Rotor Aviation - Certified Flight Instructor

Certified Flight Instructor

Most entry-level jobs for commercial pilots are as a Certified Flight Instructor. As a Certified Flight Instructor you will be directly responsible for the safety of your student, yourself and the aircraft should anything happen to the helicopter or should your student make a mistake during flight.

This sounds much scarier than it is, however, a good CFI never lets his or her guard down. Teaching someone else the art and science of flying helicopters is as much a privilege as a responsibility. As an instructor you will be surprised by how much you know and more importantly how much you don’t know. The more you instruct, the more you will learn. It is easy to see why that if 2 people with the same amount of hours go up for the same job the one who has the hours in instructing is usually the one who gets the position.

There is no minimum requirement for flight hours beyond the 150 flight hours needed for your Commercial Pilot’s certificate, however additional study and instruction is needed and many companies can’t hire you until you have a SFAR 73 sign off to teach in a Robinson R-22 due to a regulation called SFAR 73.

SFAR 73 is a Special Federal Aviation Regulation that says you must have a total time of 200 hours, 50 of which must be in a Robinson helicopter to be able to instruct in a Robinson R22. The most popular helicopters for training are the Robinson R22 series and the Schweizer 300 series helicopters. While training for their commercial certificates, rotor aviation students who plan for a position as a CFI in order to build hours to fly the bigger helicopters will work towards the practical standards for a CFI - this saves you both time and money to get you started in a helicopter career.

As you stride towards being an expert, by teaching your students the sound fundamentals of becoming a safety minded professional pilot, you will be amazed at how much knowledge you have gained and how much there is yet still to know. You will develop lesson plans and learn to present them to new students, as well as other instructors, so as to develop your own style of teaching, at the same time developing a clear way of communicating that is required from any instructor. You will learn to teach while you fly by demonstrating to students the proper way to perform maneuvers as well as telling them of the common mistakes to avoid.

The Certified Flight Instructors Course includes :

10hrs R-22 Advanced Flight Instruction.

10hrs R-22 Flight Instruction.

30hrs Ground Instruction.

2 Written Tests.

1 combined Flight and Oral Test.

1 Set of Books.

For pricing information regarding this course or any other course listed on this web site please contact us directly by at the school or submitting our information request form.