Sport Pilot CFI or regular CFI???

I would highly recommend getting your CFI.

Ryan Davis - Assistant Chief Flight Instructor - CFI / CFII / MEI / AGI / IGI / ATP - Captain BE90
 
I you start the training for a CFI-S the instructor needs the 2 year experience just like for training the initial CFI??
 
Sounds like the CFI-S is similar to the CFI-A, just as people who teach students for the SPL teach to PPL standards.

It is still a FSDO administered initial?
 
Something to keep in mind, if HR 3708 passes sport pilot certificates will pretty much cease to exists.
 
There is a very good reason to go CFI-S that has not been mentioned yet. Economics. Going cfis first allows you to write off the costs and expenses of additional ratings such as instrument, commercial, and CFi. According to the IRS - who cares about the FAA - you are now legally able two charge for your services and are not changing careers to get to CFi. It's like a 30% reduction in cost of pretty expensive training! regardless of whether you can get hired or get insured to give dual.

Of course this is tax advice on the inner toobs.
 
soyAnarchisto said:
There is a very good reason to go CFI-S that has not been mentioned yet. Economics. Going cfis first allows you to write off the costs and expenses of additional ratings such as instrument, commercial, and CFi. According to the IRS - who cares about the FAA - you are now legally able two charge for your services and are not changing careers to get to CFi. It's like a 30% reduction in cost of pretty expensive training! regardless of whether you can get hired or get insured to give dual.

Of course this is tax advice on the inner toobs.
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Who is joe public going to hire as an instructor?
The guy that spent 100k on his education a commercial and instrument rated pilot with high performance and complex aircraft experience, multi engine experience, and that has the equilivent of a phd in aviation,

Or the sport pilot instructor who has 150 hrs and passed the sport instructor checkride.

Just sayin, I know 3 sport Instructors that can't get students, there is no shortage of well trained traditional CFI's out there.
 
I think you missed the point. If you are going to get a CFi anyway, if is financially beneficial to go through CFi-S first due to tax reasons. Or for that matter instrument and comm, either.
 
soyAnarchisto said:
I think you missed the point. If you are going to get a CFi anyway, if is financially beneficial to go through CFi-S first due to tax reasons. Or for that matter instrument and comm, either.
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Why?
The education tax credit is the same anyway, so I don't see the benefit.
 
DBrown said:
Why?
The education tax credit is the same anyway, so I don't see the benefit.
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No. Once you are an instructor you write off the other endorsements as an expense to your business on a schedule c. It lowers your gross income - so you don't pay income tax on that portion of money you spent - far better financially than trying to take a credit. IRS won't allow you to do that for your initial CFi - just like you can't write off the cost of a bachelors degree. But once you can call yourself an instructor the rest is like continuing education - a normal business expense. If you can get students and have income after that it's bonus but nothing says you can't lower your adjusted gross income from being a rampy or waiting tables or whatever is your day job that puts you through your training. 30% cheaper that way depending on your tax bracket which is probably low if you are trying to fight your way into a pilot gig. That's a lot of money.

Talk to an accountant.
 
150 hours or 250 hours makes no difference when it comes to the basic fundamentals - teaching how to push the rudder and finesse the stick.
Who really thinks having and instrument rating and gobs of x/c really count when it comes to teaching how to make the basic control movements to get to solo proficiency?
 
Actually the minute you obtain your CFI-S you are able to sign off a CFI-S student; you don't have to be a two year CFI.
 
Unfortunately many people don't consider the business side of things; as a CFI-Sport you have to create your own opportunity to instruct rather that comes from buying an aircraft and offering instruction, finding an open-minded flight school (haven't many of these schools around) with a LSA that would entertain hiring a CFI-Sport, etc. What better way to become a CFI than having experience teaching as a CFI-Sport.
 
Aside from the business end, it is a good learning/ training gradient. Instrument and commercial knowledge/ skills do not necessarily make a good primary instructor. Training for, and experience in, primary flight instruction does that best.

With the lack of LSAs available, it's a catch-22. We need more CFI-S instructors available for school operators to invest in the LSAs, and more LSAs for aspiring instructors to start.

Too much negativity on the CFI-S for folks to get it going. Should be a required CFI starting position for a couple hundred hours before advancing to instruments and commercial operations.
 
nosehair said:
Aside from the business end, it is a good learning/ training gradient. Instrument and commercial knowledge/ skills do not necessarily make a good primary instructor. Training for, and experience in, primary flight instruction does that best.

With the lack of LSAs available, it's a catch-22. We need more CFI-S instructors available for school operators to invest in the LSAs, and more LSAs for aspiring instructors to start.

Too much negativity on the CFI-S for folks to get it going. Should be a required CFI starting position for a couple hundred hours before advancing to instruments and commercial operations.
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The sport pilot certificate is a joke as it stands, just another example of the FAA trying justify their existence. I keep all my old mags and it's hilarious to go back through them circa 2004 & read on how everyone thought it was going to save GA. And the planes were supposed to be under $50k
The sport planes are the same price as a good used high performance retract, the limits imposed on sport pilots aren't worth the rewards to obtain the certificate, (who wouldn't spend another couple grand and get private privileges)? oh I know, people who can't get a medical! and if someone has never been denied a medical they can fly, basically means "if you know something is wrong with you don't go to the dr. Just go light sport"
 
You're comparing apples to oranges. A new LSA is 1/2 to 1/3rd the price of a new certified. And you're thinking is really flawed if you assume everyone _wants_ to be flying around in a retractable spam can. Cub crafters has outsold the rest of the lsa and the certificated single engine market combined - and if that doesn't speak volumes about new aircraft sales I don't know what does. They may have been off the mark about 50k - but 90 grand is a lot better than 300 for a new certificated. And I'm not even going to point out to you that the cost of buying in is NOTHING compared to the total cost of ownership of retractable spam can. And then there's EAB.

There are no limits on lsa pilots that matter. Most private pilots tool around single or with 1 pax and vfr - and for most that's where all the fun is in flying. And they want to go LSA to simplify and avoid bureaucracy and some nonsensical medical rules rather than skirt real grounding medical conditions.

The lsa pilot is 1/2 the requirements of private - so you get your ticket sooner and build time. Only a moron would spend money they didn't need to if they were honest about how they will be flying. The delta between the 2 is 15 hours of dual for lsa and 20 hours of dual for private. All your solo time counts - and that's where you truly learn to fly anyway. The transition from lsa to pp is trivial - and you would be a far more confident pilot on the check ride. You need 3 hours of xcountry, 3 hours night w/ 10 to/l, 3 hours of sim - which could theoretically be combined. The rest can be prep and brush up which is pretty easy to expect since the average experience for private students is north of 60 hours anyway. It's true that a CFI-S only dual would not count - but these guys are rare. If you find a CFI and do light sport - you could do a transition in 3-5 hours if you are proficient. It's still a smart way to go to transition from sport on - or just stay there and enjoy the flying as many do. A CFI-s is probably not going to be doing a lot of primary instruction anyway due to insurance limitations - but they too can easily build time toward CFI by giving flight reviews, t/w transitions, checkouts, mountain flying, discovery flights etc.

If you are headed there anyway - take the smart path - I say. Again - the killer argument in my book is the financial one. CFI-s is the fastest path to being able to legitimately able to write off the cost of instrument, commercial, and cfi initial training.
 
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