CFI renewal options

FastEddieB

FastEddieB

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Fast Eddie B
When I decided to get my certificate reinstated about 4 years ago, I did so with a DPE in S Fl I’ve known since the 1970’s. When my first renewal rolled around, I just went ahead and renewed it with him.

My current certificate expires at the end of August, and this time I’m thinking about renewing it with either an online course or a 2-day clinic. I’ve already gotten 3 solicitations in the mail, from King, AOPA and Aviation Seminars.

Looking for feedback on the above courses or any different options you guys may have used.

Thanks in advance.
 
I've done it through Gleim online refresher, and it is relatively painless.
 
I've done Gleim multiple times and always happy with it. Updated their course a few years ago so it's very informative. Did AOPA once and it was very good too. Both offered the option of them processing it for you. Very simple.
 
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The AOPA 2-day clinics (others too) can be a lot of fun because of meeting and interacting on a human level. If you have the time and the inclination, go with that.

I haven't found much of a difference among the online courses. I used to do Gleim and still like their materials, but about 10± years ago, I decide to go with the American Flyers $99 for life program. As I said, not much of a substantive difference, especially if you keep up with things regularly. Not much of a procedural difference either. The FAA requires 12 hours for the course and pretty much all of them now include a timer which precludes you from from doing the final quizzes until a certain time has passed.
 
acecfi.com has gotten a lot of good reviews from folks at the office. $99 for the lifetime membership and $25 every time you renew to have them do all the paperwork for you. No trip to the FSDO.
 
I've used the American Flyers 'pay once and renew forever' program for over a decade now. It's cheap and easy. That said, if I ever actually decided to get back into instructing, I'd need to buckle down and do a genuine refresher. I can't speak for the other programs, but the American Flyers deal is really just there to check the box.
 
FastEddieB said:
When I decided to get my certificate reinstated about 4 years ago, I did so with a DPE in S Fl I’ve known since the 1970’s. When my first renewal rolled around, I just went ahead and renewed it with him.

My current certificate expires at the end of August, and this time I’m thinking about renewing it with either an online course or a 2-day clinic. I’ve already gotten 3 solicitations in the mail, from King, AOPA and Aviation Seminars.

Looking for feedback on the above courses or any different options you guys may have used.

Thanks in advance.
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Preferences

1 Do a add on like CFII or MEI

2 Off performance of you train enough folks, in which case a gold seal might also be a option

3 Online, in which case I'd recommend King, I used their online service with them also doing the paperwork for the last couple renews, I've been very happy with them. They also have little things they add on, kinda like electives, drones, efbs, etc, even though I fly for a living I have always come away from the king program at least learning one new thing
 
kayoh190 said:
I've used the American Flyers 'pay once and renew forever' program for over a decade now. It's cheap and easy. That said, if I ever actually decided to get back into instructing, I'd need to buckle down and do a genuine refresher. I can't speak for the other programs, but the American Flyers deal is really just there to check the box.
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Most of the online ones are. They syllabus is approved by the FAA. Even (especially) some of the wrong quiz answers ;)
 
I use American Flyers' lifetime renewal option. It's a total waste of time from a learning perspective, but it gets the job done. The quizzes are a joke, usually 2 obviously wrong answer and one correct one. I do the renewal at work with the "lesson" open on my second monitor just counting down the time and I take the quiz when it will let me. I have yet to actually review any of the information in the "lessons."
 
bradg33 said:
I use American Flyers' lifetime renewal option. It's a total waste of time from a learning perspective, but it gets the job done. The quizzes are a joke, usually 2 obviously wrong answer and one correct one. I do the renewal at work with the "lesson" open on my second monitor just counting down the time and I take the quiz when it will let me. I have yet to actually review any of the information in the "lessons."
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Me too. It gets the renewal done. It's all text based and I don't think anybody learns anything just by reading text. They charge $25 to process your 8710 paperwork online.
 
sarangan said:
I've done it through Gleim online refresher, and it is relatively painless.
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Same for me. Don't even have to put pants on to get it done. Plus for I think 25 bucks more I get my temporary through email instead of going through FSDO, which is a 2.5 hour drive for me. And FSDO requires putting on pants....
 
kayoh190 said:
I've used the American Flyers 'pay once and renew forever' program for over a decade now. It's cheap and easy. That said, if I ever actually decided to get back into instructing, I'd need to buckle down and do a genuine refresher. I can't speak for the other programs, but the American Flyers deal is really just there to check the box.
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Yeah, this. The last couple of times I did it based on being a 121 Captain but I will probably have to do it the AF way next time, being based in Guam with no access and all.
 
A1Topgun said:
Me too. It gets the renewal done. It's all text based and I don't think anybody learns anything just by reading text. They charge $25 to process your 8710 paperwork online.
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The FSDO isn't far from my office, so I usually just go do it in person rather than pay for the renewal service. Gives me a chance to meet the new local ASIs.
 
I did it a couple times in ATL but then the FSDO became a fortress, appointment had to be made with one of our airline's POI, etc etc., so it became a hassle.
 
A1Topgun said:
Me too. It gets the renewal done. It's all text based and I don't think anybody learns anything just by reading text. They charge $25 to process your 8710 paperwork online.
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I don’t know how you FSDO does it, but mine you just complete the IACRA and email the FTN with a copy of your
A1Topgun said:
Me too. It gets the renewal done. It's all text based and I don't think anybody learns anything just by reading text. They charge $25 to process your 8710 paperwork online.
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You might want to call your FSDO and inquire how they are doing renewals before you waste $25.
 
It is over a two hour drive, or one hour flight , to the "local" FSDO, one way. $25 bucks is less than the time and gas.
 
A1Topgun said:
It is over a two hour drive, or one hour flight , to the "local" FSDO, one way. $25 bucks is less than the time and gas.
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I have the same problem. It is just easier to spend the 25 bucks instead of making an all day trip to the FSDO and spend a whole lot more than 25 bucks.
 
To finish this up, I did go with the American Flyers program.

I signed up at the beginning of August and finished up yesterday. Could have been done a lot more quickly, but life got in the way.

In any case, it wasn’t horrible. The quizzes were pretty straightforward. My progress was seamlessly kept updated whether I logged in with my phone, my computer or either of 2 iPads. It was a good refresher overall.

I paid the extra $25 for them to handle the paperwork. It did take me a while to get logged into IACRA. I think I was originally signed up by my DPE so I didn’t know my password. I couldn’t reset it since I had not set up security questions. It took a call, and waiting for a couple hours for a call back and I was led through the process of changing my password. Logged in, filled out the forms using the American Flyers checklist and got a confirmation from them that everything went through.

Thanks again to everyone for their input.
 
FastEddieB said:
I paid the extra $25 for them to handle the paperwork. It did take me a while to get logged into IACRA. I think I was originally signed up by my DPE so I didn’t know my password. I couldn’t reset it since I had not set up security questions. It took a call, and waiting for a couple hours for a call back and I was led through the process of changing my password. Logged in, filled out the forms using the American Flyers checklist and got a confirmation from them that everything went through.

Thanks again to everyone for their input.
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Interesting. I usually use Gleim and pay $25 for them to process the renewal. Never have had to log into IACRA, and I did my most recent renewal last year. Maybe Gleim has a way or arrangement to do that directly with IACRA, I dunno.
 
FastEddieB said:
Kind of makes me wonder exactly what the $25 buys.

If it’s a physical trip to the FSDO, it’s still worth it for me.
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Exactly, they save you the trip to the FSDO and take care of everything else required to process the renewal. Worth it to me too.
 
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