Flight Instructors and Examiners

A flight instructor teaches: gives ground and flight training, supervises the student's first solo flights and certifies in writing what has been taught. An examiner tests: conducts the skill test or proficiency check and decides whether the candidate meets the standard. Both EASA and the FAA keep the two roles apart, so that a candidate is recommended by the person who trained them and judged by someone who did not.

The paperwork differs. Under Part-FCL, instructors and examiners hold instructor certificates and examiner certificates issued alongside their pilot licence, and most instruction takes place within an approved training organisation (ATO) or a declared training organisation (DTO). The FAA issues a separate flight instructor certificate with its own ratings, lets that instructor teach independently under Part 61 or within a Part 141 school, and delegates most practical tests to designated pilot examiners (DPEs). In airlines both systems add a further layer: training captains and check captains who train and check crews on type.

The role of flight instructors

An instructor's first job is teaching, and the FAA's Aviation Instructor's Handbook treats it as a skill in its own right: how people learn, how to plan a lesson, how to assess a student and how to give feedback that improves the next attempt. Beyond teaching, the instructor carries regulatory responsibilities:

• deciding when a student is safe to fly solo, and authorising each solo flight;
• signing the logbook entries and endorsements that record the training (see pilot endorsements and additional ratings);
• recommending the student for the theoretical examinations or the skill test, which under Part-FCL is done by the training organisation;
• conducting some checks that fall short of a test, such as the FAA flight review and the training flight of at least 1 hour with an instructor that forms part of the revalidation of an EASA single-engine piston class rating by experience.

FAA instructor certificates

The FAA flight instructor certificate is issued under Subpart H of 14 CFR Part 61. For aeroplanes the applicant must already hold a commercial or airline transport pilot certificate with an instrument rating, pass two knowledge tests, one on the fundamentals of instructing (FOI) and one on flight instructor aeronautical knowledge (FIA), and pass a practical test. An aeroplane applicant also needs a logbook endorsement for spin training. The certificate then carries one or more ratings:

An instructor may teach only in aircraft for which he or she holds the category and class ratings on the pilot certificate. The FAA also issues ground instructor certificates, which allow classroom teaching and knowledge test endorsements but no flight training.

The usual American route to the airlines runs through these certificates. After the commercial certificate most pilots add the CFI, CFII and MEI and spend one or two years teaching at a flight school, which builds the flight time needed for the airline transport pilot certificate while sharpening their own knowledge.

EASA instructor certificates

Part-FCL Subpart J defines the instructor categories. Each certificate is tied to what may be taught:

The applicant must hold at least the licence and rating for which instruction is to be given, complete an instructor training course that includes teaching and learning, and pass an assessment of competence with an examiner. A newly qualified FI starts with restricted privileges, instructing under the supervision of a more experienced FI until enough instruction has been given and solo flights supervised. Instructor certificates are valid for 3 years. They are revalidated by meeting the combination of instructing activity, refresher training and periodic assessment of competence that Part-FCL sets for each category.

The TRI and SFI are the airline instructors, the CRI and IRI the typical instructors for private pilots adding ratings, and the STI works in the flight and navigation procedures trainers that carry much of the instrument training.

Instructor endorsements

In the United States the phrase instructor endorsement means the signed statements an authorised instructor enters in a logbook: pre-solo and solo endorsements, the knowledge and practical test recommendations, the flight review, the complex, high-performance, high-altitude and tailwheel endorsements of 61.31, and many more. The instructor who signs takes responsibility for the training behind it, and a false endorsement is a false record under 14 CFR 61.59.

Part-FCL has no endorsement system of this kind, but the instructor's signature does similar work:

• Solo flights are authorised by the instructor, and a student pilot on a solo cross-country flight carries evidence of that authorisation.
• Differences training on a new variant within a class is entered in the logbook and signed by the instructor (FCL.710).
• The refresher training flight for the revalidation of a single-engine piston class rating is flown with an instructor, not an examiner, and recorded in the logbook.
• Time as student pilot in command, and flight time under supervision, count as pilot-in-command time only when countersigned by the instructor.

The training organisation, not the individual instructor, recommends a student for the theoretical knowledge examinations, and that recommendation is valid for 12 months.

Logging dual given

The student logs dual instruction received; the instructor logs dual given, often in a separate column. Under 14 CFR 61.51(e) an authorised instructor may log as pilot-in-command time all flight time during which he or she acts as an authorised instructor, and under 61.51(h) the student's training entry must be signed by the instructor with a description of the training and its duration. Part-FCL's acceptable means of compliance for FCL.050 similarly allows the holder of an instructor certificate to log as pilot in command all flight time spent acting as an instructor in an aircraft.

This time counts. For many American pilots, several hundred hours of dual given, often 700 to 1,200, are the bridge between the commercial certificate at 250 hours and the ATP minimum of 1,500. Airlines read those logbooks closely, and totals that do not add up, or pilot-in-command time logged without a basis in 61.51, can sink an application (see flight time logging and recent experience).

Examiners: FE, IRE and TRE

Part-FCL Subpart K defines the examiner certificates:

• the flight examiner (FE), for skill tests and proficiency checks on light aircraft licences and ratings;
• the type rating examiner (TRE), for type rating skill tests and proficiency checks and the ATPL skill test;
• the class rating examiner (CRE), for class ratings such as multi-engine piston;
• the instrument rating examiner (IRE), for instrument rating skill tests and proficiency checks;
• the synthetic flight examiner (SFE), for tests and checks in a full flight simulator;
• the flight instructor examiner (FIE), for the assessments of competence of instructors.

An examiner must hold a licence, ratings and certificates at least equivalent to those being tested, be qualified to act as pilot in command during the test, and complete a standardisation course provided by the competent authority or by an ATO approved for it. Examiner certificates are valid for 3 years. Part-FCL also guards against vested interests: an examiner may not conduct the skill test of a candidate to whom he or she gave more than 25 per cent of the required flight instruction, nor any test or check whenever his or her objectivity may be affected, for example by a family, friendship or business link with the candidate.

In the United States most practical tests are given by a designated pilot examiner (DPE), a private individual authorised by the FAA to test and to issue a temporary certificate on a pass. FAA aviation safety inspectors test too, and within airlines and training centres check airmen and training centre evaluators conduct type rating tests and proficiency checks under their own authorisations. All of them work to the Airman Certification Standards (see knowledge tests and checkrides).

Airline training captains

In an airline, training captain is a job title rather than a licence category. Under EASA rules the simulator training for a type rating is given by TRIs and SFIs, the licence skill tests and proficiency checks are conducted by TREs and SFEs, and experienced captains nominated by the operator, often called line training captains, supervise new pilots during line flying under supervision. Separate line check captains observe crews on normal line flights. European recency rules also give TRIs and TREs a supervisory role: the 90-day take-off and landing recency can be extended to 120 days while the pilot flies the line under the supervision of a TRI or TRE.

Under EASA's operator rules (Part-ORO), an operator proficiency check is valid for 6 calendar months plus the remainder of the month of issue and a line check for 12 calendar months, and the acceptable means of compliance ask for at least 10 sectors of line training in command under supervision for a first officer upgrading to commander on a type already flown. The operator's approved operations manual sets the programme its crews actually follow.

In a US Part 121 airline the equivalent roles belong to check airmen. After the type rating, a new first officer on a two-pilot turbojet flies at least 25 hours of initial operating experience under the supervision of a check airman (14 CFR 121.434), a new captain adds a line check, and the pilot must then log 100 hours of line flying within 120 days to consolidate the training. The whole training and checking cycle is described in airline pilot training and checking.

Library articles are written for study and exam preparation. They do not replace your aircraft's approved documentation, your operator's procedures or the regulations themselves.