Welcome Guest. Sign in or Signup

3 Answers

100 hour inspections and providing flight instruction

Asked by: 3844 views
FAA Regulations, Flight Instructor, General Aviation, Student Pilot

I am a CFII and I have a friend who is a private pilot and owns his own airplane. If he hires me to give instruction in his airplane towards his instrument or commercial single rating, does the airplane need a 100 hour inspection? If yes, at what point does the 100 hours start ticking? I'm assuming it starts from whatever the tach time is when starting the engine for the first flight for instruction.

Ace Any FAA Written Test!
Actual FAA Questions / Free Lifetime Updates
The best explanations in the business
Fast, efficient study.
Pass Your Checkride With Confidence!
FAA Practical Test prep that reflects actual checkrides.
Any checkride: Airplane, Helicopter, Glider, etc.
Written and maintained by actual pilot examiners and master CFIs.
The World's Most Trusted eLogbook
Be Organized, Current, Professional, and Safe.
Highly customizable - for student pilots through pros.
Free Transition Service for users of other eLogs.
Our sincere thanks to pilots such as yourself who support AskACFI while helping themselves by using the awesome PC, Mac, iPhone/iPad, and Android aviation apps of our sponsors.

3 Answers



  1. John D Collins on May 27, 2015

    No. You are only providing instruction and not also providing the aircraft, which triggers the 100 Hour inspection requirement for flight trainng in 91.409.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes



  2. Mark Kolber on May 28, 2015

    Cole, you are a CFI. What is the applicable regulation? What does it say?

    If your student asks whether he needs to start paying for 100-hour inspections and you give him John’s answer and the student says, “show me where it says that” what will you do?

    -2 Votes Thumb up 0 Votes Thumb down 2 Votes



  3. Kris Kortokrax on May 28, 2015

    It is also important to note (from a financial standpoint) that 91.409 requires the inspection within the preceding 100 hours “time in service”.

    Neither “flight time” nor “time in service” begin when you start the engine.

    “Time in service” is defined in Part 1 as time from the moment an aircraft leaves the surface of the earth until it touches it at the next point of landing.

    Most helicopters have a Hobbs meter connected to the collective so that time is only accrued when the helicopter is not on the ground.

    Same thing for most twin engine (non trainer) airplanes (weight on wheels switch).

    Cirrus airplanes also have a separate Hobbs meter to track time in service.

    +1 Votes Thumb up 1 Votes Thumb down 0 Votes


The following terms have been auto-detected the question above and any answers or discussion provided. Click on a term to see its definition from the Dauntless Aviation JargonBuster Glossary.

Answer Question

Our sincere thanks to all who contribute constructively to this forum in answering flight training questions. If you are a flight instructor or represent a flight school / FBO offering flight instruction, you are welcome to include links to your site and related contact information as it pertains to offering local flight instruction in a specific geographic area. Additionally, direct links to FAA and related official government sources of information are welcome. However we thank you for your understanding that links to other sites or text that may be construed as explicit or implicit advertising of other business, sites, or goods/services are not permitted even if such links nominally are relevant to the question asked.