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Benefit of Instrument Ground Instructor?

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General Aviation

I already hold an ATP, CFI and CFII and just tested for Advanced Ground Instructor.  I am a recently retired military pilot, so, forgive me for not being fully up to speed on the general aviation world... my question is this: Is there a benefit to obtaining the Instrument Ground Instructor rating?  Or is being a CFI/CFII/AGI good enough?  I am just trying to gain knowledge and experience and round out my general aviation skills.

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4 Answers



  1. Matthew Waugh on Jun 29, 2012

    Some people like to sign off on instruction that CAN be provided by a Ground instructor using their Ground instructor certificate. They argue that this protects their flight certificates in the event that they screw up. So if you subscribe to that point of view you would want an IGI to be able to sign-off on instrument ground instruction.
     
    Personally I think if the FAA finds out you’re an incompetent ground instructor they are unlikely to limit their inspection of your skills to just your ground instructor certificates, but what do I know.
     
    It’s a cheap certificate (cost of the test and the gas to drive to the FSDO) and if you hold those other certificates and can’t walk in and pass the test cold you should cut up your CFI certificates and mail them to the FAA anyway. 🙂

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  2. Wes Beard on Jun 29, 2012

    The ground instructor certificate tests (basic, advanced and instrument) cover different material than an initial CFI knowlegde test.  I know, people are going to tell me that the questions come from the same pool of questions and I would agree with them.  The GI tests cover all of the aircraft while the initial CFI knowledge covers only the aircraft you are training in.  Thus the GI test could be more difficult than the CFI test was.
     
    Since the FAA tests your broad knowledge as a GI they also allow you to teach any aircraft ground school.  If you are CFI-A, with your AGI you can teach the helicopter private, commercial or ATP ground schools and signoff on your students being prepared for the knowledge test.
     
    The IGI allows you to teach any of the instrument ground schools for airplane, helicopter or powered lift and sign off on allowing the student to take the knowledge test.
     
    The biggest advantage to having a ground instructor certificate (AGI or IGI) and maybe a BGI is without it you cannot obtain a gold seal on your CFI certificate. 

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  3. Greg on Jun 29, 2012

    Great!  Thanks for the info.

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  4. Gary Moore on Jul 03, 2012

    One other benifit to the ground instructor cert is there is no requirement to maintain records like there is with the CFI. 

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