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CFII PTS · FAA-S-8081-9E · Updated September 2026
The CFII PTS: What The Instrument Instructor Checkride Tests, Area By Area
The flight instructor instrument checkride is the one FAA practical test still run to a Practical Test Standard rather than an ACS, and the document is FAA-S-8081-9E. It has ten areas of operation, and the examiner does not get to pick freely: some tasks are compulsory on every ride. Here is what the PTS requires, which tasks you will certainly be asked for, what the regulations demand before you can apply, and how we prepare instructors for it in the right seat at Van Nuys.
10 Areas Of OperationFII Knowledge Test: 50 Questions, 2.5 HoursStill A PTS, Not An ACS
10areas of operation in the Flight Instructor Instrument PTS, from Fundamentals of Instructing through Postflight Procedures
50questions on the FII knowledge test, 2 hours 30 minutes, 70 percent to pass, no endorsement needed for a first attempt
15hours as pilot in command in the category and class of aircraft, the minimum 14 CFR 61.183 sets for any flight instructor rating
2approaches that are mandatory on every CFII ride: one nonprecision and one precision, combined with a missed, a circle or a landing
What A CFII Is
The Rating That Lets You Teach Instrument Flying
A flight instructor certificate with an instrument rating. Most instructors add it a few months after the initial CFI, and it changes what a year of instructing looks like.
The CFII, formally a flight instructor certificate with an instrument—airplane rating, authorizes you to give the training and endorsements the instrument rating requires: the 15 hours of instruction from an authorized instrument instructor under 61.65, the knowledge and practical test endorsements, and instrument proficiency checks for rated pilots who have let their currency lapse. Without it, a CFI can teach everything up to the private certificate and the commercial maneuvers, but not the rating almost every professional student needs next.
That is why it matters commercially as well as legally. An instructor with a CFII fills the calendar with instrument students, who fly in weather that grounds primary students and who log every hour under the hood as dual given. At a busy Southern California school the CFII is the difference between a slow winter and a full one, and it is the rating that most quickly moves a new instructor toward the 1,500 hours the airlines require.
Since the flight instructor airplane checkride moved to an Airman Certification Standard in May 2024, the instrument instructor ride has been the odd one out: it is still administered to a Practical Test Standard, FAA-S-8081-9E, which took effect in November 2023. Expect that to change eventually. For now, the PTS is the document, and it is worth reading closely, because it tells you exactly which tasks are not optional.
Before You Can Apply
The 14 CFR 61.183 Requirements For A CFII
These are the eligibility rules for a flight instructor certificate or added rating. For the instrument rating specifically, the two that catch people are the pilot-in-command time and the endorsements.
| Requirement | What The Rule Says | In Practice |
|---|---|---|
| Pilot Certificate | Commercial or ATP certificate with an instrument rating appropriate to the flight instructor rating sought | Your commercial certificate must carry instrument—airplane; a commercial without one cannot add a CFII |
| Pilot In Command Time | At least 15 hours as PIC in the category and class of aircraft appropriate to the rating | Airplane single-engine for almost every applicant; most have far more by the time they reach this point |
| Knowledge Test | Pass the Flight Instructor Instrument (FII) knowledge test | 50 questions, 2 hours 30 minutes, 70 percent; no endorsement is needed for a first attempt, only for a retest |
| Fundamentals Of Instructing | Pass the FOI knowledge test unless you already hold a flight or ground instructor certificate | Instructors adding the CFII to an existing CFI skip it; an initial CFII applicant does not |
| Ground And Flight Training | Receive and log training from an authorized instructor on the areas of operation in 61.187(b) for the instrument rating, and be endorsed as prepared | Right-seat instrument flying, teaching from the right seat, and a logbook endorsement for the practical test |
| Age And Language | At least 18, and able to read, speak, write and understand English | Rarely an issue for a commercial pilot |
One quirk worth knowing: the instrument rating can be your initial flight instructor rating. An applicant who holds a commercial certificate with an instrument rating may sit the CFII first and add the airplane rating later. Almost nobody does, because the CFI—airplane is the certificate that lets you teach primary students, and that is where the work is. If you are in doubt, our page on the flight instructor path lays out the usual order.
The PTS, Area By Area
What FAA-S-8081-9E Makes The Examiner Test
Every area of operation carries a selection rule. Where the rule names a task, that task will be on your ride; where it says “at least one,” the examiner chooses. Plan your preparation around the compulsory ones first.
| Area | Tasks | Selection Rule |
|---|---|---|
| I. Fundamentals Of Instructing | Learning process; human behavior and communication; teaching process; teaching methods; critique and evaluation; instructor characteristics and responsibilities; planning instructional activity | Tasks E, F and G are compulsory, plus one other |
| II. Technical Subject Areas | Flight instruments and navigation equipment; aeromedical factors; regulations and publications for IFR; logbook entries for instrument instruction | Tasks A and D are compulsory, plus at least one other |
| III. Preflight Preparation | Weather information; cross-country flight planning; instrument flight deck check | At least one |
| IV. Preflight Lesson On A Maneuver | A ground lesson on one maneuver from areas VI to IX, delivered as you would to a student | At least one maneuver |
| V. ATC Clearances And Procedures | Clearances; compliance with departure, en route and arrival procedures | At least one |
| VI. Flight By Reference To Instruments | Straight and level; turns; airspeed changes; constant airspeed climbs and descents; constant rate climbs and descents; timed turns to compass headings; steep turns; recovery from unusual attitudes | Task H, unusual attitudes, is compulsory, plus at least one other |
| VII. Navigation Aids | Intercepting and tracking navigation systems and DME arcs; holding procedures | Both tasks, every time |
| VIII. Instrument Approach Procedures | Nonprecision approach; precision approach; missed approach; circling approach; landing from a straight-in approach | Tasks A and B, combined with C, D or E |
| IX. Emergency Operations | Loss of communications; approach with loss of primary flight instruments; engine failure and one-engine-inoperative approach (multi-engine only) | At least one |
| X. Postflight Procedures | Checking instruments and equipment | Single task |
Read the rules together and the compulsory core of every CFII ride is clear: three named fundamentals-of-instructing tasks, the flight instruments and logbook entries tasks, unusual attitude recovery, intercepting and tracking plus holding, and one nonprecision and one precision approach. Everything else is at the examiner’s discretion. The special emphasis areas the PTS names — positive exchange of controls, stall and spin awareness, runway incursion avoidance, controlled flight into terrain, icing, checklist usage, aeronautical decision making and single-pilot resource management — are not separate tasks but can be woven into any of them, and usually are.
The Standard You Are Held To
Instrument Pilot Skill, While Teaching From The Right Seat
The PTS asks for two things at once, and the second is what fails people.
The first is flying. The applicant must perform every maneuver and procedure to the instrument pilot skill level: the same tolerances an instrument rating applicant is held to, flown from the right seat, often with the examiner playing a student who makes mistakes. Holding entries, DME arcs, a partial-panel approach and a circle to land are all fair game, in an aircraft you may have flown mostly from the left.
The second is instructional knowledge. The PTS defines it by reference to the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook, FAA-H-8083-9, and it means your explanations follow a recognizable teaching structure, you can recognize and analyze the common errors a student makes on each task and explain how to correct them, and you can build scenario-based instruction rather than reciting procedures. The examiner is not only checking that you can fly an ILS to minimums; they are checking that you could teach someone else to, and catch them when they drift.
Since the PTS also requires the applicant to teach and evaluate single-pilot and crew resource management, expect questions on how you would structure a student’s workload on a busy approach, not just how you would fly it.
How To Prepare
Six Things That Decide The CFII Ride
01
Move To The Right Seat Early
Instrument flying from the right seat with a different sight picture and your left hand on the yoke is a skill of its own. Start there from the first training flight, not the last.
02
Build The Compulsory Tasks First
Unusual attitudes, holding, intercepting and tracking, one precision and one nonprecision approach, the flight instruments and logbook tasks, and the three named FOI tasks. These are on every ride.
03
Write Real Lesson Plans
Area IV asks you to teach a maneuver on the ground before you fly it. Bring lesson plans you have actually used on the simulator or with a study partner, not ones drafted the night before.
04
Learn The Common Errors
For every task, know the three or four mistakes students make and what you would say to fix them. Overshooting the inbound on a hold, chasing the glideslope, fixating on one instrument during partial panel. The PTS grades this explicitly.
05
Know The Logbook Rules Cold
Area II Task D is compulsory: what an instrument training entry must contain, what an IPC endorsement says, what 61.65 requires you to certify. Get the wording right.
06
Use The Simulator For Reps
The Redbird MCX at Van Nuys lets a candidate fly the local approaches and teach a partial-panel approach ten times in an hour. Repetition is what makes the teaching sound natural.
At Van Nuys
Where The Instrument Instructors Come From
Many of our instrument instructors trained here, added the CFII after their initial CFI, and went on to teach the instrument rating in the same Piper Warriors and the same Redbird they trained in. The Los Angeles airspace helps: a candidate at Van Nuys flies real clearances into Class C and under the Class B on every training flight, works approaches at several airports within twenty minutes of the field, and learns to teach the coastal marine layer as something to plan for rather than something to fear.
The CFII course is built around the PTS. Ground work covers the fundamentals of instructing and the technical subject areas; flight and simulator work covers areas III to X from the right seat, with the compulsory tasks drilled first and the examiner-choice tasks layered on. Pricing for instructor training is set at the consultation, because the hours a candidate needs vary more than at any other stage; ask and you will get a real number.
What People Say
5.0 Stars, 120+ Reviews
On Google, the same three things come up again and again. The first one is what a CFII is for.
★
Instructors Who Actually Teach
The most repeated compliment in our reviews is not the aircraft or the price — it is the debrief, and instructors who can explain why the approach went the way it did.
★
Scheduling That Works
Eleven instructors and a fleet we own means an instrument student flies in the weather they need, and an instructor candidate gets the right seat when it is booked.
★
Prices That Don’t Move
The number you enroll at is the number you finish at, on every program with a published price.
Programs And Pricing
The Ratings On The Way To A CFII
One number, fixed at enrollment. Aircraft, instructor, ground school, simulator time and books are all inside it. Financing from $2,500 down, with monthly plans available.
Prerequisite
Instrument Rating
$11,700
The rating a CFII teaches, and the one you must hold to apply. Taught in the Piper Warrior and the Redbird MCX.
- Instrument flight instruction with a CFIIIncluded
- Redbird full-motion simulator timeIncluded
- Ground school and written preparationIncluded
- Books & training materialsIncluded
Commercial Pilot
$15,900
The certificate every flight instructor holds, flown in the complex Piper Arrow.
- Commercial maneuvers in the complex Piper ArrowIncluded
- Ground school and written preparationIncluded
- Books & training materialsIncluded
Airline Pilot Program
$82,000
Private, instrument, commercial, multi-engine and flight instructor certificates, from your first lesson to the day you are hireable.
- Every certificate and rating the airlines requireIncluded
- Redbird full-motion simulatorIncluded
- Multi-engine time in the Piper SeminoleIncluded
- Ground school and checkride preparationIncluded
- Books & training materialsIncluded
Also available: Standard Private Pilot $10,600 · Comprehensive Private Pilot $14,900 · Premium Private Pilot (Cirrus SR22 Turbo) $21,300 · Multi-Engine add-on $5,100 · Sport Pilot $8,400. Flight instructor and instrument instructor training is priced at the consultation.
Black Friday: $300–$1,200 off any private pilot program through 30 November 2026. Standard $10,600 · Comprehensive $14,900 · Premium $21,300. Financing from $2,500 down.
Getting Started
Talk To An Instructor Who Has Sat The Ride
The fastest way to a real plan and a real price for instructor training is a conversation with someone who teaches it.
Start Here
Free Consultation
$0
Bring your logbook. Sit down with an instrument instructor, go through where you are against 61.183, and leave with a training plan and a number.
Redbird Simulator Session
$189 / 1 hr
Full-motion and FAA-approved. Fly a partial-panel approach from the right seat and find out how much of the CFII you already have.
Discovery Flight For One
$229 / 60 min
Not yet a pilot? This is lesson one, logged as dual instruction and credited in full against any program if you enroll within 24 hours.
Next Step
Teach The Rating You Worked Hardest For
Book a consultation with an instrument instructor, or call (818) 290-8249, 9am to 9pm, seven days, and ask for someone who has taken the CFII ride recently.
Free In-Person Consultation
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FAQ
CFII PTS And Checkride Questions
Straight answers on the instrument instructor standard, the requirements, and the ride itself.
The Flight Instructor Instrument Practical Test Standards, FAA-S-8081-9E, effective November 2023. It is the document the examiner uses on the instrument instructor checkride: ten areas of operation, the tasks under each, the selection rules that make some tasks compulsory, and the standard the applicant must fly and teach to.
As of September 2026 it is still a PTS. The flight instructor airplane checkride moved to an Airman Certification Standard on 31 May 2024, but the flight instructor instrument test continues under FAA-S-8081-9E. Check the FAA testing page before your ride in case that changes.
Under 14 CFR 61.183 you need a commercial or ATP certificate with an instrument rating, at least 15 hours as pilot in command in the category and class of aircraft, a pass on the FII knowledge test, the Fundamentals of Instructing test unless you already hold an instructor certificate, and logged ground and flight training with an endorsement for the practical test. You must be 18 and proficient in English.
No. The instrument rating can be the initial flight instructor rating if you hold a commercial certificate with an instrument rating. Nearly everyone earns the CFI airplane first, because that is the certificate that lets you teach primary students, and then adds the CFII, which also lets you skip the Fundamentals of Instructing knowledge test.
The Flight Instructor Instrument test is 50 questions in 2 hours 30 minutes with a passing score of 70 percent. It covers instrument regulations, procedures, navigation, weather and instructional topics. A first attempt does not need an instructor endorsement; a retest does.
The PTS selection rules make these compulsory on every ride: fundamentals of instructing tasks E, F and G; flight instruments and navigation equipment, and logbook entries; recovery from unusual attitudes; intercepting and tracking navigation systems including DME arcs; holding; and one nonprecision and one precision approach combined with a missed approach, a circling approach or a landing from a straight-in.
Two at once. You must fly every task to the instrument pilot skill level, from the right seat, while giving effective instruction. And you must show instructional knowledge as the Aviation Instructor's Handbook defines it: explanations that follow a teaching structure, the ability to recognize and correct a student's common errors, and scenario-based instruction that teaches resource management.
Instrument training toward the instrument rating, including the 15 hours from an authorized instrument instructor that 61.65 requires, the knowledge and practical test endorsements, and instrument proficiency checks for rated pilots who are out of currency. A CFI without the instrument rating cannot give any of those.
It varies more than any other rating because it depends on how current your instrument flying is and how quickly you adapt to teaching from the right seat. A current, sharp instrument pilot who already holds a CFI can be ready in a few weeks of focused training; the number of hours is set at the consultation once we have seen your logbook.
Instructor training is priced at the free consultation rather than as a fixed package, because the hours a candidate needs vary widely. The ratings on the way there are fixed: the instrument rating is $11,700 and the commercial certificate is $15,900, and the $82,000 Airline Pilot Program takes you from zero through the flight instructor certificates.
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I recently had the chance to take my first-ever discovery flight, and it was nothing short of amazing! From the moment I stepped into the cockpit, the...
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It was a great flight! I did a sunset flight and Alex let us fly an awesome. Website was easy to book, and the plane itself was really fun to fly...
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We had a great flying lesson with Ralph and came away with a much better understanding of both the aircraft and the principles of flight. Ralph is a...
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I got 2 luxury discovery flights for my kids. I wanted them to have the experience of flying. Our instructor Alex was amazing he made sure they feel...
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Last minute booking to surprise my wife on our honeymoon. She had no experience with flying and was scared of flying, but Alex was very easygoing and knew...
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Amazing flight school in van nuys airport. I have been a student here for the past few months and i could not be happier. I started doing a lot of...
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I booked a Discovery Flight for Two for my girlfriend's birthday and it was the perfect gift for her. She couldn't have been more excited to get to...
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TEEN FIRST LESSON
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We gifted our teenage son his first flying lesson. He was so excited! Alex greeted us and gave a reassuring brief that made us all feel comfortable and at...
FIRST-TIME FLYER
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Flying is my husband's hobby and I was incredibly anxious and apprehensive about the discovery flight. However, I felt completely safe and at ease once we...
SAFETY FIRST
★★★★★
Very safety and detail oriented. Pre-flight briefing explained everything there was. To my knowledge, this flight school is exceptional in their ability.
DISCOVERY FLIGHT
★★★★★
I recently had the chance to take my first-ever discovery flight, and it was nothing short of amazing! From the moment I stepped into the cockpit, the...
SUNSET CIRRUS
★★★★★
It was a great flight! I did a sunset flight and Alex let us fly an awesome. Website was easy to book, and the plane itself was really fun to fly...
FLYING LESSON
★★★★★
We had a great flying lesson with Ralph and came away with a much better understanding of both the aircraft and the principles of flight. Ralph is a...
KIDS LUXURY FLIGHT
★★★★★
I got 2 luxury discovery flights for my kids. I wanted them to have the experience of flying. Our instructor Alex was amazing he made sure they feel...
HONEYMOON SURPRISE
★★★★★
Last minute booking to surprise my wife on our honeymoon. She had no experience with flying and was scared of flying, but Alex was very easygoing and knew...
FULL-MOTION SIM
★★★★★
Amazing flight school in van nuys airport. I have been a student here for the past few months and i could not be happier. I started doing a lot of...
DISCOVERY FOR TWO
★★★★★
I booked a Discovery Flight for Two for my girlfriend's birthday and it was the perfect gift for her. She couldn't have been more excited to get to...
SIMULATORS
★★★★★
Very professional and great airplanes. I love the flight simulators. The pricing is very fair compared to any other flight school
TEEN FIRST LESSON
★★★★★
We gifted our teenage son his first flying lesson. He was so excited! Alex greeted us and gave a reassuring brief that made us all feel comfortable and at...
FIRST-TIME FLYER
★★★★★
Flying is my husband's hobby and I was incredibly anxious and apprehensive about the discovery flight. However, I felt completely safe and at ease once we...
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