But the current airline hiring boom is soaking up flight instructors faster than new CFIs earn their tickets. That means fewer CFIs to provide the quality instruction that both general and professional aviation need. Now that the pilot hiring market has turned around, more young people are getting interested in aviation careers ? but that barely begins to offset the depth of the projected shortage.
Where can we find CFIs 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 at the airport every day. You know, the people who think it?s a blast to fly a Cessna 172, a Kitfox, or a Baron ? pilots who delight in doing a professional job even while they sustain other full-time careers ? aviators who?d love a professional flying career, but who aren?t interested in flying heavy iron.
I hear from many student and private pilots who ask whether it?s feasible to become a CFI one day. With the CFI shortage upon us and deepening rapidly, that ad to the left has your name on it! Let?s look at why becoming a flight instructor is a worthy mission for you to pursue right now.
We?ve already touched on some reasons why you should become a CFI ? demand is high, and your experience and dedication can benefit the industry. But I can give you many other great reasons why you should become a flight instructor.
First, the old adage, "the best way to master a subject is to teach it," is definitely true. When you become an active CFI your knowledge and flight proficiency will rapidly exceed your greatest expectations when you were a private pilot. By teaching others you will truly learn to fly as a pro.
Next comes the reward you get from setting goals and achieving them. Many of us find ourselves thinking, "Gee, I wish I had a reason to go flying today." Well, you do! Start working toward that CFI and you?ve got a meaningful personal and professional objective to justify the time, effort, and investment to continue regular flying.
Then there?s the contribution you can make to the aviation community. As a CFI you personally affect the safety and proficiency of pilots you train, but added to that is the critically important role of CFIs 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, ranging from age, to family and lifestyle matters, to success in another occupation, only a certain percentage are in a position to pursue, say, the captain?s seat in a Boeing or a Learjet. Well here?s your opportunity to fly professionally under a schedule and conditions more or less of your own choosing, all while someone pays you to do it.
"But hold on a minute," you say, "becoming a CFI takes years of full-time study, and many thousands of flight hours, right?" Not at all! With dedication and concentrated effort you can become a CFI relatively quickly. After you earn your private pilot certificate, you need to complete only three more steps to become a primary flight instructor ? an instrument rating, a commercial pilot certificate, and then the flight instructor certificate itself. That?s certainly not a long path.
Regulations now allow private pilots to start training for an instrument rating as soon as they like. (All CFI 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 your private certificate, and is something many of us go on to earn anyway. As with the private, you?ll need to take an FAA knowledge test and practical test. But once you?ve earned your instrument rating the route to flight instructor status can be a quick one.
To be eligible for your commercial certificate you?ll need to build some flight experience, but to earn the rating itself you need to spend only a fraction of the effort necessary for a private. It?s entirely feasible to earn your commercial in as little as 15 to 20 flight training hours, if you set your mind to it. Again, you must pass the FAA knowledge and practical tests. Then you?re ready to pursue your flight instructor certificate.
The FAA imposes no minimum training requirement for the instructor certificate itself, but you will probably take some 15 to 20 flight training hours to earn your CFI, plus a good deal of ground instruction. Along with the FAA knowledge and practical tests, you need to take another knowledge test on the Fundamentals of Instruction (FOI). The oral portion of the CFI checkride is notoriously challenging, but what?s covered there is largely material you?ve seen before, so keep sharp 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.
While we?re on CFI training, here?s a little trick to accelerate your progress if you plan to complete your commercial and CFI certificates in short order. Ask your CFI and pilot examiner to train you for ? and let you take ? your commercial checkride from the right seat. That way your right-seat flying skills will already be nailed when you dive into CFI training. This could save you five or even 10 hours of training.
Your initial instructor certificate allows you to train private and commercial pilots through to their certificates, and to give flight reviews. (Imagine, you giving the flight review!)
I can assure you that you can get full- or part-time employment in most parts of the country, the moment the examiner hands over your temporary CFI certificate.
Instrument and multiengine instructor ratings, along with those for other aircraft categories, such as glider and helicopter, are relatively easy to add if you have journeyman skills in the ratings you seek.
Okay, let?s talk about the "get paid to fly" part. Word on the street is that CFIs can?t make a living wage. There?s an element of truth to that, depending on location, employer, number of students, and other factors. The good news is that as the CFI shortage develops, pay and benefits are beginning to go up. If you want to pursue a full-time instructing career, excellent career positions are now available to be had around the country.
If you don?t want to teach full time, join the ranks of part-time and freelance CFIs who ply their craft in a professional manner for the long term, and contribute beyond their numbers to the well-being of aviation. Many part-timers work other jobs, flying and non-flying, and instruct strictly for the fun and personal reward. When you look at instructing as a part-time activity that supports your flying activities and others?, it?s actually a pretty good deal.
First, instructing gets you in the air on a regular basis at a price anyone can afford ? free. Many part-timers reinvest their CFI earnings into a fund for personal flying, yielding a good return in both professional and pleasure flying. Other not-so-obvious benefits include instructor discounts on aircraft rental, lower insurance premiums for aircraft owners, and broader insurability in the airplanes you fly.
Did you know that as a CFI you can log pilot in command time for all the time your students fly with you in the right seat? What?s more, each of those certificates and ratings you earn along the line count as flight reviews. That?s the money-saving bureaucratic stuff. The important part is you?ll be sharp far beyond what a flight review could do for you in itself, and it all comes to you in the course of business without the need for lots of currency flights.
If you instruct well and charge appropriately for your services, you can generate some pretty good part-time income. That also raises the possibility of income tax deductions for many of your flying expenses such as 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.
Speaking of flight physicals, CFIs fall into the most favorable regulatory status of almost any professional pilot. A CFI can teach with a third-class medical certificate, so ? if you qualify medically for a student pilot certificate ? you can instruct. If a CFI is teaching a certificated and current pilot, he (or she) can instruct even without a medical.
Other than the fact that you must be 18 years old to earn your commercial, and therefore your CFI, you face no age limits on instructing. This is one case where the experience and maturity of older pilots is desirable and unrestricted. You?re a 60-year-old student pilot? Cool! Move right along and earn your CFI.
Now for the most important and rewarding reason to become a flight instructor ? people. As a CFI you?re going to meet many fine individuals from all walks of life who share your dream of flying. You?ll be the one who introduces them to the family of aviators, who gives them the key to flight on their own, and who conveys the skills and knowledge they need 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.
Write me care of Flight Training and let me know when you are planning to join the ranks of flight instructors. We need you! It doesn?t matter whether you?re 18, or you?re a schoolteacher with summers off, or you?re beginning a new life after retirement. 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 to experience the ultimate thrill of flying, all from the seat with the world?s greatest view and the spectacular high of opening doors of flight to yet another generation of pilots. Carpe diem! Become a CFI!
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