I've not instructed full time in some time, though I try to fly with one person where I can. I'm selective about who I'll take. The student has to be willing to put up with me, and I won't fly with just anybody. The student must be willing to study and work hard, and must really want to fly.
I started chasing around the internet for no other reason than it served as a study aid...it gave me a media by which to motivate myself to study. People might ask a question on a student pilot board, for example, and not knowing the answer, I would have to lift a finger to find the answer. More interesting than picking up the AIM every night and reading a little. It also gave me a way to practice trying to put things into words that a student could understand. I found after a time that I was doing multiple boards that ranged from regulations to student pilot to pro pilot...and my study soloution had grown into it's own problem. Too much.
I dropped a number of the boards to concentrate on a few, and have whittled that down even more. But where one's schedule won't permit the amount of instructing one might like, the internet does provide a forum for going through the motions of instructing, of breaking things down to cater to students of vastly different backgrounds. It also provides a sounding board that quickly tells you if your material or presentation is wrong. If it's not well received, a different approach may be necessary. On boards such as this, your comments will be reviewed by all sorts of backgrounds...a level of oversight, if you will, that you won't get in the FBO or flight school. I think that's a plus.
I don't think there's any need to charge thousands of dollars for your time. I think that smacks of arrogance. I don't think you're talking anything away from other instructors. You're not going to be gobbling up students right, left, and center. We have always had a lack of experienced instructors and experienced pilots to pass on material to new pilots, at least instructors and pilots who don't think instructing is beneath them.
Years ago I was sitting in a corporate office. I was second fiddle on a corporate jet, and the Director of Maintenance for the flight department. I had a messy office full of paperwork stacked higher than mount everest, a hangar full of tools, and a constant stream of correspondence from CAMPS telling me what to do. I got a phone call from a gentleman in another state. He worked as a contractor with Walmart, taking pictures of their stores as part of a real-estate program. Apparently when they buy land for a new store, they purposely buy too much, and when it's done, they look it over from the air (where he came in) and sell off what they don't want. So he said.
He wanted to know if we had any small Cessnas to rent to do some aerial photography. I told him no, nothing like that around here. He asked if we could do the work ourselves and send him the pictures; he'd pay for the airplane, pay us a little for the work. This wasn't going to be a huge money making adventure. I didn't care. Anything to get out of the office. See daylight. Actually FLY for a change. Sure. I'll talk to the boss. The flght dept had a light airplane that belonged to some of our management...it would be perfect.
I knocked on the CP's door. Told him about it. I thought he'd think it would be fun. He looked disgusted. "I would like to think that with my experience and at this point in my career, I am above that sort of thing."
I was disgusted, and his atttitude to this day still sickens me. The absolute arrogance to believe he's above anything. Above instructing. Above taking pictures. Above flying in a light airplane. Good grief.
You want to fly with a student, you fly. Enjoy it. Let the student enjoy it. Enjoy the student enjoying it. This isn't a crime.
The biggest obstacle you'll face in todays overpriced and underinsured world is finding a FBO or school that will let you do independent instruction without either carrying a massive policy of your own, or finding a way onto the rental facilities policy. It's not like it used to be.
