lifter123

I guess from that standpoint it could be a bad situation. In that case, it might pay to do a little investigating.

The Juice

United Flight Systems is a pretty big school and seems to be pretty good, on the up and up and everything.

I know the Chief there and she is really cool, an XJet FO. Go and talk to her if you have any questions, I am sure she would be happy to answer them

dimondan

Let me be completely honest. I hate Gary, I hate Bob, and that program is a big frigin waste of money. Gary's name isn't something special to the FAA. Don't buy into the lies about the 90% something pass rate. The school will not help you on the schedule, the maintenance sucks, you have to first fly with an instructor that can't sign you off(don't have 2 years instructing) and THEN fly with someone that can at a increased rate(Gary) and all that is crap. I was very unhappy with the experience. It's pretty bad when I'm proving Gary wrong on some subjects.

PM me if you have questions

You can do the CFII as the initial and I didn't have a problem at all. My oral consisted of FOI and then GPS then we flew.

Piece of pie.

Finished my training elsewhere

inky13

Got my CFI-I first. The way my instructor had explained it to me made it sound like the rides were going to be (overall) easier. Not really sure if it was, but hey, it worked! I guess maybe because you don't have to spill out the FOI knowledge on your CFI-A ride. I thought the CFI-A ride was a little more challenging, IMO. Teaching instruments seems to come easy for me, so getting FOI out of the way during the "easy" stuff is what made it "easier", I guess.

To each his/her own.

Kasserine06

Be very careful with this. I work with a person who did this, but they went about it the wrong way. They wanted to get their CFI-I first because they did not want to go to the FSDO and they determined it was an addon rating, and addons can be done with a DE. While she was instructing students, she worked on her initial. Then, I assumed she would go to the FSDO for her initial, but she went with the same DE.

I was a little confused, so I called up the FSDO, and they gave me big no. They said that they consider a CFI-I as an addon, so you need your initial first. They said it was the same as if a person went for an instrument rating before that had a PPL. They also said that even if they allowed that they would want the person to take the flight test with them. They say that they need to process all flight instructors to make sure they can perform to their standards. I asked the FSDO right next to mine and they said they are fine with getting a CFI-I first, but they need people to take the ride with them.

From what it seems though, many others agree that you can do your CFI-I first and that it is not an addon (depending on how at least one FSDO interprets it). Regardless, make sure you find out what your FSDO says because they will still want you to take the cehckride with them.

Avroman

Which ever rating under your CFI (Airplane single engine, multiengine, instrument , Heck Helicoper, Glider, whatever....) is your initial. Just as doing your comm airplane (fill in the blank,asel, amel, ases, ames) first is your initial check. ANYTHING after that is an add on. There is no requirement of which to do FIRST. If all you have and ever plan to fly is a twin seabee then just get your comm AMES then do the instructor airplane multi then instrument (OR) instrument then multi..... There is NO requirement to EVER do anything in any other order than YOUR choice other than you MUST get a comm. pilot cert before a CFI and the comm must be of the same cat. and class of the CFI requested. (don't only have the AMEL and try to get the CFI ASE, ect.)

I liken this to the same nonsense that certain FSDO's won't allow line captains (FAR 121 airline types) to renew the CFI based on the regular evaluation of the fo's (which is a stated part of our jobs in our FOM) yet other FSDO's do so without issure..... it's government as usual.... whatever that office manager wants is what goes, if you don't like it look to a different office.

rickair7777

It is not an "Add-on", read the regs, they are very, very clear in that there is nothing to suggest or imply that any particular instructor rating has "priority" over others. FAA headquarters will back that up too.

However, there are a few local feds who are simply idiots but it's their football so you have to play the game their way...or go to another FSDO.

flyandive

I did the CFI-I training first followed by CFI-A but, I took the CFI-A checkride first then a few days later the CFI-I.

Kasserine06

I agree that it is not an addon, but it is up to the FSDO. Also, I don’t think you can shop around to other FSDO’s. If you live in Ohio, you can’t go by the interpretations of the FSDO for Connecticut. Also, make sure you know who you are talking to at the FSDO, on other calls to them for other reasons; I have received different answers from different people. That is why I said to be careful with this, because you may not know how unreasonable your FSDO may be. If you go about it the right way, you should have no problem, but it will not hurt to call and get confirmation.

rickair7777

By shop around, I mean take the checkride in another jurisdiction. You are NOT required to take the checkride in the jurisdiction you live or trained in. This was done all the time in my area, because our local feds were tools.