CFIs Are Professional Pilots

FLYING staff writer and certified flight instructor gives spirited rebuttal to contributor’s recent column.

Friday, January 14, 2022 at 10:00 AM ET

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The writer contends that CFIs have to master a list of skills, including flying at a commercial level. [File Photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

The article argues that flight instructors (CFIs) are professional pilots, directly countering a colleague's definition that excluded them by claiming their primary role is education, not flying.
The author asserts that CFIs are essential and required crewmembers, especially for pre-solo learners, and their role inherently involves active flying, demonstration, and coaching, demanding at least commercial pilot-level skills.
It proposes that any individual who is paid for their services performed within an aircraft, encompassing instruction, decision-making, and even programming (as with airline pilots), should be considered a professional pilot.

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Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines a professional as “someone engaged in a specified activity as one’s main paid occupation rather than as a pastime.” Given this definition, I submit that flight instructors are indeed professional pilots. I write this to counter colleague Sam Weigel’s recent “V1 Rotate” column that defined professional pilots, but did not include CFIs.

READ MORE: What Defines a Professional Pilot?

Weigel recognized his position was controversial, stating, “My definition of a professional pilot, for the purposes of this web series, is a person whose primary income is derived from acting as a required crewmember of a crewed aircraft in flight. The primary profession of flight instructors, he stated, is education, not flying.