Oh dear, look what has happened now!
I'm no RAAus basher, as that is where I started, but there is a major difference between the standards of these 2 forms of flying.
For those of you who are under the belief that an RAAus instructor rating is similar in content and training to the GA instructor rating, you are sorely misguided. Yes, I agree under the direction of a good CFI you can be taught to be a decent RAAus instructor, but from my experience in the industry there are some dodgy RAA CFI's out there.
To qualify for the RAAus rating, you merely need a pilot certificate (20hrs), X country endo (not sure what that is now, but it was 5hrs when I was in the game
), a passenger carrying endo (10 hrs command and checked by the CFI), and 75 hrs command (flying circuits and buzzing around the training area).
Then 20 hrs dual for the rating and 30 hrs in the classroom. Hey presto, you are then qualified to teach someone to fly. Now wait for the best part... after 50 hrs of instructional experience, these highly skilled individuals have the power to send someone solo.
This compared to a CPL, who must first of all complete at least the 150hr course. As a minimum you need a night VFR rating (which should be included in the CPL) or an instrument rating. You then do the instructor rating. Its 50 hrs flying. That is 20 hrs dual plus 30 hrs mutual (with another candidate practising). Or it could just be 50 hours dual (which I did because I was the only one on the course). The classroom stuff I think was around 120 hours and included briefing anything from effects of controls through to the finer points of how a constant speed propellor works. Now that's up around the 200+hour mark, and the person has been trained to a commercial standard and examined by a delegate of CASA. That gets you a basic grade 3 instructor rating where you must be supervised for the first 100 hours, and indirectly supervised for the next 150 hrs after which you do a flight test and upgrade to a grade 2 instructor rating. Then you can send your student on their first solo.
Now that aside, like others have said if you have some experience, have a passion for imparting knowledge and receive the right training an RAAus instructor rating is a great way to keep your hand in and have some fun on the weekends