Certified Instrument Instructor.

CFII Training

in Northern Colorado

As a certified flight instructor, you’ve already discovered the joy of teaching others to fly. Taking the next professional step – becoming a Certified Flight Instructor Instrument (CFII) – opens up new horizons in your aviation career. This advanced instructor rating allows you to teach instrument flying, guiding students through the clouds and into the world of IFR (Instrument Flight Rules). At Leading Edge Flight Training, we offer a premier CFII training program for instructors who aspire to teach instrument pilots with the highest level of skill and confidence. Based at the Fort Collins-Loveland Airport (Northern Colorado Regional Airport) in Loveland, our school is perfectly situated for CFII training serving Loveland, Fort Collins, and all of Northern Colorado. If you’re looking for CFII training in Fort Collins or a top-notch CFII certification in Loveland, our structured program delivers an elite learning experience right in your backyard. This isn’t a quick 2-week add-on course – it’s a comprehensive 1–2 month training journey designed to produce real-world-ready instrument instructors who uphold the highest standards of safety and professionalism. Read on to learn about the CFII training process, FAA requirements, the benefits of becoming a CFII, and why experienced instructors choose Leading Edge for instrument flight instructor training in Northern Colorado.

Why Become a Certified Instrument Instructor?

Becoming a CFII is an exciting and rewarding milestone for any flight instructor. It expands your teaching capabilities and cements your status as an expert in aviation. Why pursue the CFII? For starters, it allows you to teach instrument rating students – a crucial phase in many pilots’ training. Guiding someone through the challenges of flying solely by reference to instruments can be incredibly fulfilling; you’ll help pilots conquer weather and low-visibility flying, dramatically expanding their skills and confidence. At the same time, your own IFR skills will reach new heights – instructing instrument procedures day in and day out sharpens your precision, decision-making, and depth of knowledge like nothing else. From a career standpoint, adding the CFII rating boosts your employability and advancement potential. Flight schools in Colorado (and beyond) greatly value instructors who can teach under IFR; in fact, many schools require a CFII on staff to train instrument students. By holding a CFII, you make yourself more versatile and attractive as a hire, whether at Leading Edge or another flight academy, since you can train a broader range of students. Additionally, working as a CFII helps you build quality flight hours in instrument conditions – experience that is highly regarded when you pursue airline, corporate, or other advanced pilot roles. In short, the CFII lets you take your passion for teaching to the next level, offering more opportunities, greater skill mastery, and the satisfaction of molding safer, more competent instrument-rated pilots.

Comprehensive 1–2 Month CFII Training Program

(Not a Crash Course)

One thing that sets Leading Edge Flight Training apart is our commitment to thorough, quality training over shortcuts. While some places advertise getting your CFII in a weekend or two weeks, those “cram courses” often rush the learning process and only prep you to barely pass the checkride. We take a very different approach. Our CFII training program typically spans 1–2 months of dedicated instruction. By training over a longer period here in Northern Colorado, you gain a far deeper understanding of instrument flying and teaching techniques, as well as more hands-on practice honing your instructor skills. This comprehensive approach produces far more confident and capable instrument instructors than any quick add-on ever could.

During your CFII training with us, you won’t be simply memorizing rote procedures or shortcutting to get a new certificate. Instead, you’ll absorb the “why” behind instrument flying and learn how to convey that to students. You’ll practice in aircraft under various IFR scenarios until you’re fully comfortable teaching them. By the end of the program, you’ll not only be prepared to pass the FAA CFII checkride, but truly ready to teach real instrument students in actual IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions). The bottom line: we’d rather take a few extra weeks to develop a top-notch instrument instructor than push you through a crash course that leaves you with shaky skills. When you earn your CFII with Leading Edge, you’ll know you’ve mastered the material and can teach with confidence from day one.

CFII Training Curriculum & Requirements

Our CFII course covers all the FAA requirements and practical skills needed to add the instrument instructor rating to your credentials. Here’s what our CFII training program involves:

Prerequisites: To begin CFII training, you must already hold a Certified Flight Instructor certificate (CFI) for airplanes and an instrument rating on your pilot certificate. (In other words, you should be a current CFI who is instrument-qualified.) These prerequisites ensure you have the foundational experience needed to learn instrument instructing. We welcome applicants who earned their CFI through other programs as well as our own graduates – but everyone is held to the same high standard from day one.
Advanced Flight Training: You’ll receive dual flight instruction focused on teaching in the instrument flight environment. Expect to log around 10–15 hours (varies per person) of training in our aircraft from the right seat under simulated or actual instrument conditions. During these lessons, you’ll practice demonstrating and teaching all key instrument procedures and maneuvers. That includes holding patterns, precision and non-precision instrument approaches (ILS, VOR, GPS approaches, etc.), navigation by instruments, missed approaches, and emergency scenarios solely by reference to instruments. You will learn how to manage the cockpit and instruct simultaneously – for example, talking a student through an approach while monitoring their technique and keeping the flight safe. This hands-on flight practice is crucial to building your confidence as an instrument instructor. By practicing these skills in the skies over Fort Collins/Loveland and greater Northern Colorado, you’ll be prepared to handle the dynamic weather and terrain challenges our region offers to IFR pilots.
Ground Instruction & Lesson Planning: Alongside flight training, you’ll undergo extensive ground school specifically tailored to instrument instruction. Our CFII ground training (typically 15–25 hours or more, depending on your needs) delves deep into IFR knowledge and teaching methodology. You’ve already mastered instrument flying as a pilot; now you must master how to teach it. Our experienced instructors will help you refine your understanding of instrument procedures, weather analysis, instrument charts/approach plates, airspace and regulations, and avionics – all from an instructor’s perspective. Just as importantly, we cover how to structure instrument lessons and effectively communicate complex IFR concepts to students. You’ll develop lesson plans for topics like IFR flight planning, holding entries, approach briefings, and partial-panel emergencies, honing your ability to explain and illustrate these to a learner. By the end of ground school, you’ll know how to convey “the invisible world” of instrument flying in a clear, digestible way, and you’ll be prepared to answer the tough questions your instrument students might ask.
FAA Written Exam: Before you can take your CFII practical test, you’ll need to pass the FAA Instrument Flight Instructor knowledge exam (sometimes called the FII written). This exam is 50 questions and covers advanced instrument theory and instructional knowledge. Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. As part of our program, we provide all the study materials, practice tests, and one-on-one tutoring you need to succeed on the written exam. Since you likely passed the instrument rating written in the past, much of it will be familiar, but we ensure you’re fully prepared for the instructor-level questions as well. Our goal is for you to approach the exam with confidence, knowing you truly understand the material (not just memorized answers). Once you pass this written test, you’ll have the go-ahead to take the CFII checkride.
Final Checkride (Practical Test): The culmination of CFII training is the FAA practical exam for the instrument instructor rating. This checkride, conducted by a designated pilot examiner (DPE), will test both your instrument flying skills and your ability to teach those skills. There’s no shortcut or gimmick here — by the time you reach this stage, you will be fully prepared to demonstrate your prowess. During the oral portion, you’ll be quizzed on IFR regulations, procedures, weather, and how to teach various instrument topics. In the flight portion, you’ll effectively “teach” the examiner through various instrument tasks: you might be asked to simulate giving an instrument lesson on tracking a VOR, or to demonstrate how you’d instruct an ILS approach while under the hood yourself. You’ll need to fly the aircraft precisely on instruments and articulate your instructional points clearly. It’s a challenging test, but you’ll be ready. We train well above the minimum standards so that even on a tough day, you can pass with confidence. When you earn your CFII, you’ll know you truly earned it through skill and knowledge, not by luck or lenient testing.

Beyond the Checkride:

Real-World Instrument Teaching Skills

At Leading Edge, we measure success not just by you passing the checkride, but by how well you can teach actual students immediately after. Our CFII program emphasizes real-world teaching experience throughout training, so you’ll feel prepared to instruct in real IFR scenarios from day one as a new CFII. During the course, you’ll engage in mock instruction sessions that simulate the student-instructor dynamic for instrument flying. Often, your instructor will play the role of a student pilot under the hood, and you will practice being the teacher: explaining concepts, giving directions, and correcting mistakes in real time. For example, you may brief and “teach” an approach procedure on the ground, then climb into the aircraft where your instructor (as the “student”) flies that approach under a view-limiting device. It becomes your job to coach them through setting up the avionics, intercepting the glide slope, staying within approach tolerances, and executing the missed approach if needed. These practice teaching flights are priceless – they teach you how to manage common student struggles like altitude deviations during holds or fixating on instruments. You’ll learn to multitask: scanning for traffic and monitoring instruments while also evaluating your student’s performance and providing timely feedback. By experiencing these scenarios in training, you build the communication skills, patience, and situational awareness that a great instrument instructor needs. When you finish our CFII program, you won’t just have a certificate – you’ll have the confidence to handle real students in real IMC. You’ll know how to adapt to different learning styles, simplify complex IFR concepts for beginners, and instill strong instrument flying habits in your students. This real-world focus ensures you graduate as an instructor who can truly make new instrument pilots safer and more competent.

Highest Standards

– No Shortcuts or Gimmicks in CFII Training

Leading Edge Flight Training has built its reputation on integrity, high standards, and no shortcuts, and our CFII program is no exception. We believe that becoming an instrument instructor means earning a position of expertise and trust, so we hold every candidate to a rigorous standard of performance. What does that mean for you as a trainee? It means every lesson will be thorough and by-the-book. If any aspect of your flying or teaching isn’t meeting the standard, we won’t gloss over it or “let it slide” – we’ll address it head-on and work with you to improve. By consistently training to exceed FAA minimums (not just meet them), you’ll develop the level of mastery needed to teach with absolute confidence.

Our commitment to doing things the right way also extends to the testing process. You may have heard of some programs that boast “easy” examiners or informal deals to get their students passed. Not here. We don’t believe in any unprofessional relationships or hand-holding with DPEs to push you through. When you go for your CFII checkride, you’ll go on your own merit, fully prepared to succeed without needing any favors. And because of that, you can be proud of the result – you’ll know your CFII certificate was genuinely earned through skill, knowledge, and hard work. This philosophy ultimately makes you a stronger instructor. When you begin teaching instrument students, you’ll draw on the depth of training you received and the high bar you had to meet, and your students will be better for it. Whether you completed your initial CFI with us or came from another program, we will hold you to these same high expectations in the CFII course. It’s all part of our mission to produce instrument instructors who are truly exceptional and ready for the real world. In fact, flight training professionals around Colorado know that a Leading Edge-trained CFII has gone through rigorous preparation – and that respect will follow you in your career. By maintaining uncompromising standards, we ensure that earning your CFII here is a credential that carries weight and sets you apart as an elite instrument flight instructor.

Ready to Become a Certified Instrument Instructor?

If you’re ready to expand your qualifications and become a certified instrument flight instructor in Northern Colorado, we’re here to help you get started. Our team at Leading Edge Flight Training is happy to answer your questions and guide you through enrollment in the CFII program. Call us today at (970) 669-1187 or send us a message to learn more about our CFII training course and to schedule your first lesson. Take the next step in your aviation instructing career and join the ranks of skilled instrument instructors who have trained with Leading Edge Flight Training — your future instrument students are waiting for you!