The meaning “authorised instructor” has long been debated in Europe, with respect to the admissibility of training by non FAA instructors towards an FAA license or a rating.
61.1 (b) (i) and (ii) and (iii) here states
This has been used to justify a commercial position that training by non FAA instructors is inadmissible.
But 61.41 here (the FARs come up in at least 2 different places) states the well known exception
It is possible that the first bit has changed in recent years but I cannot imagine the second bit no longer applies. Can anyone with detailed knowledge of the FARs confirm it is still in place and means what I am getting at, which is
with the proviso that the signoff saying that you are ready for the checkride must still be done by an FAA CFI or CFII (respectively), within the 60 days preceeding the checkride, as usual.
The admissibility of European training is massively self evident in that myself and many others I know have used it towards FAA papers, but there are still people out there who say it is illegal.
Any views on this one?
Peter, as an example, only certain hours are required to be given by an FAA Authorized Flight Instructor with an Instrument rating on their instructor certificate. In the case of an instrument airplane rating, it is only 15 hours, 3 of which must be given within two calendar months of the practical test. There is a list of topics that must be covered within the 15 hours and one long dual cross country. The authorized flight instructor must provide the sign off endorsement. The ground training may be given by the authorized instructor or by a home study course provider who will provide the endorsement for the knowledge test. All the other training can be provided by one of the instructors listed in 61.41. So if a typical pilot takes 40 to 50 hours of training, 25 to 35 can be given by a 61.41 instructor. All the endorsements are from the FAA Authorized Instructor with Instrument ratings on their Instructor certificate.
So, in summary, for the instrument airplane rating, an FAA CFI/CFII must provide at least 15 hours of instruction.
NCYankee – why does 61.41 not apply to the basic 15 hours (dual time) of the FAA IR?
FWIW, the USA always used to accept that. Same for the PPL (private certificate). Only the last 3 hours of these had to be done by an FAA instructor.
My UK based training was accepted in full (except the last 3hrs) for the private, commercial and the IR. In fact it wasn’t needed for the IR because I did ~25hrs in Arizona, and the commercial was done with an FAA CFI in the UK, but the DPEs in all three cases accepted UK (non FAA qualified) instructor time.
