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How to Renew Your CFI: Recency Rules & FIRC
Maintaining Your Flight Instructor Certificate
You worked hard for your flight instructor certificate. Blood, sweat, and maybe even a few tears. Keeping it is a lot easier, as long as you know the rules, and those rules changed on December 1, 2024.
In the video below, King Schools instructor John Dowding breaks down the FAA’s current requirements in plain terms. You’ll also find everything he covers written out here, along with exactly how to use a Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC) to renew your CFI online.
What changed in December 2024
You may have noticed that newer flight instructor certificates don’t show an expiration date. As of December 1, 2024, the FAA stopped printing one.
You still have a deadline, though. Your instructor privileges run on the same 24-calendar-month cycle they always have. The FAA now calls the end of that cycle your recent experience end date, and a lot of instructors shorten it to REED. Because the FAA counts calendar months, it always falls on the last day of a month. Once it passes, you can’t give instruction or sign endorsements until you renew.
If your certificate was issued before December 1, 2024, it still has an expiration date printed on it, and that’s the date you go by. The next time you renew, you’ll get a new certificate without one.
Officially, “renewing” is now called establishing recent experience. You’ll still hear everyone at the airport call it a CFI renewal, so we will too.
Your options for renewing your CFI
You have six ways to establish recent experience under 14 CFR 61.197. Here’s that reg:
(b) A person who holds a flight instructor certificate may establish recent experience by satisfying one of the following requirements—
(1) Passing a practical test for—
(i) One of the ratings listed on the flight instructor certificate; or
(ii) An additional flight instructor rating; or
(2) Satisfactorily completing one of the following recent experience requirements, and submitting documentation of such in a form and manner acceptable to the Administrator—
(i) During the preceding 24 calendar months, the flight instructor has endorsed at least 5 applicants for a practical test for a certificate or rating and at least 80 percent of all applicants endorsed passed that test on the first attempt.
(ii) Within the preceding 24 calendar months, the flight instructor has served as a company check pilot, chief flight instructor, company check airman, or flight instructor in a part 121 or 135 operation, or in a position involving the regular evaluation of pilots.
(iii) Within the preceding 3 calendar months, the person has successfully completed an approved flight instructor refresher course consisting of ground training or flight training, or a combination of both.
(iv) Within the preceding 24 calendar months from the month of application, the flight instructor passed an official U.S. Armed Forces military instructor pilot or pilot examiner proficiency check in an aircraft for which the military instructor already holds a rating or in an aircraft for an additional rating.
(v) Within the preceding 24 calendar months from the month of application, the flight instructor has served as a flight instructor in an FAA-sponsored pilot proficiency program, provided the flight instructor meets the following requirements—
(A) Holds a flight instructor certificate and meets the appropriate flight instructor recent experience requirements of this part;
(B) Has satisfactorily completed at least one phase of an FAA-sponsored pilot proficiency program in the preceding 12 calendar months; and
(C) Has conducted at least 15 flight activities recognized under the FAA-sponsored pilot proficiency program, during which the flight instructor evaluated at least 5 different pilots and has made the necessary endorsements in the logbooks of each pilot for each activity.
Most instructors go with a FIRC. You don’t need a checkride or a stack of student records. You study, pass the lessons, and submit your application.
How to keep your recency end month
If you renew with a FIRC, your timing decides whether you keep your current recency end month or get a new one.
You keep it by finishing your FIRC during your end month or the three calendar months before it. The FAA calls this “the 3 calendar months preceding,” which works out to a four-month window. If your recency ends in December, you can finish any time from September 1 through December 31 and keep December.
Example: Recency ends in December? Finish any time from September 1 through December 31 and keep December.
You can finish earlier than that, but the month you complete the course becomes your new end month, 24 months out. You’d give up a few months of your current cycle.
Your FIRC graduation certificate has a shelf life, too. It’s good for three calendar months after the month it’s issued, so don’t sit on it.
How to renew your CFI with a FIRC, step by step
Find your date. If your certificate shows an expiration date, use that. If it doesn’t, your recency ends on the last day of the month, 24 calendar months after your certificate was issued or you last renewed. Put it on your calendar with a reminder four months ahead.
Pick your timing. Finish inside the four-month window above if you want to keep your end month.
Take the course. The FAA requires every online FIRC to equal a 16-hour in-person course, and it sets a minimum time for each lesson, so you can’t rush it. In the King FIRC, each lesson has a short pre-lesson quiz, the lesson itself, and an end-of-lesson test. You can take the lessons in any order and pick two electives on topics you care about.
Submit your 8710 application in IACRA. When you finish, you’ll fill out an 8710 application in IACRA, the FAA’s online certification system. A DPE or an Airman Certification Representative (ACR) then reviews and signs it. With the King FIRC, our team handles that step for you, so you don’t need a trip to the FSDO, a notary, or anything in the mail. Allow up to 9 days for processing.
Print your temporary certificate and get back to teaching. Once your application is processed, you’ll get a temporary certificate you can download and print. Your permanent certificate comes from the FAA by mail.
If you’re cutting it close, you have until 5:00 PM Pacific on the last day of your end month to finish the King FIRC and submit your application.
How long does a FIRC take?
Plan on at least 16 hours. That’s the FAA minimum, and the course tracks your time in each lesson to make sure you meet it. The King FIRC has well over 16 hours of content, so your total depends on how you like to study.
You can work through it a lesson at a time on weeknights, or knock out a big chunk on a rainy weekend. Either way, don’t leave it for the last week of your end month. You want room for processing, too.
What if your date already passed?
You get a three-calendar-month grace period. During that window, you can still complete a FIRC to get your instructor privileges back.
You can’t instruct during the grace period, though. Any training you give or endorsements you sign while your privileges are lapsed aren’t valid. That’s an easy mistake to make now that newer certificates don’t show a date, and it can cost your students time and money.
Once the three months are up, a FIRC no longer works. You’ll need to pass a practical test to get your privileges back, and your local FSDO can tell you what that involves.
CFI renewal FAQs
Does a FIRC count as a flight review?
No. A FIRC keeps your instructor privileges current, while your flight review is about your pilot certificate and needs time in the air. You can earn WINGS credit for the King FIRC, though, and completing a WINGS phase does take the place of a flight review.
Do I need a current medical to renew my CFI?
No. You don’t need a current medical certificate to renew with a FIRC.
Does one FIRC renew all my instructor ratings?
Yes. A FIRC covers every rating on your flight instructor certificate. King offers an airplane FIRC and a helicopter FIRC, so you can pick the one that fits the flying you teach.
Can I take a FIRC on my phone or iPad?
Yes. The King FIRC runs in any web browser on a computer, tablet, or phone. It doesn’t run in the King Companion App, because the FAA’s time-tracking rules require you to be logged in online.
What is an eFIRC?
You’ll see some providers call their online FIRC an eFIRC. It’s the same FAA-approved refresher course, taken online instead of in a weekend classroom.
Why instructors choose the King FIRC
John and Martha built the King FIRC around what you deal with as an instructor, instead of rehashing private pilot material. You’ll cover topics like identifying and changing at-risk behaviors, conducting a meaningful flight review and IPC, teaching loss-of-control prevention, and preparing your applicant for the practical test.
You also get:
You’ll be in good company, too. Instructors rate the course 4.7 out of 5 across 346 reviews, and one CFI, CFII, and MEI with 41 years of instructing wrote that:
“This has been the most rewarding and enjoyable experience I’ve had using your material.”
Ready to renew?
Start the King Airplane FIRC or the King Helicopter FIRC.
If you have questions, call our FIRC support team at (877) 747-FIRC (3472).
We’ll see you at the airport, fellow instructor!