Air Stang 7

I always considered myself to be a career CFI from the getgo. I really love teaching but with the recent changes in compensation at the regionals and not having to either hunt around for independent students or deal with flight schools lower pay and day to day operation, I made the difficult choice to go to a regional. I am wondering if anyone else has the same insight and mixed feelings?

jonnyjetprop

I think there's a market for high end GA instructors. The problem is that there are not many required and you have to be fully qualified to teach in some expensive aircraft.

There's one individual in S. Florida that claims he charges $1,000 a day and is booked quite heavily. Of course, he's mainly teaching in TBM, M series and others like that.

If I were to instruct full time, I'd pick a high end aircraft with a high demand and specialize in that plane. I'd be on the owners forums to get my name out into the marketplace. I'd really look into owning that aircraft type so I could say that I have 500-1,000 hrs in type. The worse thing you can do is to put yourself out into the marketplace and not really know the aircraft your teaching in.

With saying this, it's still a tough road to get your foot in the door and a different lifestyle that you may want to live. Most affluent folks have jobs and will want to fly on the weekends. That means you're working weekends. Forget steady income. You'll be working client to client. It takes fiscal discipline to work that way. You can reduce the risk by branching out into pilot mentoring and contract pilot work to supplement the instruction income.

The good news is that when the airlines start hiring, as they are now, CFI's get scarce and the differentiation between time builders and career CFI becomes apparent. I think the key is to live in an area of high demand, charge a premium for your premium services and deliver quality instruction. Don't be afraid of people who will pass you by because of your rates. Most high end instructors charge by the day, not by the hour. Consider working for one of the 10 day instrument course providers to get yourself started.

rickair7777

I think there's always a market, and that's especially true right now with high airline demand.

But when pilots hiring is slow, there will be more entry-level CFI's driving the market down, plus some higher-end types who got bumped out of their jet jobs. So expect it to be cyclical. Probably need some flexibility, willingness to fly 135 on the side or maybe non-aviation job or business for financial security.

Also as you probably know, you generally have to work when the customers need you to.

kingsnake2

If you are interested in a management track, Chief and Assistant Chief instructors are in high demand for Part 141 schools.

Air Stang 7

Thanks everyone for the replies. For now I've decided to go to a regional, see how it shakes out for at least a year and go from there. I like the idea of teaching and providing quality and customer service, especially as a completely independent CFI.
In regards to a management track, it wouldn't be my first choice but the QOL it offers and pay wouldn't be bad. The issue is now a lot of schools are operating under the mentality that the CFI's are there to just get in, get hours and get out which is true in most cases. It seems a lot of the headaches can come from some of the 18-25 year old CFI's (most are professional enough) but it still can make life difficult. Ultimately doing 135 with instructing on the side doesn't sound like a bad gig if the hours work out or even 121 (some airlines allow it). We'll see how 121 treats me. I wouldn't even mind just doing classroom instruction on occasion which is on the table at a few different places.

PotatoChip

Have you considered working towards getting into the training program at your airline?
There are lots of training dept jobs out there, and passionate instructors really make a difference. In that position you can very likely instruct part 61 on the side.

JamesNoBrakes

One way to ensure it is get into something like seaplanes or tailwheel/ski. Do whatever you have to do to get your own plane that you can provide instruction in, even if it's a cub. Keep continuity with those instructional skills. If you reach out and get involved in the GA community you might just find you have ever-increasing opportunities. I know more than one 121 pilot that are DPEs. There's a definite path here that one can take, not for everyone and it does take some cash to start up, but it can be done.

Air Stang 7

That's something I've wondered about. I'm just not that familiar with how that works and honestly the assumption I always had was that airline instructors were generally senior (maybe after 65 pilots still wanting to do something with it) So it's definitely something I'd like to look into.

rickair7777

It's common for airlines to use FO's as classroom instructors and possibly procedures trainer instructors (paper tiger, matrix, sim with motion off) or even full motion sim instructors. Having that background makes you an obvious candidate for sim instructor...some airlines use line pilots for that.

You can also be a line check airman without previous instructor experience at the airline.

Airline DPEs tend to be senior pilots with LCA and sim instructor experience.

PotatoChip

To add to the above, some airlines (FedEx, SWA, etc) higher people strictly as training department instructors.