Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
This is ridiculous and nearly as unethical as charging someone for something that didn't happen. The repercussions if this get ingrained into all who are involved and it ends up as shooting yourself in the foot, causing instructors to get paid less, working for free, expecting to not have to pay for things, and so on. I would never, ever, recommend this, just as I would never recommend charging someone for "lunch" when you fly out to someplace for it or charging for time without providing any benefit to the student. If you can't afford to be a pilot, don't be a pilot, or find some other way to do it, or take a longer time doing it. You need to have morals and stand for something. Offering "freebies" is not doing that.
I agree, and this is where the "undercut to get ahead" mentality starts. As an independent instructor I gave 1 30 min intro lesson free of charge, later I changed it to $15.00 to stop free-loaders. When I did ground, I billed by the hr up to 1.5 hrs, after that I billed. If the student was late often, I also started billing. However, I didn't treat it like a law practice, where the literally bill for mailing a letter. Know this, the golf and tennis instructors aren't giving it away for free.