CFI Requirements: How to Become a Certified Flight Instructor (Step by Step)
- Nathan Hodell
- Jun 11
- 4 min read
The CFI certificate is the credential that turns you from a pilot into a professional — and for most career-track aviators, it's how you'll build the hours to the airlines while getting paid. Here's every requirement, in order, with the recent rule changes that matter.
Eligibility: 14 CFR 61.183
Before you can take the CFI practical test, you must:
Be at least 18 years old
Read, speak, write, and understand English
Hold a commercial pilot certificate or ATP with an instrument rating (for airplane single-engine instructor privileges)
Hold at least a third-class medical when exercising privileges that require one
Pass the required knowledge tests
Receive the required training and endorsements, including spin training
Log at least 15 hours as pilot in command in the category and class of aircraft for the rating sought
Note the hour requirement people usually quote — 250 hours — actually comes from the commercial certificate prerequisite (190 under Part 141), not from the CFI rules themselves. By the time you're commercial-rated and instrument-rated, you meet the experience gate.
Step 1: The Two Written Exams
The CFI initial requires two knowledge tests:
Fundamentals of Instructing (FOI): 50 questions on learning theory, human behavior, teaching methods, assessment, and instructor responsibilities — drawn from the FAA's Aviation Instructor's Handbook. You're exempt if you already hold a flight or ground instructor certificate, or if you're a current teacher at an accredited institution (with documentation).
Flight Instructor Airplane (FIA): 100 questions covering the same aeronautical knowledge as the private and commercial tests — but asked from the instructor's perspective. You're expected to know why, not just what.
Take both before starting intensive checkride prep so they're off your plate.
Step 2: Spin Training
CFI applicants must receive ground and flight training on stall awareness, spin entry, spins, and spin recovery, with a logbook endorsement showing instructional proficiency (61.183(i)). This is the only certificate that requires actual spins — and most candidates find it's the most fun box to check. Do it in an aircraft approved for intentional spins with an instructor who teaches spins regularly.
Step 3: Lesson Plans and the Right Seat
The two skills that define CFI prep:
Building lesson plans. You need a lesson plan for every task in the Private and Commercial ACS — the DPE will pick from them at random and have you teach. Building (or at least deeply personalizing) your lesson plan library is itself the best studying you'll do. This is exactly what the wifiCFI lesson plan library exists for: complete, checkride-ready plans you can teach from and make your own.
Flying from the right seat while talking. You'll relearn your sight pictures and learn to fly to commercial standards while simultaneously explaining what you're doing. Budget 10–20 hours of right-seat dual for most candidates.
Step 4: The Checkride
The CFI initial is widely considered the hardest checkride in general aviation — a 4–8 hour oral followed by a flight where you teach every maneuver from the right seat. First-time pass rates run noticeably lower than other certificates. (We've covered the checkride itself in depth in our CFI Checkride Guide.)
The initial CFI practical test historically had to be done with an FSDO inspector or specially authorized DPE; today most initial rides go to DPEs, but scheduling backlogs are real — get on an examiner's calendar early.
The Big Rule Change: CFI Certificates No Longer Expire
Under the FAA's final rule that took effect in December 2024, flight instructor certificates are no longer issued with a 24-month expiration date. Instead of "renewing" a certificate, instructors now maintain recent experience requirements on a rolling 24-calendar-month basis — through activity like endorsing and training students with acceptable pass rates, completing a FIRC (Flight Instructor Refresher Course), passing a practical test, or other qualifying activities.
Practical implications:
No more certificate expiration date printed on your CFI certificate
Lapsed recency can be re-established without the old "reinstatement checkride" in many cases, depending on how it's restored
FIRCs remain the most common path for instructors who aren't actively teaching
The same rulemaking also relaxed the requirements for who can train initial CFI applicants — expanding the pool of instructors eligible to give that instruction.
Is the CFI Worth It?
Beyond hour building: teaching is the fastest way to actually master aviation knowledge. Explaining adverse yaw to a confused student at 3,000 feet will teach you more aerodynamics than any textbook. Instructor pay has also risen meaningfully — many schools now pay $30–$50+ per hour, and independent CFIs in strong markets charge more.
If you're starting your CFI journey, begin with the lesson plans — they're the spine of your checkride and your first year of teaching. The wifiCFI CFI ground school and lesson plan library were built by working instructors for exactly this stage.
Study Full Aviation Courses:
wifiCFI's full suite of aviation courses has everything you need to go from brand new to flight instructor and airline pilot! Check out any of the courses below for free:
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Author: Nathan Hodell
CFI, CFII, MEI, ATP, Creator and CEO
Nathan is an aviation enthusiast that has thousands of hours of flying and flight instruction over the past 15+ years. Through his aviation career he has been able to earn his ATP, fly as an airline pilot, create a flight school with over 80 students, 12 airplanes, and 2 locations, and create and host wifiCFI.