Flight Instructor Courses

Two types of instructor

There are two main types of instructor – Flight Instructors and Class Rating Instructors. Which course you decide upon will depend largely on what you wish to do with your rating once achieved.

In order to give instruction to ab-initio students for the grant of a PPL(A) you will need to be a Flight Instructor. This rating is the usual course undertaken by the majority of people wishing to instruct and tends to be the rating that most flying schools will require you to hold before employing you as an instructor.

You can instruct on a PPL(A) but you cannot be paid unless you hold a commercial licence.

FI (A)
Flight Instructor Restricted

This FI(A) rating is restricted in many ways but the restrictions are removed initially via experience and then through other courses – for example to enable the holder to teach at night or to teach on multi-engine aircraft.

More info here.

CRI
Class Rating Instructor

The Class Rating Instructor (CRI) rating is effectively designed for people who do not wish to instruct for the issue of licences but rather to provide differences training or to carry out biennial flights. A typical CRI would be someone who is a pilot in a syndicate aircraft group who wishes to be able to convert new members onto that aircraft and to do the required check-outs and biennial flight requirements for the other members of the syndicate.

More info here.