Three of us, military aviators, were wondering, why on two of our certificates, the DOT symbol is blue, and one other is black. I had heard that it was blue because we were instrument rated, and black if you are not. All three of us are instrument rated, so what is the difference?

I thought I knew the answer to this question - before color copiers the different colored seals were a deterent to counterfeit copies. But, go to this blog and read the answer[s] and the issue becomes very cloudy. So, who knows?

http://www.pprune.org/archive/index.php/t-372524.html

Is one of you guys a flight instructor?

My ATP pilot certificate's symbol is blue. My flight instructor certificate's is black.

But I know that it has nothing to do with instrument rated or not.

I used to be a RH-CFI, but at the time, I was not instrument rated, symbol was black. Added a A-SEL, was still black. When I finally added my instrument rating, it came back blue. My CFI ran out about 12 years ago, so dont think it would still have any bearing on it. The one guy with the black symbol on his new certificate, is instrument rated. He is only helo rated, the two of us with dual ratings are blue. Government SNAFU I guess.

With further investigation I've come to the conclusion that some are blue some are black and that it means nothing.

Mines blue as well, but it's a bit over 2 decades old too.

Hawk Driver- I thought all CFI's had to have an instrument rating, this not so for rotorcraft?

Mine is blue. Single/multi, land/sea, commercial, instrument??

Fro what it's worth....

Three certificates:

ATP symbol is blue
CFII symbol is black
Ground Instructor symbol is black

Mark,
This was back in 92 when I got my CFI, at the time, you didnt need to be instrument rated to get a Commercial Helo or CFI Helo, things may have changed since then.

Like surestrike said, some are blue, some are black seems to be the only logic.