Bad Link...

It looks to also be the Gatlin letter that NGDI posted earlier.

The letter posted above by NoyGonnaDoIt is an FAA headquarters legal opinion which was written last month. It says that you CANNOT act as a sim instructor under part 61 with a GI cert.

This opinion itself is reasonable, but their logic in arriving there looks weak. It's basically "This is the way I want it to be, it doesn't matter what the regs say". I'm guessing they won't try to go back and violate anybody who has done this in the past.

We about beat this to death but I'd say the Chief Counsel's letter is straight forward:
1. Here is a list of what GIs can do.
2. Instructing in a sim is not on the list.
3. Therefore, a GI can not instruct in a sim.
That Philosophy of Logic class finally paid off.

A pilots license is not required to posses a GI certificate. Do you really think that someone without a pilots license is qualified to teach someone to fly. I don't care if it's a FTD or a TURD. 'm not buying it. A ground instructor is just that....a ground instructor. They can provide the required training to be signed off for taking a written test. Thats it.

Some of the instructor privilege issues seem to have always been a bit sketchy with differing interpretations of the same reg - some of them being different depending on which part of the FAA you asked.

Just a sampling of those that have had support for varying views but have finally been "clarified" by FAR changes, Chief Counsel interpretations or both in recent years:

• Ground instructor can't give loggable flight training in a device.
• CFI-I with no aircraft instructor rating can't teach in any aircraft.
• CFI-A without an Instrument-Airplane rating cannot provide instrument training beyond the "flight solely by reference to instruments" training for the private certificate.
• Neither CFI nor trainee is a passenger, no neither needs to be landing-current.
• CFI ride does not reset the FR clock.
• CFIs may log trainee instrument approaches that occur in actual

Some parts of the FAA website are currently down but if you're interested, putting CFI or flight instructor in the search box at http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/...terpretations/ should help you find all of them

Makes sense.

Huh??? When did THAT happen? I trained several CFI initials back in the day...you're saying that they can no longer give flight instruction?[/quote]

I always assumed that.

Kind of stupid, but if you pass the ride just ask for a FR endorsement!

Maybe not such a great idea...there's a difference between watchning and doing...might be a big difference for some people.

I have seen it done, essentially a BAI warm-up before the student goes to the airplane with a CFII. But I kind of agree it's not the best idea.

I'll let out some of the cynic I try to keep in check and say that it does not surprise me. I'm sure having a GI do that training is somehow cheaper than using a CFI. Just to save a buck.

It's been one of those issues where different arms of the FAA said different things. The reg was "clarified" as part of last October's major revision of Part 61 and the Chief Counsel opinion about it is here:
http://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/.../Grayson-2.pdf