CFI Academy

This CFI course is designed to take a Commercial Pilot single or multi engine airplane certificate holder to the completion of the Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) Certificate in just 14 days. Expand your career horizons as a professional pilot. Build your experience, knowledge, skill and flight time, while getting paid for it! CFI certificate is required for one to teach other pilot certificate applicants, conduct flight reviews, proficiency or insurance checkouts, and is usually the catalyst in getting the first professional pilot job.

20150713_190205Most airline pilots and other professional pilots have “cut their teeth” as flight instructors. There is really no other better option than being a flight instructor to gain all that experience and flight time necessary to advance on to the other professional pilot careers, like airline pilot jobs.

Pre-requisites

A current FAA Commercial Pilot certificate (or ATP) with Airplane Category (ASEL or AMEL)

A minimum of class III medical certificate, valid.

FIA and FOI exam passed (preferred, but not required), or AGI in lieu of FOI.

And you can read more about CFI eligibility requirements by reading this post.

Course Structure

The CFI initial course is a very detailed, thorough and extensive course, and requires a lot of hard work and dedication on the part of the applicant as well as the instructor. The course is about 50 hours of ground school, and 10-12 hours of flight training. You need to keep in mind that the CFI training is about being able to teach aviation, both on the ground and in flight. This course is not about your piloting skills. We understand that you already hold at least a commercial pilot certificate, hence you already have mastered the art of flying. Now it is about mastering the art of teaching aviation.

This is the reason why the CFI course is always ground heavy. The 50+ hours of ground school includes all the subject areas covered in the Fundamentals of Instruction and the Flight Instructor Aeronautical Knowledge. You will have to spend a lot of time yourself for self study, and also practice teaching on other students while your instructor is supervising. By the time you are ready for your FAA checkride you will have gained all the knowledge and confidence necessary to qualify as a flight instructor and teach others how to fly.

The Flight portion of the course includes all the Private, Commercial and CFI maneuvers, with you teaching from the right seat. The course also includes the required spin awareness, entry and recovery techniques. At the completion of the course you will have all the skill and confidence necessary to teach another pilot while sitting in the right seat of an airplane.

Typical Training Day

A typical training day at CFI Academy includes 2 ground training sessions of about 3-4 hours duration with your ground instructor, and one flight schedule of about 1-2 hour duration with your flight instructor, and another 3-4 hour session of self study, video session and lesson plan preparation and research work. By the end of the training you will be ready to hit the bed to get a good night’s sleep to be ready for the next day’s routine.

Checkride

In most cases the CFI applicants will take their CFI checkride with the local FAA FSDO inspector. This checkride is free of cost. There are times when the FSDO will schedule a checkride with a local DPE, and in that case there will be an examiner fee due to the DPE.

Course Tuition Fee

The course tuition fee is $4500 and includes the following:

Guaranteed Flat Rate CFI

All the ground school training required (50+ hours)

12.5 hours of complex aircraft rental (wet)

10 hours of flight instruction in complex aircraft

Spin training – aircraft rental and flight instruction

NOTE: If you are getting your CFI (initial issue) on an AMEL, you should add another $100/hour for 12.5 hours of aircraft rental (i.e. $1250) to the total cost of your CFI training.

The course tuition fee does not include the following:

The FAA knowledge test fee (usually $100 per test)

The books and other training equipment (about $200)

DPE examiner fee if applicable

Accommodation, room and boarding, food etc

Any additional aircraft rental, flight or ground instruction required in case of a retest ($150/hour complex, $90/hour C-152, $50/hour instructor fee)

Course Duration

The course is designed and structured to be completed in 14 days. If you already have your FOI and FIA exams pass, you can have a little bit of more relaxed schedule. If not, plan to work hard for the entire 14 day period. Certain unexpected delays beyond anyone’s control (Wx, Mx etc) can increase the course duration slightly. It is always recommended to plan for 21 days to incorporate any unforeseen delays.