1. About the Site

The Site is a public directory and review platform concerning:

• Certificated flight instructors, commonly referred to as CFIs;
• Flight schools and flight-training providers;
• Designated Pilot Examiners, commonly referred to as DPEs;
• Check Airmen, where applicable; and
• Other aviation-training or examining professionals that we may permit to be listed.

For purposes of these Terms, DPEs, Check Airmen, and other listed examining professionals may collectively be referred to as "Examiners."

The Site may permit users to:

• Submit reviews and ratings;
• Submit practical-test or checkride reports;
• Vote on or report reviews;
• Request the creation of profiles;
• Claim and manage certain profile information;
• Respond publicly to reviews;
• View aggregated ratings and statistics; and
• Use other directory, community, or informational features.

Profiles may be created from user submissions, public records, profile claimants, or other lawful sources without the request, participation, approval, or consent of the person or organization described.

An unclaimed profile is not controlled by, endorsed by, or necessarily known to the profile subject. Claiming a profile does not create ownership of the profile or a right to control content submitted by other users.

2. Independent Service; No FAA Affiliation

The Site is an independent, privately operated service.

The Site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, approved by, or operated on behalf of:

• The Federal Aviation Administration;
• The United States Department of Transportation;
• Any other government agency;
• Any flight school;
• Any flight instructor;
• Any Examiner; or
• Any other listed person or organization, unless we expressly state otherwise in writing.

The Site may obtain or reference information from FAA databases and other public records. The presence of government-sourced information does not indicate government participation in or endorsement of the Site.

3. Eligibility and Minors

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, submit User Content, or otherwise use interactive features of the Site.

If you are under the age of legal majority where you live, you may use the Site only with the permission and supervision of a parent or legal guardian. By permitting a minor to use the Site, the parent or legal guardian agrees to these Terms on the minor's behalf and accepts responsibility for the minor's use of the Site.

The Site is not directed to children under 13. Children under 13 may not:

• Create an account;
• Submit content;
• Claim or request a profile; or
• Provide personal information through the Site.

If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we may suspend the account and delete associated personal information as required by applicable law.

By using the Site, you represent and warrant that:

1. You meet the eligibility requirements in this section;
2. You have the legal capacity to agree to these Terms;
3. The information you provide is accurate and current; and
4. Your use of the Site complies with applicable law.

4. Accounts and Email Verification

Certain Site features require an account, including:

• Submitting reviews or checkride reports;
• Voting on or reporting content;
• Requesting profiles;
• Claiming profiles;
• Responding to reviews; and
• Managing account or profile information.

You agree to:

• Provide accurate, current, and complete account information;
• Maintain only one account unless we expressly authorize otherwise;
• Keep your password and login credentials confidential;
• Promptly update inaccurate or outdated information;
• Notify us promptly of suspected unauthorized access or a security breach;
• Not sell, transfer, lend, or share your account; and
• Accept responsibility for activity occurring through your account, except where prohibited by law.

You may select a display name that differs from your legal name unless we require identity information for a particular process. Your display name may appear publicly with your submissions.

An email address generally must be verified before a review, report, profile request, claim, reply, or other submission becomes publicly visible or effective.

We may require additional verification when reasonably necessary to prevent fraud, impersonation, review manipulation, or abuse.

5. No Promise of Anonymity

Reviews and other submissions may appear under a user-selected display name and may therefore be pseudonymous to members of the public. We do not promise that your use of the Site or your submissions will be anonymous.

We may possess account information associated with a submission, including an email address, account identifiers, security records, and relevant activity logs.

We may preserve or disclose information when reasonably necessary to:

• Comply with applicable law;
• Respond to a subpoena, court order, warrant, or other valid legal process;
• Enforce these Terms;
• Investigate fraud, manipulation, unlawful conduct, or safety threats;
• Protect the rights, property, or safety of Smiths Group, our users, profile subjects, or others; or
• Exercise or defend legal claims.

Additional information about collection, retention, and disclosure appears in our Privacy Policy.

6. Profiles Created Without Subject Participation

A profile may be created for a person or organization that did not request, authorize, approve, or participate in its creation.

Profile information may come from:

• User submissions;
• FAA databases;
• Other government records;
• Publicly available business or professional information;
• A profile claimant;
• A listed person or organization;
• Other lawful sources; or
• A combination of these sources.

Information displayed on an unclaimed profile may be incomplete, outdated, inferred from user submissions, or not confirmed by the profile subject.

The creation or continued display of a profile does not mean that we:

• Endorse the subject;
• Recommend the subject;
• Employ or represent the subject;
• Have verified every displayed fact;
• Have evaluated the subject's competence or safety; or
• Have established a professional relationship with the subject.

7. User Content

"User Content" means any content or information submitted, uploaded, posted, transmitted, stored, or otherwise made available by a user through the Site, including:

• Reviews;
• Written comments;
• Ratings and scores;
• Practical-test or checkride reports;
• Pass, failure, and discontinuance outcomes;
• Examiner fee and duration information;
• Aircraft, airport, training, and certificate information;
• Helpful or unhelpful votes;
• Reports and disputes;
• Profile-creation requests;
• Profile claims;
• Profile-owner replies;
• Profile photographs;
• Biographies;
• Contact or credential information; and
• Other text, images, information, or materials.

You remain responsible for your User Content and for the consequences of submitting it.

Private identity-verification documents, including certificate images, are governed by Section 17 and our Privacy Policy and are not licensed for advertising, social-media promotion, or unrelated commercial use.

8. License to User Content

You retain any ownership rights you have in your User Content.

By submitting User Content, you grant Smiths Group, LLC a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, fully paid, sublicensable, and transferable license to:

• Host, store, reproduce, publish, display, distribute, transmit, and make available your User Content;
• Format, adapt, translate, organize, summarize, excerpt, aggregate, and technically modify your User Content;
• Redact prohibited personal information;
• Correct obvious formatting or typographical errors;
• Include your User Content in ratings, statistics, averages, summaries, search results, directories, rankings, and other Site features;
• Moderate, investigate, secure, maintain, and improve the Site;
• Promote and advertise the Site using public User Content; and
• Exercise the rights reasonably necessary to operate and provide the Site.

This license permits us to use public User Content in promotional, editorial, social-media, and marketing materials relating to the Site or our business without further notice or compensation, to the extent permitted by law.

We will not materially alter the substantive meaning of a review and continue attributing the altered statement to you.

The license granted under this section survives account deletion, suspension, or termination with respect to User Content retained in accordance with these Terms and our Privacy Policy.

9. User Representations and Warranties

By submitting User Content, you represent and warrant that:

1. You created the User Content or possess all rights and permissions needed to submit it and grant the license above;
2. Your submission is based on a genuine experience where these Terms require firsthand experience;
3. Statements presented as facts are truthful and accurate to the best of your knowledge;
4. Opinions are honestly held and based on your actual experience;
5. Your submission does not knowingly create a false or misleading impression;
6. Your User Content does not violate copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, contractual, or other third-party rights;
7. You have disclosed any material personal, employment, financial, family, or business connection relevant to the submission when required;
8. You have not been improperly paid, rewarded, threatened, pressured, or incentivized to submit or remove the content;
9. You are not submitting a self-review, fabricated review, undisclosed insider review, or improper competitor review;
10. You are not submitting content on behalf of another person while representing it as your own experience;
11. Your submission complies with these Terms and any published review standards; and
12. Your submission complies with applicable law.

Reviews may contain opinions and subjective evaluations. Any statement reasonably understood as asserting a fact must be truthful and supported by the submitting user's firsthand experience.

10. Firsthand-Experience Requirements

You may submit a CFI review only if you personally received flight instruction, ground instruction, training, evaluation, or another directly relevant instructional service from that CFI.

You may submit a flight-school review only if you personally:

• Trained at the school;
• Purchased or received flight-training services from the school; or
• Had another substantial and directly relevant firsthand experience with the school.

You may submit an Examiner review or checkride report only if you personally participated as an applicant in a practical test, proficiency check, or other applicable evaluation administered by that Examiner.

You may not submit a review based solely on:

• Rumor;
• Hearsay;
• Another person's experience;
• Social-media posts;
• Online discussion;
• News coverage;
• Personal disagreement unrelated to professional services; or
• A general reputation you cannot personally substantiate.

Only one review may be submitted for a particular training or examining experience unless we authorize an update or determine that another submission concerns a genuinely separate experience.

11. Appropriate Subjects for Reviews

Reviews should focus on professionally relevant matters, including:

• Quality of instruction;
• Teaching ability;
• Aviation knowledge;
• Communication;
• Professionalism;
• Scheduling and availability;
• Training organization;
• Safety practices and safety culture;
• School facilities;
• Aircraft fleet;
• Maintenance experience;
• School management;
• Examiner fairness;
• Examiner professionalism;
• Examiner communication; and
• Other matters directly related to flight training or examining services.

Reviews may not focus on matters unrelated to professional aviation services, including a person's:

• Physical appearance;
• Family;
• Personal relationships;
• Private life;
• Medical condition;
• Religion;
• Race;
• Color;
• Ethnicity;
• National origin;
• Sex;
• Gender;
• Sexual orientation;
• Disability;
• Age; or
• Other protected or irrelevant personal characteristic.

12. Checkride Reports and Examiner Statistics

Checkride reports must concern a practical test or evaluation in which the submitting user personally participated.

A checkride report may include:

• The certificate or rating sought;
• Whether the test was initial or additional;
• A passed, not-passed, or discontinued outcome;
• Examiner fee information;
• Oral and flight duration;
• Aircraft information;
• Date and location;
• Ratings concerning fairness, professionalism, and communication; and
• A written description of the experience.

Checkride information is voluntarily submitted by users and ordinarily is not independently verified by us.

The Site may calculate and display:

• Pass rates;
• Failure or not-passed rates;
• Discontinuance rates;
• Median or average fees;
• Average ratings;
• Sample sizes;
• Durations; and
• Other aggregate statistics.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, these calculations:

• Are based only on reports submitted to the Site;
• Are not official FAA records or statistics;
• May not represent all applicants or practical tests;
• May contain errors or omissions;
• May be outdated;
• May be affected by self-selection and reporting bias;
• May be based on a small or unrepresentative sample;
• May combine experiences involving different certificates, ratings, aircraft, schools, locations, or time periods; and
• May be affected by applicant preparation, aircraft condition, weather, discontinuances, school practices, and other circumstances beyond an Examiner's control.

A pass rate, rating, fee, or other statistic does not establish that an Examiner is easy or difficult, fair or unfair, competent or incompetent, appropriate for a particular applicant, or likely to produce a particular outcome.

Reported Examiner fees may exclude travel charges, aircraft rental, facility charges, retest fees, or other expenses.

Check Airmen or other Examiners who do not charge applicants directly may be excluded from fee calculations.

13. Prohibited Content

You may not submit content that:

• Is knowingly false, fabricated, fraudulent, or materially misleading;
• Falsely claims to describe a firsthand experience;
• Makes a gross accusation of criminal conduct;
• Is defamatory or unlawfully injures another person's reputation;
• Threatens, extorts, stalks, harasses, intimidates, or targets another person;
• Encourages violence or unlawful conduct;
• Is hateful, discriminatory, obscene, sexually explicit, or exploitative;
• Identifies another student, applicant, passenger, employee, or uninvolved person without authorization;
• Contains a home address, personal telephone number, personal email address, certificate number, government identifier, financial information, password, login credential, or other sensitive personal information;
• Discloses confidential training, educational, personnel, medical, or business information without authorization;
• Infringes intellectual-property, privacy, publicity, confidentiality, contractual, or other rights;
• Contains spam, advertisements, promotions, referral links, solicitations, or unrelated commercial content;
• Impersonates another person or misrepresents an affiliation;
• Contains malware, harmful code, or malicious files;
• Attempts to identify a pseudonymous reviewer through harassment, deception, or misuse of personal information; or
• Otherwise violates these Terms, our published standards, or applicable law.

A negative opinion, low rating, disputed recollection, or criticism is not prohibited merely because the profile subject disagrees with it or believes it may affect a reputation or business.

14. Review Manipulation and Improper Incentives

You may not:

• Submit a self-review;
• Submit a review through a second or false account;
• Create or use a nonexistent, stolen, fabricated, or AI-generated reviewer identity;
• Submit duplicate reviews to manipulate a rating;
• Review a competitor for an improper purpose;
• Direct another person to submit a review that falsely appears independent;
• Buy, sell, trade, or exchange reviews;
• Offer or accept compensation, discounts, scheduling preferences, employment benefits, endorsements, services, gifts, or other value conditioned on a review expressing a particular positive or negative sentiment;
• Participate in review swapping;
• Submit an undisclosed review as an owner, officer, manager, employee, contractor, agent, family member, or other insider;
• Threaten, intimidate, punish, sue without reasonable grounds, or retaliate against a person to prevent, alter, or remove a lawful review;
• Condition instruction, endorsements, employment, scheduling, refunds, or future service on review removal;
• Direct only satisfied customers to submit reviews while intentionally excluding dissatisfied customers in a misleading manner;
• Coordinate or participate in brigading, review bombing, mass voting, or mass reporting;
• Use automated tools to create reviews, votes, reports, or accounts;
• Vote on your own review;
• Manipulate profile requests, claim procedures, ratings, rankings, labels, or statistics; or
• Assist another person in doing any of the above.

Users with a material connection to a reviewed person or business must clearly disclose that connection when permitted to submit content. We may prohibit or remove insider or competitor reviews even when a connection is disclosed.

We may investigate suspected manipulation, remove affected content, exclude it from calculations, restrict accounts, revoke claims, preserve relevant records, and take other appropriate action.

15. Helpful Votes, Confidence Labels, and Rating Methodology

Signed-in users may be permitted to mark reviews helpful or unhelpful, except where the Site restricts voting on a user's own submission.

We may use the following to determine whether and how content affects ratings, rankings, statistics, summaries, or other Site features:

• Helpful and unhelpful votes;
• Reports;
• Account history;
• Email verification;
• Claim and identity information;
• Device or network signals;
• Fraud indicators;
• Submission patterns;
• Moderator review; and
• Other integrity information.

A review may:

• Remain publicly visible while being excluded from an aggregate rating;
• Be displayed less prominently;
• Receive a "Low confidence" label or similar designation;
• Be restricted from certain calculations; or
• Be removed if it violates these Terms.

A confidence label or continued display does not mean that we verified, adopted, endorsed, or approved the review.

We may change rating formulas, weighting, vote thresholds, confidence thresholds, fraud-detection methods, ranking criteria, statistical displays, and related methodologies at any time to improve accuracy, fairness, security, or integrity.

We do not guarantee that every fraudulent vote, review, report, or manipulation effort will be detected.

16. Claiming and Managing a Profile

A CFI, Examiner, flight school, or authorized representative may request to claim an applicable profile.

A claim may permit the claimant to:

• Suggest or edit certain factual profile information;
• Add an approved profile photograph;
• Add a biography;
• Add professional credentials or contact information;
• Identify the profile as claimed or verified; and
• Respond publicly to reviews where that feature is available.

To claim a profile, you must:

• Provide accurate information establishing your identity or authority;
• Claim only a profile corresponding to you or an organization you are authorized to represent;
• Cooperate with reasonable verification procedures;
• Provide truthful supporting information; and
• Not use another person's certificate, identity document, contact information, or authority without permission.

We may approve, deny, delay, suspend, revoke, release, or re-review a claim when:

• Identity or authority cannot be confirmed;
• Information appears inaccurate;
• The claimant is no longer authorized to represent the subject;
• The profile appears misidentified;
• Fraud or impersonation is suspected;
• The claimant violates these Terms; or
• Additional verification is reasonably necessary.

A claimed or verified label means only that we completed the identity or affiliation checks applicable to the claim.

It does not represent that we have:

• Endorsed the claimant;
• Evaluated competence;
• Verified certificate currency;
• Verified medical qualification or recent experience;
• Reviewed a safety record;
• Confirmed insurance;
• Confirmed legal authority to perform a service; or
• Determined suitability for any user.

Claiming a profile does not permit the claimant to:

• Own the profile;
• Edit another user's review;
• Identify a reviewer through the Site;
• Hide or remove lawful criticism;
• Directly alter ratings or statistics;
• Prevent future reviews; or
• Require deletion of the profile except where an applicable removal ground exists.

17. Certificate-Image Verification

A CFI claiming a profile may be asked to upload an image of a flight instructor certificate together with a handwritten one-time verification code.

Before uploading, the claimant must redact any information we instruct the claimant to redact, which may include:

• Signature;
• Residential address;
• Date of birth;
• Certificate number; and
• Other information unnecessary for claim review.

Do not upload another person's certificate or any document you are not authorized to provide.

Certificate images submitted for verification:

1. Are used only to evaluate the applicable profile claim;
2. Are not displayed publicly;
3. Are not placed on a public profile;
4. Are not shared with other users;
5. Are stored in nonpublic storage separately from public profile images;
6. May be re-encoded to remove embedded metadata, including location metadata;
7. Are assigned filenames that do not intentionally contain personal information;
8. Are viewable only by authorized administrators for claim review, security, or fraud investigation;
9. May have administrative access logged;
10. Cannot ordinarily be retrieved by the uploader after submission;
11. Are deleted when the claim is decided;
12. Are deleted if the claimant deletes the associated account while the claim remains pending; and
13. Are deleted no later than seven days after submission.

We may limit the permitted number, type, format, and size of verification images.

Certificate images are not covered by the promotional or marketing license in Section 8.

18. Schools and Examiner Claim Verification

A school or Examiner claimant may be asked to provide:

• Name;
• Position or title;
• Professional email address;
• Telephone number;
• Organizational affiliation; and
• Other information reasonably necessary to verify the connection.

We may verify a school or Examiner claim through:

• Public records;
• Published organizational information;
• Direct contact;
• Email-domain verification;
• Telephone confirmation;
• Other reasonable out-of-band methods; or
• A combination of these methods.

Verification of identity or affiliation does not constitute endorsement or verification of professional competence.

19. Profile-Owner Replies

A verified profile claimant may be permitted to post one public reply to each review on the claimed profile and may be permitted to edit or delete that reply.

Profile-owner replies are User Content and must comply with these Terms.

A reply may not:

• Reveal or speculate about a reviewer's identity;
• Publish student or applicant records;
• Disclose confidential training information;
• Publish private communications without lawful authority;
• Threaten, intimidate, harass, or retaliate against a reviewer;
• Condition instruction, endorsements, scheduling, employment, refunds, or services on removal of a review;
• Include prohibited personal information;
• Make knowingly false statements;
• Encourage others to contact, identify, or target a reviewer; or
• Otherwise violate these Terms.

A reply may be removed if:

• It violates these Terms;
• The associated claim is revoked;
• The claimant releases the profile;
• The profile becomes unclaimed; or
• We determine removal is reasonably appropriate.

Removal of a profile-owner reply does not require removal of the underlying review.

20. Reporting Content and Disputing Information

You may report content using available Site tools or by contacting us at removals@ratemycfis.com.

A report may concern:

• False factual information;
• Personal attacks;
• Harassment or abuse;
• Private or sensitive information;
• Misidentification;
• Impersonation;
• Review manipulation;
• Copyright infringement;
• Other rights violations; or
• Another violation of these Terms.

A profile subject disputing content should:

• Identify the exact profile and submission;
• Identify the specific statement or information disputed;
• Explain why it is inaccurate or prohibited; and
• Provide supporting information reasonably necessary to evaluate the dispute.

We may:

• Review the report;
• Request more information;
• Contact the submitting user;
• Contact the profile subject;
• Add context or a label;
• Correct factual profile information;
• Restrict or remove content;
• Preserve content or records;
• Take action against an account; or
• Take no action.

Submitting a report does not guarantee removal.

We do not adjudicate private disputes as a court and are not required to determine conclusively which party's account is correct.

Knowingly submitting a false report, fraudulent evidence, forged document, or abusive legal complaint is prohibited.

21. Profile Corrections, Inactive Profiles, and Removal

We ordinarily correct inaccurate factual profile information rather than remove an entire profile.

We do not ordinarily remove a profile solely because:

• It contains negative or unflattering reviews;
• The subject disputes a rating or opinion;
• The subject believes the profile is affecting business;
• The subject does not remember the reviewer;
• The subject does not wish to participate in the Site;
• The profile is unclaimed; or
• The subject objects to lawful criticism.

We may remove, merge, restrict, correct, or otherwise modify a profile because of:

• Misidentification;
• Duplicate profiles;
• A fabricated or fraudulent profile;
• A subject who is not and was not an appropriate aviation professional or organization;
• A legal requirement;
• A serious safety concern;
• Stalking, domestic violence, or a comparable threat;
• Death of the profile subject;
• Exceptional privacy or security circumstances; or
• Another reason we determine appropriate and lawful.

Duplicate profiles may be merged while retaining associated reviews and reports.

A profile subject who is no longer active may be marked inactive rather than deleted. An inactive profile may:

• Be removed from search or directory results;
• Stop receiving new inquiries;
• Stop accepting new submissions;
• Retain historical reviews and reports; and
• Remain accessible through a direct link or archival feature.

We may handle safety-based requests confidentially and may avoid requesting detailed documentation where doing so could create additional danger.

Nothing in this section limits a right that cannot lawfully be waived.

22. Moderation and Editorial Discretion

User Content may be subject to:

• Email verification;
• Automated screening;
• Fraud detection;
• Community voting;
• User reports;
• Manual review;
• Post-publication moderation; or
• Other integrity measures.

We do not necessarily review, fact-check, or verify User Content before it becomes publicly visible.

We may, but are not required to, review, screen, investigate, verify, fact-check, label, format, redact, restrict, decline, publish, unpublish, preserve, or remove User Content or account activity.

We may also:

• Contact users or profile subjects;
• Adjust ratings and calculations;
• Disregard fraudulent votes or submissions;
• Merge or separate profiles;
• Suspend or terminate accounts;
• Revoke profile claims;
• Preserve relevant records;
• Report suspected unlawful conduct; and
• Cooperate with lawful investigations.

We may correct obvious typographical errors, reformat content, redact prohibited information, or remove portions that violate these Terms. We will not knowingly rewrite the substantive meaning of a review and continue attributing the altered statement to the user.

Our moderation activities do not mean that we authored, verified, adopted, or endorsed User Content that remains available.

We do not guarantee that we will identify every violation.

23. Prohibited Conduct

You may not:

• Use the Site for an unlawful, fraudulent, infringing, or abusive purpose;
• Create false accounts;
• Fraudulently claim a profile;
• Impersonate another person or organization;
• Misrepresent your authorization or affiliation;
• Submit another person's certificate or identity document without authority;
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to accounts, administrative tools, databases, or systems;
• Probe, scan, or test Site vulnerabilities without written permission;
• Bypass authentication, rate limits, or security controls;
• Upload malware, viruses, or harmful code;
• Interfere with Site availability, security, or integrity;
• Scrape, crawl, harvest, index, copy, or extract Site data through automated means without written permission;
• Bulk-download reviews or profile information;
• Use Site content to build, train, improve, enrich, or operate a competing directory, review service, commercial dataset, data-broker product, or artificial-intelligence model without written permission;
• Collect information for unsolicited marketing, harassment, surveillance, or profiling;
• Reverse engineer Site software except where applicable law prohibits that restriction;
• Circumvent measures intended to prevent copying or automated access;
• Use Site information to stalk, threaten, discriminate against, or retaliate against another person; or
• Encourage or assist another person in prohibited conduct.

Public search engines may index publicly available pages in accordance with our technical instructions. This does not authorize other automated extraction.

24. Account Deletion and Retained Content

While your account remains active, you may delete individual reviews or checkride reports using the tools provided by the Site, subject to technical availability and any lawful preservation requirement.

If you delete your account without first deleting published reviews or checkride reports, those submissions may be retained and permanently disassociated from your account.

Disassociation may include removing:

• Your account connection;
• Your display name;
• Your email address;
• Your profile image; and
• Other information identifying the submission as associated with your former account.

Following account deletion:

• Your email address, password, account name, profile photograph, and biography will be deleted or handled as described in our Privacy Policy;
• Published reviews and checkride reports may remain available in disassociated form;
• Votes and reports associated with your account may be deleted;
• Pending profile claims may be canceled;
• A claimed profile may be released and returned to unclaimed status;
• Claimant-supplied profile photographs, biographies, credentials, and contact information may be removed;
• Pending certificate-verification images will be deleted; and
• Certain security, fraud-prevention, legal, or transactional records may be retained when reasonably necessary and permitted by law.

Deleting an account does not automatically delete content that you submitted to describe another person or organization.

You should delete individual reviews and reports before deleting your account if you do not want those submissions retained, except where retention is legally required.

25. Suspension and Termination

We may suspend, restrict, or terminate an account or access to the Site, remove content, revoke a claim, or disable features at any time, with or without prior notice, for a lawful reason, including:

• Violation of these Terms;
• Fraud;
• Review manipulation;
• Impersonation;
• Harassment;
• Security risk;
• Legal exposure;
• Repeated intellectual-property infringement;
• Abuse of reporting or claim tools;
• Risk to another person; or
• Conduct harmful to the Site or its users.

You may stop using the Site at any time.

Termination does not eliminate obligations or liabilities arising before termination.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination, including those concerning retained User Content, licenses, intellectual property, disclaimers, liability limitations, indemnification, disputes, and governing law, will survive.

26. Public Records and Third-Party Information

The Site may obtain or verify information using:

• FAA databases;
• Other government records;
• Publicly available professional information;
• Publicly available business information;
• User submissions;
• Information provided by claimants;
• Information provided by profile subjects; and
• Other lawful sources.

Public-record and third-party information may be incomplete, delayed, outdated, duplicated, incorrect, subject to reporting limitations, or changed after we obtain it.

We do not guarantee that displayed certificate, rating, designation, affiliation, location, employment, disciplinary, currency, or other professional information is complete or current.

Information on an unclaimed profile may be derived from user reports and may not have been confirmed by the profile subject.

You should independently verify credentials, authorizations, and current professional status through the FAA or another authoritative source before relying on them.

27. No Professional Relationship, Referral, or Endorsement

The Site is not:

• A flight school;
• A flight instructor;
• An Examiner;
• An aviation employer;
• A placement agency;
• A broker;
• A professional credentialing service;
• A safety-certification body; or
• A provider of legal, aviation, educational, or professional advice.

We do not employ, supervise, control, or represent a listed person or organization merely because that subject appears on the Site or claims a profile.

We do not:

• Conduct flight instruction;
• Conduct practical tests;
• Arrange or guarantee training;
• Guarantee Examiner availability;
• Verify certificate currency;
• Verify medical eligibility;
• Verify recent flight experience;
• Inspect aircraft;
• Verify insurance;
• Verify a school's operational authority;
• Evaluate every subject's competence;
• Investigate every safety record; or
• Guarantee compliance with aviation regulations.

Listing, claiming, verifying, rating, or reviewing a profile does not constitute our endorsement, recommendation, certification, referral, safety determination, warranty of competence, or representation that the subject is qualified, current, insured, available, or legally authorized to provide a service.

Use of the Site does not create an instructor-student, examiner-applicant, agency, employment, partnership, joint-venture, fiduciary, or professional relationship between you and Smiths Group.

You remain responsible for evaluating and selecting aviation professionals and services.

28. Intellectual Property Rights in the Site

Except for User Content, government information, and third-party materials, the Site and its software, design, branding, text, graphics, logos, interfaces, databases, compilations, rating methodologies, statistical presentations, page layouts, and other materials are owned by or licensed to Smiths Group, LLC and are protected by intellectual-property and other laws.

Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, personal, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to access and use the Site for lawful, noncommercial purposes.

You may not copy, reproduce, republish, distribute, sell, license, modify, create derivative works from, publicly display, publicly perform, scrape, download, store, transmit, or commercially exploit Site materials except through a feature we expressly provide, with our prior written permission, or to the extent applicable law prohibits the restriction.

No rights are granted by implication.

"RateMyCFI," "RateMyDPE," associated logos, and related branding may be trademarks of Smiths Group, LLC. Other names and marks belong to their respective owners.

29. Copyright and DMCA Notices

We respect intellectual-property rights and expect users to do the same.

A copyright owner or authorized agent who believes material on the Site infringes a copyright may send a written notice to our designated DMCA agent.

The notice must include:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the allegedly infringed right;
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed or, when multiple works are involved, a representative list;
3. Identification of the allegedly infringing material and information reasonably sufficient for us to locate it;
4. The complaining party's name, mailing address, telephone number, and email address;
5. A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
6. A statement, made under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that the complaining party is the copyright owner or authorized to act on the owner's behalf.

Notices must be sent to the designated agent listed in Section 36 with the subject line DMCA Notice.

We may remove or disable access to allegedly infringing material, notify the user who submitted it, request additional information, restore material following an effective counter-notification when legally appropriate, and terminate repeat infringers in appropriate circumstances.

Knowingly making a material misrepresentation in a notice or counter-notice may result in legal liability.

30. DMCA Counter-Notifications

A user who believes material was removed or disabled because of mistake or misidentification may submit a written counter-notification containing:

1. The user's physical or electronic signature;
2. Identification of the material removed or disabled and the location where it appeared before removal;
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the user has a good-faith belief the material was removed or disabled because of mistake or misidentification;
4. The user's name, mailing address, and telephone number;
5. A statement consenting to the jurisdiction of the United States District Court for the federal district in which the user's address is located, or, if the user is outside the United States, the judicial district in which Smiths Group may be found; and
6. A statement that the user will accept service of process from the person who submitted the original infringement notice or that person's agent.

Counter-notifications must be sent to the designated agent listed in Section 36 with the subject line DMCA Counter-Notice.

After receiving a valid counter-notification, we may provide it to the original complaining party.

Unless the original complaining party notifies us within the legally applicable period that it has filed a court action seeking to restrain the user from engaging in the allegedly infringing activity, we may restore the material as permitted by law.

31. Advertising and Third-Party Services

The Site may display:

• Advertisements;
• Sponsored content;
• Sponsored placements;
• Affiliate content;
• Third-party links;
• Embedded services; and
• Integrations with third-party providers.

Advertising or sponsored content will be identified as required by applicable law.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, we do not endorse, control, guarantee, or assume responsibility for third-party products, services, websites, content, representations, security, privacy practices, or business conduct.

Your interactions or transactions with third parties are solely between you and the third party.

The presence of advertising on or near a profile does not indicate that the advertiser is affiliated with or endorsed by the profile subject.

32. Donations

The Site is free to use. There is no charge to browse the Site, create an account, submit a review or checkride report, request a profile, claim a profile, reply to a review, or be listed.

The Site may offer users the option to make a voluntary donation toward hosting, data, and development costs. Donations are processed by Stripe, Inc. When you donate, you leave the Site and complete the transaction on Stripe's own checkout page, subject to Stripe's terms and privacy policy. We do not receive, handle, or store your payment card details.

A donation is voluntary and is not a purchase. A donation does not entitle you to any product, service, feature, access, or benefit on the Site, and does not create any contractual obligation on our part to provide, maintain, or continue the Site or any part of it.

A donation confers no rights, standing, or influence over content or moderation. Without limitation, a donation does not:

• Cause any review, rating, comment, or checkride report to be removed, edited, hidden, softened, or reweighted;
• Increase, protect, or otherwise affect any rating, pass rate, statistic, or confidence label;
• Affect the ranking, prominence, or placement of any profile in search results or directory listings;
• Cause any profile to be marked as claimed, verified, or endorsed;
• Grant any advantage in a dispute, report, correction request, or removal request; or
• Create any relationship, membership, subscription to content, sponsorship, or endorsement between you and Smiths Group, LLC beyond the donation itself.

Attempting to condition a donation on any of the outcomes listed above, or representing to any person that a donation can produce such an outcome, is prohibited and is treated as review manipulation under Section 14.

Donations are not tax deductible. Smiths Group, LLC is a limited liability company and is not a tax-exempt charitable organization. No receipt issued for a donation is a charitable contribution receipt, and nothing on the Site should be relied upon as tax advice.

Donations are generally non-refundable. We may, at our sole discretion, refund a donation, including where it appears to have been made in error, by a person lacking authority to use the payment method, or by a minor. Requests should be sent to contact@ratemycfis.com.

Where recurring monthly donations are offered, the donation recurs until cancelled. You may cancel at any time by emailing contact@ratemycfis.com. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the period already paid for, and amounts already donated are not prorated or returned except at our discretion.

You represent that you are the authorized holder of the payment method used, that you are of legal age to use it, and that the funds are lawfully yours to give. We may decline, reverse, or refund any donation, and may decline to accept donations from any person or in any amount, at our sole discretion.

We may add, change, suspend, or discontinue donations, donation amounts, payment processors, or recurring donation options at any time.

33. Disclaimers

34. Limitation of Liability

35. Indemnification

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless Smiths Group, LLC and its affiliates, owners, members, officers, directors, employees, contractors, agents, licensors, and service providers from and against claims, demands, actions, investigations, liabilities, damages, judgments, settlements, losses, costs, and expenses, including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of or relating to:

• Your access to or use of the Site;
• Your User Content;
• A review or report you submitted;
• A profile you requested or claimed;
• A reply you posted;
• Your breach of these Terms;
• Your violation of applicable law;
• Your infringement or violation of a third party's rights;
• A defamation, privacy, publicity, copyright, or other claim arising from your User Content;
• Review manipulation or impersonation by you; or
• Fraudulent or unauthorized conduct through your account.

We may assume exclusive control of the defense of a matter subject to indemnification. You agree to cooperate reasonably with that defense.

You may not settle a claim in a manner that imposes liability, an admission, or an obligation on an indemnified party without our prior written consent.

36. Contact Information and Designated DMCA Agent

General questions, content reports, and profile disputes may be directed to:

Our designated agent for notices under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is:

The designated-agent information published in this section should match the information registered with the United States Copyright Office.

37. Governing Law and Venue

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site are governed by the laws of the State of Arizona, without regard to conflict-of-laws principles.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, any legal action or proceeding arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Site must be brought exclusively in:

• The state courts located in Maricopa County, Arizona; or
• The United States District Court for the District of Arizona.

You consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

Nothing in this section prevents either party from seeking appropriate relief in another court when necessary to enforce a judgment, respond to legal process, protect intellectual-property rights, or address an imminent safety or security threat.

Nothing in these Terms limits rights or remedies that cannot lawfully be waived under applicable consumer-protection law.

38. Changes to the Site

We may modify, add, remove, suspend, discontinue, or restrict any portion of the Site at any time, with or without notice.

This may include changes to features, profile categories, review criteria, rating formulas, statistical methods, verification procedures, eligibility requirements, advertising, availability, or supported services.

We are not liable solely because a feature or portion of the Site is changed or unavailable.

39. Changes to These Terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. When we make changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date.

For material changes, we may provide notice through the Site, email, an account notification, or another reasonable method before or when the revised Terms take effect.

The revised Terms will identify their effective date.

Your continued use of the Site after revised Terms become effective constitutes acceptance of the revised Terms, except where applicable law requires another form of consent.

If you do not agree to revised Terms, you must stop using the Site.

40. Severability

If any provision of these Terms is held invalid, illegal, or unenforceable, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permitted by law or limited to the minimum extent necessary.

The remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

41. No Waiver

Our failure or delay in enforcing a provision of these Terms does not waive that provision or our right to enforce it later.

A waiver is effective only if made in writing by an authorized representative of Smiths Group.

42. Assignment

You may not assign, delegate, or transfer these Terms or any rights or obligations under them without our prior written consent.

We may assign or transfer these Terms in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization, sale of assets, financing, change of control, transfer to an affiliate, or operation of law.

43. No Third-Party Beneficiaries

Except as expressly stated in these Terms, these Terms do not create rights or remedies for any third party.

44. Headings

Section titles and headings are provided for convenience only and do not affect interpretation.

45. Entire Agreement

These Terms, our Privacy Policy, our published review standards, and any additional terms or policies expressly incorporated by reference constitute the entire agreement between you and Smiths Group concerning the Site.

They supersede prior or contemporaneous communications and agreements concerning the same subject matter.

If an additional policy conflicts with these Terms, these Terms control unless the additional policy expressly states otherwise.

46. Electronic Communications

You agree that we may provide notices and communications electronically, including by email, account notification, Site banner, posting on the Site, or another reasonable electronic method.

Electronic communications satisfy any legal requirement that a communication be in writing, to the extent permitted by law.

You are responsible for keeping your account email address current.

47. Interpretation

In these Terms:

• "Including" means "including without limitation";
• The singular includes the plural and vice versa where appropriate;
• References to laws include amendments and successor provisions; and
• A provision should not be interpreted against a party solely because that party drafted it.