CFI Checkride Study Guide

The Study Guide helps you practice answering oral questions. The Lesson Plans help you organize and present lessons.

This guide uses questions, answers, and scenarios to test your understanding. Our CFI Lesson Plans provide editable teaching outlines you can customize for your lessons. They serve different purposes and can be used together, but lesson plans are purchased separately and are not included with this guide.

Yes! The guide includes endorsement scenarios, pilot-qualification questions, and CFI regulations, including situations involving student solos, cross-country flights, and additional aircraft ratings. It also reviews subjects such as instructor limitations and recordkeeping.

You’ll receive two PDFs—a questions-only version and a separate answer key—along with a guided study plan. Use the questions to test yourself before checking the explanations. 

This is a digital download, not a physical book. Access is delivered electronically after successful payment. Save your files and open them on your computer, tablet, or phone using a compatible PDF reader.

Yes! The guide is ACS-aligned, with topic codes included for reference. Updated versions are emailed to you when revisions are released. Keep the latest copy and use it alongside the current FAA standards and your training references.

Ava (@pilot.avabelle), a current airline pilot and E175 simulator instructor, created this guide. Previously, she served as a lead flight instructor and check airman at the University of North Dakota, where she administered 100+ certificate-granting checkrides and personally trained 40+ students with a 100% oral checkride pass rate. Her experience teaching, evaluating, and flying professionally shapes the guide’s practical approach to preparation. 

This guide is designed for oral checkride preparation, rather than multiple-choice preparation for the Flight Instructor Airplane or Fundamentals of Instructing knowledge tests. It focuses on practicing explanations and working through questions and scenarios. Use a dedicated knowledge-test resource for your written exams and this guide to help prepare for the oral. 

Yes! The guide includes Fundamentals of Instructing (FOI) questions and explanations, covering subjects such as human behavior, communication, learning, defense mechanisms, and student needs. 

Practice connecting each concept to a teaching situation. Rather than only defining a term, explain how you would recognize it in a student and respond as their instructor.