I’m considering pursuing my instructor rating, but I understand that it requires a significant time commitment, including several hours of dual training with a Class 1 instructor, passing the written exam, and preparing all required PGIs. I currently work full time; however, I could attend training on weekends and occasionally take days off to make progress.

How long would it take from start to finish?

I’m also aware that, in the current hiring environment, securing a full-time instructing position is unlikely even for people who make it their main job. Even during stronger hiring periods, it was likely only the school you trained at would hire you on.

Very rough estimate: 40 training days. That'll cover your flying (30 hours minimum) and PGI practicum time (maybe another 30-ish hours). For full time instructor candidates, the main bottleneck is how fast they can build their lesson plans. If you have significant pauses between training days, that might not be as much of an issue for you (depending on how much you have going on in your life).

I usually do it in a month if the candidate is well prepared. I don't take instructor candidate if they aren't prepared or don't have time to commit. Usually it's one ground briefing session and one flight approximately 1.5 hrs long. Sometimes it's two flights, and other times, if the wx is bad, only ground school or prep work.

I will give you a word of caution: only spend the money if you really want to do this and you have the flying skills necessary. The instructor rating is the most difficult rating to get through for many reasons - flying skill required, preparation, etc.

Bede wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 7:19 am I usually do it in a month if the candidate is well prepared. I don't take instructor candidate if they aren't prepared or don't have time to commit. Usually it's one ground briefing session and one flight approximately 1.5 hrs long. Sometimes it's two flights, and other times, if the wx is bad, only ground school or prep work.

I will give you a word of caution: only spend the money if you really want to do this and you have the flying skills necessary. The instructor rating is the most difficult rating to get through for many reasons - flying skill required, preparation, etc.

Thanks for explaining! And yeah I heard the AIRAF + Instructor ride were most peoples hardest ones

Conflicting Traffic wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:48 pm the main bottleneck is how fast they can build their lesson plans.

Are students all still doing this themselves? Can't they just copy stuff from their classmate? After all the content should be very similar.

digits_ wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 11:45 am

Conflicting Traffic wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:48 pm the main bottleneck is how fast they can build their lesson plans.

Are students all still doing this themselves? Can't they just copy stuff from their classmate? After all the content should be very similar.

Sure they could. However, I have always taught that you need to make a set of lesson plans that is effective for you. I have seen candidates to ppt, handouts, and point form outlines. Whatever works.

digits_ wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 11:45 am

Conflicting Traffic wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:48 pm the main bottleneck is how fast they can build their lesson plans.

Are students all still doing this themselves? Can't they just copy stuff from their classmate? After all the content should be very similar.

Your job as an instructor is to deliver an effective PGI. To do that you have to be able to present the material in a way that works for you. However the real value in making your own lesson plan is it is the best way to truly know your material. Absolutely shamelessly steal good ideas from others but you still have to know the material

FWIW as an examiner I have found it obvious when candidates just copied their PGI's because as soon as you start asking "why" questions about something in their presentation, you start getting the deer in the headlights look from the candidate, Those rides generally didn't go well.

However I am totally agnostic as to the way the PGI is presented. Personally as an old guy I like to do them on a white board but I have seen many excellent examples of Power Point presentations including some with some very effective animation. Ironically probable the best PGI presentation I have ever seen was done by a young man who sat next to me with a pad of blank paper and a pencil. It was a master class in building knowledge starting with an outline that was filled in with an interactive dialogue.

I did my Instructor rating while working a full time job. I started in October and finished the following May. It was hard work but worth it as the job let me pay for the lessons as I was doing them, so I finished with no debt.

Big Pistons Forever wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 2:40 pm I did my Instructor rating while working a full time job. I started in October and finished the following May. It was hard work but worth it as the job let me pay for the lessons as I was doing them, so I finished with no debt.

Did your school give you an idea of weather you'd be hired once done? Also did you end up quitting your full time job in may?

digits_ wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 11:45 am

Conflicting Traffic wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:48 pm the main bottleneck is how fast they can build their lesson plans.

Are students all still doing this themselves? Can't they just copy stuff from their classmate? After all the content should be very similar.

You definitely could, but you'd get destroyed in the check ride. The instructor flight test is notoriously theoretical, with the examiner probing deeply into both your problem solving, knowledge, and procedures. You'll be very unlikely to do well if you haven't made your own lesson plans (and revised them a handful of times each).

As to how long it'll take, it all depends on you. If you've just finished your CPL and are consistently flying within CPL tolerances (3+), it will be as Bede suggested (~2 months). If not, it could take much longer. I've heard of veteran CPLs with thousands of hours having to spend six months just re-learning all the theory/groundschool while working full time.

I find some class 1 instructors tend to obsess over stick & rudder skills because they tend to degrade fastest. But the reality of flying is that PDM is what makes a pilot. If you have a CPL, you can likely train back up to CPL stick & rudder standards within the 30 flight hours required. But PDM is a much tougher thing to build, because it's a mindset, not a skill. There are exceptions to the above, and I've personally seen huge variations among CPL's stick & rudder skills. But on average, this is the easy part, and the PDM is the hard part.

Instructing is a demanding job. It is just as dangerous and unforgiving as any other flying. The aircraft are simple, but the airspace is often extremely congested with no TCAS or ATC to help. There are mid-airs happening on a monthly basis. So go into it with the mindset of a professional, because it isn't the cakewalk it is sold as. FTUs also have a ton of financial/legal pressures that they have to balance, making most instructor's lives quite stressful.

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 6:19 pm If you have a CPL, you can likely train back up to CPL stick & rudder standards within the 30 flight hours required. But PDM is a much tougher thing to build, because it's a mindset, not a skill. There are exceptions to the above, and I've personally seen huge variations among CPL's stick & rudder skills. But on average, this is the easy part, and the PDM is the hard part.

The problem is that as a CPL, you can dedicate your entire attention to flying. However as an instructor, you must dedicate your attention to teaching. The flying must be second nature. It has to be to a higher standard than a CPL and must be done with little thought.

I have never felt as useless as a pilot as I did during my instructor rating.

Bede wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 7:37 pm

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 6:19 pm If you have a CPL, you can likely train back up to CPL stick & rudder standards within the 30 flight hours required. But PDM is a much tougher thing to build, because it's a mindset, not a skill. There are exceptions to the above, and I've personally seen huge variations among CPL's stick & rudder skills. But on average, this is the easy part, and the PDM is the hard part.

The problem is that as a CPL, you can dedicate your entire attention to flying. However as an instructor, you must dedicate your attention to teaching. The flying must be second nature. It has to be to a higher standard than a CPL and must be done with little thought.

I have never felt as useless as a pilot as I did during my instructor rating.

I second the comment about never feeling so useless as when doing the instructor rating. I felt the same way.

I disagree that your flying skills need to be to a higher standard. In fact, so does the flight test guide. You must be able to fly to CPL flight test standards. Dont pretend otherwise. Of course it would be ideal if the flying was second nature so the teaching is the focus. But let's be realistic. Not as a fresh class 4, and not with the 230 hrs that most people have when they finish. The expertise will come with time and experience and it will be second nature. The examiner doesnt expect the world from a class 4 candidate. They have at least a year under the supervision of a class 1 or 2 at an FTU to get guided and mentored before upgrading. They will learn a lot in that time. I would say that was the biggest jump in my skills as a pilot. As a class 4 candidate, you are expected to know your material, present a lesson plan, teach an excersise, critique and offer guidance, and evaluate. Dont make it out to be something its not. A great instructor takes time to develop.

For the OP, I did not find the instructor rating, flight test, or written test to be overly difficult but I was just freshly finishing my CPL. If you've had a gap it might be a bit tougher. However, It was very time consuming, a lot of work, but also a lot of fun and satisfying. I enjoyed it more than any other training that I did. For time, part time, the quotes above are accurate. 40 days sounds about right, but if you wanted to fast track you could potentially do 2 lessons in a day to make better use of the larger gaps between flights.

Good luck.

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 6:19 pm

digits_ wrote: ↑Sun Dec 28, 2025 11:45 am

Conflicting Traffic wrote: ↑Sat Dec 27, 2025 10:48 pm the main bottleneck is how fast they can build their lesson plans.

Are students all still doing this themselves? Can't they just copy stuff from their classmate? After all the content should be very similar.

You definitely could, but you'd get destroyed in the check ride. The instructor flight test is notoriously theoretical, with the examiner probing deeply into both your problem solving, knowledge, and procedures. You'll be very unlikely to do well if you haven't made your own lesson plans (and revised them a handful of times each).

A few replies here seem to equate my statement of not writing your own PGI documentation to not knowing your stuff. That's not what I intended to write.

Allow me to clarify. I don't see any reason why an instructor should have to write out a lesson plan that should be almost identical to what all the other students are doing and what other FTUs and instructors have been doing for decades. I would expect an instructor to walk into any FTU and be able to teach with the lesson plan provided to him by the FTU. Coming up with a lesson plan is not something an instructor should have to do. That's on the FTU (or supervising instructor. An instructor should execute the provided lesson plan. Especially as a class 4 who won't be doing stand alone instruction anyway.

Having instructors write their own lesson plans is, in my opinion, just a waste of time. I was very gratefuly class 1 was like minded and provided me with his lesson plans which I went through and slightly adjusted where his notes didn't make sense to me. Took 2 days. They were also all bullet points and a list of references. No way one would pass without knowing what it all means, but then again that's somewhat of the point.

Having instructors write their own lesson plans is, in my opinion, just a waste of time. I was very gratefuly class 1 was like minded and provided me with his lesson plans which I went through and slightly adjusted where his notes didn't make sense to me. Took 2 days. They were also all bullet points and a list of references. No way one would pass without knowing what it all means, but then again that's somewhat of the point.

This is definitely a non-standard practice. The whole idea behind making your own lesson plans is that you'll understand the concepts far more deeply if you have to create those plans versus if they are just handed to you. Furthermore, a PGI lesson plan will not include all of the details you'll need to know, and each instructor includes different items based on what they like to highlight. I don't see any way to have the depth of knowledge needed for the check ride if you don't go through each exercises and make your own.

You can definitely use a standard lesson plan as a template, and I used multiple sources, but in the end I made every single lesson in the FTM (minus floats/skis) from scratch, and it took about 2-3 hours per lesson. I learned more from that process than anything else, and there's a reason most Class 1s require their instructor candidates to go through this process.


P.S. Agree with Bede regarding flying needing to be second nature for an instructor, but I still think the 30 required hours is more than enough time to get you to where you need to be as a class 4. I went straight from CPL to instructor, and definitely over-prepared during my CPL so the flying was not difficult. That said, I did learn an immense amount about what I was doing in the plane that I was not paying attention to prior.

The flying part is very dependent on how well you were taught during the CPL. For most of my instructor rating candidates I find need the first 5 hours just fixing the candidates flying before I can even start on teaching how to teach. If you are working on your CPL don't accept the flight test standard work to be better than that for every maneuver.

lostav8r wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 2:53 pm

Big Pistons Forever wrote: ↑Mon Dec 29, 2025 2:40 pm I did my Instructor rating while working a full time job. I started in October and finished the following May. It was hard work but worth it as the job let me pay for the lessons as I was doing them, so I finished with no debt.

Did your school give you an idea of weather you'd be hired once done? Also did you end up quitting your full time job in may?

Yes although there was no guarantee so I treated the course as an extended job interview not just training to get my instructor rating. As it happens when I was in the air on my flight instructor flight test one of the schools instructors announced he was leaving so I was offered a job when I landed.

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Tue Dec 30, 2025 6:31 am

Having instructors write their own lesson plans is, in my opinion, just a waste of time. I was very gratefuly class 1 was like minded and provided me with his lesson plans which I went through and slightly adjusted where his notes didn't make sense to me. Took 2 days. They were also all bullet points and a list of references. No way one would pass without knowing what it all means, but then again that's somewhat of the point.

This is definitely a non-standard practice. The whole idea behind making your own lesson plans is that you'll understand the concepts far more deeply if you have to create those plans versus if they are just handed to you. Furthermore, a PGI lesson plan will not include all of the details you'll need to know,

If that worked for you, then great, there's nothing wrong with going that way if that works. But 'forcing' it to most/all FI students seems a bit bizarre.

After you've finished your CPL, you *should* already have all the knowledge needed to teach a PGI. The instructor course *should* be focusing on how to effectively teach the stuff. Not deciding what should be taught, but how it should be taught. The PGI lesson plan usually deals with the 'what', which is already documented in a plethora of places. IMO you're spending time on the wrong thing when coming up with the lesson plan.

Ideally, a class 1 should give a lesson plan to a candidate and tell him 'teach me this'. Give them time to prepare, obviously.

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Tue Dec 30, 2025 6:31 am and each instructor includes different items based on what they like to highlight. I don't see any way to have the depth of knowledge needed for the check ride if you don't go through each exercises and make your own.

It's my understanding that the goal of the current FTU and FI rating setup by TC is that theoretically every student would receive the same knowledge and receive the same training. All instructors should highlight the same things. Creating your own lesson plans to highlight different things, is the opposite of what one should do.


Consider this: if an instructor is hired to teach the theoretical course to prepare for the written examinations, do you expect him to write his own book, or are you ok if he used From The Ground Up, or any other books? Why use a different approach for PGIs?

An instructor should use the available resources to teach the required materials. He doesn't necessarily have to write or create his own materials. Some do, and that's fine, but making it de facto mandatory is what I have a bit of trouble with.

After you've finished your CPL, you *should* already have all the knowledge needed to teach a PGI. The instructor course *should* be focusing on how to effectively teach the stuff. Not deciding what should be taught, but how it should be taught. The PGI lesson plan usually deals with the 'what', which is already documented in a plethora of places. IMO you're spending time on the wrong thing when coming up with the lesson plan.

Again, this sounds very different from how I and every other instructor/candidate I know was trained. There is a huge jump in knowledge/theory/procedure expertise from a CPL to an instructor. No one I know could have passed the ground portion of an instructor check ride after completing a CPL. The FIG exists for a reason, and specifically disagrees with you that PGI is about the "How" only. When I made my PGIs, and all the PGIs my instructors used answered What/How/Why. BPF can clarify this for us as well since he's an examiner.

The "Why" is what separates an instructor from a CPL. You will be asked that question dozens of times in your check ride, and in fact when interviewing for an instructor position. I'm curious to know Bede's opinion on this as well, since he is far more theoretically knowledgeable than anyone else on this forum. But my guess is even he would have struggled on the ground portion of his initial class 4 ride if he just went in with CPL level knowledge.

This is of course just my opinion as an instructor. As always, the usual disclaimer of pilots being like a box of chocolates applies.

Big Pistons Forever wrote: ↑Tue Dec 30, 2025 9:58 am The flying part is very dependent on how well you were taught during the CPL. For most of my instructor rating candidates I find need the first 5 hours just fixing the candidates flying before I can even start on teaching how to teach. If you are working on your CPL don't accept the flight test standard work to be better than that for every maneuver.

This is very true, luckily I was trained by the same Class 1 that did my CPL so there wasn't any remedial training required as he had already recommended me for my CPL ride. Even just changing instructors when going from CPL to IR can be a big shock as each instructor can be radically different in their approach, which can make the instructor training much harder due to the emphasis on technique.

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Tue Dec 30, 2025 12:09 pm

After you've finished your CPL, you *should* already have all the knowledge needed to teach a PGI. The instructor course *should* be focusing on how to effectively teach the stuff. Not deciding what should be taught, but how it should be taught. The PGI lesson plan usually deals with the 'what', which is already documented in a plethora of places. IMO you're spending time on the wrong thing when coming up with the lesson plan.

Again, this sounds very different from how I and every other instructor/candidate I know was trained. There is a huge jump in knowledge/theory/procedure expertise from a CPL to an instructor. No one I know could have passed the ground portion of an instructor check ride after completing a CPL. The FIG exists for a reason, and specifically disagrees with you that PGI is about the "How" only. When I made my PGIs, and all the PGIs my instructors used answered What/How/Why. BPF can clarify this for us as well since he's an examiner.

The "Why" is what separates an instructor from a CPL. You will be asked that question dozens of times in your check ride, and in fact when interviewing for an instructor position. I'm curious to know Bede's opinion on this as well, since he is far more theoretically knowledgeable than anyone else on this forum. But my guess is even he would have struggled on the ground portion of his initial class 4 ride if he just went in with CPL level knowledge.

This is of course just my opinion as an instructor. As always, the usual disclaimer of pilots being like a box of chocolates applies.

Are you sure we're still talking about PGIs and not ground school?

Flight instructor guide, page 38, my emphasis:
source: https://tc.canada.ca/sites/default/file ... tp975e.pdf

PREPARATORY GROUND INSTRUCTION
Preparatory Ground Instruction Definition
1. Classroom type instruction, normally on a one-to-one basis, but not excluding group
instruction, covering the steps necessary to fly an air exercise. While basic theory of flight,
where applicable, would previously have been covered in ground school, some theory may be
necessary to explain a point related to the conduct of the air exercise. Essentially Preparatory
Ground Instruction should cover the "how to do an air exercise".
2. This is a presentation given by the instructor when introducing a new exercise.
Ideally it should be given within 24 hours prior to the related training flight.

I can't find the reference, but I believe there's some guidance saying a PGI shouldn't last more than 20 minutes. You can't deal with all the theoretical concepts in 20 minutes.

A classic example would be the stall PGI. It boils down to nose down nose up, and some explanation why nose up will stop working. If you go into the lift formula, the angle of attack / CL graphs in detail, it will take you way more than 20 minutes. And while I find that knowlege extremely important for any student, it doesn't belong in a PGI.

It's another reason why the lesson plans for PGIs are silly: people cram way too much into it. If you go above a few keypoints, you'll spend too much time on the subjects. PGIs are not ground school.

And yes, you'll have the occasional student that might get hung up on an issue in the PGI, which might have you delve into your theoretical why/how knowledge, and that's also what the examiner is likely simulating. Or he might just want to make sure you know your stuff.

What was the average length of your PGI lesson plans?

There is no magic number for the length of a PGI as some air exercises are more complicated than others. Most of my PGI's are around 15 minutes, but some are shorter eg slips or longer eg forced approaches.

The big change in the evolution of my PGI's is I now start by situating the air exercise in a TEM, PDM framework before discussing the how part of doing the exercise.

A classic example would be the stall PGI. It boils down to nose down nose up, and some explanation why nose up will stop working. If you go into the lift formula, the angle of attack / CL graphs in detail, it will take you way more than 20 minutes. And while I find that knowledge extremely important for any student, it doesn't belong in a PGI.

If all your PGI is nose up nose down than it is missing critical elements. Most of my stall PGI is about discussing recognizing flight profiles that make an inadvertent stall more likely through example flight profile scenarios and then a discussion of the symptoms of an impending stall as the airplane transitions through slow flight and then the automatic actions required to safely recover. The number 1 cause of light airplane fatal accidents is loss of control in flight below 1000 ft AGL. This IMO is one of the most important PGI's an instructor will teach.

Unfortunately it is usually treated as a flight test exercise. This is how you stall the airplane this is how you recover and then practiced in the air in a manner that is totally unrealistic with respect to how inadvertent stalls actually happen.

BPF basically covered it. PGIs can range from 30min to 1 hour depending on student preparation. There is also the fact that on your instructor flight test, you will be spending at least an hour on the ground getting grilled by the examiner (mine was closer to 2h). So there's the "test factor" element, because it is rare that any PGI I teach a student will be to the level of depth required on the flight test. But because the flight test is so thorough, and you won't know which exercise you'll get on your test, you have to thoroughly prepare for every exercise above and beyond what a "standard" PGI should be. That's what those thorough lesson plans are for, even if I don't actually cover every point in them in a normal PGI. They are there to remind me of the details in case a student/examiner asks me a deep question and I forget something.

It is one of the rare cases where preparing for the test actually benefits the candidate. The instructor program and FIG are overall extremely well done, and I've heard from my contacts at TC that they are working on revising the rest of the flight training to fall in line. The instructor course is the one most frequently updated by TC.

Red_Comet wrote: ↑Tue Dec 30, 2025 2:23 pm That's what those thorough lesson plans are for, even if I don't actually cover every point in them in a normal PGI. They are there to remind me of the details in case a student/examiner asks me a deep question and I forget something.

Allow me to ask again: how long are those thorough lesson plans? One page? 10 pages?

2-4 pages depending on the exercise. Point form, relatively large font to be easily readable. Structured and organized to cover everything in the FTM and FIG.