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3 Answers

Requirements to be a CFI

Asked by: 1586 views General Aviation

I am aware that to be a CFI you must have a Commercial Pilot's License with Instrument ratings and pass the FAA Written test and Check ride. However someone mentioned to me that you could be a Flight Instructor as a Private Pilot with Instrument ratings . It goes back to the post ww2 era and early50's and 60's. There were also Limits and Stipulations on such pilots in the exercise of flight instructors as private pilots. Is this a fact? Was there such a thing then and is it still available today?

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3 Answers



  1. Russ Roslewski on Jan 29, 2019

    I cannot speak to the 40’s and 50’s, but that provision does not exist today.

    However, the person you were talking to may be getting it confused with the Sport Pilot Instructor certificate. With just a Sport Pilot (or higher) certificate and 150 hours, you can train and pass a checkride to be a Sport Pilot Instructor. No Commercial or Instrument rating required. Note that you can then only train people towards the Sport Pilot certificate, in Sport Pilot-eligible airplanes.

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  2. Best Answer


    Mark Kolber on Jan 29, 2019

    It was true at one time. In the 1940 version of the Civil Air Regulations (pre-FAR), “instructor” was a “rating” rather than a separate certificate and private pilots were eligible so long as they met the requirements for the commercial certificate. In 1954, there was a change making flight instructor a separate certificate, but private pilots were still eligible under the same.

    Eventually they got rid of private pilot eligibility. I don’t know the year but it was before 1973.

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  3. wheels_up on Feb 01, 2019

    negative. you need that CPL

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