Are you a commercial pilot who needs to accumulate flight time before applying for your dream job? Working as a Certified Flight Instructor in Florida might be the perfect position for you, leading to the question: “How do I become one?” The short answer is to call Paragon Flight, but keep reading for a more thorough overview of the process.

Why Work as a Flight Instructor?

If you want to be good at your passion, teach it. From language to mechanics, medicine, and even aviation, the best way to learn a concept or skill is to teach it. The teaching process requires that you break even complex ideas into simpler concepts and connect them to ideas that are more easily understood or already known so that the learner can make connections and remember what’s taught. The nature of instruction requires the teacher to develop a deeper understanding of the subject; the same is true for flight.

When first entering any field, jobs can be difficult to secure. Landing that first job can be challenging, but flight instructors can have the inside scoop. Consider that we at Paragon Flight look preferentially on graduates of the P3 Program when we hire flight instructors. We know what these candidates can do; we’ve seen their drive and skills.

Commercial pilots often build up to the next rung on the career ladder. Applications for airline pilot positions require 1,500 flight hours, which can be expensive to log when the pilot has to pay for the use of the plane. What if you could log those hours while being paid? As a flight instructor, you can.

Work as a flight instructor and get paid for doing what you love as you perfect your skills, improve your understanding of aviation and aircraft systems, and log the hours you need for your next career move.

How to Work as a Flight Instructor

The first step you’ll need to take as a zero-experience pilot-hopeful will be to earn a Private Pilot License (PPL), followed by an Instrument Flight Rating (IFR) and a Commercial License, Single or Multi-Engine (CSEL or CMEL). Once a licensed commercial pilot, you can take the coursework, log the hours, and pass the evaluations needed to operate as a flight instructor.

Types of Flight Instructors

Just as there are different types of flight programs, there are different types of flight instructors:

• Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) – trained to provide flight instruction for single-engine flight
• Certified Flight Instructor – Instrument (CFI-I) – trained to provide flight instruction for instrument flight
• Multi-Engine Instructor (MEI) – trained to provide flight instruction for multi-engine flight.

Each of these flight instruction roles requires separate credentials, including holding the credential for which you plan to train. For example, if you wish to be a multi-engine flight instructor, you must add a multi-engine certification or rating to your license.

Other requirements include having at least a 3rd Class FAA Medical Certificate, being at least 18 years old, being fluent and literate in the English language, logging at least 15 hours as the Pilot-in-Command of the aircraft that parallels what you plan to teach, demonstrating instructional ability and being endorsed in stall awareness, spins, spin entry, and spin recovery, and passing the written exam and checkride.

Take the Next Step

Ready to stop asking “How do I become a Certified Flight Instructor?” and start saying “Here’s how I did it”? Click here to schedule a consultation with Paragon Flight in Fort Myers, Punta Gorda, or LaGrange, and take the next step toward your aviation future.