Aero-Tips!

A good pilot is always learning -- how many times have you heard this old standard throughout your flying career? There is no truer statement in all of flying (well, with the possible exception of "there are no old, bold pilots.") It's part of what makes aviation so exciting for all of us... just when you think you've seen it all, along comes a scenario you've never imagined.

Aero-News has called upon the expertise of Thomas P. Turner, master CFI and all-around-good-guy, to bring our readers -- and us -- daily tips to improve our skills as aviators, and as representatives of the flying community. Some of them, you may have heard before... but for each of us, there will also be something we might never have considered before, or something that didn't "stick" the way it should have the first time we memorized it for the practical test.

It is our unabashed goal that "Aero-Tips" will help our readers become better, safer pilots -- as well as introducing our ground-bound readers to the concepts and principles that keep those strange aluminum-and-composite contraptions in the air... and allow them to soar magnificently through it.

Look for our daily Aero-Tips segments, coming each day to you through the Aero-News Network. Suggestions for future Aero-Tips are always welcome, as are additions or discussion of each day's tips. Remember... when it comes to being better pilots, we're all in this together.

Aero-Tips 03.28.06

Most instruction must be performed by pilots who are Certificated Flight Instructors (CFIs). There are cases, however, when you can receive “log-able” instruction from persons who are not current CFIs.

14 CFR 61.41 tells us pilots may credit instruction toward the requirements for a pilot certificate or rating from: 

1. A flight instructor of an Armed Force in a program for training military pilots of either the United States or a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
2. A flight instructor who is authorized to give such training by the licensing authority of a foreign contracting State to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, and the flight training is given outside the United States.

These flight instructors are only authorized to give endorsements to show training given, not endorse pilots for practical tests or privileges.

Other Instructors

It’s common that persons providing instruction in large training centers (like FlightSafety International, SimuFlite and SIMCOM) are not CFIs, but internal and FAA oversight of the training center permits them to train clients. These instructors are usually former military or retired airline pilots who for whatever reason have not earned or maintained an instructor’s certificate, but whose experience is still beneficial to students.

ATPs

What about Airline Transport Pilots (ATPs)? I understand there was a time when ATPs (or the Airline Transport Rating ATRs before them) automatically held instructor privileges, at least for ATP candidates (readers: help me with the history, please). If that was indeed the case, it is no more.

61.167 spells out the privileges of an ATP:

An airline transport pilot may instruct (emphasis added) --

• Other pilots in air transportation service in aircraft of the category, class, and type, as applicable, for which the airline transport pilot is rated...
• In flight simulators, and flight training devices representing the aircraft referenced above...
• In an aircraft, only if the aircraft has functioning dual controls...

There are also limits on duty time and Category II or III approaches. The key is an ATP (without a CFI ticket) may provide instruction in airplanes for which they are (usually type-) rated, or simulators for those airplanes. The person receiving instruction to others must be “in air transportation service.” The intent is to allow in-house airline instruction by persons in the chief pilot’s office who do not necessarily have instructor certificates.

Aero-tip of the day: You can learn from pilots of any experience level. What you can log depends on FAR 61.

FMI: Aero-Tips