Whats a CFI worth?

[bigr]

Interesting article...should provoke some discussion.


http://avweb.com/news/columns/186269-1.html

 

[doog]

Problem is, you also have to pay for the aircraft. So if your ratty old 172 is $80 an hour, and your instructor is $40, thats $120 an hour. The Toureg mechanic is $105 an hour, and presumably you only need his services rarely. If your working on a rating, you need your instructor a lot, and those $120 hour days add up quickly. Drive up the cost as this author suggests, drive away customers, its that simple.

The problem is not that people aren't paying enough for instruction, the problem is often CFI's are willing to sacrifice too much of their wages to the FBO. If your charging $40 an hour, but the flight school you teach takes 50%, then your not making much. If you can take the whole amount home your not doing so bad. If the flight school makes its money from renting the airplanes, and the CFI's make their money teaching, everyone is better off. Works pretty well for flight clubs, no?

 

[cougar6903]

Problem is, you also have to pay for the aircraft. So if your ratty old 172 is $80 an hour, and your instructor is $40, thats $120 an hour. The Toureg mechanic is $105 an hour, and presumably you only need his services rarely. If your working on a rating, you need your instructor a lot, and those $120 hour days add up quickly. Drive up the cost as this author suggests, drive away customers, its that simple.

The problem is not that people aren't paying enough for instruction, the problem is often CFI's are willing to sacrifice too much of their wages to the FBO. If your charging $40 an hour, but the flight school you teach takes 50%, then your not making much. If you can take the whole amount home your not doing so bad. If the flight school makes its money from renting the airplanes, and the CFI's make their money teaching, everyone is better off. Works pretty well for flight clubs, no?

Are flight clubs run to make a profit?

 

[sky37d]

well, the analogy is flawed. You are going to take the new SUV to the shop to have the plugs changed every 100K miles. The Mech is going to charge 105?? Around here, shops charge closer to 60-70. In my wife's car, a Mini, we change the oil 1x year. It'll be years before we change the plugs. Not so with planes.

When I was learning instruments, I paid my instructor 40 hr, clock hour, from the time he showed up to the time he left. I paid the plane costs. I thought it was a fair rate. I was paying him the same rate when we stopped for dinner, or lunch, because I was buying his time. We would use that time for talking about what we had done to that point.

Flight schools should pay instructors more. More of what they charge students.

 

[labbats]

Yes. Yes they should.

And if everyone in the world stayed to themselves and didn't physically touch anyone for 3 days the common cold would die off forever. But that's not reality is it?

 

[labbats]

I see that doog posted that CFIs make too little. I also see that he is currently attaining ratings. Tell me how you went about finding your school/instructor. Did price play a part?

I'm not trying to pick on doog in particular. I know that when I searched for whom to fly with, price was VERY much a factor. And that is what chases the dollar down the toilet. Learning to fly is not a cheap goal, and even with the low rates we currently have, it still lets in a very small margin of the world as possible students. Raising prices to over $150 an hour for a wet C172 with instructor is only going to diminish what we have.

But maybe we'll make it the croquet or polo type of elite sport to weed out anyone resembling the common man. I sure hope not.

 

[EatSleepFly]

If your charging $40 an hour, but the flight school you teach takes 50%, then your not making much. If you can take the whole amount home your not doing so bad.

Yeah, that would be fantastic. Theres just one problem- go ask the boss to give you more of what they charge, and he'll say "put up or shut up." My old boss used to say it alllll the time. "I've got a stack of resumes 2 inches thick on my desk- if you don't want to work for this, then take a hike and I'll find someone who will." Its a lose-lose situation working as a CFI for an FBO. They could theoretically pay you more, but they don't need to because they can easily replace you.

 

[Flying Illini]

Q: Whats a CFI worth?
A: Whatever the cheapest CFI will work for.

kind of like a herd is only as fast as it's slowest member.

 

[sky37d]

Oh, this reminds me to much of a boss I had. He gathered all the supervisors in a room, me included, and said, "I can fire you all today, and replace you with someone cheaper better". Notice that cheaper came before better.

As long as CFI's are a dime a dozen, that's what they will make. As long as one CFI will work for a dime, that's what they all will make. When I was learning to fly, not that many years ago, price was a factor. So was equipment. I paid less to learn to fly at RMY, flying a Maule, than I did at AZO flying a 152.

 

[surfnole]

Tell me how you went about finding your school/instructor. Did price play a part?

It plays only a part. I paid extra for my instrument instruction because my instructor was a career instructor, not some guy with 500 hours trying to build ratings. I perceived a better value.

Most hobbyists are willing to pay extra for good instruction. They are used to paying golf pros, tennis pros, music teachers, personal trainers etc for more than the 30 bucks an hour a CFI charges.