Route to Instructor rating

[Invicta]

I am a Brit. living and working in Texas (East of Dallas) a low time PPL having just gained my FAA PPL. Ultimately I would like to instruct on GA aircraft and am trying to pick my way through the maze of qualifications, time requirements, bureaucracy etc in order to achieve my goal. I have no ambition to become an airline pilot, just to teach for the fun, (and get some additional hours logged). I am already a professionally involved in training and training development so I would see flight instruction as a natural route for me.

I have two questions; Is it feasible for me to train to become a AFI/QFI in the UK under JAR and hold down a full time job, and If so what would be the best route.

And secondly, is there a need for FAA instructors (CFI/CFII) in the UK teaching the FAA syllabus and to people wanting FAA additional qualifications or to maintain their FAA licence via BFRs.

It would probably be easier for me, not to say cheaper to follow the FAA route, but is there a market for part time instruction in the FAA syllabus in the UK.

[pondlife]

Yes, it's quite possible to train to be a JAA FI(R) while working full time. I and many others have done it. I wouldn't like to say that it's particularly easy though and it does at times feel like a test of commitment.
In order to be paid you need to have a CPL to attach your FI(R) rating to. It's theoretically possible to instruct without a CPL but since you need the ground exams anyway there's very few who would bother to go that far and then not get the CPL.
Personally, I found the study for the exams to be the most testing part. These are a real test of commitment and most of us wonder about the point of a lot of the study - got to do it all the same though.
Having got the ground exams, the CPL flying training not all that bad but you might have to search a bit to find someone who'll instruct you for CPL level at weekends.
FI training is good fun and more relaxed than the CPL training but, again, it can be a challenge finding someone to do your training at the weekends. For both CPL and FI I did the majority of the training at weekends and then took a week off work to get ready for each test.

So..., it can be done..., but (nearly) full time work won't make it easy. It's not very cheap either. It'll take many years of very low paid part time instructing to re-coupe the original investment.


I don't know anything about the FAA route.