The LAPL-Only Instructor's Guide to Legally Training PPL Students

Across Europe, almost every flying club is facing the same quiet crisis: we are desperately short of flight instructors. Older instructors are slowly retiring from active teaching, while younger commercial pilots build their 500 to 1,500 hours on the right seat and promptly leave for airline cockpits. That leaves clubs constantly scrambling for people willing to spend sunny weekends in the circuit with students.

I love teaching. I volunteer at my club, I have a demanding full-time job, and whenever the weather plays along, I'm at the airfield sitting in the right seat. And while I am working through the ATPL theory in the background, let's be completely honest: balancing 14 commercial theory subjects next to a full-time job, club responsibilities, and actual flight instruction means it is going to take forever.

To start instructing without putting my life on hold for years just for exam certificates, I took the path EASA created: obtaining the FI(A) certificate without CPL theory. The trade-off? That notorious line on your licence: restricted to LAPL(A) instruction only.

And then reality hits you at the clubhouse door: almost nobody wants a LAPL.

And who can blame them? While EASA conceived the Light Aircraft Pilot Licence as an accessible recreational ticket, the flying community voted with its feet. A LAPL caps you at 2,000 kg MTOM and four persons on board. Worse, you can't carry a single passenger until you've logged 10 hours of PIC after licence issue (FCL.105.A). It isn't recognized under ICAO outside EASA without bilateral paperwork, and there is no direct path to an Instrument Rating (IR or BIR).

Virtually every student who walks into our club wants a full ICAO PPL(A). If instructors in my shoes had to wait until finishing every last commercial theory exam before training PPL students, our clubs would grind to a halt and students would sit on waiting lists for months.

Fortunately, you don't have to wait. With the right syllabus structure and teamwork within your ATO or DTO, you can legally do the vast majority of the training right now. Here is how it works under EASA Part-FCL.

1. The Shared Foundation: Theory & Air Exercises

Under FCL.915.FI(b)(2), instructing without CPL theory means your privileges under FCL.905.FI(a) are strictly limited to the LAPL(A) syllabus. You cannot sign off dual instruction as a PPL instructor. The golden rule: every hour you instruct must be officially logged as LAPL(A) dual instruction.

Here is the regulatory silver lining:

• Theoretical Knowledge: Under AMC1 FCL.115 and AMC1 FCL.215, the theoretical knowledge syllabus and examination for LAPL(A) and PPL(A) are identical (the standard 9 subjects). When your student sits their exams, they can sit the PPL exams directly — which count 100% for LAPL, and vice versa.
• Flight Syllabus: The core flying syllabus — from straight-and-level to slow flight, stalls, circuits, emergency landings, and basic navigation — is identical in both the LAPL and PPL training manuals.

2. The Blueprint: How to Structure the Training

To bring your student from zero to a PPL without ever exceeding your instructor privileges, your DTO or ATO sets up a clear two-instructor division of labour:

Step A: Enroll as a LAPL Student with a PPL Trajectory

The student formally enrolls in the LAPL(A) syllabus at your DTO/ATO. Ensure from Day 1 that they obtain an EASA Class 2 Medical (or higher). A LAPL medical is not valid for solo flight under a PPL course or for PPL licence issuance.

Step B: Conduct the Visual Dual Instruction

As the LAPL FI, you can train the student across virtually the entire visual flying syllabus:

• Basic handling: slow flight, stalls, and spin awareness;
• Circuit training: normal, crosswind, and emergency forced landings;
• Cross-country navigation: dead reckoning, visual pilotage, diversion planning, controlled airspace transits, and mountain flying;
• Special operations: precautionary off-field landing evaluations and short-field techniques.

You can fly as many dual hours with the student as they need to become confident and proficient. Every single one of these exercises is fully part of the LAPL(A) syllabus and is logged legitimately under your privileges.

Step C: The Natural Role of the Unrestricted PPL FI

Under FCL.210.A(a), a PPL(A) requires at least:

• 45 total hours of flight training;
• 25 hours of dual instruction;
• 10 hours of supervised solo flight time (including at least 5 hours of solo cross-country and the 150 NM / 270 km qualifying flight with two full stops).

To satisfy the PPL-specific requirements, the student must fly at least 5 hours of dual instruction with an unrestricted FI(A).

Some instructors look at those 5 hours as an artificial hurdle or an awkward paperwork handover. In reality, it fits seamlessly into how any high-standard ATO or DTO operates:

1. Phase Progress Checks (Stage Checks): In any reputable flight school, a student must fly with an independent flight instructor (often the CFI, Head of Training, or a senior FI) between training phases anyway. Nobody should send a student solo without a second pair of eyes:
   • Pre-Solo Progress Check: Verifying circuit consistency, go-around decision making, and emergency handling before the first solo.
   • Pre-Solo Cross-Country Check: Assessing navigation, radio procedures, and airspace awareness before letting the student loose on a solo nav.
   • Pre-Exam Assessment (Mock Checkride): A comprehensive dry run of the skill test profile before the Head of Training signs the exam recommendation.
   These progress checks easily account for 3 to 4 hours of dual time flown with another instructor — exactly as good training governance dictates.
2. The PPL-Specific Dual Exercises: The remaining dual time with the unrestricted PPL FI is dedicated to the few syllabus items that exist in PPL but not in LAPL:
   • Basic Instrument Flight (Exercise 19): Instrument scan, straight-and-level flight, climbing/descending, and executing a 180° level turn out of simulated IMC solely by reference to instruments.
   • Radio Navigation: Practical tracking of VOR radials, NDB bearings, and GNSS waypoint management.
3. Supervising Solo Flights: To ensure flawless paperwork when the license application reaches Austro Control or your national CAA, have the unrestricted PPL FI authorize and supervise the student's 10 hours of solo flight — including the 150 NM triangular qualifying cross-country flight.

3. The Administrative Bridge: Course Transfer

How does the student become a PPL applicant on paper?

Under Part-DTO (DTO.GEN.240) and Part-ORA (ORA.ATO.125), training organisations have approved procedures to credit previously completed training modules when a student changes course.

Because your training was flown strictly in accordance with the DTO/ATO's approved training manual, the Head of Training (HT) or Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) reviews the student's file:

• The bulk of dual instruction (circuits, basic handling, extensive cross-country navigation) logged with the LAPL FI;
• At least 5 hours of dual logged with the PPL FI (covering phase progress checks, basic instruments Ex. 19, and radionav);
• 10 hours of supervised solo logged under the PPL FI → fulfilling FCL.210.A(a)(2);
• Remaining hours bringing the total to at least 45 hours.

The Head of Training formally credits the completed training, registers the transfer to the PPL(A) course, and signs the course completion certificate. The student goes straight to the PPL(A) skill test with a flight examiner.

Summary of Prerequisites to Keep It Legal

The Takeaway

The "LAPL-only" instructor restriction does not mean you are confined to the sidelines of club instruction. You are teaching the fundamental airmanship that keeps a pilot alive: stick and rudder, stall recognition, circuit discipline, and judgment.

By understanding the boundary between instructor privileges and training organisation crediting, you can give your students the training they need, keep the flight school flying, and leave the 13 CPL theory books on the shelf.

— Franz

Footnote: The Two Types of "Restricted FI" (Don't Confuse Them!)

In clubhouse banter, pilots often toss around the phrase "restricted FI" as if it's one single thing. But under EASA Part-FCL, there are actually two completely different restrictions, governed by two different rules:

Type 1: The Supervisory Restriction — FI(R) (FCL.910.FI)

This applies to every newly minted flight instructor, regardless of whether you hold an ATPL, CPL, or PPL. When you pass your initial FI assessment of competence, you are an "FI under supervision" (often designated FI(R)):

• What it restricts: Under FCL.910.FI, you must instruct under the supervision of an unrestricted FI nominated by your ATO or DTO. Crucially, you cannot authorize student pilots to conduct first solo flights (by day or night) or first solo cross-country flights without prior consultation and authorization from your supervising instructor.
• How it is lifted: Complete at least 100 hours of flight instruction and supervise at least 25 student solo flights, then apply to your national aviation authority to remove the restriction.

Type 2: The Syllabus / Scope Restriction — LAPL(A) Only (FCL.915.FI(b)(2))

This restriction has nothing to do with hours or experience, and everything to do with theoretical examinations:

• What it restricts: Under FCL.915.FI(b)(2) and FCL.905.FI(a), if an applicant holding a PPL(A) obtains an FI certificate without having passed the CPL theoretical knowledge examinations, their teaching privileges are legally confined to instructing for the LAPL(A) only. You cannot sign off flight instruction for a PPL.
• How it is lifted: Pass all 13 CPL (or 14 ATPL) theoretical knowledge exams. No amount of instructional flight hours will ever lift this restriction.

The double-restricted reality: When you start out as a fresh weekend instructor without CPL theory, you actually hold both restrictions simultaneously: you are an FI(R) limited to LAPL(A) only.

And here is the punchline: because you are an FI(R) who cannot send a student on their first solo or first solo cross-country independently anyway, having an experienced, unrestricted FI step in for stage checks and solo authorizations is not an artificial workaround invented for PPL upgrading — it is the exact supervisory framework you are already legally operating under!

A note on how these posts get written: I draft them with the help of an AI assistant — it helps me get from "a few notes after the flight" to something readable. The flights, the decisions, the photos and the opinions are mine; the prose gets a friendly polish. If anything ever sounds off, the answer is: it's me you're disagreeing with, not the robot.