Originally Posted by
Ultralight
Below the $32,000 a year CFI gig, there was a king air captain position, air ambulance for $72,000 a year plus benefits. How about instructing year 1 for $32,000, Amflight year 2 for similar pay, weekends off, turbine PIC and CASS, take the King Air gig for a couple of years STARTING pay $72,000 with 7 days on, 7 off, then apply to the majors. Compare that to a typical first 5 years at a regional.
ATP flight school don't advertise this option on their web site though do they?
I'm not trying to undermine your post but I have spoken with pilots who have tried to do just that and ended up eventually succumbing to the regionals. Like others have said I'm sure its been done before but it doesn't seem very common or most would probably be exploring that route. I would rather go ahead and try to get an interview with a regional with the hopes of having more time off and the option to commute if absolutely necessary. I've worked like a dog instructing and would rather not have to do it for 20 years to maybe skip the regionals.
As far as CFIing goes, I've been doing it for 3 years and have 2000 hours and am 2 hours shy of ATP xc mins. It's a good vehicle to get to where you need to be and save some coin along the way if you're doing it right. Besides the school where I got most of my ratings, I have run across very few career instructors. Most of them are free lance if I had to guess.
I used to complain about the regionals and the dismal pay but the reality is once you get past the first couple of years the pay seems to be decent.