Old 03-23-2019, 11:41 AM
  #31  
AeroAl
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Joined APC: Feb 2017
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Originally Posted by TiredSoul View Post
Why wouldn’t you like it?
Apart from working for a scumbag operator it’s about the teaching, working with other people, being able to motivate and critique without being overbearing.
Think back to the best instructor you’ve ever had and the worst.
Why were they the best or the worst?
Your commercial certificate allows you to work as a pilot.
How you fill this in is your prerogative.
In general every entry level job has its limitations and usefulness.

Let’s take banner towing as it’s the easiest to explain.
Banner towing is only good for Total Time. No cross country, no night, no IFR no approaches.
Stick and rudder skills maybe but I’ve never made a better aeronautical decision because I flew tailwheel.
So take a guess maybe 3-400 hrs and then it’s served it’s purpose and you need to start doing something else.

I’m not going to go though every job out there but let’s take a look at flight instruction;
Total Time, night, XC, IFR, approaches and Multi Engine time (CFI,CFII,MEI)
and......CRM skills.
At some point your pilot skills will plateau and you’ll just become an increasingly better instructor.
If you care about how you do your job that is. That point is probably around the 1000-1200 hr mark.
Now you just start doing more of the same without increasing the complexity or depth of what you do.

So back to your original question.
What will serve YOUR progression and skills as a pilot more?

Flight instruction.
It’s not about how fast you get there it’s how well you develop your skills and this is not the same pace for everybody.
Being mediocre before moving to your next step and only doing that long enough that you barely qualify for the next and you have to hang on by your fingernails and then....ad nauseum.
You’re not doing anybody any favors that way. Yourself included.

Used to know a guy chasing the dream.
Was a mediocre CFI, dinged an airplane with a student. Bailed on the flight school with no notice to chase a single engine turboprop job, got fired after three months ( he says he left though ) then he goes hopskipping through two Part 91 SIC jobs is now trotting around the airport as he “flies a Lear”.....

No you don’t. You have a SIC type and never been sent to formal training and you wouldn’t know wtf to do if the guy next to you keels over at FL450.

By now in the last 3 years he’s had 5(!) jobs. Don’t be that guy.
He just made himself ineligible for hire at most places. They’re just not going to take a dude like this serious.
Don’t be that guy.

Take flight instruction as a very rewarding entry level job that needs to be taken serious.
CFII, MEI, 141 Check instructor, assistant Chief Flight instructor, all achievable in the first year.

Now THAT is going to get you noticed for your second job.
Excelling there will get you noticed for your third job.

Excelling there will get you noticed for your 4th job.

And the majors are a complete lottery.
Meeting or exceeding the requirements are by no means a guarantee for anything. Multi thousand hour pilots with 3-4 type ratings can’t get the time of day.
I like the way you explained it with the reasons behind getting the CFI. It brings things into perspective a little better.

I’ve started looking at a few of the 30 Day CFI academy programs and I think I’ll just do one of those and find an instructing job afterwards.
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