Flight and Ground Instructors

Instructors

As someone considering becoming a flight instructor, you probably know the drill for the written exams but here it is just in case! There are five flavors of written exams for an instructor, which combination of exams you take depends on what instructor qualification you are going for, however, everyone has to take the first exam:

• Fundamentals of Instructing (FOI) - Theory of instructing, learning styles, etc.

The FOI is taken by every instructor candidate, unless you can get a waiver because you are a teacher or similar and can be expected to have a good grounding in teaching experience. You should contact your local FSDO for more information on this option.

For Ground Instructor candidates there are three options.

• Basic Gound Instructor (BGI) - 60 questions from Instructor question pool, allows you to teach ground material to Private pilot level.
• Advanced Ground Instructor (AGI) - 100 questions from Instructor question pool, allows you to teach all non-instrument rating ground material for all licenses.
• Instrument Ground Instructor (IGI) - 100 questions from the instrument rating question pool, allows you to teach Instrument Ground school topics.

Realistically, there’s not much point in taking the BGI, you should just take the AGI straight off. You will need to learn the same material for both exams so why not sit for a little longer, take the extra 40 questions and get unrestricted priviledges to teach all the ground school materials? If you are going to be teaching instrument ground school, you will need to take the IGI exam which is drawn from the Instrument Rating question pool,

For CFI Candidates you will need to take one other written exam in addition to the FOI:

• CFI written exam - 100 questions from the Instructor question pool.

Notice this is the same as the AGI so if you dont have the AGI already, consider taking it at the same time so you can get your AGI qualification. You’ll have to sit the same exam twice (yes, that does seem silly) but having the AGI may be handy in the future and is useful if you are considering going for industry recognition such as NAFI’s Master CFI or Master Ground Instructor awards.

Preparing for your Instructor exams at PrepareToTest.com

Currently we only have the Fundamentals of Instructing and the Instrument Ground Instructor questions available on PrepareToTest. I am working on the main Instructor question pool and hope to have that available soon. By using PrepareToTest for your FOI you will get the same great features that are available for the other exams:

• We stay up to date with all the questions that the FAA makes available.
• You can browse the whole question pool, review the correct answers
• The site tracks your performance, allowing you to customize the tests to focus on areas in which you need more practice.

Additional Information and Links

• FAA Flight and Ground Instructor Knowledge Test Guide (PDF)
• FAA Flight & Ground Instructor Knowledge Test Questions (PDF)
• FAA Flight & Ground Instructor Computer Testing Supplement (8Mb PDF)
• FAA Flight & Ground Instructor and Pilot Examiner Practical Test Standards (PDF)
• FAA Sport Pilot and Flight Instructor with a Sport Pilot Rating Knowledge Test Guide (PDF)
• FAA Sport Pilot Instructor Knowledge Test Questions (PDF)
• FAA Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards for Airplane, Gyroplane, Glider, and Flight Instructor (FAA-S-8081-29 with Change 2) (PDF)
• FAA Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards for Airship, Balloon, and Flight Instructor (FAA-S-8081-30 with Change 3) (PDF)
• FAA Sport Pilot Practical Test Standards for Weight Shift Control, Powered Parachute, and Flight Instructor (FAA-S-8081-31 with Change 2) (PDF)
  
• List of allowable materials you can take to the knowledge test