What is a CFI?

Vance Breese

Vance Breese

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Vance Breese
A person who has been a flight instructor for 47 years insists he is a Certified Flight Instructor.

In my opinion I am a Certificated Flight Instructor.

What does CFI stand for and why?

Thank you
 
What's your certificate say? That be it. CFI!
 
MauleSkinner said:
Depends which FAA document you're reading. They state it both ways.
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Not any more. As guidance and regulations get updated references to CFI are being replaced with "authorized instructor". It was always "Certificated Flight Instructor" not "Certified Flight Instructor", although there are still a few incorrect references floating out there that didn't get fixed. See the thing is, the FAA doesn't certify anyone...only give them a certificate. Your favorite instructor might have passed his checkride three decades ago and renews his certificate based on pass rates. Does that mean that the FAA certifies that he is a good instructor? No, it means that at the time he passed his practical he met the standards for the rating and has since qualified for renewal.
 
mscard88 said:
What's your certificate say? That be it. CFI!
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My certificate says "Flight Instructor". The only place "CFI" shows up is on the certificate number, to differentiate it from my pilot certificate number.
 
Brad Z said:
See the thing is, the FAA doesn't certify anyone...only give them a certificate. Your favorite instructor might have passed his checkride three decades ago and renews his certificate based on pass rates. Does that mean that the FAA certifies that he is a good instructor? No, it means that at the time he passed his practical he met the standards for the rating and has since qualified for renewal.
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That is seriously the dumbest thing I have ever read. You are playing silly word games.

The FAA certifies an instructor by giving them a certificate.

One of the definitions of "to certify" is "to award a certificate to".

A certificate is evidence of having been certified.

The process by which you receive a certificate, and the process by which you become certified, are both referred to as certification. IT'S THE SAME WORD.
 
Yep, as Brad says CFI is just one of those archaic abbreviations. It's like BFR. The reg just says "Flight Review". Similarly, there's no FAA concept of II or MEI.
 
dmspilot said:
That is seriously the dumbest thing I have ever read. You are playing silly word games.
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The government lives for silly word games.
A certificate is evidence of having been certified.
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Posting on this forum is an indication that one is certifiable.
 
CFI

Continental Freight Industries

Certified Floor Installers

California Film Institute

Corporate Finance Institute

Certified Forensic Interviewer

Certificated Flight Instructor, that's what my instructor told me and I am sticking with that...
 
I've always known it as 'Certified Flight Instructor' but I feel as though both terms are quite synonymous.
 
dmspilot said:
That is seriously the dumbest thing I have ever read. You are playing silly word games.

The FAA certifies an instructor by giving them a certificate.

One of the definitions of "to certify" is "to award a certificate to".

A certificate is evidence of having been certified.

The process by which you receive a certificate, and the process by which you become certified, are both referred to as certification. IT'S THE SAME WORD.
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Do you have issues with "Practical" versus "Practicable" as well?
 
Brad Z said:
Do you have issues with "Practical" versus "Practicable" as well?
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Why would I? I am not making ridiculous assertions that words don't mean what they actually mean.
 
This question seems very TomD-esque

Let me ask you this...how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

If you can’t answer that your not a Certificated Flight Instructor.
 
Vance Breese said:
A person who has been a flight instructor for 47 years insists he is a Certified Flight Instructor.

In my opinion I am a Certificated Flight Instructor.

What does CFI stand for and why?

Thank you
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In the English language, common usage factors in. For at least a half century (which is all the more I can personally attest to from experience) “Certified Flight Instructor” has been the most commonly used term. “Certificated”, while maybe technically correct, still sounds very odd to me.

We’ve also always used “pilot license” when we all know you get a “certificate”. It makes more sense to Joe Average citizen since they can correlate it to a drivers license.

Bottom line: Did you know what he meant when he used the term? If so, the term used accomplished the objective of communicating what he meant. You can’t ask for much more from language.
 
Brad Z said:
It was always "Certificated Flight Instructor" not "Certified Flight Instructor", although there are still a few incorrect references floating out there that didn't get fixed.
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Which is why it depends which FAA document you're reading.
 
CC268 said:
This question seems very TomD-esque

Let me ask you this...how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

If you can’t answer that your not a Certificated Flight Instructor.
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A woodchuck would chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
 
Understand "Certify" in the context of regulatory framework for airman certification. In that context, when someone "certifies" that they have done something, they have attested that something is true...i.e. an instructor may certify in an endorsement that they have provided certain training, or an airman may certify that an entry in their logbook is correct. For example, the instructor will certify, in accordance with § 61.39(a)(6)(i) and (ii), that the applicant has received and logged training time within 2 calendar months preceding the month of application in preparation for the practical test and is prepared for the required practical test. The DPE will administer the test and sign that they administered a test and the the applicant met the appropriate standards to issue a certificate. In similar context, your AME administers a medical exam and issues you a certificate if you meet the standards.

The certificate is documented evidence that you met a standard at the time it was issued. It is not a guarantee, an endorsement, or a validation of the pilot's skills or health. Only that they evidence was provided that they met a standard.

To your point though, I'm sure "certificate" is a bit of a weasel word on the part of a government agency to protect itself from litigation in the event of an accident. The blame shifts to the pilot or air carrier to ensure the pilot maintains a certain level of proficiency.
 
Thank you all for your opinions.

I work to motivate my clients to use the correct terminology and feel I should set a good example.

I have had more than one client take issue with me over pilot’s license vs pilot’s certificate.

I am working at becoming a better CFI.
 
Brad Z said:
Do you have issues with "Practical" versus "Practicable" as well?
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The one I have confusion over is "intentional departures." 91.171 has a clause: "Use, at the airport of intended departure, ...".

I've never understood why "intended" is there. Is this to preclude you from doing VOR checks at airports you don't ever intend to depart from? This is to dissuade people from taxing to another airport for departure? Or is to stave off problems with unintentional departures (sort of like unintentional spins, but far less common)?
 
Brad Z said:
The certificate is documented evidence that you met a standard at the time it was issued. It is not a guarantee, an endorsement, or a validation of the pilot's skills or health. Only that they evidence was provided that they met a standard.
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By issuing a certificate to a person, the FAA guarantees, endorses, and validates that the person is authorized to exercise the privileges described in Part 61.
 
Vance Breese said:
Thank you all for your opinions.

I work to motivate my clients to use the correct terminology and feel I should set a good example.

I have had more than one client take issue with me over pilot’s license vs pilot’s certificate.

I am working at becoming a better CFI.
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A commendable goal. We should always be striving to be the best we can be. My only caveat there is “Don’t major on the minors”...and Certified vs. Certificated is one of the minors.
 
Personally, if I had a flight instructor that made a big deal of me saying “certified flight instructor” instead of “certificated flight instructor” I think I’d go find a new flight instructor lol.

You might keep that in mind as you continue to instruct :)
 
flyingron said:
The one I have confusion over is "intentional departures." 91.171 has a clause: "Use, at the airport of intended departure, ...".

I've never understood why "intended" is there. Is this to preclude you from doing VOR checks at airports you don't ever intend to depart from? This is to dissuade people from taxing to another airport for departure? Or is to stave off problems with unintentional departures (sort of like unintentional spins, but far less common)?
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Man that is weird. I don't understand why departure is in there at all. Why can't you do a VOR check at an arrival airport, especially if it's been less than 30 days since the last one? o_O
 
flyingron said:
The one I have confusion over is "intentional departures." 91.171 has a clause: "Use, at the airport of intended departure, ...".

I've never understood why "intended" is there. Is this to preclude you from doing VOR checks at airports you don't ever intend to depart from? This is to dissuade people from taxing to another airport for departure? Or is to stave off problems with unintentional departures (sort of like unintentional spins, but far less common)?
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I'm guessing it's because it's not a "airport of departure" until the plane actually takes off, so prior to then, its the "airport of intended departure". If you don't intent to depart, you don't have to worry about the reg :)
 
dmspilot said:
By issuing a certificate to a person, the FAA guarantees, endorses, and validates that the person is authorized to exercise the privileges described in Part 61.
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No it doesn't. The FAA has no idea if you meet requirements to act as pilot in command, such as high performance/complex/tailwheel endorsements, meeting flight review requirements, night currency, or take-off and landing currency. Holding a certificate is just one piece of it. In §61.2(b)(1), it states that "no person may...exercise privileges of an airman certificate, rating, endorsement, or authorization issued under this part unless that person meets the appropriate airman and medical recency requirements of this part, specific to the operation or activity."
 
CC268 said:
This question seems very TomD-esque

Let me ask you this...how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

If you can’t answer that your not a Certificated Flight Instructor.
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One cord. Shetttt man, c'mon. Give me a hard question, like CFI.........oops, my bad.
 
Brad Z said:
No it doesn't. The FAA has no idea if you meet requirements to act as pilot in command, such as high performance/complex/tailwheel endorsement
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One of those requirements is holding a certificate. The FAA guarantees that you meet that requirement by giving you one. That is why one of the definitions of "to certify" is "to give a certificate to".

To certify something is not to guarantee that it does not and never will have faults. You are making that part up.
 
Funny isn't it, but we seem to revisit this CFI deal constamtly, fairly recently I'm pretty sure. But then we do for almost every topic on POA. Oh, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night, showed them my Certified Flight Instructor Certificate, and got a discount rate. Cool huh. Carry on.
 
dmspilot said:
One of those requirements is holding a certificate. The FAA guarantees that you meet that requirement by giving you one. That is why one of the definitions of "to certify" is "to give a certificate to".

To certify something is not to guarantee that it does not and never will have faults. You are making that part up.
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Sigh, let me try this again.

The Definition of Certify has four potential means, three of which do not completely apply:

Definition of certify
certified; certifying
transitive verb
1 : to attest authoritatively: such as
a : confirm
b : to present in formal communication
c : to attest as being true or as represented or as meeting a standard
d : to attest officially to the insanity of
2 : to inform with certainty : assure
3 : to guarantee (a personal check) as to signature and amount by so indicating on the face
4 : to recognize as having met special qualifications (as of a governmental agency or professional board) within a field agencies that certify teachers

The word "Certificate", as a verb, has one definition, which is a synonym of the fourth definition of Certify:

Definition of certificate
certificated; certificating
transitive verb
: to testify to or authorize by a certificate; especially : certify 4

In order to remove any ambiguity, the folks who write the regulations opted to use the word "Certificate" instead of "Certify" to make it clear that in the context of when someone is certificated, they are not assuring or guaranteeing the abilities of the airman, but instead establishing that the person has met special qualifications.
 
mscard88 said:
Funny isn't it, but we seem to revisit this CFI deal constamtly, fairly recently I'm pretty sure. But then we do for almost every topic on POA. Oh, I did sleep at a Holiday Inn last night, showed them my Certified Flight Instructor Certificate, and got a discount rate. Cool huh. Carry on.
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What’s the point of having dead horses if you can’t beat them on a regular basis??
 
Half Fast said:
Can we all just agree that CFI = "Certifiable Flying Idiot" and leave it at that?
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Hey now, I resemble that!

images
 
dmspilot said:
That is seriously the dumbest thing I have ever read. You are playing silly word games.

The FAA certifies an instructor by giving them a certificate.

One of the definitions of "to certify" is "to award a certificate to".

A certificate is evidence of having been certified.

The process by which you receive a certificate, and the process by which you become certified, are both referred to as certification. IT'S THE SAME WORD.
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That.


Also a great way to loose business.
If I went into a school to do some work with an instructor and they went off into the semantics of CFI or BFR they'd be getting a "thanks for your time, bye".



Vance Breese said:
Thank you all for your opinions.

I work to motivate my clients to use the correct terminology and feel I should set a good example.

I have had more than one client take issue with me over pilot’s license vs pilot’s certificate.

I am working at becoming a better CFI.
Click to expand...

A quick place to start would be to learn what is important and what is not, and stop being a terminology nazi, it really doesn't matter.
 
Brad Z said:
a synonym
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Brad Z said:
certificate: to testify to or authorize by a certificate; especially : certify 4
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You might be getting somewhere.

Brad Z said:
they are not assuring or guaranteeing the abilities of the airman
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They are assuring that they have met the required qualifications, including the Airman Certification Standards.

Airman Certification Standards.

certification
1: the act of certifying : the state of being certified
2: a certified statement
 
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