Originally Posted by tripodd

I spent some time in Florida at a pilot mill, their pay rates for CFIs have stayed the same for 5 years at least. But, I still earned a pretty good amount as a CFI kind of because I didn’t take any days off; 12 hour days were the norm for me. I became a check airman at the school pretty fast so $$ was good.

State: Florida
Average hours flown: 120+ hours/month
Hourly rate: $25/hr as a regular flight instructor for flight and ground. $35/hr when I was performing a stage check for flight and ground.
Monthly salary approx: $4500-6500 (Didn’t work for an entire year but probably would have made ~$60,000-80,000 if I had)
Type of operation: Technically part 141 but functioned more like a 61 school. It was a pilot mill with mostly international students. The place had a highly toxic work culture because of the owner.

The numbers might seem tgtbt but it is can be done. It will be at the cost of QOL and your social life. Having said all this, I wasn’t milking my students. I was a pretty good instructor. I NEVER instructed in a way which would have negatively affected my students. I absolutely hated working at that flight school but that didn’t mean I had to treat my students like sh*t. They way I saw it, the more I worked, the sooner I got out of there.