CFIs who are actively engaged in flight training will soon be required to have a Transportation Security Administration provider account.
In the past, this requirement only applied for training providers who provided instruction for non-U.S. citizen students. This change becomes effective when interim rule 14 CFR 1552 becomes a final rule November 1.
Under the new regulation, flight training providers must hold an FAA certificate and obtain and use a Flight Training Security Program (FTSP) portal account. The new rule also stipulates that refresher TSA security awareness training, which was required annually, will now be required every 24 months.
If the CFI trains only U.S. citizens, they are still required to certify their citizenship before training begins. That means they must review the applicant’s birth certificate or passport, make a copy of the information, and provide an endorsement in the applicant’s logbook.
The CFI is required to keep the records of the identification certifications for five years.
Obtaining an FTSP portal account is free and only takes a few minutes. However, as of Wednesday, the “wait time” for customer service inquiries—such as help recovering an account or forgotten user name or password—was listed as approximately 45 days.
Information about registering for a FTSP account may be found here.
