Free FAA CFI Practice Test

To give flight training in a multiengine airplane toward a certificate or rating, a flight instructor must —

• A. hold only a commercial certificate with a multiengine rating.
• B. hold a flight instructor certificate with a multiengine rating and meet the applicable pilot certificate and rating requirements. ✓
• C. hold an ATP certificate.
• D. have logged 25 hours in the make and model.

The instructor rating has to match the training being given. 61.195 also requires the instructor to hold the pilot certificate and ratings appropriate to the aircraft — you cannot instruct in a category or class you are not rated to fly.

Reference: 14 CFR 61.195(b)

A student plans a flight beneath a shelf of a Class B airspace with an overcast at 2,500 feet. The instructor should point out that —

• A. the ceiling is irrelevant provided visibility is 3 statute miles.
• B. the airspace, cloud clearance, and terrain together may leave a very narrow band of legal and safe altitude. ✓
• C. flight is prohibited beneath a Class B shelf.
• D. cloud clearance requirements do not apply beneath Class B.

This squeeze — airspace above, terrain and obstacles below, cloud clearance in between — is where VFR pilots end up scud running. Teaching the student to identify the squeeze during planning is more valuable than any single regulation.

Reference: 14 CFR 91.155; AIM 3-2-3

Best glide speed changes with weight in that it —

• A. decreases as weight decreases, and so does the glide ratio.
• B. increases as weight decreases.
• C. is unaffected by weight, as is the glide ratio.
• D. decreases as weight decreases, while the glide RATIO stays the same. ✓

The angle of attack for L/DMAX does not change with weight, but the speed to fly it does. A lighter airplane glides the same distance, just slower and with a lower sink rate — a distinction worth drawing for students who assume lighter means farther.

Reference: PHAK ch.11

Adverse yaw is best demonstrated to a student by —

• A. rolling into a turn with the feet off the rudder pedals and having the student observe the nose swing the wrong way. ✓
• B. explaining the theory on the whiteboard only.
• C. showing the effect during a power-off stall.
• D. performing a skidding turn at low altitude.

Showing beats telling for a psychomotor concept — the student who has watched the nose yaw away from the turn understands why rudder is needed. The cause is the extra induced drag on the wing with the down-deflected aileron.

Reference: PHAK ch.5; AIH ch.4

A student becomes lost on a solo cross-country. The procedure taught should be —

• A. Land at the nearest open field.
• B. Descend to identify landmarks, then continue.
• C. Climb, Communicate, Confess, Comply. ✓
• D. Reverse course and fly the reciprocal heading.

Climbing improves both visibility and radio and navigation reception; confessing early gets ATC radar help while fuel remains. Instructors should say explicitly that asking for help carries no penalty — students delay because they fear one.

Reference: AIM 6-2-5; AFH ch.16