Originally Posted by
SkylineAviation
With that said, I only spent a few thousand or so if I remember right on my CFI and CFII years ago, so it's not like you saving all that much in the scheme of things. And if in fact you do bypass your CFI for a place like Great Lakes, you can't even come close to supporting yourself on $16.24...your gross on 75 hours is only $1218 plus say you are away from base getting per diem for 300 hours, that's another $405. Assuming you keep all $405 by packing food your take home is still $1623. Take away taxes and/or medical benefits, good luck getting an apartment, eating, and paying electric let alone paying back any student loans.
You can do much better for yourself by still getting the CFI making at a minimum $25/hour and not getting abused nearly as much by scheduling at a place like Great Lakes.
I'm not arguing with your point or opinion but what they're doing at Great Lakes is a total scam.
Yea I guess you could budget for around $5,000 for your CFI, MEI, & CFII. The way things are going now you could make a lot more money instructing and could get over a thousand hours in a year if you put the effort in. $25,000 a year at $25 an hour, v's the roughly $20,000 Lakes would pay with per diem. The $5,000 difference would cover your CFI tickets. No 6 weeks without a paycheck during training, and no training contract either.
I'm not sure what would look more competitive on a resume. 1,000 hours part 135 turbine SIC v's 1,000 instructing, but I guess once you meet ATP mins you could pretty much choose your regional regardless.