Event Details and Registration

The Soaring Safety Foundation Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC) is an FAA Approved 2-day interactive course meeting the FAA requirement for the renewal of any unexpired Flight Instructor Certificate. This course is tailored to the needs of glider pilots and instructors but is educational and beneficial for any pilot. You don't need to be a Flight Instructor or even hold a glider rating to sign up and enjoy the benefits.

A terrific benefit for airplane instructors that tow gliders, or may have an interest in towing gliders. Also a great start ground refresher for those that may have an expired Flight Instructor Certificate, but need to refresh in preparation for a future Flight Instructor reinstatement practical test.

From Exit #32 on Route 2, proceed towards Main Street heading North.

About 0.4 Miles north of Route 2, take a left on to Hamilton Street.

After 0.3 Miles turn right on to Crawford Street

Proceed approximately 1.1 Miles to 567 Crawford Street and Airport Blvd and the Terminal Building.

Register on-line through the Soaring Safety Foundation website (www.soaringsafety.org/outreach/FIRC.html), or call the Soaring Society of America office at (575) 392-1177. The course fee can be paid on-line during registration or at the door.

The Soaring Safety Foundation has developed an FAA Approved Training Course Outline (TCO) for Certified Flight Instructors needing to renew their flight instructor certificates. This program has been designed by experienced educators who are experts in the field of flight and ground instruction. Visit the Soaring Safety Foundation web site for course fee information

Course lesson modules address each of the required FAA Core Topics using a safety culture theme. Each lesson covers several core topics during the module. This allows the course's instructors to tailor lessons based on the needs of the participating flight instructors while covering all the required core topics multiple times. In addition to covering themes listed in AC 61-83H (Safety Culture, ADM, Professionalism, and Ethics) the SSF FIRC focuses on how to teach and evaluate Risk Management skills. The schedule follows the overall theme of a flight. As can be seen from the lessons, the course starts with background information on teaching aerodynamics and RM/ADM skills. It then moves on to pre-flight activities (aerodynamics and checklist and briefings training), followed by launch (both normal and emergency) procedures, followed by cruise flight (flight maneuvers, soaring skills). Next comes landing procedures, followed by post-flight activities. The course concludes with a review of the concepts of RM/ADM and how instructors can use these skills for both initial and recurrent flight instruction.

Each lesson starts with a short 10-15 minute slide presentation to present the background material. Following this talk, the attendees are presented with written or video based scenarios. With help from the course instructor, they individually begin to analyze the scenario. After a short time to think about the problem the course instructor walks the class through the analysis process. The total course provides 16 hours of class-room instruction as required by A/C 61-83H. Wings Credits are available to those completing the course.

The SSF has an FAA approved Airman Certification Representative (ACR) on staff. After successful completion of the course, the SSF ACR will issue a new temporary CFI certificates and file the paperwork with the FAA using IACRA. This eliminates the need for course attendees to schedule a visit with their local FSDO to complete the renewal process.

See Addtional Documents for Specific Topics & Discussions.