Certificate program
The flight instructor certificate is where you find out how well you really know flying. At North Aero you will learn to teach the way we train: emergency-first, scenario-based, and honest about what it takes to be safe.
Program overview
Becoming a CFI is not just adding a rating. It is learning to see flying through a student's eyes, to break a maneuver into its parts, and to keep a cockpit safe while someone else makes the mistakes you have to let them make.
We mentor CFI candidates the way we wish we had been taught: real fundamentals of instruction, a deep command of the maneuvers from the right seat, and the judgment to build pilots who can actually fly. Many of the best instructors here started as our students.
What you'll develop
The FOI: how people learn, how to teach, the lesson plan, and the human factors behind safe, effective instruction.
Flying and teaching every private and commercial maneuver from the instructor's seat, while talking, watching, and staying ahead of your student.
Spin training and the endorsement that goes with it, so you understand stalls and spins well enough to keep students out of them.
How to build emergencies and real-world decisions into a syllabus from the start, the North Aero way.
Preparing for the CFI practical, then stepping into actual instructing with mentorship instead of being thrown to the wolves.
Instructing is how most career-track pilots build hours. We will talk honestly about where the certificate can take you.
The curriculum, published
The complete initial flight instructor curriculum: 42 lessons in four phases, each written twice, as an instructor plan and a candidate study guide. Flying begins at Lesson 10 and ground and flight alternate from there. The program structure, pacing, materials, standards, and policies are published alongside the lessons.
FAA requirements
The flight instructor certificate has real prerequisites under 14 CFR Part 61. These are the FAA requirements; we will help you confirm exactly where you stand.
Investment
Cost varies with how much right-seat time you need and how solid your maneuvers and knowledge already are. We will give you an honest estimate after a first flight.
CFI training cost depends on how sharp your commercial maneuvers still are and how quickly you take to the right seat. Our current hourly rates are on the pricing page: Warrior $200/hr, Luscombe $100/hr, instruction $160/hr. Call for a written estimate built around your logbook.
Let's talk about your path to the right seat.
