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Instructing while in college

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NTXPilot

Not Great...?!
Joined
Dec 19, 2003
Posts
111
I'm starting grad school this summer, but I'm considering postponing until fall and finish my flight training in the summer. For those that instructed while in college how many hours of school did you take vs. hours working as an instructor. How hard is it to find a part time instructor position? Do you have to spend a lot of time just sitting at the school waiting for potential students to walk through the door? I'm just trying to gauge a realistic number of hours spent working/sitting at the flight school vs. flying hours vs. how many hours of classes at college.

Thanks,
NTx
 
NTXPilot said:
I'm starting grad school this summer, but I'm considering postponing until fall and finish my flight training in the summer. For those that instructed while in college how many hours of school did you take vs. hours working as an instructor. How hard is it to find a part time instructor position? Do you have to spend a lot of time just sitting at the school waiting for potential students to walk through the door? I'm just trying to gauge a realistic number of hours spent working/sitting at the flight school vs. flying hours vs. how many hours of classes at college.

Thanks,
NTx

Im an undergrad and have been CFI'ing since my 2nd year. I've been taking between 15-18 credits a semester and have been making out ok with a pretty hard major (Math). I only work weekends and average about 10 hours a week.I got very lucky and found a mid sized school that needed some extra help on the weekends (anout 50% of the students can only fly on weekends). They have a strong relationship with the airplane owners on the field and we do most of the BFR's, IPC's, tailwheel checkouts, etc. The school has a office manager who handels all scheduling so the CFI's have no other duties besides instructing. You didnt say what you'll be studying or where your located but if you find a school thats willing to work with you, its possible.
 
I'm in the Dallas area so there's plenty of schools around. Getting the MBA so I anticipate it to be rather time consuming. Around 10 hours a week would be perfect. Thanks for the info.
 
Also been instructing since second year as an undergrad aviation admin major. Have taken 18 hours/semester working around 10 hours/week at same school that I'm attending. Best of luck to you.
 
My last two years at SJSU I instructed full time while taking 15 plus units per semester. Many of those semesters I was able to schedule classes on only three days per week, during one semester I only had classes on Tuesday and Thursday. Mind you it was all day Tuesday and Thursday, from 0800 to 2200, but hey, I had four days off in a row over the weekend to instruct. In those last two years I flew over 1100 hours.

TP
 
Multiple Jobs

It's a good idea to get use to working several jobs at a time if you intend to be a pilot. I would go to school and work as a CFI.

SkyLIne
 
I was a poli-sci major and was part-time FBO line boy and part-time FBO CFI along with part-time "I need ferry pilot" pilot at the local airport my senior year in college. When I got my BA degree, I had about 800 TT and was still 22 years old when I got my first 135 job.

BUT:

Grades suffered, broke up with my "I am gonna marry this one" girlfriend, amongst other things. Oh yeah, got burned out on flying also.

Whether the price to pay is worth it is up to you
 
Ill pretty much mimic these guys. Instructed for the school I graduated from eventually.... About a dozen students or so....some more religious at flying than others....Id say i had about eight that were dedicated. Took 15-18 credits....usually 12-15 during the fall/spring semesters and 3 or so credits during the summer so I could get out in four. Grades were.......okay..... graduated right around 3.0 and was doing contract pilot work on the side while instructing and finishing up school. Something had to suffer and I love to fly so..... You guessed it.
 
My story mirrors stratman560's. My usual class load was 18-20 credit hours while carrying 6-8 students my senior year. Grades were definetly affected my senior year but my overall GPA was 3.0. Definetly have to be good at handling a busy schedule. Made me realize the value of my pocket calendar/schedular.
 
NTXPilot said:
I'm starting grad school this summer, but I'm considering postponing until fall and finish my flight training in the summer. For those that instructed while in college how many hours of school did you take vs. hours working as an instructor. How hard is it to find a part time instructor position? Do you have to spend a lot of time just sitting at the school waiting for potential students to walk through the door? I'm just trying to gauge a realistic number of hours spent working/sitting at the flight school vs. flying hours vs. how many hours of classes at college.

Thanks,
NTx

I was flight instructing during my last semester at UT Arlington. I was taking 18 hours and sitting at the flight school 7 days per week for 8+ hours per day with the standard no-pay-unless-I-fly. After sitting with nothing for the first 6 weeks, I was able to muster somewhat of a student base. With that and some charity from the other instructors, I averaged 35-40 hours per month. It was cool, though, because I used all that extra sitting time to study. Worked out perfectly for me, as I got on with an uber-busy college/flight school after I graduated in August. It was a great experience...really it was.
 
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