Hi all,

Full time CFI/II here who will be hitting 1500 hours at the end of September. So far only 1 airline has offered me an interview but there is no set date for it and it's looking like class dates are 6 months out after getting a job offer anyway.

I don't mind instructing but I can not live off the low wages. I am a career changer and I am getting ready to go back to my old career until hiring picks back up.

My plan is to continue to fly maybe once a week to stay current. I don't have my MEI so I believe I will be getting that rating as well. Hopefully I can find a way to continue to do some freelance flight instructing.

Will my application be "weaker" since I'm no longer a full time CFI? Any other suggestions on how to move forward? I am pretty much 100% shooting to be an airline pilot.

Thank you.

 

The ability to make it in aviation largely depends on one's level of commitment.

If you haven't sent a thousand resumes and submitted a thousand applications, you haven't begun to search.

1,500 hours is just scratching the surface.

When I was instructing full time, I also worked a full-time job to help pay the bills, slept in my vehicle, and turned wrenches, too. You do what you must.

 

You think 1500 hrs will be competitive once "hiring picks up again"?

Yes, less total time, less recent flying, a tiny professional flying resume, all add up to "next in line please" for the recruiters.

If you're "100% shooting to be an airline pilot" then back it up - do whatever it takes to fly as much as you can, improve your resume so you can move up the career/resume improvement ladder when the opportunity strikes. You're ahead of almost every less than 1500 hrs pilot in the entire U.S. right now. If you switch to part time you'll be behind almost every single one of them. Nothing you're saying backs up "100%....be an airline pilot."

Way over at the "wow, you really were scrapping by" was the guy living in his car while CFI'ing and paying off his debt. Low income family background. FBO's would let him shower in the men's room early in the morning. So he'd sleep in his car in a sleeping bag, shower in the nice FBO, and then hang out at the airport building his flying resume. Back to his car at night.

Those are the guys that humble you when you talk with them - they were 100% in on pursuing their life goals. Not 'kinda' 100% in. He could only handle his debt with no rent...so his car was his home.

 

Have you looked into or considered a non-instructing job? You’ve put your time in instructing and gained some experience, time to build the resumé. Find something under Part 135 to gain experience in all weather operations and maybe get a type rating out of it. Sure, the pay is not going to be better than instructing, at least to start. However, you will be making your resumé better than the next applicant.

 

Baby steps.
Find a place where you can build multi engine time.

 

There's the old "failing to plan is planning to fail"
But this is actually planning to fail. Sorry to say - I'm sure things looked very different when you switched horses. That market is a historical aberrancy.

50 hours/year is better than zero, but I wouldn't call it staying current from an aviation hiring perspective.
Also, historically, full-time CFI itself was a weak application.

If you really want to go to the airlines, you have to find a way to fly full-time, hundreds of hours per year. And you need to be moving up to something bigger than a trainer.

Sorry

 

As others pointed out, and I have observed personally, this industry is cyclical and a "buy low' mentality will pay off in the long. Bank relevant experience by whatever means necessary (aside from crime or scabbing) and when the next hiring booms swings around you'll be well positioned.

With 1500-ish hours...

I'd SWAG that the regionals will prioritize these types of experience, in this order...

1. Professional turbine (91/135)
2. Professional piston (91/135)
3. MEI
4. CFI
5. Part time CFI
6. Private pilot recreational flying

Currency via recreational flying might be enough depending on competitiveness, but when things pick up they will initially be looking for the most diverse experience. But you would at least be current and eligible to apply.

I'd say part-time CFI would be better than $100 hamburger time.

It may not be practical to build times as an MEI, they tend to want 50-100 hours ME time for insurance, but if you get the rating that's another box to check (but I assume more debt too).

Also many regionals have cadet programs, my airline's regional is only hiring from that pool at this time I think.

 

This is how pilot gluts turn into shortages. Hiring waves create unreasonable career expectations and the pipeline overflows. Entry level wages get pushed down enough that only those willing to sleep in their cars can make it. 5 year 'flows' are about to turn into 10. 2 year upgrades at legacies are about to turn into 5, not too long after that cohort upgrades it will be 15 for new hires.

 

https://w3.ameriflight.com/pilots/?g...SAAEgIrT_D_BwE

How bad do you want it? Opportunities are out there if you want them, but with ULCCs in trouble and regional to major slowing down, you’ll need beaucoup de ME time - preferably ME turbine time - to be competitive even when things start to loosen up.

 

Don't be the entitled CFI that gets 1500 and expects all the opportunities to come to them

Keep flying, CFI, Survey, pipeline, part 135, theres plenty of jobs for 1500 pilots