Flight instructor training at Van Nuys costs $15,400 and takes about four weeks full time. That single price covers all three instructor ratings, CFI, CFII and MEI, and includes 20 hours of single-engine flight 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 instruction across twelve eight-hour ground days.
The three things outside that price are the knowledge tests at roughly $175 each, the examiner fees, and the spin training required by 14 CFR 61.183(i). This page shows the arithmetic and the schedule. For the requirements themselves, see CFI requirements; for the course page, see flight instructor (CFI) course in Los Angeles.
What You Are Actually Buying
It is worth being precise about this, because instructor training is the one course where the flying is the smaller half of what you pay for.
Fifty of the hours in this program are ground instruction. Thirty are dual. That ratio is inverted compared with every other course we run, and it is inverted for a reason: the initial flight instructor practical test is predominantly an oral examination, commonly four hours or longer, in which an examiner asks you to teach subjects rather than to recite them. You already know how to fly the maneuvers. What you are buying is the structured process of learning to explain all of them, the right-seat transition, and somebody experienced sitting opposite you saying that explanation was not good enough yet.
The flying hours matter too, and they are not interchangeable. Twenty hours of single-engine time covers the right-seat transition and teaching every visual maneuver from the wrong seat. Eight hours of Seminole time covers teaching engine-out procedures, which cannot be learned anywhere cheaper. Two hours in the simulator covers the failures you cannot safely create in an airplane. Take any of those out of a quote and the quote is lower and the course is worse.
Where The $15,400 Goes
Priced at our own package rates, component by component, using the $179 package rate for single-engine time:
| Component | Hours | Rate | Subtotal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-engine flight time | 20 | $179 | $3,580 |
| Multi-engine time, Piper Seminole | 8 | $449 | $3,592 |
| Redbird MCX full-motion simulator | 2 | $120 | $240 |
| Flight instruction | 30 | $110 | $3,300 |
| Ground instruction | 50 | $110 | $5,500 |
| Books and materials | — | — | Included |
| Total at package rates | $16,212 | ||
| Program price | $15,400 |
The program is $812 less than the sum of its parts at package rates, and the books are included. Bought at retail rates, hour by hour, the same components come to considerably more: single-engine time at $269 rather than $179 adds $1,800 on its own, and Seminole time at $649 rather than $449 adds $1,600. Assembling this course from rental hours and an independent instructor is not a saving.
Note that the single-engine figure above uses the $179 package rate. Spin training is flown in the Diamond DA20-C1, which is $229 at the package rate because it is a different airplane with a different role, so the exact aircraft mix in your program is agreed at enrollment.
What Sits Outside The Price
| Item | Typical cost | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Fundamentals of instructing knowledge test | Approximately $175 | At a PSI testing center. Waived if you hold a ground instructor certificate or qualify under 61.183(e). |
| Flight instructor airplane knowledge test | Approximately $175 | Required by 61.183(f) for the rating sought. |
| Flight instructor instrument knowledge test | Approximately $175 | For the CFII rating. |
| Initial instructor practical test | Roughly $1,000 to $1,500 | Paid directly to the designated pilot examiner. The initial ride is the expensive one. |
| CFII and MEI add-on practical tests | Roughly $800 to $1,000 each | Shorter rides, lower fees. |
| Spin training and endorsement | $2,000 | Three hours in the Diamond DA20-C1, two hours of full-motion simulator and classroom instruction. See our CFI spin endorsement page. |
| Second class medical | Varies by examiner | Only if yours has lapsed. |
A realistic all-in figure for a candidate who passes each ride first time is $19,000 to $20,500: the $15,400 program, three knowledge tests, three examiner fees and the spin course. Compare that number, not the headline price, against any other school.
Why The Initial Ride Costs More Than The Add-Ons
The fee difference between an initial instructor practical test and a CFII or MEI add-on is not arbitrary. It reflects how long the examiner spends with you.
An initial flight instructor practical test covers the fundamentals of instructing in full, every technical subject area, and every area of operation listed in 14 CFR 61.187(b)(1) for the rating sought. In practice that is a day: an oral that frequently runs four hours or more, a break, then a flight in which you teach maneuvers from the right seat. Examiners price a day accordingly, and roughly $1,000 to $1,500 is the range we see.
An add-on rating, once you hold an instructor certificate, is narrower. The fundamentals of instructing are not re-examined, because 61.183(e) does not apply to a person who already holds a flight instructor certificate. The oral concentrates on what is specific to the new rating: instrument procedures for the CFII, multiengine operations for the MEI. That is a half-day, and the fee follows, typically $800 to $1,000.
The practical consequence is that the order matters financially. Take the initial ride once, then add the other two, and you pay one long fee and two short ones. Take three separate initial-length courses at different schools over two years and you will pay considerably more in both tuition and examiner fees.
The Four-Week Schedule
| Week | Ground | Flying | Milestone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 | Fundamentals of instructing, the learning process, lesson planning, technical subject areas. Lesson plans begun. | Right-seat transition, airwork from the right seat, teaching the basics out loud. | Fundamentals of instructing knowledge test. |
| Week 2 | Technical subject areas in depth, teaching maneuvers on a whiteboard, mock teaching sessions. | Performance maneuvers, ground reference, stalls and slow flight taught from the right seat. Spin training in the DA20. | Flight instructor airplane knowledge test. Spin endorsement. |
| Week 3 | Mock orals with a second instructor. Lesson plan folder finished and reviewed. | Polish, plus the maneuvers that are still rough. | Initial CFI practical test. |
| Week 4 | Instrument instruction, teaching the scan, approach briefings, then multi-engine instruction and VMC teaching technique. | Instrument work from the right seat, then Seminole time teaching engine-out procedures. | CFII practical test, then MEI practical test. |
Four weeks assumes you arrive current, with your commercial certificate and instrument rating in hand, and treat it as a full-time job. Realistically, examiner availability is the variable that moves the finish date more than your flying does, which is why we schedule the rides at enrollment rather than when you are ready for them. A candidate who is ready on the Wednesday and waiting three weeks for an examiner has lost more money in decayed currency than the wait appears to cost.
Part Time Instead
Most people cannot take a month off. The part-time version of the same program typically runs two to four months, flying two or three times a week with ground sessions in the evenings and at weekends. The price is the same. What changes is that you will need a little more flight time, because right-seat flying and teaching-while-flying are both perishable, and because momentum on the lesson-plan folder is easy to lose.
Part time also changes the order of the milestones. Candidates spreading the course tend to sit the two knowledge tests early, because test results are valid for a defined period and because passing them removes a background worry. They also tend to finish the lesson plan folder before the flying is complete, which is the right way round: a candidate with a finished folder and three rough maneuvers is a week from a checkride, and a candidate with polished flying and an empty folder is a month from one.
The Hours Nobody Charges You For
There is a part of this course that appears on no invoice anywhere and is the single biggest predictor of whether you pass first time.
You have to write lesson plans. One for each technical subject area and one for each maneuver, each with an objective, the elements, common student errors, the completion standard and how you would evaluate it. There are dozens. Written properly, in your own words, with a cited source for every claim, they take somewhere between forty and eighty hours of your own time. Nobody's course price includes that, because nobody can do it for you.
Candidates try to shortcut it by buying or downloading a folder. Examiners have seen every commercially available set, and the tell is immediate: the candidate can read the plan but cannot defend it when asked why a particular common error is listed, or where the completion standard came from. A folder you wrote is also the thing you will actually teach from for the next two years, so the time is not wasted even setting the checkride aside.
Budget the evenings. If you are taking four weeks off work to do this, you are not getting the evenings back.
How To Pay For It
We run interest-free direct payment plans over up to twelve months, and Stratus Financial arranges terms up to fifteen years with a soft credit check for pilots financing the longer career path. Details are on our flight training financing page.
When It Pays Itself Back
There is a specific argument for financing this particular course that does not apply to the earlier ones. A private pilot certificate is a purchase. An instructor certificate is closer to a tool: it is the thing that converts your 250 hours into paid flying, and it starts returning money within weeks of the last checkride rather than years later.
The arithmetic that matters is the comparison against the alternative. A commercial pilot who needs to reach the 1,500 hours that 14 CFR 61.159 requires for an ATP has roughly 1,250 hours to find. Buying those hours as rental time, even in the cheapest airplane on this ramp at $269 an hour retail, is a figure in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Flying them as an instructor means being paid for the same hours instead. That is the whole case, and it is why almost every airline pilot in the United States instructed at some point.
The rating that accelerates it most is the CFII. Instrument students are certificated pilots who turn up prepared and finish, and instrument lessons go ahead on days when the marine layer has canceled every primary lesson on the field. Between May and July in Los Angeles that is worth a great deal. The MEI does something different: it lets you build the 50 hours of multi-engine class time that 61.159(a) requires while being paid, instead of buying them at $649 an hour. Our flight instructor salary page covers what the work actually pays.
How To Compare Instructor Course Prices
Instructor course quotes vary more than any other kind, because schools include very different things. Ask these five questions of everyone, including us.
- How many ratings does the price cover? A $9,000 quote for the initial CFI alone is not cheaper than $15,400 for CFI, CFII and MEI. Get the per-rating figure.
- How many hours of ground instruction are included, and delivered how? Ground is where an instructor course is won or lost. Fifty hours with an instructor is a different product from a login to a video library.
- Is multi-engine time included, and in what? An MEI taught in a centerline-thrust twin is not equivalent, and 14 CFR 61.183(j) still needs 15 hours of multi-engine pilot in command time from somewhere.
- Is spin training included, and in a spin-approved airplane? 14 CFR 61.183(i)(1) requires the training to be given in an airplane certificated for spins. Ask which airplane. Ours is the Diamond DA20-C1, and the course is a separate $2,000.
- What happens if you need more hours? Get the overrun rate in writing before you enroll, not after.
Where Candidates Spend More Than They Planned
- Failing the initial ride. Another examiner fee, another day, and the retest rules in 61.183(i)(2) mean a stall or spin related failure has to be retested in an airplane certificated for spins. Arrive prepared.
- Downloading lesson plans. Examiners can tell, and a candidate who cannot defend their own material has a long afternoon ahead.
- Going part time by accident. Booking a four-week course and then flying twice a week turns it into a three-month course with more hours in it.
- Leaving the MEI hours short. 14 CFR 61.183(j) needs 15 hours of pilot in command time in multi-engine airplanes. Arrive with eight from your multi-engine rating and you are buying the rest at twin rates.
- Letting a knowledge test result age. Test results have a validity period. Sitting the writtens two years before you start the flying can mean sitting them again.
Related Reading
- CFI requirements — every requirement in 14 CFR 61.183, in order.
- Flight instructor (CFI) course in Los Angeles — the program page.
- CFII rating — the instrument instructor rating in detail.
- Multi-engine instructor (MEI) rating — the 15-hour requirement and the Seminole.
- CFI spin endorsement — the $2,000 spin course in the Diamond DA20.
- How much does flight school cost — every certificate and rating, one page.
CFI Training Cost FAQ
How Much Does CFI Training Cost?
Our program is $15,400 and covers CFI, CFII and MEI together. Adding three knowledge tests at approximately $175 each, examiner fees of roughly $1,000 to $1,500 for the initial ride and $800 to $1,000 for each add-on, and the $2,000 spin course, a realistic all-in figure is $19,000 to $20,500.
How Long Does CFI Training Take?
About four weeks full time, built around twelve eight-hour ground days, or two to four months part time. Examiner availability moves the finish date more than flying does, which is why we book the rides at enrollment.
Is The Examiner Fee Included?
No. Designated pilot examiners are independent and are paid directly on the day. The initial instructor ride is the expensive one at roughly $1,000 to $1,500; add-on rides are typically $800 to $1,000.
Are The Written Tests Included?
No. Each FAA knowledge test costs approximately $175 at a PSI testing center. An initial CFI takes two, and the CFII adds a third.
Is Spin Training Included In The $15,400?
No. The spin training required by 14 CFR 61.183(i) is a separate $2,000 course in the Diamond DA20-C1, covering three hours of aircraft time, two hours of full-motion simulator and classroom instruction.
Can I Pay In Installments?
Yes. Interest-free direct payments over up to twelve months, or Stratus Financial over terms up to fifteen years with a soft credit check.
Is It Cheaper To Take The Ratings One At A Time?
No. Taking CFI, CFII and MEI together in one program is cheaper than adding each separately, because the ground work overlaps heavily and the add-on checkrides after the initial ride are shorter and cost less in examiner fees.
How Much Do Books And Materials Cost?
Nothing extra. Books and materials are included in all of our course packages.
Get The Numbers For Your Logbook
The honest quote depends on what you already hold and how current you are. Bring us your logbook and we will map the four weeks against your totals, including how far you are from the 15 hours of multi-engine pilot in command time the MEI needs. Book a free consultation or call (818) 330-1318 any day from 9 AM to 9 PM. If you are earlier in the path, a discovery flight is $229 for 60 minutes and logs as dual instruction. We are at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406.