Does anyone know how much of each time I can expect to log as an ATP CFI? Specifically cross country, night, and multi time.
Thanks!
Jacob,
That’s difficult to nail down. You’ll be building dual time as a CFI and the amount of night, x-country etc will be a reflection of your time with your students. You students will have requirements which need to be met in each category. How much you’ll build of each will depend on the number of students you have along the way to building your 1500hrs.
I don’t have my logbook handy but perhaps some of the other mentors can give you their numbers for some idea.
Adam
Jacob,
Sometimes training centers may have an abundance of students in the IR and CSEL phase over the PVT, vice versa, the flying is spread out. When you first become an instructor, you typically will receive an instrument student and/or commercial, until you have a few hours under your belt and gain some confidence in yourself. The first few hundred hours of instructing will be when you make easy mistakes.
I don’t remember off the top of my head, I was a primary instructor for 5-6 months, then became a lead instructor for 7 months, my numbers are skewed. However, while as lead, there were instructors who needed specific hours (i.e., night) and I would find students that had night operations and coordinate a 1-1 training event with the primary instructor for the individual who needed a night hour. I checked in regularly with my team members to ensure no one was falling behind.
Brady
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Adam,
Do your night hours count to your 1500hrs or is it counted as a separate category?
Shaw
Shaw,
ALL flight hours count towards the 1500hrs. Even the first you receive as a student before you have a license.
Adam
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Another question, how do you build those 500 cross country hours. Do you think you would gain these as a CFI, or would you have to find another way to earn it?
Thanks!
Jacob,
Since the ATP has had over 1,000 of their grads hired by airlines in the last 12mos, and since all airlines require you to meet the ATP mins, I would say the answer is yes.
Adam
Jacob,
The term “cross country” as defined by the FAA is not as far as it may sound. The other airport just needs to be more than 5o miles away from where you took off. So if a pilot does a two hour training flight, and somewhere along the way lands at an airport more than 50 miles away, the whole flight is considered cross country time.
Chris
Shaw,
As Adam mentioned, ALL flight hours count towards the highly-seek 1,500 hour minimum. You can buy a small logbook from many FBO’s and websites that you could start logging introductory flights in, from day 1… why lose out on an hour if it’s your dream?
Furthermore, there are minimum night hours that must be acquired under 14 CFR 61.159; you must acquire at least 100-night hours (the FAA deems nighttime appropriate to log at the start of civil twilight). Logging landings must be between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise. You may subside 25 PIC night landings for 25/100 hours of nighttime.
Brady
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Jacob,
There are numerous opportunities to build this time, whether it’s being an active CFI or flying to breakfast/dinner with friends.
Brady
Jacob,
Funny enough I can answer this question exactly. I stopped using Foreflight as my digital logbook once I finished instructing. Almost the entirety of my flight time was with ATP, with the exception of a handful of rentals. I was a lead instructor at my location and later I also became the multi instructor, so these hours will vary! Without being a multi instructor, I would have had 25 hours multi time.
Total time: 1506.7
PIC: 1430.6
Night: 102.4
XC: 742.8
Multi: 121.5
Actual IMC: 15.7
Simulated Inst: 68.6
Dual Given: 1137.0
Dual Received: 190.9
I think you’ll find that almost everyone who instructs fully to 1500 hours has no issue being eligible for the ATP checkride. The most difficult time to build with ATP as an instructor is the night time because there aren’t too many night flights scheduled into the program. I had to take a couple of my instructors night flights to make it to 100+ night time.
Hope this helps!
Roscoe
Jacob,
Roscoe gave you a great example with his exact time logged as a CFI. I’ll tell you from experience you shouldn’t have any trouble getting the XC time. As a CFI it’s just good planning not only for your logbook but for the students as well to verify most flights are XC. The night time can be a bit harder because there are only a few phases during the program where night flying is allowed with your students at ATP. You can sub some full stop landings for the remaining time up to 25 hours if you’re short, but don’t worry about that right now!
Hannah