Aerosim Flight Academy
In an attempt to provide information to prospective CFI’s, I am going to lay out the good, the bad, and the ugly about working at Aerosim (Sanford base). My intent is not to bash Aerosim but to outline some of the problems I have noticed while working here. My goal is to be as open and honest as possible. Please keep in mind this is my personal opinion and is not necessarily representative of everyone’s experience at Aerosim.
The good:
1. Flight time: You will get a lot of flight time. I usually average about 75 hours per month. My best month was over 100 hours.
2. Lots of students: There is absolutely no shortage of students; foreign airlines (Chinese) keep sending plenty of students, which means a lot of work for you.
3. Pay: The paychecks are pretty nice (for a CFI). In a normal month I make approximately what a 2nd or 3rd year FO at the regionals makes.
4. ASAP program: If you and/or your student makes a mistake, you can file an ASAP report and your certificates will be protected. This is particularly beneficial if you teach the private course and have to solo students; you will have at least one student do something stupid or go off the side of a runway.
The bad:
1. International students: You will be tasked with teaching a Chinese student how to safely operate an aircraft. You will quickly learn that some of the students are not exactly the brightest crayons in the box and have never had to think for themselves before. They will struggle with making simple decisions, such as when to turn base/add flaps/etc. (even when they are beyond Private). Their English skills tend to be marginal at best (some are very good, others are terrible). They will lie to you if it benefits them; their culture encourages this if it allows them to “save face.” Most of the students are more concerned with getting their training done and going home than they are about learning to be a safe, competent pilot. If you don’t have A TON of patience, find a school with domestic students to instruct at.
2. Management: Some of the management staff is completely inept and does not stop to consider the consequences of the decisions they make. They run the place with a day-to-day mentality, and do not plan for the long-term. They will treat you like crap because they view you as completely replaceable. There will be no appreciation for your hard work or long hours, just questions about why you called fatigue or messed up paperwork. In the event that you do need to speak with a manager, they are usually nowhere to be found. If you do decide to work here, the best advice that I can provide is to fly under the radar: show up, do your job, and go home with as little contact with management as possible.
3. Morale: The morale amongst the instructors is extremely low. Don’t be surprised to see another instructor searching for jobs online while they are in the middle of a ground briefing or complaining on a daily basis about how much they hate working there. Most of the instructors are over-worked, under-appreciated, and generally sick of dealing with BS from students and management on a daily basis.
4. Weather: The weather in Florida can be irritating at times. In the summer you will cancel flights regularly for thunderstorms, in the winter you will cancel for fog, low ceilings, and high winds. There are relatively few days that the weather is good and clear all day long. The flight supervisors will encourage you to go fly in marginal or deteriorating conditions. If you decide to work here, remember that you are PIC and you have the final authority as to the cancellation of a flight.
5. Ground school: The students will attend ground school and take the FAA written test before they are assigned to an instructor. You will quickly discover that the ground school is a joke. The ground-school instructors basically make the students memorize the Gleim so they can pass the written, but don’t actually teach them anything of value. The students will memorize the answers for the written but have absolutely no idea what the answers mean. You will be responsible for teaching them everything they need to know to pass their EOC evaluation or FAA check ride.
The ugly:
1. Maintenance: You will develop a particular hatred for the maintenance department if you work at Aerosim. Some of it is the maintenance department’s fault and some of it is the fact that the fleet is getting old; there are some C172’s that have over 30,000 hours on the airframe. There are only a few mechanics that work there that actually take any pride in their work, the rest are lazy and do only the bare minimum amount of work. I have seen a mechanic pull a butt-connector off of two wires, twist the wires together and shove the exposed wires back up under the dash. I have seen them sign off a partial power loss in flight for return to service in less than 15 minutes (visually inspected engine, no defects noted, ok RTS). I have seen them placard a piece of equipment without disabling it. Many of the aircraft at Aerosim, in my opinion, are poorly maintained and questionably airworthy. Aerosim has also been having numerous engine issues with the Cirrus SR20’s. In the last 4 months, two of their Cirrus aircraft have been involved in an accident/incident related to an engine malfunction. One of them lost the engine on approach to landing and managed to land it just short of the runway with no injuries. The other crashed at the Lake Wales airport killing the student and seriously injuring the instructor. Do yourself a favor, work somewhere that takes pride in their aircraft and properly maintains them.
2. Scheduling: Get ready for some chronic fatigue…you will typically work at least a 12 hour duty day, sometimes up to 17 hours straight, 5-6 days per week. By the time you get around to your days off, you will want to do nothing but sleep. They will schedule you until midnight and try to have you come in at 0630 the following morning. You will not be scheduled a lunch or dinner break. They will schedule your students for the wrong lessons or in the wrong equipment. If you decide to work at Aerosim, learn to put your foot down and tell scheduling what you will and will not do, otherwise they will **** you over.
3. Self-examining authority: The self-examining authority that Aerosim has is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it is nice not having to wait for your student to be scheduled with a DPE or having to endorse them for a practical test. On the other hand, you will see students get ratings that they do not deserve. If a particular student is struggling in the course, their EOC/stage check will be scheduled with a manager who will pass them and just push them through. If every student there was required to take a 709 ride for the ratings that they held, I am convinced that only about half of them would pass. If they go home and crash a 737 and kill 150 people, it is a possibility that someone is going to show up knocking on your door asking questions because you were the one who trained them. Unfortunately, management continually pushes instructors to just pass the students and get them through at all costs.