moment you earn your temporarv CFI certificatc, and you'll likely have your choice of whether to do it full-time or part-time, or in some cases, as a freelancer.
Okay, now lets talk about the "get paid to fly" part. In the past, earnings have often been pretty limited for full-time flight instructors, depending on location, employer, number of students and other factors. But with the developing CFI shortage, instructor pay and benefits are rapidly going up. If you want to pursue a full-time instructing career, excellent positions are now to be had around the country.
However, a great many CF1s choose to join the many part-timers and freelancers around the country who ply their trade in a professional manner, and contribute beyond their numbers to the well-being of general aviation. Many of those folks work other jobs, flying and non-flying, and instruct strictly for the fun and personal reward of it. When you look at instructing as a part-time activity that supports your flying and that of others, it's a pretty darned good deal.
First, instructing gets you up in the air on a regular basis at a price anyone can afford - free. Many, part-time CF1s reinvest their instructing income into a fund for personal flying, yielding a good return in both professional and pleasure flying. Other not-so-obvious instructor benefits include discounts on aircraft rental, lower insurance premiums for aircraft owners, and broader insurability in the planes you fly.
Did you realize that as a CFI you get to log all the time flown by your students as PIC time? And as an instrument instructor the approaches flown by your students are often loggable for your own currency, too. What's more, each of those ratings you earn in the process of becoming a flight instructor - the IFR, the Commercial, and your CFI - count as flight reviews. That's the money-saving bureaucratic stuff. The important part is that you'll be sharp far beyond what flight reviews could do for you in thernselves, and it all comes in the course of business without the need for lots of currency flights.
Instruct well and charge appropriately for your services and you can generate some pretty good part-time income at this business. That also raises the possibility of deducting many flying expenses from your income taxes, including charts, headsets, recurrent training, your flight physical, and some or all flight training expenses. (Talk to your accountant for the official word on your situation.)
Now for the most important and rewarding reason to become a flight instrtuctor - people. As a CFI you're going to meet many, many fine individuals from all walks of life who share your dream of flying. It will be you who introduces them to the special fraternity of aviators, vou who delivers them the key to flight on their own, and you who conveys the skills and knowledge to help them to fly safely and enjoyably with their thousands of future passengers. Your words, will be riding with them many years in the future at times when they need you most.
Join the illustrious ranks of flight instructors. Whether you're eighteen, or beginning a new life after retirement, whether you're a schoolteacher with summers available, or looking to change careers altogether, we need you! No one cares whether you wear glasses, or not and the skies are yours to own in everything from ultralights to jets.
Just bring along your passion, your life experience, and some dedication. Here's your big chance the ultimate thrill of flying, all from the.seat with the worlds greatest view - the spectacular high of opening doors of flight to yet another generation of pilots.
© 2000 Gregory N. Brown