CFI Privileges and Limitations: Endorsements, Currency, and Caps

A Certified Flight Instructor’s privileges and limitations set out what a CFI is allowed to teach, whom they can endorse, and the conditions they have to meet to keep doing either. In short: a CFI can provide ground and flight training and issue endorsements for most pilot certificates and ratings, but only in the aircraft categories and classes on their certificate, only within specific hour and experience limits, and only while their recent experience, medical status, and paperwork obligations are current.

What a CFI Is Authorized to Do

A flight instructor certificate authorizes ground training, flight training, and certain checking events, and it authorizes endorsements for a broad list: student pilot certificates, pilot certificates at every level, flight instructor certificates, ground instructor certificates, individual aircraft ratings, instrument ratings, flight reviews, and both knowledge and practical tests.¹ A CFI can train someone working toward a private, commercial, or airline transport pilot certificate, and can train for add-on ratings such as seaplane or multiengine.

Every one of those privileges is bounded by the ratings you actually hold. You can only teach in an aircraft category and class that appears on both your pilot certificate and your instructor certificate. Holding a single-engine airplane instructor rating without a multiengine rating means no multiengine flight training, regardless of total time.

Endorsements a CFI Can Issue

Endorsements are signed logbook statements certifying a student is ready for a specific privilege or test. Getting the details wrong can ground a student or invalidate a checkride.

Solo Flight

Before a student pilot flies alone, the instructor must endorse the logbook for the specific make and model to be flown. The instructor has to have personally provided training in that aircraft, determined the student is proficient in the required maneuvers, and confirmed they can operate that airplane safely. The endorsement is valid for 90 days and must be renewed by an authorized instructor to keep soloing beyond that window.²

Solo Cross-Country

Each solo cross-country flight needs its own endorsement. The instructor reviews the student’s flight planning, checks current and forecast weather, and confirms the flight can be completed under visual flight rules. The endorsement must specify make and model and state that the student’s preflight planning and preparation are correct for the proposed route.³ The instructor is signing off on conditions they will not be present to manage.

Practical Tests

When an applicant is ready for a checkride, the instructor must endorse them as having received the required training, demonstrated proficiency, and being prepared to pass.⁴

High-Performance and Complex Aircraft

CFIs also issue one-time endorsements for specific aircraft categories. A high-performance endorsement is required before anyone acts as pilot in command of an airplane with an engine producing more than 200 horsepower. A complex endorsement is required for aircraft with retractable landing gear, flaps, and a controllable-pitch propeller. In both cases the instructor provides ground and flight training and then endorses the logbook certifying proficiency in that aircraft’s operation and systems.⁵

Instrument Training Requires the CFII

A basic CFI certificate does not authorize instrument training toward an instrument rating. To teach instrument flying for purposes of an instrument rating, a type rating without a VFR limitation, or the instrument training required for commercial and airline transport certificates, you must hold an instrument rating on your flight instructor certificate. That is the separate Certified Flight Instructor-Instrument (CFII) designation.⁶

A CFI without the instrument instructor rating can still teach maneuvers that happen to involve instrument references during private or commercial training. What they cannot do is sign off an applicant for an instrument rating practical test or provide the dedicated instrument training hours those ratings require.

Aircraft-Specific Experience Requirements

Training toward a multiengine rating requires at least five hours of pilot-in-command time in the specific make and model of multiengine airplane to be used. The same five-hour requirement applies to helicopters and powered-lift aircraft. It is make and model specific. Five hours in a Piper Seminole does not qualify you to instruct in a Beechcraft Baron.⁶

For any aircraft that requires a type rating for the pilot in command, the instructor must also hold that type rating on their own pilot certificate before giving flight instruction in it.⁶

The Eight-Hour Daily Cap

No flight instructor may conduct more than eight hours of flight training in any 24-consecutive-hour period.⁶ Ground instruction does not count toward this cap. Instructors at busy schools routinely brush up against the limit during peak seasons, and exceeding it is a regulatory violation regardless of how the instructor feels.

Training a First-Time CFI Applicant

Not every CFI is qualified to train someone applying for their initial flight instructor certificate. To provide flight training to a first-time CFI applicant, you must hold the appropriate instructor certificate and rating, and meet at least one of these experience thresholds:⁶

Have held your instructor certificate for at least 24 calendar months and given at least 200 hours of flight training (or 80 hours for glider instruction).
During the preceding 24 calendar months, have trained and endorsed at least five practical test applicants, with at least 80 percent passing on the first attempt.
After meeting the 200-hour (or 80-hour) flight training requirement, have graduated from an FAA-approved flight instructor enhanced qualification training program.

Ground training for initial CFI applicants has a separate threshold: the ground instructor must have held their certificate for at least 24 months and given at least 40 hours of ground training, or have given at least 100 hours of ground training in an FAA-approved course.⁷

When a Medical Certificate Is Required

Whether a CFI needs a medical depends on their role during the flight. When acting as pilot in command or serving as a required flight crewmember, you must hold at least a third-class medical certificate. When instructing a rated pilot who is acting as PIC, and no regulation requires you to be a crewmember, you do not need a medical certificate.⁸

Training a student pilot makes you the PIC by regulation, so a medical is required. Providing a flight review or instrument proficiency check to someone who already holds a pilot certificate typically leaves that pilot as PIC, and you may not need a medical to sit in the right seat. BasicMed is also available as an alternative when you are acting as PIC, provided you meet the BasicMed requirements and the flight operates within its limitations.⁸

TSA Citizenship Verification Comes First

Before providing any flight training, a CFI must verify the student’s citizenship or nationality status. This is a federal security requirement. The student must present qualifying documentation such as a valid U.S. passport, an original birth certificate paired with government-issued photo identification, or a naturalization certificate with photo ID.⁹

The instructor either retains copies of the citizenship documentation or records a specific endorsement in both the instructor’s and the student’s logbooks certifying that verification occurred, including the type of document examined and its control number. A student who cannot produce valid citizenship or nationality documentation must be denied flight training entirely. Non-compliance can result in fines, denial of security clearances, or enforcement action under federal law.⁹ Non-citizen students follow a different process that involves TSA security threat assessments and a formal determination of eligibility before any training begins.

Record-Keeping Obligations

A flight instructor must sign the logbook of every person who receives flight or ground training from them. Beyond individual logbook entries, each CFI must keep a separate record listing the name of each person endorsed for solo flight privileges and the date of that endorsement, plus the name, test type, date, and results for every person endorsed for a knowledge or practical test.¹⁰

The retention floor is three years. Many experienced instructors keep records well beyond that, because FAA inquiries about a former student’s training history can surface years after an endorsement, and reconstructing records from memory is not a viable defense.¹⁰

Keeping the Certificate Current

Flight instructor certificates issued on or after December 1, 2024, no longer carry an expiration date. Certificates issued before that date expired 24 calendar months from issuance, renewal, or reinstatement.¹¹ Regardless of what the physical certificate shows, you cannot exercise instructional privileges unless you have met a recent experience requirement within the preceding 24 calendar months.¹²

Ways to Meet the 24-Month Requirement

Any one of the following satisfies the recent experience requirement:¹²

Pass a practical test for one of the ratings on your instructor certificate or for an additional rating.
Endorse at least five applicants for a practical test during the preceding 24 months, with at least 80 percent of all endorsed applicants passing on their first attempt.
Complete an FAA-approved Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC) within the preceding three calendar months, consisting of ground training, flight training, or both.
Serve as a company check pilot, chief flight instructor, check airman, or instructor in a Part 121 or 135 operation within the preceding 24 months.
Pass a U.S. Armed Forces instructor pilot or pilot examiner proficiency check within the preceding 24 months.
Serve as an instructor in an FAA-sponsored pilot proficiency program, conducting at least 15 flight activities evaluating at least five different pilots within the preceding 24 months.

Reinstatement After a Lapse

If the deadline passes, reinstatement depends on how long the privileges have been lapsed. Within three calendar months of the lapse, you can still reinstate by completing a FIRC or meeting any of the standard renewal requirements. After three months, the only option is to pass a flight instructor practical test for one of your existing ratings or for an additional rating.¹³ That practical test is the same checkride used for initial certification.