Niner

I interviewed with them about three months ago. Pretty much the same as others have said. Short presentation (doesn't have to be aviation related) followed by a couple of hr questions. I think there were a total of 5 people in the interview. The hr lady and a bunch of program managers. They only asked a couple of hr type questions. Tell me about a time type stuff. I think the whole interview was done in less than 30 minutes and that included my presentation and a couple questions about it once it was over.

fjetter

Does anyone on here currently teach at any of the FSI centers (not the academy in VRB)? How do you like it from a pay & QOL standpoint? Do they let you do outside contract flying? Just curious as teaching at one of the sim centers might be something I'm interested in doing in the future. I really enjoyed my time as a CFI before but left to break into 135/corporate flying. Thought something like that would be up my alley and allow for a more 'normal' homelife once I have a family.

Cubdriver

I looked into QOL heavily when I was offered the job there, and I came to these conclusions. I knew a lot of Wichita FSI instructors over the last 5 years and did a lot of research.

• Some jobs are only part time and you may have to find supplementary work. That could be a deal breaker as there is not much else right now part time to do in Wichita in terms of flying or teaching gigs in Wichita. You might end up working at Home Dept.
• From having known lots of sim operators and their reasons for working there, almost none were because it is so much fun operating a sim. They give loss of medical and need to be at home for kids as the main reasons for working there.
• FSI personnel are generally not allowed to flight instruct outside of FSI. Obviously this has to be overlooked for the part time operators, but if you go full time expect them to crack down on your moonlighting quite seriously. You can still fly for fun though. Having said that, I did meet a few senior FSI instructors who managed to do Part 61 checkrides on the side, and one even instructed in a LearJet. How they did that I am not sure, but anyone will tell you FSI asks its people not to moonlight and will fire anyone that they do not agree can do so.
• Upward mobility within the company is highly dependent on their needs, so if you think you are going to get to a Citation sim in 6 months think again. You might but not likely.
• Long term operators do seem to enjoy working there, but none I ever talked to said they would rather do that than fly an airplane.
• If you do get cabin fever working at FSI after some time and want to jump ship, it is an EXCELLENT networking tool. Best ever. I am not sure how easy it is to come back once you jump ship. My guess is they are fairly liberal about it, but I would ask before to make sure.
• The money is not so great for the low end sims, but it is negotiable to some extent. Operators working the high end sims make pretty good money. FSI knows what it has to pay to retain talent.

Hope this helps.

fjetter

Cub,

Thanks for the response. A lot of good info in there I hadn't thought about. Like I said the primary reason I might look into something like that would be ability to be home more often for a family (still single and kicking!). A lot of instructors I've had at FSI/CAE have been like you said loss of medical or part-time with contract flying work (usually non-instruction) on the side. There are also quite a few that are just weathering out the boss selling the plane, furlough, etc.

Anyways since this thread was open I figured I'd ask for other opinions.

WarrenWallace

Does anyone know if you get to the presentation part that you are heavily considered for the position to they more like other companies who will interview a bunch of people? I did my presentation on Monday and scored very well then was told they were concerned about how long it would take to get me trained. I am now just sitting by waiting for the call saying ya nor nay.