All FAA Certified Flight Instructors are required to complete a CFI refresher clinic every two years. This is generally called a Certified Flight Instructor Refresher Clinic (CFIRC or FIRC). Once again, it was my time to complete this course.
I’ve tried a couple of different options in the past. One is an all weekend class. They used to start on Friday afternoon and run all day Saturday and all day Sunday. I think the requirement was 24 hours of instruction or something along those lines. The last three or four times, I’ve used the online option provided by AOPA/Jeppesen. This is an online course that allows you to sit at home (in front of your computer) and go thru each segement as time allows over a longer period of time. How much time depends on you. If you are on top of your game and sign up as early as possible, you will have nearly three months to complete it. If you wait until close to your CFI expiration, you may end up with only a few days.
This time around, I gave myself a couple of months!!
It’s a pretty good course and I have never experienced any technical problems with it. I am always a little bit annoyed with all of the instrument training questions when I am only a CFI (not a Instrument CFI or CFII). However; as an instrument pilot, they are probably good things for me to review so not a big deal. I understand that this is not AOPA’s fault and that it is something pressed onto them by the FAA.
The biggest issues with the whole process is that you are asked to have a notary sign/notarize a form indicating that you are who you say you are and which includes copies of your drivers license and other ID. In typical ‘crazy security world’ nonsense that we are all experiencing, I’m finding fewer and fewer notaries will do this. Seems easy enough to me but they cite things like “I cannot know that your drivers license is legitimate”. Uhm… ok… whatever… Seems like we ought to stop catering to the criminals and “least common denominators” and just start eliminating them.
Anyhows… Got thru my CFI refresher course just fine and I recommend it to others if sitting in a classroom for hours on end is not your thing.
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