No flight instructing

[AZaviator]

In seven months you could be an airline pilot. They even help you with financing.

According to their website, its as easy as this:

Gulfstream Training Academy
Accelerated Admission: Complete and sign the Application for Admission, check the box indicating Accelerated Admission Process and submit it along with the deposit of $975 which is non refundable.

 

[luvz2fli]

135 VFR mins are 500 total, 100 X-C of which 25 are at night. Those are the absolute minimum, and Alaska operators prefer some Alaska time as well.

Ya I've noticed every single Alaskan job always says time in Alaska required with it. Do you just have to find somebody who will let you fly with them as a 2 pilot operation in order to get time in Alaska for starting out?

 

[Big Toe]

My advice to you is to get some thicker skin. You asked the same question that gets flamed at least once every two weeks. This is not the place to say you don't want to CFI when 95 percent of the people on this board have paid their dues by CFI'ing. Hagland and Grant will hire low time guys, but you have to know somebody on the inside. They like to see 1000. I'm getting ready to finish my CFI and pay my dues on a part time basis. I would stay in school, finish the Bachelor's and be a CFI on the side. Like everybody has said it will make you a better pilot. I have found out during my CFI training how much I did not know. Good luck with what you choose.

Big Toe

 

[imacdog]

Ya I've noticed every single Alaskan job always says time in Alaska required with it. Do you just have to find somebody who will let you fly with them as a 2 pilot operation in order to get time in Alaska for starting out?

I have not worked in Alaska but have talked with several employers up there. They considered my time in the Pacific NW and BC as valuable for insurance requirements. I also got the impression from them that many, if not most, flight schools in Alaska do not require Alaska flight time. There are also some 135 operators that do not require Alaska time, so I am sure someone who meets the 135 requirements could find work there with a little effort.

 

[Tailwheelman]

Boris 159,

I too was not terribly excited about teaching...to be honest I really didn't think I would be all that good at it. But I gave it a shot and spent 3 and a half years doing it. The pay sucks and the hours are terrible but I wouldn't trade my time there for anything. I learned more about flying having to teach it than I ever did in a classroom or an airplane. Learning to teach and work with people of all ages, backgrounds, and personality types is a valuable lesson to take away from being a CFI and will prove very useful throughout the rest of your career. I wouldn't rule out teaching quite yet it will make you a better pilot and provide you a wealth of experience and more than a few entertaining stories as well. Just my 2 cents. Best of luck to ya whatever you decide to do.

 

[flyingnome]

I also agree with the CFI thing, I am currently teaching students and am carrying 16 primary students at that. I work 7 days a week just to make ends meet for my girlfriend and I, it is very difficult but I fly around 100 hours a month hoping ot move onto something much better soon. I have about a year and half under my belt of teaching and am sitting at 1200 total time right now.

I honestly believe that I have learned more about flying from the time I started my CFI and got my first few students than I learned from my Private through Commercial certificates. It is good expirience although the pay blows, I am excited to be making around 16,000 this year... ouch

 

[WhiteCloud]

After reading a few posts here I thought about my previous post and want to modify it a little. I suggest you suck it up and get the CFI and plan to teach a couple hundred hours or for only a few months. Anyone can do that. Do the best job you can at it for a short period of time. It'll be good for you and you won't be the guy that irritates all the former CFI's in the crew room by sounding (even if you don't mean it) like you are too good to do it. Hopefully you'll pick up a few students you like, learn something, and do the pipeline/banner thing, move on and everyone will be happy. It'll give you something to talk about down the road with your former CFI copilot on the 777 as you fly across the pond. Cmon....join the club.

 

[AA717driver]

If you don't want to CFI, bust your butt to try to find something else. I never got my CFI--never wanted to do it and didn't want to do a crappy job. I got lucky. (That's what it will take along with hard work. Why do you think 95% of the people around here DID do the CFI thing?)

Being a CFI isn't a required block to check on the way to being a good pilot. You just have to learn from YOUR mistakes rather than someone else's.

You will learn to network (instead of waiting 5 years THEN coming here to ask people how to break into corporate...) and you will become resourceful. You will wear out a couple of printers (printers, not print cartriges!) sending out resumes to jobs you don't have the time to get. But you will keep going for it. You may have to bum rides on charters to get to know people--but that opens doors. (Make sure you don't log the time illegally, lest you anger the FAR/AIM gods of FI. )

You'll have to do some crap job to get exposure at the airport and get in touch with the people who can help you out. You will probably have to work harder and get time slower than if you had your CFI. But it could work out better for you and separate you from the herd.

It is a harder road you are choosing but it can be done safely, legally and legitimately. Good luck.TC

 

[CaptainMark]

quit..get into porn..u can use my porn name HUGH JORGAN

 

[CapnVegetto]

Why are you so dead set against instructing? What's wrong with it? Believe it or not, it does make a difference. Some employers look at not having a CFI as trying to take a shortcut, or avoid paying your dues, even if it is totally not the case.

Instructing will teach you a lot, and it's 1 to 3 more ratings to put on your resume. It's not just the flying, it's the learing to work with people that make you better, along with actually teaching you how to command a cockpit. There are plenty of ways to not instruct and make it, but it will likely cost you more money, time, and seniority.

 

[RichardRambone]

Where do you work? Name and location if you don't mind. How exactly did you stumble upon this job?

SCT, where did you work? Location and luck seem to be a big thing these days.

I work in Kansas City. My dad owned a Piper Lance that he sold through my current company. Basically he called the woman who sold his plane for him and asked if she had anything for me, a recent graduate and current lifeguard if she had anything flying wise to do. The other guy in my position happened to be leaving soon. So I met them at a cars and planes open house, gave her my resume, and called them once a week until they finally gave me an interview. It was a combination of who my dad knew, and right place, right time. I was very lucky.

 

[Skyboy722]

I suggest you head straight to the local FBO and get a job working line service. Be the hardest working, nicest, most personable guy on the field, and opportunities will appear before your very eyes.

 

[Stealthh21]

BTW CFIing will make you a better pilot. You have to pay your dues someplace, no way to avoid it.

Ok, so I never flight instructed. So I guess i am not a better pilot? I have met CFIs that I would never put my family in an airplane with. They had the ticket, and they wern't that good. I am sure that it helps, but I am not less qualified then you just because I don't have the CFIs. I paid my dues doing Aerial Photo. back when i started, I had some really good instructors who had no intrest in going to the airlines, or doing anything else but instructing in their aviation carrers. I didn't have to learn around their PFT gigs, or the right seat flights in King Air 90s. I do hope to get my CFI sometime though. Just to have it. But not having it hasn't made me any less of a pilot.

Thanks for your opinion.

Stealthh21

 

[Hadhafang]

I have not worked in Alaska but have talked with several employers up there. They considered my time in the Pacific NW and BC as valuable for insurance requirements.

Does know of any good sources for finding Alaska operators? My goal is fly the bush there. I know that Alaska time (along with Pacific NW time) is important, so I am looking for some operators or flight schools. I have about 615TT and only 12 multi.

Also, responding to the original post: I don't think that flight instructing is for everyone. I am a CFII and have been instructing for over a year. It is a tremendously rewarding job in so many ways. The coolest thing is sending that student solo for his first time. (Sure, the first person you sign off is a little exciting for the instructor too.) However, CFI-ing requires that you be able to TEACH other people, not just TELL them what to do. This guy is being honest. He says that he doesn't want to instruct, and seriously, if he is not into it what kind of quality instruction would a student be receiving? You can build hours without becoming a CFI, it just might require a little more work and determination. Those aren't necessarily bad things.

 

[pilotyip]

Stealt21, being a little defensive are we? Of course there are many things that will make you a better pilot, CFIing is just one of them. I happen to think that CFIing will develop more skills than banner towing at MYR. I learned a lot at 125 hours TT by landing on an aircraft carrier by myself. I did not start CFIing until I had over 5000 hours; I learned a lot when I started instructing. We all develop skills from different jobs; each one brings a different skill.