FAA Moves Ahead With Airman Certification Standards for CFIs

Meg Godlewski

Wednesday, November 03, 2021 at 09:14 PM ET

Verified

The new airman certification standards for flight instructors do not yet have a release date. Adobe Stock

Key Takeaways:

The current Practical Test Standards (PTS) for Certificated Flight Instructors (CFIs) do not evaluate an applicant's judgment regarding risk, creating a "disconnect" as CFIs are expected to teach risk management.
New Airman Certification Standards (ACS) for CFIs are in development, which will introduce tools, including scenario-based training, to assess an applicant's judgment and aeronautical decision-making.
The transition to ACS for CFIs aims to enhance aviation safety by ensuring instructors are evaluated on their ability to manage and teach risk, aligning their certification with the critical skills they impart to learners.

See a mistake? Contact us.

Teaching people to fly should incorporate risk management, yet currently the test standards for CFIs do not contain a mechanism for evaluating the applicant’s judgement toward risk.

This will change with the release of the airman certification standards for CFIs, a document currently in development. The date for the release has not been set; however, last month the FAA held a meeting with the ACS working group made up of stakeholders in the aviation training industry.