Find the Right Flight Instructor for Your New Airplane

Here are some tips to vetting CFIs, understanding insurance, and securing safe training.

Meg Godlewski

Tuesday, May 12, 2026 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Travis Tingle

Flight instructor and student inside small Piper aircraft [Credit: FLYING Archive]

Key Takeaways:

Current market conditions mean more experienced flight instructors are available; find them through aircraft type clubs, professional organizations like NAFI/SAFE, or local flight schools.
Prioritize insurance requirements when selecting a CFI, ensuring they meet experience criteria for your aircraft's make/model and that both parties have adequate coverage.
Successful training requires fair compensation for experienced instructors, mandatory ground instruction (including verifying aircraft airworthiness), and the student's commitment to rules and consistent practice.

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Congratulations! You just bought an airplane—or a share of one—and now you need to find a flight instructor who can teach you how to fly it.

Luckily for you, pilot hiring at the airlines appears to have slowed down a bit, which means commercial pilots who became flight instructors to build their hours for jobs at airlines are staying flight instructors for a bit longer than they were even a year ago. This means they have more time to develop as teachers.