All FAA Certified Flight Instructors Are Sport Pilot Instructor, But They May Not Know It

All certified flight instructors are allowed to provide sport pilot training, but not all flight instructors can provide training for certificates above that level. This can be confusing and some flight instructors themselves are not clear about their instructor privileges.

A big part of this confusion comes from the way FAR Part 61 titles the Subparts regarding flight instructor ratings. Prior to the creation of the sport pilot rules and the new sport pilot instructor rating, all flight instructors were certified under FAR Part 61, Subpart H. Before the sport pilot instructor was created as a separate rating, subpart H was simply titled, Flight Instructor.

But the title of Subpart H changed in 2004 because the FAA was concerned that the addition of the new sport pilot instructor as Subpart K of FAR Part 61 would confuse things (are you confused yet?). As is commonly the case, when the government tries to simplify things for clarity it only muddies up the water. Here are the current two titles now in FAR 61 for flight instructor Ratings:

• Subpart H - Flight Instructors Other Than Flight Instructors with a Sport Pilot Rating
• Subpart K - Flight Instructors with a Sport Pilot Rating

When these titles were changed in 2004 many existing Subpart H flight instructors took it to mean they were excluded from training sport pilots. That’s not what the title means. All Subpart H rated instructors may train sport pilots. The title change to Subpart H was only to differentiate it from the new Subpart K… It did not impose new limitations. The Subpart K title is for a different flight instructor rating that only allows sport pilot training.

FMI: www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/faa_regulations/