Chief Flying Instructor: What The Title Means, What The Job Is, And Why “CFI” Means Something Else In America

The senior instructor responsible for training standards at a flight school: the syllabus, the standardisation of the other instructors, the supervision of new ones, the sign-off of the big decisions such as first solo and checkride recommendation, and the training records. In Britain and most of the Commonwealth the title is chief flying instructor and it is a formal regulatory role; in the United States the equivalent is the chief instructor, which the FAA defines under 14 CFR Part 141.

In the UK, CFI stands for chief flying instructor, one senior person who runs a school's training. In the US, CFI stands for certificated flight instructor, the certificate every flight instructor holds under 14 CFR Part 61. A school with eleven instructors has eleven CFIs, and the letters say nothing about seniority. The American equivalent of the British chief flying instructor is the chief instructor.

Under 14 CFR 141.35, a Part 141 school's chief instructor for a private pilot course must hold a commercial or ATP certificate with a flight instructor certificate for the category and class, have at least 1,000 hours as pilot in command, and have either two years and 500 hours of primary flight instruction experience or 1,000 hours of instruction given. The requirements are higher for instrument and commercial courses, and the chief instructor must pass an FAA check before serving in the role.

No. The FAA regulates the individual instructors at a Part 61 school, not the school itself, so there is no requirement for anyone to be in charge of training standards. Good Part 61 schools appoint a chief instructor anyway. Los Angeles Flight School is a Part 61 school whose owner is also its chief pilot, with more than twenty years teaching, and who still flies with students.

Flies stage checks with students before solo, solo cross-country and the checkride recommendation; flies standardisation flights with instructors; reviews training records and endorsements; supervises newly certificated instructors; keeps the syllabus current with the Airman Certification Standards; and makes the weather, maintenance and readiness calls that set the school's safety culture.

Ask for a name, ask how often that person flies with students, ask how new instructors are brought on and supervised, ask who reviews first solo and checkride recommendations, ask what happens if your instructor leaves, and ask to meet them before you pay. A school that answers all six specifically and puts you in front of the person is one where somebody is checking.

Our owner and chief pilot, who has more than twenty years teaching, two decades in the left seat, and who is the person most students meet on their very first flight. All eleven instructors hold a commercial or ATP certificate plus the CFI, and are career instructors rather than pilots building hours toward an airline date, which is what makes standardisation from one instructor to the next hold.

Not quite, though at a small school one person often holds both. A chief pilot is responsible for flight operations — aircraft, dispatch, operational safety — while a chief instructor is responsible for training standards and instructors. At Los Angeles Flight School the owner holds the chief pilot role and leads training, which is common at owner-operated schools and means the person accountable for the aircraft is also accountable for how you are taught in them.

Yes, and it is the natural senior role for a career instructor. The path is the flight instructor certificate, then years of instruction — the FAA's Part 141 benchmark is roughly 1,000 hours as pilot in command plus either two years and 500 hours of primary instruction or 1,000 hours of instruction given — then the instrument instructor and multi-engine instructor ratings that let you standardise every course a school teaches. Our CFI pay and career path page covers what the job pays along the way.

Because the certificate is the same everywhere and the difference between schools is almost entirely how consistently they teach. A chief instructor who flies with students and instructors is the mechanism that keeps ten instructors teaching one way, catches a student who is being pushed to solo too early, and notices an instructor who has drifted. Without that person the quality of your training depends entirely on the luck of which instructor you were assigned.