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.
