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The FAA Wings program through the FAA Safety Team (www.FAASafety.gov) is a national effort to “improve the Nation’s aviation accident rate by conveying safety principles and practices through training, outreach, and education; while establishing partnerships and encouraging the continual growth of a positive safety culture within the aviation community.”

For many pilots, interaction with the FAA Wings program or its activities comes through local seminars, online content, or their flight instructor giving them Wings credit on a flight review. But there is much more!

One specific example of a way to get FAA Wings credit is when an applicant completes an FAA practical test with an examiner. Most practical tests such as a private pilot certificate, commercial certificate, instrument rating, or initial CFI certificate count for big blocks of Wings credit, and all you have to do is request credit of the DPE who conducted the test.

As a DPE, I am trying to do a better job of giving credit, but I also note that few of my applicants are registered for the program.

If you aren’t, you can find much more information about the FAA Wings Program at www.FAASafety.gov, where you can also register for an account that will be associated with your FAA airman’s record to get Wings credit. Once you have done this, you can collect your credit.

Oh, one more thing, if you get or give credit, you are eligible for yearly sweepstakes drawings. This past year’s winners can be found by visiting https://www.faasafety.gov/SPANS/noticeView.aspx?nid=8286.

Ok, so that’s it. It’s free. It promotes safety. And if you have completed a practical test you are eligible for credit. Just ask your DPE (me if I am the one that gave you a test) and we will validate your request.

Want a quick way to find a couple of the specific links? Here are a few common ones for you to use:

Request Private Pilot Practical Test FAA Wings Credit

Request Instrument Rating Practical Test FAA Wings Credit

Request Commercial Pilot Practical Test FAA Wings Credit

Request CFI Initial Practical Test FAA Wings Credit

The CFI practical test is definitely known as one of the hardest, longest, most grueling practical tests pilots take. As I have been giving them over the last couple of years, there are a few things that are standing out in the area of CFI knowledge relating to what I generally call “administrata” related to the CFI’s ability to properly train and qualify their students.

These are critical knowledge areas that directly relate to the practical ability of the CFI to demonstrate their knowledge level of how they will actually do their jobs when they are certificated. In some cases, it may seem like these knowledge points are “way down in the weeds” or just part of the “nitty gritty minutiae” that seems trivial, but these items directly relate to whether the CFI will properly train and qualify their future customers (students) for certificates and ratings.

As a DPE, I find the ability of a CFI to answer these questions correctly directly relates to whether or not the students that the CFI will eventually train for things like their Private or Commercial certificates are actually qualified and have received training that is compliant. On more than one occasion, CFIs not knowing some of these administrative intricacies has resulted in their students being provided training that is ineligible for use toward a rating or certificate, representing significant wasted training time and cost, and in some cases, these oversights have resulted in the termination of the CFIs certificate privileges. There really is a reason we ask these questions.

With that said, here are a few common knowledge area deficiencies that might help a future CFI candidate have a better chance at passing that initial CFI practical test. If you are reading this and are already certificated, this might serve as a good refresher to remind you of a few quirks that can ensure you are providing proper training.

Cross-country experience toward a rating or certificate must include a landing greater than 50 nautical miles from the point of departure, not just a leg over 50 miles in length.

One thing an instructor needs to be able to do is properly apply cross-country flight requirements toward ratings or certificates. We commonly give an example of a cross-country and ask the CFI applicant if that will “count” or not. An example of one I might use is below. I would follow that example by asking, “So, does this cross-country flight meet the requirements for a solo-x-c to count toward the aeronautical experience for a private pilot?” Continue reading →