Frequently Asked Questions
The "Limited to Center Thrust" limitation can be removed by an FAA Aviation Standardization Inspector or a Designated Pilot Examiner in an abbreviated Airplane Multi Engine practical test. The required tasks are:
Oral: Principles of Flight- Engine Inoperative
Flight: Engine failure during takeoff before Vmc
Engine failure after liftoff
Instrument approach and landing with an inoperative engine
Vmc demonstration
Maneuvering with one engine inoperative
All Designated Pilot Examiners are restricted to giving practical tests in certain aircraft types. With enough lead time, they can request permission to conduct a test in additional aircraft types. This permission is not usually granted if there are other DPEs readily available. Call us to ask if our examiners can give a practical test in your airplane.
DPEs are also restricted to the geographical limits of their respective Flight Standards District Office. Our examiners are located in the Las Vegas FSDO. DPEs can travel outside of their district if circumstances require it; for instance if a properly rated DPE is not available in a given district.
Unfortunately we do not have any airplanes that meet the definition of a light sport aircraft in our fleet. However, if you are concerned about obtaining a medical certificate and would like to fly, please look at our glider courses!
Yes. The Federal Aviation Regulations allow time spent as "SIC while performing the duties of PIC under the supervision of a PIC" to be counted towards the PIC requirements. In a nutshell, times such as "Primary Time" (military), or "Pilot Flying Time" (airlines) will meet the 250 hour requirement.
Yes and no. Some schools do prefer to hire their own students. That way they have a chance to evaluate the personality and work ethics of the individual over a long period of time. If you have earned your previous airman's certificates through a particular flight school, enjoy working with their staff, and know they are hiring, consider using them for your CFI.
In general, schools hiring CFIs from outside their own programs don't care how you earned your certificate. They are much more interested in your demeanor and how you will fit in with the school's culture. A more important question to ask when deciding where to study is what a school's success rate is for initial CFI applicants. Passing the practical test on your first attempt is a sign of thorough preparation, knowledge, and instructing skills.
1. If you are seeking recurrent training such as a flight review, instrument proficiency check, or endorsement (tail wheel, high performance, high altitude, NVG, glider tow, glider launch, etc) there are no regulatory requirements.
2. Ground training also does not require any special authorization. Sheble's does not conduct any ground school courses, although we could provide you with the ground portion of our integrated courses while we wait for TSA approval of your flight training. We cannot provide flight training without proper approval.
3. If you are applying for flight training that will result in a US pilot certificate (like private, commercial, or ATP), you need to do the following:
-Decide how to enter the US legally.
-Apply for an account with the Transportation Security Administration. You will need information from your flight school in order to complete the application. If you are training with Sheble Aviation, call us during Arizona business hours.
-Your flight school will also need to acknowledge your request, and then hopefully you will be granted a preliminary approval. In it, you will receive instructions to submit fingerprints and a $130 processing fee to the TSA.
-If you are approved for training, you will have 180 days to start the training and 365 days to complete it. If you are using Sheble Aviation, call us to schedule!
-The Aircraft Owner's and Pilot's Association has a detailed TSA flight training information page if you need more details.
Absolutely. Please call us for an estimate of the training time you will need and a price. If you already have a CFI endorsement and want only a check ride, we still recommend you buy an hour or two of training to let our CFIs train you in the local area and prep you so that you will pass. If you really just want a cold check ride... our examiners can do that too.
Our initial CFI courses start on Mondays. All of our other courses start whenever you show up! If you are in a bind and need an initial CFI on another day call us to see if we can accommodate you. No promises, but we will do everything we can to help you meet your goals on your schedule!
The short answer: If your dad did not provide instruction during some legs of the cross country, and all the 14 CFR part 61.129 requirements were met- absolutely.
The long answer- a cross country flight starts in one place and ends in another. It doesn't matter how long it takes, how many different aircraft you flew on different legs, or if the crew complement changed. For instance, you can start in Los Angeles today, party in Las Vegas for a week, switch airplanes, fly to Denver, spend the night, pick up a CFI to log simulated instrument time, and fly at night to Kansas City. However, if you then drive to New Orleans, the next flight you take is not part of the previous cross country flight. Within the previous cross country flight, you can break up the different legs as you need to in order to satisfy the requirements for a rating. You can also re-use legs as needed for an additional rating. For instance, many people combine instrument and commercial cross country requirements in one flight (since the commercial cross country flights do not have to be flown VFR).
As a reminder, the requirements for an initial airplane single engine land commercial rating include (these have to be flown in a single engine airplane):
One day, 2 hour, 100nm, dual, cross country flight
One night, 2 hour, 100nm, dual, cross country flight
One day or night, 300nm, solo or PIC, 3 point cross country flight with one 250nm leg
These three requirements cannot be combined, since day and night do not occur together, and since dual and solo flight cannot occur together. The third cross country flight can have a CFI on board if he or she does NOT provide instruction, meaning that the dual received column in your logbook will read zero. They can occur one after the other. For instance, you could fly for 2 hours over 100nm with a CFI, wait for night, and fly home.
Most CFIs and examiners like to see your cross country flights logged with one line in your logbook per leg. Logbooks are cheap! Don't cram it all into one line. This makes it very easy to see that the experience requirements were met. If you break up the long cross country with your dad to show that a 2 hour / 100nm segment was flown with dual received and three more flown with no dual received (that meet the distance requirements), then you will have only the night dual cross country left to fly.
Instructing with an airline transport license and a certified flight instructor certificate are two different things. 14 CFR 61.167 states that an ATP may instruct "other pilots in air transportation service," which unfortunately won't cover basic flight training given in a flight school. There is no way to apply for a CFI certificate based on your teaching status in an air taxi or airline operation. Sorry!
Since your CFI certificates are expired, they cannot be renewed; they must be reinstated. (The FAA uses the two words to differentiate certificates that are about to expire from those that have). 14 CFR 61.199 gives you two options to achieve this: add a rating to your CFI certificate or re-take a practical test (check ride) for an existing rating.
Many people use the CFII and MEI ratings for just this purpose. Since you hold them both, you might want to simply take a practical test again to reinstate all of your CFI certificate privileges. In general, and depending on your recent flight experience in light aircraft, we find that it takes around three days for most people in your situation to be ready for a reinstatement practical test. We provide ground and flight training to help you become familiar with basic flight maneuvers and 14 CFR 91 regulations again. Please call us to talk about your flight experience and for a price estimate.
A second option, if you want to broaden your flight experiences, is to add the glider category to your CFI certificate. Please browse our full course listing to find the Combined Add On Commercial Pilot and Flight Instructor (Glider) course, which is 8 days long.
Sheble's Accelerated Flight Training is designed to instill high levels of proficiency, skill, knowledge, and safe attitudes towards flying while saving you time and money. We are so confident in our results that we provide free retraining to our students should they fail to pass a practical test. Our program works well for several reasons:
- Our salaried instructors are highly experienced and share a passion for flying and teaching. We don't hire brand new instructors. They aren't motivated to slow your progress by requiring additional flight time, and are happy to answer questions and provide thorough ground training.
- Once here you will focus on flying for the duration of your course. Unlike a local school that teaches you around your busy schedule, Sheble's requires you to leave your work and other distractions behind. Our program works for the same reasons that language immersion programs do.
- There is no uncertainty about what your training will cost. We will continue to work with you until your knowledge and skills exceed those of the FAA Practical Test Standards.
Accelerated Flight Training is fast paced and does require a significant amount of preparation and study on your part. Don't be intimidated by it; if you come prepared every day we will work diligently to help you meet your goals and succeed!
It depends. If you look at the requirements for an initial airplane multi engine commercial license, you will see that it requires a significant amount of multi engine time. However, after you have an airplane single engine commercial license, the add on multi engine rating does not require any multi engine time.
We have determined that if you are close to meeting the requirements for the Initial Commercial (Airplane Multi Engine Land) course, you should sign up for it. However, if you will need more than 4 hours of additional instruction to meet the minimum time requirements, it will be cheaper for you to enroll in our combination Initial Commercial Pilot (Airplane Single and Multi Engine Land) course. It also gives you the opportunity to fly a single engine aircraft for hire, should you ever want to do so.
We do rent our Cessna 172s. However, the rest of our fleet is only available for dual instruction.
If you are close to meeting the prerequisites please call to see what it will cost to expand your course. Also consider a combination course; sometimes they include enough flight time to reduce the prerequisites.