A flight Instructor is someone who has a passion and dedication for the subject. A person who gives their all in the goal of enriching others with the joy of flight. Someone who considers the education of others before benefit of themselves.

Yes, Carholme... thanks for reminding me the add is there as I will delete it.

I was going to sell it and found out that it will be far better to put the money and time into building it rather than selling it as a project for next to nothing.

Also I really miss working on airplanes as that was what I liked most about the life I had in aviation.

Now I once again lie in bed figuring out what I need to do next and looking forward to morning so I can go back to working on it.

I had planned on using the Husky to do some training with but there are two problems with that idea....It is not my airplane and I just can not justify using a quarter of a million dollar airplane as a teaching tool when I can build one that will do the same job and only cost me at the most $50,000.

How is life going for you these days, I notice you no longer post on the Canadian site and have wondered how you are doing.

Chuck.

Thanks. Believe it or not I don't miss it much. I managed to do much of what I wanted to do in aviation and now I'm simply hanging in giving back a bit of what aviation gave to me.
I'm still active. I'll be addressing the European Air show Convention in Belgium this coming January on display flight safety as well as many other things I'm still deeply involved in within the flight instruction and aerobatic community.
Add to this I was fortunate to have married one of the finest women on the planet 45 years ago and I'm doing fairly well for an old grumpy bald guy :-)
Dudley

Please, Sir, can somebody tell me about the FAA gold seal system?

I am still permitted to instruct in K13 gliders, with JAR medical. And yesterday just got put through the WRINGER by an extremely capable PA owner and qualified instructor, for the biennial check ride, survived, but discovered significant room for improvement.

Our only disagreement was if my engine declines to rotate the fan, I dedicate my time to chosing the field and making the approach, forgot all about trying to start it again in midair, and as for calling a mayday, IMHO landing a PA l8 in a field should be a nonevent.......Of course if the terrain is seriously unfriendly I think I might mention it to somebody....

What is an Instructor ?
 

I think the original question was asking a question about being. Clearly one can call yourself anything you want (as long as there is no intention to defraud). But surely the question means is it legitimate for me to describe myself (to myself and/or others) as an Instructor ?

Quoting the Law, FARS or any other legal prose is completely missing the point. In Malaysia they have just brought out a new requirement in the State of Selangor that requires you to have a licence to teach Islam but that is just a control mechanism.

On a fundamental level an Instructor is a Teacher or Guru. Once s/he has reached that level (like 1st Dan in Karate) s/he will always be a Teacher. S/he may lose their licence to practice but s/he is still a teacher.

And to former students s/he will always be their Guru. :ok:

Were we smoking one of those funny cigarettes when we posted Captain Stravaigin?:)

Whatever the Captain was was smoking his/her description of what a teacher is is correct.

In one context, yes.

In another:
"Hi. What do you do?"
"Hi. I'm a teacher."
"Oh, where do you teach?"
"Nowhere. I retired thirty years ago. But I still retain my innate teaching ability."
" :confused: "

Oktas8
Flight Instructor (not yet retired)

At least 25% of flight instruction is done by people without an instructors rating. You don't need an instructors rating to teach IFR. No instructors rating is required to teach someone to fly a taildragger or to use skis or to check out someone on a new plane for insurance purposes.

I think Chucks definition would sum up what an instructor is.:ok:

Also, if you have an ACE card you automaticaly hold the privelages of a Class 1 aerobatics instructor without an instructors rating.

Thanks for the comment polyfiber, for some strange reason there are a lot of people in aviation who think that holding an instructors rating is somehow an indication that the holder of said certificate is guaranteed to be a good teacher.

Having been in the flying instruction business since 1957 I have met many licensed flight instructors who have difficulty tying their shoes but somehow passed the flight instructors course. So much for using the possession of a flight instructors rating as a benchmark of high quality of teaching skills.

For the past few decades I have owned and operated an advanced flight training business and have done very well financially and customer wise without having held a valid flight instructors rating.....in fact I let mine lapse in 1965 and never saw any need to renew it.

Hello Chuck,

My son started his pilot's licence a while ago and I must say his instructor was very good. He made sure they touched down on the centerline and always tried for the numbers on the runway. The other instructors feel the first third of the runway is "good enough" for a TD point. When they did spins it was three turns and recovery on a chosen heading rather than a mere insipient spin. I was pleased to see his instructor wants to instill more than just the minimum to pass.

Your son is fortunate to have such an instructor and hopefully remains with him/her until he finishes his license.

I have owned a flight school both fixed and rotary wing and the reason I finally sold it was the ongoing problems with sub par flight instructors and their know it all attitudes because they passed the low bar to be a flight instructor.

Chuck you said

"For some strange reason there are a lot of people in aviation who think that holding an instructors rating is somehow an indication that the holder of said certificate is guaranteed to be a good teacher."

I would balance your statement by saying that a lot of people in aviation think that simply have many thousands of hours automatically makes you a good teacher. This IMO experience is often not the case particularly when teaching new pilots. The higher hours are simply an indication that you are probably a highly skilled pilot, but for instructing at the end of the course the only thing that matters is how well the student can fly.

Obviously in a perfect world the instructor should have both lots of experience and demonstrated high instructional skills. Students IMO should make a big effort to search for and train with those kind of instructors, particularly for advanced training (ie post PPL).

Effective teaching is a skill like any other. A pilot engaged in instructing, regardless of their experience will IMO be a better instructor if they undertake a course of formal training in the art of instructing.

Big Pistons Forever do you think that I am not aware of the significance of proper training for any new task including becoming a flight instructor?

Good instructors, as well as good teachers usually grow into the job through experience, but this result isn't necessarily a direct result of experience. people entering these professions bring along a specific set of "baggage" as they enter the arena. Those bringing positives with them will grow and become better as they continue along the learning curve. Notice I said CONTINUE. A new CFI is at the beginning of what should be a career long learning curve that includes among other aspects, a dual role of both teaching students and learning from those students how to be an even better teacher and flight instructor.
Those bringing negatives with them into the teaching arena can improve along the curve but usually fail due to various reasons mostly related to poor attitude.
I agree that as instruction becomes more advanced, experience plays a much larger role in the instructor/student equation, but if this higher level of experience has been obtained by the instructor without corresponding proper teaching skills and/or at least an improvement in teaching skills on the part of the instructor, any advantage of higher experience can be easily nullified and actually be detrimental to the student.
Good teaching is both an art and a science. Above that, to become an excellent teacher, one has to carry with them a genuine desire to teach. You find these qualities in a CFI, and you have found the RIGHT instructor, be it in a J3 Cub, or a 747 :-)
Dudley Henriques

If you're signing up to a big flying school, you'll have little choice who you get (although you can request an instructor change, again you won't be able to specify who the new instructor should be).

If you approach a small school, yes, you could ask how much experience the instructor has, but don't ask for proof because that's rude. However, you probably won't be able to afford the most experienced instructors, or they will be already be overbooked months in advance.

By all means look around though - you don't have to settle for anything you're unhappy with!

Never met anyone with more than a thousand hours or so who suffered from that attitude. And, Chuck, just because I disagree with your definition of what you "are" (in a vocational descriptive sense rather than an existential sense) doesn't mean I think all instructors are great, or that I am great, or that pilots without an instructor's rating are un-great. I didn't know that one can do all this instructing in Canada without a formal rating - if someone instructs IFR as a vocation, yes, I think they certainly are an instructor in a vocational sense.

Cheers,
O8

Oktas8 in Canada we can instruct licensed pilots without having to hold a flight instructors rating for the following.

Seaplane ratings.

Multi engine ratings.

Instrument ratings.

Type ratings.

Check outs on any airplane you are qualified on such as tail wheel airplanes.

I have been giving training on all of the above since I let my Canadian Instructors Rating lapse in 1965.

You have to hold a minimum of a commercial license with the required times on each type of training you are teaching toward.

For whatever it is worth I do hold licenses to do type ratings issued by C.A.S.A.( Australia ) South African C.A.A. and under JAR in Europe.

I consider my self a flight instructor based on the above. :ok:

In the past I have held approvals from various authorities to train and issue type ratings on equipment from DC3 thru B737. Currently I am 'instructing' Chinese national cadet pilots on light jet aircraft. Seeing as they have zero hours on jets when they start, I can't see how it could be anything other than instruction.
But I have never held an instructor rating. I would not know how to get someone up to solo standard. Nevertheless, an instructor I am, and the Australian Civil Air Regulations say so. CAR 5.19, 5.20, 5.21 etc. Additionally an organisation with its own CAR 217 check and training approval can appoint instructors for line training. Most countries have similar provisions.
Now, I await some anally-retentive type out there to tell me the difference between 'training' and 'instruction'.

This thread seems to have moved from "I no longer instruct, can I call myself an instructor" (I know that's not quite what the OP said, but it is what I and others inferred from the post), to "I am instructing in some capacity that doesn't need a FI rating, can I call myself an instructor".

The first is arguable. The second, isn't. In fact I see no-one disagreeing at all.