FAA Drops Expiration Date from CFI

Basically the process of renewal will not change and you will receive a certificate without an expiration date. Even without an expiration date, you still will have to submit a 8710 for renewal.

The FAA should have made the FIRC part of Wings online classes with no other action by the CFI required for renewal.
 
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The physical certificate will not have an expiration date printed, but privileges still expire if not renewed. The FAA just doesn’t need to print and mail a new card now.
 
I read somewhere there will now be a three month grace period after expiration to complete a FIRC and reinstate your certificate. Currently if you are one day late you have to take a checkride to reinstate.
 
And, I wonder: now there's the 3-month pre- renewal window for completing a FIRC. What happens to that if your currency date is before your (old) expiration date?
(so many questions).
 
MauleSkinner said:
Yeah, we’ll have to read the final rule to find out if they’re adding or changing the grace period.
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Ah I thought this was the final rule. I think AceCFI emails me when it comes time to renew so in theory I shouldn’t need a grace period if I pay attention. Hopefully they will still alert me.
 
jordane93 said:
Ah I thought this was the final rule. I think AceCFI emails me when it comes time to renew so in theory I shouldn’t need a grace period if I pay attention. Hopefully they will still alert me.
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It is the final rule…I actually quoted the wrong post, sorry.

Sounds like you can renew with the same 3-month early grace period, but they’re adding a 3-month late grace after privileges expire to do a FIRC instead of a checkride.

But I haven’t read it closely enough to say for sure.
 
So, for a guy like me who let my CFI expire back in the late 80’s, does this change anything for me? Still need to do a checkride or what?
 
Michael Jarvis said:
So, for a guy like me who let my CFI expire back in the late 80’s, does this change anything for me? Still need to do a checkride or what?
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I finally let mine expire in the 90’s, and would not want to renew even if the Feds sent it via private courier.
The whole CFI thing is a huge pita compared to back then.
 
I see three main items.
1. Replacing “expiration” with “currency”. If nothing else it saves plastic.
2. Expanding the FIRC recurrency window to include 3 months after (sort of like the 1st 6 months after instrument currency ends).
3 Pushing the WINGS program as another recurrence option.
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With respect to #3, I think it’s 15 wings proficiency events with at least 5 people.

Kinda cool, I’m a CFI that does a lot of BFRs and rusty pilot stuff, not a lot of signing folks off for checkrides.

Overall it’s mostly saving printing a lot of cards…. Endorsements will change with the currency vs expiration date.
 
midlifeflyer said:
I see three main items.
1. Replacing “expiration” with “currency”. If nothing else it saves plastic.
2. Expanding the FIRC recurrency window to include 3 months after (sort of like the 1st 6 months after instrument currency ends).
3 Pushing the WINGS program as another recurrence option.
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The only renewal option I have not used is the Online FIRC. I have done in person FIRC and really enjoyed them. Our State Aeronautics Department use do to the regularly. I wish they still did.
I found doing the renewal with a DPE to work very well and was educational. I would have no issue doing it again.
Of course the easiest was doing it based on check rides, but there are only a few time I have enough recommendations to do that (I am a part time Flight instructor)
The past 2 I have done via the wings program, which I find works quite well and is easy to do since I regularly do wings credits and part of the flight reviews I do.

Brian
CFIIIG/ASEL
 
The online FIRC isn’t horrible. I was surprised. I actually learn a bit from them… Have only used ACE, I imagine most are similar.
 
Question for the thread.

At one time thought I heard the FAA might be moving to a position where pilots who held a valid CFI but were not "actively" instructing would (might) lose the privilege?

Anybody hear that?
 
Tools said:
The online FIRC isn’t horrible. I was surprised. I actually learn a bit from them… Have only used ACE, I imagine most are similar.
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I used to use the Jepp/ASF…some years better than others.

One year Jepp ****ed me off, and I used Gleim. I could identify the FAA handbooks and page numbers that they copied word-for-word. Would’ve been a total waste of time had I not realized that all of my FAA handbooks were out of date.
 
STR8NLVEL said:
Question for the thread.

At one time thought I heard the FAA might be moving to a position where pilots who held a valid CFI but were not "actively" instructing would (might) lose the privilege?

Anybody hear that?
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You mean like they've been doing for years? You either instruct or you have to do the FIRC or retake a ride.
 
flyingron said:
You mean like they've been doing for years? You either instruct or you have to do the FIRC or retake a ride.
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People who instruct still need an FIRC unless they are sending enough people for checkrides. One can be very active as an instructor without that.

I think I recall what @STR8NLVEL is referring to and it was about weeding out instructors who give next to no dual at all. No flight reviews, no checkouts, no transition training, no IPCs.
 
midlifeflyer said:
People who instruct still need an FIRC unless they are sending enough people for checkrides. One can be very active as an instructor without that.

I think I recall what @STR8NLVEL is referring to and it was about weeding out instructors who give next to no dual at all. No flight reviews, no checkouts, no transition training, no IPCs.
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That's news to me. Besides, if they're not actually doing any instruction, what's the safety issue?

The bigger issue is the quality of recurrent training. For many, flight reviews are incredibly lacking.
 
Brad: A RARE complaint from me:

For me its about the "we gotta make this look right" attitude @ FAA Brad. since the addition of the "50 hours rule for like type" we've lost a lot of DPEs. Tough now to book a student's training when you can't get a DPE lined up.

FAA did the same thing to medical branch but in a different way: The 3 mgbyte limit to uploads per airman per exam. That means those of us that survived are scanning everything minimal legible resolution, compressing it with Adobe Pro, and uploading. A lot of AMEs decied, "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor!" and hung it up. 3Mbytes-(!) YGMSM. How do I get 180 pages into 3 MBytes? IDDM Frist class- each Time-inRage month is 6 color sheets.

I get that times are tight, but with each branch continuing to do what "looks right to them" it compromises overall system safety. Myopia = No Bueno. The ranks in the field are getting decimated.
 
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