TurnHeading360

What is the purpose of a Chief Flight Instructor? Are they there to train students or run the flight operations?

FlyerJosh

Roles of the Chief Instructor vary widely from operation to operation, but overall they are there to ensure a particular standard. The chief instructor is tasked with overseeing the flight instructor cadre, ensuring that training meets/exceed minimum requirements and standards. Some chief instructors have their own students, others do not. Most perform some sort of role as a "check pilot", perhaps conducting occasional stage/progress checks with students. The chief instructor may run the business in addition to flight training activities or they may not.

Simply put, there is no particular "mold" for a chief instructor, however there are some primary duties, especially with regards to part 141 training (See 141.85 for the "offical duties" as required by the regs)

TedStryker

Josh is correct. I've served as Chief Flight Instructor at two different Part 61 flight schools (and full-time instructor in the Part 141 environment.) Whether you are looking at Part 61 or Part 141 the Chief Flight Instructor is typically there to run the flight school and not just train their own students.

The only time a "Chief Flight Instructor" is required is in the Part 141 environment, and that individual's duties are spelled out in the regulation cited above. In the Part 141 environment I think you will find the Chief Flight Instructor is generally consumed with administrative tasks (such as dealing with the POI, maintaining control of records, conducting ACR duties, etc.) In smaller Part 141 schools they may be the person who conducts all the end-of-course checkrides or ratings checkrides, in addition to providing instructor standardization. However, very rarely will they have the time to train their own students.

The Part 61 environment can be totally different since the school may have much fewer staff and each individual likely takes on many more duties. The bottom line is it will vary with the scale and complexity of the flight school. Some places are very formalized - these tend to be the larger schools with many more students and instructors. Generally in the Part 61 environment the title of Chief falls upon the most senior or experienced instructor at the school, but in reality it is just a designation and it is not required by the FAA. The Chief is most likely responsible for hiring, standardizing, and supervising the other instructors. He may also be responsible for tracking the maintenance status on the aircraft, doing payroll for the instructors, budgeting, marketing the flight school, answering the phones, etc. When I ran flight schools I gave my instructors a lot of autonomy and trusted them to come to me with any issues they were having. I carried quite a few of my own students (mostly CFI students or multiengine ratings) but this will vary. I did not do checkrides with any of the other instructor's students unless I was asked to fly with someone to gauge their progress.

PhilipTexas

I'd just add one more task that the Chief Flight Instructor might do is to train initial instructor students. They may be the only (or one of the only) 2yr CFI at the flight school. This also ensures that new instructors who are hired by the flight school are held to the same standards and are trained properly.