A chief flying instructor is the senior instructor who owns training standards at a flight school — the person who decides what "ready for solo" and "ready for the checkride" mean there, who checks the other instructors, and whose name is on the school's approved courses. At an FAA Part 141 pilot school the role is not a courtesy title: the school cannot legally operate a training course without a designated chief instructor who meets a specific experience standard in the regulations.
This page sets out what the role actually is, what 14 CFR Part 141 requires of the person holding it, how it differs from an assistant chief instructor and a check instructor, where it sits in a flying career, and — if you are a student rather than an instructor — what the person in that chair tells you about the school you are considering.
Chief Flying Instructor Or Chief Flight Instructor?
They are the same job under two names. "Chief flying instructor" is the usual phrasing in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, India and much of the Commonwealth, where the abbreviation CFI means chief flying instructor. In the United States the regulatory term is chief instructor, the everyday term is chief flight instructor, and CFI means something else entirely — a certificated flight instructor, the individual teaching certificate rather than the management role.
That collision matters if you are reading across borders. An American job advertisement for a CFI is advertising for a line instructor. A British one for a CFI is advertising for the person who runs the training department. If you hold the FAA teaching certificate and want the American version of the senior role, read our page on what a certified flight instructor in Los Angeles does first, then come back to the hour requirements below.
What A Chief Flying Instructor Actually Does
Strip away the title and the role is four jobs at once.
- Sets the standard. Every school has tolerances that are tighter or looser than the published minimums, and a house view on when a student is ready to solo. Somebody decides that, and it is the chief instructor. Under 14 CFR 141.85(a)(4) a Part 141 chief instructor is responsible for maintaining training techniques, procedures and standards that are acceptable to the Administrator.
- Checks the instructors. At a Part 141 school, 14 CFR 141.85(a)(2) makes the chief instructor responsible for ensuring every flight or ground instructor passes an initial proficiency check before being assigned duties on an approved course, and a recurrent proficiency check every 12 calendar months after the month the initial check was done.
- Signs off the students. Under 14 CFR 141.85(a)(1) the chief instructor certifies each student's training record, graduation certificate, stage check and end-of-course test reports, and the recommendation for course completion — unless those duties are delegated to an assistant chief instructor or the recommending instructor.
- Is reachable while training is happening. 14 CFR 141.85(b) requires the chief instructor or an assistant chief instructor to be available at the school or, if away, by telephone, radio or other electronic means during the time training is given on an approved course.
None of that is ceremonial. 14 CFR 141.87 is the clearest evidence of how load-bearing the role is: when a Part 141 school changes its chief instructor it must immediately notify the responsible Flight Standards office in writing, may continue training for no more than 60 days without one, and after 60 days must cease operations and surrender its certificate to the Administrator. A pilot school without a chief instructor is, after two months, not a pilot school.
The FAA Requirements At A Part 141 School
Part 141 is the part of the regulations that covers FAA-approved pilot schools and their approved training courses. 14 CFR 141.33(a)(1) requires a school to have a chief instructor for each approved course of training, and 141.33(b) requires that person to be designated and to meet 14 CFR 141.35.
Section 141.35 has two layers. The first applies to everyone seeking the designation, regardless of course:
- Hold a commercial pilot certificate or an airline transport pilot certificate, plus a current flight instructor certificate, with the aircraft category and class ratings for the aircraft used in the course and an instrument rating if the course requires one — 141.35(a)(1).
- Meet the pilot-in-command recent flight experience requirements of 14 CFR 61.57 — 141.35(a)(2).
- Pass a knowledge test on teaching methods, applicable provisions of the Aeronautical Information Manual, applicable provisions of Parts 61, 91 and 141, and the objectives and approved course completion standards of the specific course — 141.35(a)(3).
- Pass a proficiency test on instructional skills and the ability to train students on the flight procedures and maneuvers appropriate to the course — 141.35(a)(4).
The second layer is flight experience, and it scales with what the course leads to. A chief instructor is designated per course, not per school, so the same person may qualify to run the private pilot course and not the commercial one.
| Course The Designation Covers | Pilot-In-Command Time | Instructing Experience Required | Regulation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recreational or private pilot certificate or rating | At least 1,000 hours | Primary flight training experience of at least 2 years and 500 flight hours, or 1,000 flight hours | 141.35(b) |
| Instrument rating, or a rating with instrument privileges | At least 1,000 hours, plus at least 100 hours under actual or simulated instrument conditions | Instrument instructing experience of at least 2 years and 250 flight hours, or 400 flight hours | 141.35(c) |
| Any other course — commercial, flight instructor, ATP and the rest | At least 2,000 hours | Flight training experience of at least 3 years and 1,000 flight hours, or 1,500 flight hours | 141.35(d) |
| Ground school course | Not specified | 1 year of experience as a ground school instructor at a certificated pilot school | 141.35(e) |
Two details are routinely missed. The instructing experience may be acquired as a certificated flight instructor, as an instructor in a military pilot flight training program, or a combination of the two. And glider, balloon and airship courses are treated separately: under 141.35(a)(6) a chief instructor for those courses needs only 40 percent of the hours in paragraphs (b) and (d).
Source for every figure above: Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 141, as published on eCFR with a title issue date of 10 September 2026. Regulations change — check the current text before relying on it for a designation.
Chief, Assistant Chief And Check Instructor
Part 141 recognises three distinct senior positions, and they are often confused with one another. Only the chief instructor is mandatory.
| Position | Required? | Core Function | Entry Experience, Private Pilot Course |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chief instructor | Yes — one per approved course, 141.33(b) | Owns standards, certifies records and graduation, ensures instructor proficiency checks happen | 1,000 hours PIC plus 2 years and 500 hours instructing, or 1,000 hours instructing — 141.35(b) |
| Assistant chief instructor | Optional, "when necessary" — 141.33(c) | Deputises for the chief instructor, including the availability duty in 141.85(b) and delegated checks | 500 hours PIC plus 1 year and 250 hours instructing, or 500 hours instructing — 141.36(b) |
| Check instructor | Optional, and only once the school has at least 10 enrolled students — 141.33(d)(2) | Conducts student stage checks, end-of-course tests and instructor proficiency checks | Commercial or ATP certificate, current flight instructor certificate, 61.57 currency — 141.37(a)(2) |
The check instructor is the position most people get wrong. It is not a junior chief instructor and it has no flight-hour minimum of its own. What it has instead is a chain of authorisation and a conflict-of-interest rule. Under 14 CFR 141.37(a)(1) the candidate is tested by the chief instructor, under 141.37(b) they must be designated in writing by the chief instructor and approved by the responsible Flight Standards office, and under 141.37(c) they may not conduct a stage check or end-of-course test for any student for whom they served as the principal instructor or whom they recommended for that check.
That last rule is the whole point of the position, and it is worth understanding even if you will never train at a Part 141 school: the FAA's structural safeguard is that the person who taught you is not the person who checks you. 14 CFR 141.85(c) lets the chief instructor delegate stage checks, end-of-course tests and instructor proficiency checks to an assistant chief or a check instructor, which is how a school of any size actually runs. And under 141.33(e) one person may hold more than one of these positions provided they qualify for each — which is exactly what happens at a small school, where the chief instructor is also a line instructor with a full roster of students.
What The Title Means At A Part 61 School
A flight school does not have to hold a Part 141 pilot school certificate at all, and plenty at Los Angeles fields train under Part 61 instead. Part 61 contains no chief instructor requirement. There is no designation, no FAA-administered knowledge test for the role, no hour minimum, and no 60-day clock.
So at a Part 61 operation the title is whatever the school makes it. That is not automatically a bad thing — a chief instructor at a good Part 61 school does exactly the four jobs listed at the top of this page, voluntarily, because running a training department without someone owning standards produces inconsistent students. But it does mean the title carries no external verification, and you should treat it as a description of a job rather than as a credential.
Part 61 does acknowledge the role in one narrow place. 14 CFR 61.197(b)(2)(ii) lets a flight instructor establish the recent experience needed to keep the certificate alive by having served, within the preceding 24 calendar months, as a company check pilot, chief flight instructor, company check airman, or flight instructor in a Part 121 or 135 operation — in other words, by holding a position that involves the regular evaluation of pilots. It is a small provision, but it is the FAA recognising that supervising instructors is itself a form of currency. The wider Part 61 and Part 141 comparison is set out in our article on Part 61 versus Part 141 flight school.
See The Operation Before You Judge It. The fastest way to learn how a school runs its standards is to spend an hour on its ramp. A sixty-minute discovery flight is $229 — no tax, no booking fee, $229 is the total — and you fly the airplane yourself.
How The Role Fits An Instructor's Career
Read the hour columns in the tables above as a career map rather than a rulebook. The ladder runs: line instructor, holding a commercial certificate, an instrument rating and a CFI under 14 CFR 61.183, usually with CFII and MEI soon after; then assistant chief instructor, which on a private pilot course needs 500 hours pilot in command and 500 hours of instructing under 141.36(b); then chief instructor on that same course, at double those figures under 141.35(b); then chief instructor on the instrument course, which adds 100 hours of instrument time and instrument instructing experience under 141.35(c); and finally chief instructor for commercial and above, at 2,000 hours pilot in command and 1,500 hours of instructing under 141.35(d).
Notice the tension that produces. An unrestricted airline transport pilot certificate requires 1,500 hours of total time under 14 CFR 61.159, with reduced totals available under 61.160 — the detail is on our page about the 1,500 hour rule and the restricted ATP. Most instructors reach that number and leave for an airline well before they reach 2,000 hours pilot in command and three years of instructing. That is why chief instructors are comparatively scarce, and why the people who hold the role have usually chosen instructing as a career rather than as a bridge.
If that is the direction you want, the practical route is the same as everyone else's at the start: commercial certificate, then the instructor certificates, then volume. Our flight instructor (CFI) course in Los Angeles covers CFI, CFII and MEI together at $15,400, and flight instructor jobs at Van Nuys sets out what the work is actually like week to week. On what any of it pays, read what a flight instructor salary really is before you accept anything — the hourly rate a school charges a student is not instructor compensation, and the two get conflated constantly.
What The Chief Instructor Tells You About A School
If you are a student rather than an instructor, this is the part that matters. You are not going to check anyone's logbook. But the role is a useful lens, because the questions it generates are answerable in a two-minute phone call and the answers are revealing.
- Is there one, and can you meet them? A school where the senior instructor is a name on a website and never on the ramp is a school where standards drift between instructors.
- Who flies your stage checks? The Part 141 principle in 141.37(c) — that the person who taught you does not check you — is good practice at any school, under any part. Ask whether a second instructor flies you before your first solo and before your checkride, and who that is.
- What happens when a student plateaus? Every student stalls somewhere: radio work, landings, the instrument scan. Ask who notices, and what they do about it. A school with a functioning chief instructor has an answer; a school without one will tell you to book more hours.
- What happens if the instructor match is wrong? Changing instructors should be normal, free and unremarkable. The person who arranges it is the chief instructor.
- Are the courses Part 141-approved, and if so, for which certificates? Approval is course by course, and so is the chief instructor designation. A school may be approved for the private course and not the commercial one.
Those five questions will separate schools faster than any price list. Several of them appear again on our guide to choosing a flight school in Los Angeles.
The Chief Flight Instructor At You Fly LA
We train at Van Nuys Airport under Part 61, which means the FAA does not require us to designate a chief instructor. We have one anyway, because the function is worth having whatever the part number says.
Alex, who founded the school, is the chief flight instructor. In practice that means he sets the standards every instructor on our ramp teaches to, so that the syllabus, the maneuver tolerances and the checkride preparation are the same regardless of who is in the right seat; he reviews training progress, which is how a student who has stalled at a particular stage gets noticed rather than left to burn hours; and he flies the stage checks before first solo and before the checkride, so that an instructor other than your primary one evaluates you honestly. He is also the person to talk to when something is not working — an instructor match, a schedule, a question about whether a package is the right one. The rest of the teaching roster is on our instructors page.
The field itself does some of the standard-setting for us. Van Nuys Airport is Class D with a full-time tower, two parallel runways and the Los Angeles Class B shelf directly overhead, so radio discipline and vertical airspace awareness are not optional extras here — they are in every lesson from the first one. What training at the field looks like day to day is on flight training at Van Nuys.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Does A Chief Flying Instructor Do?
A chief flying instructor owns training standards at a flight school. The role sets the tolerances and the syllabus every other instructor teaches to, checks those instructors, reviews student progress, certifies training records and course completion, and is the person a student escalates to when something is not working.
What Are The FAA Requirements To Be A Chief Instructor?
Under 14 CFR 141.35 a chief instructor at a Part 141 pilot school must hold a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate and a current flight instructor certificate with the appropriate ratings, meet the pilot-in-command recency requirements of 14 CFR 61.57, and pass both a knowledge test and a proficiency test. Flight experience depends on the course: 1,000 hours pilot in command for a private pilot course, and 2,000 hours pilot in command for a commercial course.
Is A Chief Flying Instructor The Same As A CFI?
No, and the abbreviation is the problem. In the United States CFI means certificated flight instructor, an individual FAA teaching certificate. In the United Kingdom, Australia and much of the Commonwealth, CFI means chief flying instructor, the senior person running a school's training. They are different things.
What Is The Difference Between A Chief Instructor And An Assistant Chief Instructor?
An assistant chief instructor is optional under 14 CFR 141.33(c) and deputises for the chief instructor, including the requirement in 141.85(b) that one of them be available during training. The experience thresholds are roughly half: for a private pilot course, 500 hours pilot in command under 141.36(b) against 1,000 hours under 141.35(b).
Does Every Flight School Have To Have A Chief Instructor?
Only FAA-approved Part 141 pilot schools do. Part 61 contains no chief instructor requirement, so at a Part 61 school the title is a description of a job rather than an FAA designation. Under 14 CFR 141.87 a Part 141 school that loses its chief instructor may train for no more than 60 days without one, and after that must cease operations and surrender its certificate.
Who Is The Chief Flight Instructor At You Fly LA?
Alex, who founded the school, is the chief flight instructor. He sets the standards every instructor on our ramp teaches to, reviews training progress, and flies the stage checks before first solo and before the checkride.
Talk To Us
If you are choosing a school, ask the five questions above of everyone on your list, including us. Call (818) 330-1318 between 9 AM and 9 PM, seven days a week, or come and stand on the ramp at 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406. If you would rather start by flying, a sixty-minute discovery flight is $229 — no tax, no booking fee, $229 is the total — and the time is loggable toward a private pilot certificate.
Book A Discovery Flight — $229 Book A Free Consultation Call (818) 330-1318
You Fly LA · 7900 Balboa Blvd, Van Nuys, CA 91406 · Open 9 AM – 9 PM, 7 days.