Flight Instructor ACS Study Guide

Welcome. I'm Jonathan Prentice.

I'm a flight instructor (CFI and CFII), a test pilot, and a former paramedic. If you're holding this guide, you're working toward the flight instructor certificate, the step where you stop only flying well and start making someone else fly well.

This guide goes deep on the material itself and on how to teach it. For every Task it covers what the ACS is asking and why, what you need to know, how to teach it, and where to find it. It follows the ACS Task order so you can study with the ACS open beside it.

The CFI checkride is different from the others. The examiner is not only checking whether you can fly the maneuver. They are checking whether you can explain it, demonstrate it, spot the student's error, and fix it, without ever losing control of the safety of the flight.

Use this guide alongside the current ACS, the FAR/AIM, the Aviation Instructor's Handbook, the Airplane Flying Handbook, the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, your airplane's POH, and your instructor. Verify everything against the current official sources. Fly safe, and exceed the standard.