Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
Nah, that's a bit too much unless they justify it somehow. Justification might take the form of, it is a rich neighborhood, cost of living is high there, and/or the person has a great reputation for teaching in the area or they are the only one around with an exotic airplane you plan to buy, or they operate out of a club that has lots of perks associated with it such as sims, grounds schools, and/or a new fleet. Normal rates vary per region but $25-$50 an hour is the normal range I would expect to pay and there is no difference between FAA certificates. People really get raked over by these schools that have all new aircraft, some of the rental rates are insane and I guess they tack on high instructor rates to make you think they have something better when they really do not. Shop around. I would not pay over $100 an hour wet for a trainer even now and for a full time instructor, $35-$45 an hour.
He is very professional, does a good job, and has a good reputation. However, since he is a career flight instructor he has seemingly lost passion for what he does after 20 years and it shows sometimes; a few of our lessons have been cut and dry (show up, do the lesson, don't talk about anything else, lesson over, pay me, bye).
Overall, I am not seeing this premium service I am paying for and have decided I will not be using him for the instrument training. Maybe I'll note a difference in quality when I switch to a $30/hour guy and I'll try to remember to post back in this thread then.
One observation that made me start questioning myself was when I ran into other instructors around the airport. They had careers in other fields and being a flight instructor was "just something I do on the side for fun". They were a lot more enthusiastic about flying than my instructor and 2 of them freely offered very helpful resources for student pilots. I said to myself that I'd like to be flying with those guys!
Thanks for the input.