To become a certified flight instructor you need a commercial pilot certificate with an instrument rating, to be at least 18, to pass two FAA knowledge tests, to hold a spin training endorsement, and to pass what is widely regarded as the hardest practical test the FAA administers. Every one of those requirements sits in 14 CFR 61.183, and this page walks the ladder in the order you will actually climb it.
Our flight instructor program at Van Nuys covers all three instructor ratings, CFI, CFII and MEI, for $15,400 over about four weeks. For the course itself see flight instructor (CFI) course in Los Angeles; for what the certificate lets you do and what instructing pays, see certified flight instructor in Los Angeles.
What Is A CFI?
A certified flight instructor holds an FAA flight instructor certificate, which is a separate certificate from a pilot certificate and carries its own ratings. It authorizes the holder to give the flight and ground training the regulations require for certificates and ratings, to endorse a student pilot for solo flight, and to sign the logbook endorsements that let a candidate take a knowledge test or a practical test.
On the question of wording: the FAA issues certificates, not licenses. Everyone says flight instructor license and everyone knows what is meant, but the document in your wallet will say Flight Instructor Certificate. Our page on license versus certificate covers why that distinction exists.
The Requirements Ladder, In Order
| Step | Requirement | Regulation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Be at least 18 years old | 61.183(a) |
| 2 | Read, speak, write and understand English | 61.183(b) |
| 3 | Hold a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate with the appropriate category and class rating, and an instrument rating or instrument privileges | 61.183(c) |
| 4 | Log at least 15 hours as pilot in command in the category and class appropriate to the rating sought | 61.183(j) |
| 5 | Receive a logbook endorsement on the fundamentals of instructing | 61.183(d), 61.185 |
| 6 | Pass the fundamentals of instructing knowledge test | 61.183(e) |
| 7 | Pass the aeronautical knowledge test for the rating sought | 61.183(f) |
| 8 | Receive the spin training endorsement | 61.183(i) |
| 9 | Receive a logbook endorsement covering the areas of operation for the rating | 61.183(g), 61.187(b) |
| 10 | Pass the practical test | 61.183(h) |
Step One: The Commercial Certificate And The Instrument Rating
You cannot start here. 14 CFR 61.183(c) requires a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate with the aircraft category and class rating appropriate to the instructor rating you want, plus an instrument rating or instrument privileges on that certificate if you are seeking an airplane single-engine, airplane multi-engine, powered-lift or instrument instructor rating.
In practice that means the whole sequence in front of it: private pilot, instrument rating, commercial pilot. 14 CFR 61.129 sets 250 hours of total time for a commercial certificate in airplanes, so by the time you are eligible for a CFI you have around 250 hours. Our pages on the instrument rating and the commercial pilot certificate cover those steps, and our career program covers doing the whole sequence in one block.
Note the separate requirement in 61.183(j): at least 15 hours of pilot in command time in the category and class of aircraft appropriate to the rating sought. For a single-engine airplane instructor rating that is trivially satisfied by the time you hold a commercial certificate. For a multi-engine instructor rating it frequently is not, and it is the reason MEI candidates arrive short of hours.
How Long The Whole Ladder Takes From Nothing
If you have never flown, the honest answer is that the flight instructor certificate is roughly nine months to two years away, and how far depends almost entirely on how often you can fly rather than on how quickly you learn.
The sequence is fixed. A private pilot certificate needs a minimum of 40 hours under 14 CFR 61.109, and most students finish between 60 and 70. An instrument rating follows, then the commercial certificate, which 61.129 builds around 250 hours of total time, of which a large proportion you accumulate yourself rather than with an instructor. Then the instructor certificate itself, which adds about four weeks.
The part that dominates the timeline is the gap between the roughly 100 hours you hold after a private certificate and an instrument rating, and the 250 that the commercial requires. That is 150 hours of flying that nobody can accelerate for you; you either buy it or find a way to be paid for it. Our time building in Los Angeles page covers the cheapest routes through it.
Done full time with a structured plan, the whole ladder takes about nine months, which is what our Airline Pilot Career Program is built around at $84,000 for roughly 260 logged hours and every rating through the MEI. Done part time around a job, two years is realistic and perfectly normal. What is not realistic is the two-month promise you will find advertised somewhere, and we would rather tell you that now than halfway through.
Step Two: The Two Knowledge Tests
Everyone else in aviation takes one written per certificate. A CFI applicant takes two.
The Fundamentals Of Instructing
14 CFR 61.183(e) requires a knowledge test on the fundamentals of instructing areas listed in 61.185(a)(1): the learning process, elements of effective teaching, student evaluation and testing, course development, lesson planning, and classroom training techniques. It is a test about teaching, not about flying, and pilots routinely underestimate it for exactly that reason.
There are exemptions. You do not have to take it if you already hold a flight instructor certificate or a ground instructor certificate, if you hold a current teaching certificate authorizing you to teach at an educational level of the 7th grade or higher, or if you are employed as a teacher at an accredited college or university.
The Aeronautical Knowledge Test For The Rating
14 CFR 61.183(f) requires a knowledge test on the aeronautical knowledge areas in 61.185(a)(2) and (a)(3) appropriate to the rating sought. For an airplane single-engine instructor rating this is the flight instructor airplane test, and it covers the aeronautical knowledge areas for a recreational, private and commercial pilot, plus the associated instructional material.
Each test costs approximately $175 at a PSI testing center. Our page on where to take the FAA written test in Los Angeles lists the local centers.
Step Three: The Spin Training Endorsement
14 CFR 61.183(i)(1) requires, for a flight instructor certificate with an airplane or glider rating, a logbook endorsement from an authorized instructor indicating that the applicant is competent and possesses instructional proficiency in stall awareness, spin entry, spins and spin recovery procedures, after receiving flight training in those areas in an airplane or glider certificated for spins.
Read that carefully. The standard is not that you can recover from a spin. It is instructional proficiency: you must be able to teach it. And the training must be conducted in an airplane certificated for spins, which most of the training fleet in the United States is not.
There is a second part worth knowing. Under 61.183(i)(2) an examiner may accept the endorsement as satisfactory evidence of instructional proficiency in these areas, which is why most CFI checkrides do not include an actual spin. The exception is if you are retesting after a failure caused by deficiencies in stall awareness, spin entry, spins or spin recovery instructional procedures, in which case the examiner must test you in an airplane certificated for spins. The endorsement is not a way to avoid learning this material; it is a way to avoid spinning an airplane with an examiner on board.
We do this training in the Diamond DA20-C1, which is operated in the utility category and approved for intentional spins. Our CFI spin endorsement and spin training page covers what the course involves and what it costs.
Step Four: Training In The Areas Of Operation
For an airplane single-engine instructor rating, 14 CFR 61.187(b)(1) lists the areas of operation you must be trained in and endorsed for: fundamentals of instructing; technical subject areas; preflight preparation; a preflight lesson on a maneuver to be performed in flight; preflight procedures; airport and seaplane base operations; takeoffs, landings and go-arounds; fundamentals of flight; performance maneuvers; ground reference maneuvers; slow flight, stalls and spins; basic instrument maneuvers; emergency operations; and postflight procedures.
What changes in this training is not the maneuvers. You already fly them. What changes is that you now fly them from the right seat, to commercial tolerances, while explaining what you are doing and why, and while diagnosing the errors a student would make. Most CFI candidates find the right-seat sight picture takes a handful of hours, and the talking takes considerably longer.
Step Five: The Initial Practical Test
The initial CFI practical test has a reputation, and it is deserved. The oral portion regularly runs four hours or more, because the examiner is not checking whether you know the material, but whether you can teach it to somebody who does not. Expect to be handed a topic, given a whiteboard, and asked to teach it while the examiner plays a student who asks the obvious awkward question.
Three things distinguish candidates who pass first time:
- Real lesson plans. Written by you, for every technical subject area and every maneuver, with an objective, the elements, common errors, the completion standard and how you would evaluate it. Not downloaded.
- Sources. Know where every answer comes from: the regulation, the Airplane Flying Handbook, the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, the Aviation Instructor's Handbook, the flight manual. A CFI who says I think so has failed the question.
- Admitting the limits. The correct answer to a question you cannot answer is that you do not know and here is where you would look. Examiners are testing whether you will guess in front of a student.
Our page on what to expect on an FAA checkride covers the mechanics of the day.
The Standards Are The ACS Now, Not The PTS
If you have been told to study the CFI PTS, that advice is out of date. Instructor practical tests are conducted to the Flight Instructor for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-25, effective 31 May 2024. The ACS restructures each task into knowledge, risk management and skill elements, and the risk management elements are tested explicitly rather than being left to the examiner's judgment.
Buying a study guide written against a superseded PTS is the single most common preparation mistake we see. Our CFI ACS and PTS explained page sets out what changed and how to study to the current document.
After You Pass: Limitations, Records And Renewal
- Instrument training. Under 14 CFR 61.195(c) you may not give instrument training toward an instrument rating unless you hold an instrument rating appropriate to the aircraft on both your pilot certificate and your flight instructor certificate. That is the CFII rating.
- Multi-engine training. Under 14 CFR 61.195(f) you may not give training toward a certificate or rating in a multi-engine airplane unless you have at least 5 flight hours of pilot in command time in that specific make and model.
- Records. Under 14 CFR 61.189 you must sign the logbook of everyone you train, keep a record of every solo endorsement and every test endorsement you give with the kind of test, the date and the result, and retain those records for at least three years.
- Renewal. Under 14 CFR 61.197 instructor privileges run in 24 calendar month cycles. You can renew by passing a practical test for a rating on the certificate or for an additional instructor rating; by endorsing at least five applicants for practical tests in the preceding 24 calendar months with at least 80 percent passing on the first attempt; by serving as a company check pilot, chief flight instructor, company check airman or flight instructor in a Part 121 or 135 operation; or by completing an approved flight instructor refresher course. Most working instructors renew on the refresher course.
What It Costs And How Long It Takes
Our program is $15,400 for CFI, CFII and MEI together and runs roughly four weeks full time, built around twelve eight-hour ground days. That covers 20 hours of single-engine time, 8 hours of multi-engine time in the Piper Seminole, 2 hours in the full-motion simulator, 30 hours of dual instruction and 50 hours of ground. Knowledge tests are approximately $175 each and examiner fees are separate: roughly $1,000 to $1,500 for the initial instructor ride and roughly $800 to $1,000 for each add-on. The full arithmetic is on our CFI training cost and timeline page.
Should You Become A CFI?
For anyone aiming at an airline or charter seat, instructing is the standard route from 250 hours to the 1,500 that 14 CFR 61.159 requires for an ATP. You are paid while you build, rather than buying hours at rental rates. Our flight instructor salary page covers what that pays.
It is also, genuinely, the thing that makes you a better pilot. You cannot teach a maneuver you only half understand, and the process of having to explain every one of them exposes every gap you have been flying around for years.
What it is not is a shortcut. The initial ride is hard, the first year is demanding, and teaching somebody to land an airplane requires a temperament that not everybody has. If you are considering it purely as a way to log hours and you have no interest in the teaching, there are other routes, and our time-building jobs for commercial pilots page covers them honestly.
Related Reading
- Flight instructor (CFI) course in Los Angeles — the $15,400 program in detail.
- CFI training cost and timeline — the arithmetic and the four-week schedule.
- CFI spin endorsement and spin training — the 61.183(i) requirement in the Diamond DA20.
- CFI ACS and PTS explained — what changed and how to study to them.
- CFII rating — the instrument instructor rating and why it is the add-on that pays.
- Certified flight instructor in Los Angeles — what the certificate authorizes and what the job is like.
CFI Requirements FAQ
What Are The Requirements To Become A CFI?
Under 14 CFR 61.183 you must be 18, read, speak, write and understand English, hold a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate with the appropriate category and class rating and an instrument rating, log 15 hours as pilot in command in the category and class sought, pass the fundamentals of instructing and aeronautical knowledge tests, hold a spin training endorsement, hold the areas-of-operation endorsement, and pass the practical test.
How Many Hours Do You Need To Become A Flight Instructor?
There is no separate total-time requirement for the instructor certificate beyond the 15 hours of pilot in command time in the category and class sought under 61.183(j). In practice you arrive with roughly 250 hours, because that is what 14 CFR 61.129 requires for the commercial certificate you must hold first.
Do You Need An Instrument Rating To Be A CFI?
Yes. 14 CFR 61.183(c) requires an instrument rating, or instrument privileges on your pilot certificate, for an airplane single-engine, airplane multi-engine, powered-lift or instrument flight instructor rating.
How Many Written Tests Does A CFI Take?
Two for the initial certificate: the fundamentals of instructing test and the aeronautical knowledge test for the rating sought. Each costs approximately $175. Holders of a ground instructor certificate, a teaching certificate for 7th grade or above, or a position as an accredited college teacher are exempt from the fundamentals of instructing test.
Do I Have To Do Spins To Become A CFI?
You must receive spin training in an airplane certificated for spins and hold the endorsement required by 14 CFR 61.183(i)(1). The examiner may accept that endorsement rather than requiring a spin on the checkride, unless you are retesting after a failure related to stall or spin instructional procedures.
Is The CFI Checkride Really The Hardest?
It has the longest oral of any practical test most pilots take, commonly four hours or more, and it tests your ability to teach rather than to fly. Candidates who arrive with their own written lesson plans and who can cite a source for every answer pass at a much higher rate.
Should I Study The CFI PTS Or The CFI ACS?
The ACS. Instructor practical tests are conducted to the Flight Instructor for Airplane Category Airman Certification Standards, FAA-S-ACS-25, effective 31 May 2024. PTS-based material is superseded.
How Often Does A Flight Instructor Certificate Need Renewing?
Every 24 calendar months under 14 CFR 61.197. You can renew by practical test, by an endorsement record showing at least five applicants with an 80 percent first-attempt pass rate, by serving in certain check pilot or chief instructor roles, or by completing an approved flight instructor refresher course.
Talk To Us About The Instructor Program
If you hold a commercial certificate and an instrument rating, bring us your logbook and we will map the four weeks against your actual totals. Book a free consultation or call (818) 330-1318, any day from 9 AM to 9 PM. If you are still at the start of the path, a discovery flight is $229 for 60 minutes, you fly it from the left seat, and it logs as dual instruction. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406, on Van Nuys Airport.