Flight Instructors Needed

November 2022 – Flight instructors are the backbone of the pilot community. Without CFIs, the pilot community will cease to be. Since the termination of the two-place ultralight training exemptions and the sport pilot/light-sport regulations published in 2004, the ultralight community has been dependent upon the CFI community to train Part 103 pilots and the ultralight-like, and now N-numbered low-and-slow light-sport aircraft.

Flight instruction for the ultralight/light plane community is very much underserved. Some would even call this an extreme understatement. There is a tremendous need for CFIs to teach in the low-and-slow, lightly wing loaded, ultralight-like aircraft and vehicles. There are thousands of these low-and-slow, experimental amateur-built and experimental light-sport aircraft that can be used for compensated flight instruction by a CFI if granted an FAA-issued LODA (letter of deviation authority) per FAR 91.319(h). Contact Timm Bogenhagen at tbogenha@eaa.org and request a LODA application tool kit that guides you thru the LODA application process.

There is a good opportunity for specialization in this much-underserved community. An existing CFI-single engine airplane can already train sport or ultralight pilots. Existing pilots with good experience may see this as a great way to share their love of flight with others. A flight instructor’s certificate with sport pilot rating (CFI-SP) is easy to qualify for — no commercial pilot certificate, second class medical, or instrument rating is required. A CFI-SP is the intended flight instructor for an ultralight pilot wannabe. CFI-SP has privileges to teach in either or all, light-sport airplanes, powered parachutes, or weight-shift trikes.

If you are an existing CFI and teach sport pilots and/or ultralight pilots, please add yourself to the EAA instructor listing at EAA.org/Instructors If you are already listed, please verify your information or update the listing with your most current information. This online listing is searchable by state and unique because it indicates if the CFI is knowledgeable and wants to help a person fly an ultralight. Additionally, if the CFI has an airplane available to them for rent to the student, the listing shows the make and model.