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CFI Oral Exam Questions: 24 to Practice, FOI to Endorsements (2026)

24 CFI oral exam questions with answers: FOI, privileges, endorsements and recent experience, with 14 CFR cites and AI tools to drill them.

Updated 2026-11-02 · Facts and prices checked against vendor sites

The CFI oral is different from every checkride before it. The examiner isn't only asking whether you know the answer; they want to see you teach it, catch a student's misconception and explain why a rule exists. Expect a long first section on the Fundamentals of Instructing (FOI), then the instructor regulations: what you may sign, when, and what you must keep. Below are 24 questions drawn from the Flight Instructor for Airplane ACS (FAA-S-ACS-25), effective since May 31, 2024, with a short answer and the source to check.

Updated November 2, 2026. Regulation text was checked against the current eCFR today, and the FOI answers against the chapters of the Aviation Instructor's Handbook (FAA-H-8083-9) on the FAA site. Answers are study summaries; read the cited section and practice saying each one as if you were teaching it.

Fundamentals of Instructing: how people learn

  1. What are the laws of learning? Thorndike's three, readiness, exercise and effect, plus three added later: primacy, intensity and recency. Be ready to give a flight-training example for each, such as primacy meaning a student's first way of doing a landing is the one that sticks, so teach it right the first time. Check: AIH Chapter 3, The Learning Process.
  2. Name the levels of learning. Rote, understanding, application and correlation. Rote is repeating without understanding; correlation is relating what was learned to other things and new situations, which is what a student needs on a gusty crosswind day. Check: AIH Chapter 3.
  3. How does Maslow's hierarchy apply in the airplane? Needs are met in order: physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, self-esteem, then self-actualization. A hungry or frightened student (say, before a first fully developed stall) is focused on that need, not your lesson. Check: AIH Chapter 2, Human Behavior.
  4. What are defense mechanisms? Give examples. Mostly unconscious ways people protect their self-image from anxiety or failure. The handbook's examples include compensation, denial of reality, displacement, fantasy, projection, rationalization, reaction formation and repression. A student who blames a bad landing on "the wind" every time may be rationalizing. Check: AIH Chapter 2.
  5. What gets in the way of communication? The handbook names four barriers: lack of common experience, confusion between the symbol and the symbolized object, overuse of abstractions, and external factors such as noise. Check: AIH Chapter 4, Effective Communication.

Fundamentals of Instructing: how you teach and assess

  1. What are the steps of the teaching process? Preparation, presentation, application and assessment. The sequence stays the same whatever delivery method you use. Check: AIH Chapter 5, The Teaching Process.
  2. Walk me through the demonstration-performance method. Five phases: explanation, demonstration, learner performance, instructor supervision, and evaluation. It's the backbone of teaching a flight maneuver. Check: AIH Chapter 5.
  3. How is a lesson organized? Introduction, development and conclusion. The introduction has three elements: attention, motivation and an overview of what's coming. Check: AIH Chapter 5.
  4. What makes an assessment effective? The handbook lists characteristics including objective, flexible, acceptable, comprehensive, constructive, organized, thoughtful and specific. Know what "halo error" is: letting sympathy for a student bend your objectivity. Check: AIH Chapter 6, Assessment.
  5. What is learner-centered (collaborative) assessment? A debrief where the student does the first analysis, guided by four steps: replay the flight, reconstruct what should have happened, reflect on what was learned, and redirect toward the next lesson. It builds the self-assessment habit a safe pilot needs. Check: AIH Chapter 6.
  6. How do you teach risk management, not just maneuvers? Expect to discuss the five hazardous attitudes (anti-authority, impulsivity, invulnerability, macho, resignation) and their antidotes, tools like PAVE and personal minimums, and scenario-based training that makes the student decide, then debrief the decision. Check: AIH Chapters 1 and 10, and the Pilot's Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, Chapter 2.

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Becoming and staying a CFI

  1. What do you need to be eligible for a CFI certificate? Be at least 18, read, speak, write and understand English, and hold a commercial or ATP certificate with the matching category and class, plus an instrument rating (or the equivalent privileges) for airplane single-engine and multiengine. You also need the FOI knowledge test unless exempt, the FOI and areas-of-operation endorsements, and at least 15 hours as PIC in the category and class. Check: 14 CFR 61.183.
  2. What's the spin requirement? For an airplane or glider rating, a logbook endorsement that you're competent and instructionally proficient in stall awareness, spin entry, spins and spin recovery, after training in an aircraft certificated for spins. The examiner may accept the endorsement instead of a demonstration, unless you're retesting for a spin-related deficiency. Check: 14 CFR 61.183(i).
  3. Does your CFI certificate expire? Not anymore. Since the October 2024 amendment, you may exercise CFI privileges only if you've met a recent-experience requirement within the preceding 24 calendar months: a practical test for a rating on the certificate or an added rating, or, documented to the FAA, endorsing at least 5 applicants in 24 months with at least 80 percent passing on the first try, serving as a check pilot, chief instructor or in a similar evaluation role, or completing a flight instructor refresher course within the preceding 3 calendar months, among a few other options. Check: 14 CFR 61.197.
  4. And if you let it lapse? Within 3 calendar months after the end of your recent-experience period, a refresher course still reinstates you. After more than 3 months, you need a flight instructor practical test for a rating you hold or an additional rating. Check: 14 CFR 61.199(a).
  5. Do you need a medical to instruct? Not when you're exercising flight instructor privileges and not acting as pilot in command or serving as a required pilot flight crewmember. If your student can't legally act as PIC (a student pilot, for example), you're PIC and need the medical your pilot certificate requires. Check: 14 CFR 61.23(b)(7).

Privileges, limits and endorsements

  1. What can a CFI do? Give ground and flight training and endorsements within the certificate's limits, for student, pilot, instructor and ground instructor certificates, ratings, flight reviews and other recency items, and knowledge and practical tests. You can also accept a student pilot certificate application and verify the applicant's identity and eligibility. A CFI certificate doesn't authorize operations that need an air carrier or operating certificate. Check: 14 CFR 61.193.
  2. How much may you instruct in a day? No more than 8 hours of flight training in any 24 consecutive hours. Ground training doesn't count against it. Check: 14 CFR 61.195(a).
  3. What must you have before teaching in a multiengine airplane? The multiengine rating on both your pilot and instructor certificates, and at least 5 hours of PIC time in that specific make and model before giving training toward a certificate or rating in it. Check: 14 CFR 61.195(b) and (f).
  4. What records do you keep, and for how long? Sign the logbook of everyone you train, and keep a record of each person you endorsed for solo (with the date) and each person you endorsed for a knowledge or practical test (kind of test, date and result) for at least 3 years. Check: 14 CFR 61.189.
  5. How long is a student's solo endorsement good for? 90 days. The make-and-model solo endorsement must come from an instructor who gave the training within the 90 days before the flight, and you must have trained the student in that make and model (or a similar one) and found them proficient. Check: 14 CFR 61.87(n) and (p).
  6. What endorsements does a solo cross-country need? A cross-country endorsement for the category, one for the make and model, and, for each flight, your endorsement after reviewing the planning that names the make and model, says the planning is correct and the student is prepared to fly safely under the known conditions, and that your limitations are met. Check: 14 CFR 61.93(c) and (d).
  7. What must you do before endorsing a student to solo in Class B airspace? Give the student ground and flight training in that Class B airspace (or at that airport) and determine they're proficient to operate safely there. Check: 14 CFR 61.195(d)(3) and 61.95.
  8. What's in a flight review you give? At least 1 hour of ground training and 1 hour of flight training, covering the current Part 91 general operating and flight rules and the maneuvers and procedures you consider necessary. You can't endorse it without conducting it that way. Check: 14 CFR 61.56(a) and 61.195(d)(5).

For the exact wording of each endorsement, the FAA publishes sample text in Advisory Circular 61-65 (current revision) and in Appendix C of the Aviation Instructor's Handbook.

How to drill these with AI

A few AI tools we list go past the private-pilot level and cover the CFI oral or the FOI specifically. Use them to get asked follow-ups and to practice explaining out loud, then check every answer against the source:

Once you're instructing, see our AI tools for flight instructors for debrief and student-tracking apps. Prices change; check the pilot AI app prices page and best AI checkride oral prep apps. Earlier ratings: private, instrument and commercial oral exam questions.

Not legal advice. Answers summarize 14 CFR, the ACS and the Aviation Instructor's Handbook as of November 2, 2026; your instructor, the examiner and the FAA are the authorities. Cockpit Index isn't paid by any app on this page.

Frequently asked questions

Does a CFI certificate expire?

No. Since the FAA's October 2024 amendment, CFI certificates don't carry an expiration date. Instead you may exercise instructor privileges only if you met a recent-experience requirement within the preceding 24 calendar months, such as a practical test, a qualifying pass record with your endorsed applicants, or a flight instructor refresher course (14 CFR 61.197).

What are the laws of learning on the CFI oral?

Readiness, exercise and effect (Thorndike's original three), plus primacy, intensity and recency. The Aviation Instructor's Handbook, Chapter 3, describes them; be ready to give a flight-training example for each.

Does a flight instructor need a medical certificate?

Not when exercising flight instructor privileges without acting as pilot in command or as a required pilot flight crewmember (14 CFR 61.23(b)(7)). If the student can't act as PIC, such as a student pilot, the instructor is PIC and needs a medical appropriate to the operation.

How many hours can a CFI instruct in a day?

No more than 8 hours of flight training in any 24-consecutive-hour period (14 CFR 61.195(a)). Ground instruction isn't counted toward that limit.

Which AI apps help with the CFI oral?

AI tools that list CFI or FOI coverage include Checkride.bot (CFI and CFII orals), AVIQ (CFI/FOI), Backseat Pilot's FOI study tool, Aviator Intelligence by ASA, PilotPrep, PilotTrack and AI CFI. Use them for practice and verify answers against 14 CFR, the ACS and the Aviation Instructor's Handbook.

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