Part Of Overall Recommendations Approved By The ARAC Last Week

The recent Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) report that was approved last week by the committee contains a recommendation to change requirements that require CFIs to hold that designation for two years before they may train a first time instructor applicant.

The change recommended by the ARAC says that a CFI must: “have held a flight instructor certificate for at least 24 months or has completed a FAA approved standardization course at a part 141 training school that provides instruction on the intricacies of training a flight instructor applicant.”

The ARAC said that it made the recommendation because of the high turnover in CFIs. "The flight instructor profession is a transient position for the vast majority of pilots on their way to fly jets professionally. As a result, instructors are moving fast to Regional Airlines; our turnover (and the turnover across the training industry) is approaching 90% annually. This turnover is severely limiting the number of flight instructors available that meet the requirement of 61.195," the report states. "This regulation sets the requirements for an instructor pilot to train individuals in the CFI course. As of right now, we have about 40 students waiting to start their CFI training who cannot start due to the lack of human resources that meet the requirements of 61.196 (and the backlog is growing).”

But the report also notes: "A shortage of CFIs increases the training time of new flight students thus increasing the time it takes for new pilots to complete their flight training and ATP requirements. This delay further exacerbates the pilot shortage problem.”

Aviation analyst Jason Blair, an active single- and multi-engine instructor and a FAA Designated Pilot Examiner with over 5,000 hours total time and over 3,000 hours instruction given, writes on his blog that the recommendation seems to be a business decision, not one based on consideration of quality flight instruction.

The recommendation is only that, and no official rulemaking has been proposed to codify the change. But Blair notes that it could be taken up in a future rulemaking process.

(Source: Jason Blair blog)

FMI: Original Post