The FAA counted 100,993 Certified Flight Instructors (CFIs) on its rolls at the end of 2014. How many conduct advanced pilot training for specialties ranging from Search & Rescue (SAR) to crop dusting is unknown, but “demand is going up dramatically,” says Mo Rolfs, chief operations officer at Flying Tiger Aviation in Rayville, Louisiana, which trains pilots for agricultural aerial application (crop dusting), aerial firefighting, and other utility missions. Sean “Stroker” Gustafson, vice president of Business Development at Draken International in Lakeland, Florida, whose pilots provide combat training for U.S. and Allied fighter pilots, says the need for instructors like he hires is “expanding on a global level.”
Career Description: Train professional pilots to improve or learn new skills, either to seek employment opportunities or enhance their operational effectiveness, be their mission protecting a crop from blight or a homeland from foreign threats. Draken’s instructors fly platforms including the A-4K Skyhawk and Aermacchi MB-339CB, outfitted with electronic systems mimicking hostile forces, performing as “aggressor squadrons.” Utility instruction involves teaching both flying skills and operations of the technology these professions rely on. “It takes a good stick and rudder,” says Rolfs of ag flying, “[but] it takes just as much systems knowledge in order to do it effectively and efficiently.”
