Austin Academy of Aviation

How long is a CFI Certificate good for?

Once earned, your commerical certificate is good for life. In order to fly as a commerical pilot, however, you must meet a few requirements:

You must have a current second class medical certificate

You must have at least at least six instrument approaches, have used holding procedures, and intercepted and tracked courses through the use of navigation systems within the previous six months.

You must have taken an instrument proficiency check in the previous six months.

You must not do something that angers the FAA, this may result in your certificate being suspended or revoked.

What are the requirements?

The requirements to obtain a CFI Rating are:

Be at least 18 years of age.

Hold a commercial or airline transport pilot (ATP) certificate with an aircraft rating appropriate to the flight instructor rating sought (e.g., airplane, glider).

You must also hold an instrument rating to be a flight instructor in an airplane.

Be able to read, speak, and write the English language

You must have a current second class medical certificate from an Aviator Medical Examiner

Pass both the FOI (Fundamentals of Instruction) and the flight instructor knowledge tests with scores of 70% or better.

- You are not required to take the FOI knowledge test if you:

1. Hold an FAA flight or ground instructor certificate
2. Hold a current teacher's certificate authorizing you to teach at an educational level of the 7th grade or higher
3. Are employed as a teacher at an accredited college or university

You must receive and log flight and ground training and obtain a logbook endorsement from an authorized instructor on the following areas of operations for an airplane category rating with a single-engine class rating.

1. Fundamentals of instructing
2. Technical support areas
3. Preflight preparation
4. Preflight lesson on a maneuver to be performed in flight
5. Preflight procedures
6. Airport and seaplane base operations
7. Takeoffs, landings, and go-arounds
8. Fundamentals of flight
9. Performance maneuvers
10. Ground reference maneuvers
11. Slow flight, stalls, and spins
12. Basic instrument maneuvers
13. Emergency operations
14. Postflight procedures

The flight instruction must be given by a person who has held a flight instructor certificate during the 24 months immediately preceding the date the instruction is given and who has given at least 200 hr. of flight instruction as a CFI.

You must also obtain a logbook endorsement by an appropriately certificated and rated flight instructor who has provided you with spin entry, spin, and spin recovery training in an airplane that is certificated for spins and has found you instruction ally competent and proficient in those training areas, i.e., so you can teach spins.

Pass an oral test and flight test administered by an FAA inspector or FAA-designated examiner