How to Become a Certified Flight Instructor

by Kevin Smith Author

Becoming a pilot is its own kind of adventure, but teaching others how to fly is the next level. The journey of gaining your CFI license in Conroe, TX, comes with a few crucial steps. Here's what you need to know about getting licensed as a flight instructor.

If You're Eligible

This may not be your grandfather's air force spit fighter anymore, but that doesn't mean that there aren't still certain requirements for flying an aircraft or for teaching others to do so. You must be 18 years old, able to read, speak, and write in English, while also already holding a pilot's license. That can either be in commercial piloting or in airline transport. Having this type of licensing is obviously a prerequisite to becoming a piloting instructor.

Study Up

As with any test, it's important to prepare well before you take the exam. You can check out online FFA safety briefings and ACs, or advisory circulars, to provide you with relevant information to study. The purpose of testing preparation is really...teaching preparation! You're not just preparing your own study tools, you're preparing study tools that you'd want to use in future lessons, and then giving a demonstration using them. Think of this test prep time as a future investment! If it helps, practice teaching these instructions on someone else so that they can help give constructive feedback.

Be Ready for the Check Ride

This is what it all boils down to: Can you effectively instruct, correct, and inform a student in action? The Check ride process will involve you and an instructor partnering one-on-one to practice teaching them on the ground and in the air. While teaching about safety procedure, systems, and operations thoroughly for multiple types of planes, your instructor may attempt to push the boundaries on the fly in the same way that an unlicensed pilot would. Stay alert! Make sure that you keep your eyes open for intentional mis-steps from your own testing instructor, so that you don't let them get away with anything--and they don't dock you points as a result! This is known to be the most intensive part of the flight instructor testing process, and it can end up lasting for a long time. Make sure you get a good measure of what that looks like beforehand, so that you're prepared!

Getting your CFI license in Conroe, TX, is an exciting chance to turn your flying passion around, and show others how it's done!