Full time CFI

[Foobar]

Holy backup plan batman. Yeah, I'll have a Master's degree in Engineering so I've got a backup plan.

I tell people its easy to find any job as a pilot, but finding a good one, thats not so easy.

I'm not going to training for free, I think Northwest Airlink has that deal going, and I'm not paying anybody any money for a job. If they start out treating you like crap, its not likely to improve later on.

All that said, it seems like a 50/50 chance that I'll find a job at Comair or some place like that with an actual retirement system and an actual paycheck while you are in training.

So this probably belongs in the regional section, but which regionals pay you while in training?

 

[Iceman21]

I am about to pass on a full time CFI job. It sucks, but the bills have to be paid. I started instructing in June of this year and I have brought home about 1200.00 since then.

That 13.00 an hour job looks really good right now, even though it's not what I would rather be doing.

Family first.

 

[bobbysamd]

You-know-what

[A]nd I'm not paying anybody any money for a job. If they start out treating you like crap, its not likely to improve later on.

Finally, someone else gets it about you-know-what.

Good luck with your efforts.

 

[slide33]

What's a CFI make?

What are you full time CFIers out there making a year?

I understand that a lot goes into that figure - student load, what you/the school charge, etc. Give me a worst/best case idea.

I too am in the process of spending the money I make from my 40k+ a year job to get my CFI rating - and then leaving that job/$ to CFI full time.

I just want to know exactly how much of my stuff I'll have to sell. Anybody know what you can get for a previously owned wife. Low mileage!

 

[Foobar]

Of course it depends but in the Florida / Georgia / Alabama / Mississippi area you can count on abour $12,000.00 a year.

Yep, thats right, about $1000.00 a month. Its fun but you can't make a living at it.

If you are in a large urban area and can make it on your own as a freelance CFI then you might make out ok, but at Joe Blow's FBO you'll make about $18.00 / hour for flight and ground instruction. You'll fly about 60 hours a month.

Still want to join in?

 

[Timebuilder]

I made about $17,000 for a year of instruction, which included less than a thousand for teaching an instrument ground school at the local college.

If you have an established life as an adult, your own aircraft, and enough students to keep you busy every day, you can charge $40 an hour for instruction plus the rental for the plane and make more than I did, but from a business standpoint this means that you have made a very large investment in your CFI job (airplane, marketing, insurance) than you would as an FBO employee.

I know a guy that fits into the "professional, stand alone, own aircraft" category. He does very well, and charges a premium price for his services. You and I probably would be a few years away from that experience, at best.

 

[labbats]

When you work a desk job, you get paid from the time you clock in until you leave. When you CFI, you get paid when the prop turns. That's a LOT of downtime when you are sitting there making no money. So don't think of a CFI making $12 or $15 an hour, but more like 1/3 or 1/4 of that.

I work 6 days a week and take home about $600-$900 a month.

 

[bobbysamd]

CFI pay - circa 1990

In 1988, I (gladly) took about a $6K pay cut to leave broadcasting to instruct at ERAU. It took me a while to figure out scheduling and how to scare up airplanes for my students. At that point I was earning about $17K per year. The next fall, I got a bunch of multi and CFI students, which kept me busy. So, after being out of broadcasting for less than a year I was earning more than I did in 19 years of radio (which doesn't say much for that business). Also, there was a bonus system, in which you received extra pay if you had more than one-thousand hours of contact time that year. I don't remember the details of the scheme, except that it was very fair and generous. I was upgraded to Stage Check Pilot, which brought with it a salary of $25K. That salary was competitive with commuter captain pay of the day, and more than I ever made in broadcasting. I was later downgraded, went back to hourly, and suffered a $3K best-case pay cut. I say best-case because it could have been worse if I had little work.

I went to FlightSafety in 1991 and was making $12.50 per contact hour. It finally worked out to about $22K a year, which was less than what I was promised. There was health and a 401-K, but no employer contributions to the 401-K. At Mesa I was paid $15.00 per hour. I was making good money when I first began, but I was working far more than I should have. At the end of the term, I had no work and the well dried up. I could not take a break or leave town, which was unacceptable to me. I also was paid by San Juan College to teach ground school.

In my last job, at Arnautical, I was paid $18K. I was briefly boosted to $23K. No benies, health, or anything from that toilet.

Finally, there were even better-paying jobs at the foreign airline flight schools. At one time, new instructors at the Lufthansa school, ATCA in Goodyear, Arizona, started at $31K, with top of scale at $50K. When I interviewed, the place started new instructors at less than $31K. I turned down an offer because I refused to go to work for "B" scale wages. I had a friend who had started only a few weeks before on the "A" scale.

IASCO in Napa, California, started instructors at about $34K. Top of scale was something like $60K!! Can you believe $60K for instructing, in state-of-the-art facilities on terrific equipment? Highly formidable company and environment, though, and high cost of living in Northern California.

ERAU was the best aviation job I had, in overall terms of pay, benefits, and environment. Each job I had after Riddle was worse, for various reasons.

Once more, all these numbers are in late '80s-early '90s dollars.