Long-awaited FAA rule removes CFI expiration

The agency said the change brings instructor certificates in line with other airman certificates such as those for private and commercial pilots, which do not expire but require maintenance of proficiency and recent experience. The change also is designed to increase efficiency and cut costs.

Under the rule, flight instructors will have to meet certain experience and activity requirements every 24 calendar months. The final rule includes a new way “to establish recent experience by serving as a flight instructor in an FAA-sponsored pilot proficiency program,” the agency wrote.

The rule also changes the requirements for flight instructors seeking to reinstate their instructor privileges following a lapse. Now they can do so by taking an approved flight instructor refresher course (FIRC) if their recent experience has not lapsed for more than three months. Previously, lapsed flight instructors had to take a checkride to renew their privileges.

Other highlights of the new rule include revised methods for flight instructors to qualify to train initial applicants. One of the new methods requires the instructor to have trained and endorsed at least five applicants in the past 24 calendar months for a practical test for a pilot certificate or rating.

In addition, 80 percent of the applicants must have passed the test on the first try. The rule eliminates previous requirements for the instructor to have given at least 400 hours of flight training and to be serving in an FAA-approved course. The change, the FAA said, will make this renewal option available to more flight instructors.

The FAA also cited practical problems associated with the current renewal process. The agency must process, print, and mail new flight instructor certificates each time an instructor renews, “which is at least every 24 calendar months, resulting in a process that is burdensome, inefficient and costly to the FAA,” the agency said in the rulemaking document.

The FAA noted that aviation industry advocates have long pushed for elimination of the expiration date on instructor certificates and a general streamlining of the renewal process. Indeed, the rule acknowledged AOPA’s 1999 and 2000 petitions seeking to remove the expiration dates, which many instructors consider a disincentive to renewing an expired certificate.