ofthesea

No, it's not budget related. The flying money is coming from the sale of a property we owned, so that money is there for his use. It's the money to live off of that is of short supply.

However, he definitely runs into scheduling issues. His flight school needs more planes. They book up fast (as do the instructors), but I feel he could get around this and he hasn't. (He needs to book more flights per week and book them further out in advance.)

One example is, right after he passed his instrument, he didn't have any time on a plane for almost two weeks! I'd asked him to book time out for after the checkride, but he said he needed to pass the IFR checkride first and then he'd book time for commercial training, but he couldn't do it beforehand, or it, didn't make sense to, or it just "isn't how it's done." I'm pretty sure he could have booked it in advance, but it's hard for me to argue with him because he just says that I don't know what I'm talking about... which is true. I don't. So, that's why I'm poking around here asking questions. :/

As far as the job at 250 hours, we're planning on selling his soul to one of the little charters that hire at 250 (with a 2 year contract). I know those can be controversial and the pay is crap (but hey, we can only go up from $0), but I truly cannot imagine the stress of trying to also carry him through a CFI rating after the struggle it's been to get through commercial in any sort of timely manner. I just can't.

I also don't think he'd be good at managing his schedule, or managing the schedules of students as a CFI. He needs a boss telling him when and where to be.

He's a good worker and he's a good pilot. He's gotten high scores and praise on his tests/checkrides so far and from his instructors. But he's just not excelling at this self-directed schooling model and I am terrible at standing by and signing checks while feeling like I would do this all so differently (and much quicker).

Excargodog

The idea is fine. The execution is terrible. It’s sort of a queuing problem. He needs to schedule like they do in the military, PLAN AHEAD OF TIME and OVERSCHEDULE to offset weather cancels, instructor and aircraft availability issues, etc.

He needs to schedule to task, NOT just look to the next lesson. But whether he will except that advice coming from you - that I don’t know. All you can do is to tell him that if he doesn’t do this EFFICIENTLY, he’s losing substantial time which assuming he does someday fly wide body for a major may be as much as $40K a MONTH at retirement. He’s also burning you out and imperiling the family finances.

If he needs to go to a bigger school with more aircraft and instructors and better sche$uling availability, he needs to do it. Get that commercial license and then GET A JOB. And until he does, even working nights at McDonalds would help.

kettlechips

Don't expect him to be able to find a job right after his commercial checkride, competition can be tough. Not to mention you may need to move, depending on the job

badflaps

You are one in a million, I'm surprised you have lasted as long as you have. You seem to have a grip on the sked problems. Best of luck, not an easy proposition.

viper548

Lessons that say Night must be done at night. Lessons that don't say night don't HAVE to be done during the day. I did a lot of my instrument rating at night, because it was easier to schedule the plane. For the commercial, it's harder to schedule that way. The maneuvers pretty much need to be done during the day. The cross country flights could probably be done at night, even though they don't specify night. If there's issues scheduling the plane, see if they'll let him fly before or after business hours. When I was an instructor I had a key to the place. I had one guy that wanted to fly at 5am, we never had scheduling issues.

galaxy flyer

A south Florida 135 operator, what could possibly go wrong?

GF

rickair7777

Yeah that's my thoughts. Dude should be moving much faster under the circumstances. I did everything after PPL in 5-6 months, and still had plenty of leisure time (no kids then).

But for the wife, you do need to give him space prior to checkrides, he needs to be fully focused on that. The career ramifications of failed checkrides are significant and will follow you forever.

PRS Guitars

I think you’re asking reasonable questions. It’s one thing to quit your job and go to an accelerated course, flying every day. But flying now and then and taking two weeks off? He probably ought to get a job delivering pizzas at night or something at least.

For you though, try to take the long view when you get frustrated, the potential pay off is pretty good. Getting there is painful and requires sacrifice (as you are learning).

I highly recommend he go straight to CFI, that’s going to be the quickest way to a paying flying job and eventual airline job. With what I’m hearing, I’m concerned about his inertia. I could see him struggling to find a non CFI job for several months (and he definitely needs a non flying job in the interim).

Myfingershurt

If he has the time, money, and dedication he should’ve just gone to ATP. They’re all over Florida. He could finish all his ratings through MEI in six months given he also has the aptitude.

ofthesea

Too late for that now, but yes, in hindsight.