Certified Flight Instructor
Teach people to fly. Get paid for every hour, and build the time that gets you to the airlines.
Get paid to build hours.
The flight instructor certificate lets you teach flying and log every hour of it. It is how almost every airline pilot built their first 1,000 hours: getting paid to fly instead of paying to fly. Teaching also makes you a sharper pilot than any rating will.
At CFII you earn it as part of the Career Track, our one program from zero experience to commercial pilot and instructor. Flown full time, this step is months 7 to 8 of nine.
What the FAA requires
- Certificate required first
- Commercial pilot, with an instrument rating
- Knowledge tests
- Fundamentals of Instructing and Flight Instructor Airplane
- Endorsement
- Spin training
- Checkride
- One, the FAA's toughest practical exam
What you need to start
- Be at least 18 years old
- Hold a commercial pilot license (or ATP) with an instrument rating
- Read, speak, write and understand English
- Pass the FOI and Flight Instructor Airplane knowledge tests
- Receive spin training and an instructor's spin endorsement
How it goes
Ground and writtens
You pass the Fundamentals of Instructing and Flight Instructor Airplane knowledge tests, and build the lesson plans you will teach from. Knowing it and teaching it are different skills.
Right-seat flying
You move to the right seat and relearn every maneuver as a narration, then do your spin training and get the endorsement. Flying while teaching is the hardest flying you have done. That is the point.
The checkride, then students
The initial CFI practical is famously the toughest checkride in aviation, and you will walk in over-prepared. Pass it and you are the one signing logbooks.
What you learn
- Teaching from the right seat: flying every maneuver while explaining it out loud
- The fundamentals of instructing: how people learn, and how to teach them
- Commercial maneuvers to instructor tolerances, narrated in real time
- Spin entries and recoveries, with the endorsement
- Lesson planning, student evaluation and endorsement paperwork
- Handling real students in busy Southern California airspace
All of it in a factory-new Tecnam P-Mentor. See the fleet
How long it takes
With a commercial certificate and an instrument rating in hand, most pilots are ready for the checkride in one to three months.
In the Career Track, flown full time, it is months 7 to 8. It is covered by the program's one price.
Where it takes you
Airlines want 1,500 hours, and instructing is the standard way to build them while getting paid. In the Career Track that is the optional Work with us phase: a 25-hour instructor bootcamp, then a guaranteed 175 hours of instructing paid $30 per flight-training hour.
- Private Pilot LicenseMonths 1 to 3
- Instrument RatingMonths 3 to 6
- Commercial Pilot LicenseMonths 6 to 7
- Certified Flight InstructorMonths 7 to 8
- Instrument InstructorMonths 8 to 9
- Commercial Multi-EngineMonth 9
Questions.
How long does it take to become a CFI?
If you hold a commercial certificate with an instrument rating, most pilots are checkride-ready in one to three months. The flying is polish. The real work is learning to teach, building lesson plans and passing two knowledge tests.
Is being a CFI worth it for an airline career?
It is the standard path. Airlines want 1,500 hours for an ATP certificate, and instructing is the proven way to build them while getting paid. Every hour taught is an hour logged.
How hard is the CFI checkride?
The initial CFI practical has the highest failure rate of any FAA checkride, and it deserves the reputation: you are examined on teaching, not just flying. That is why you prepare with an experienced instructor until narrating a chandelle from the right seat feels normal.
Next in the sequence
Instrument instructor and multi-engineThe last two steps of the Career Track. They are explained on the program page.
Come see the airplanes.
Walk the hangar, sit in a factory-new cockpit and meet the people who would train you. Bring your parents, your partner, whoever is part of the decision. We are happy to show you around before you commit to anything.
Apply nowCreate your account and we will help you set up a visit.