usmc-sgt

DE727 is correct as far as my oppinion goes.

There are things I do not like about primary students just the same as others but that is life as an instructor..with 250 hours and a new CFI you cant just pick who you get.

Primary students pros....everything they know about flying is because you taught them, when you see the look on their face after they land for the first time and solo for the first time it is all worth it

Cons...everything they know you taught them...so teach them correctly because they are flying on your ticket, there is no one to blame but yourself. TOUCH AND GOs. Nothing like 8 hours logged in the pattern when it is 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity.

As for safety and risking your life everyday..I just have not seen that, of course the students will do crazy things that have the potential to be very dangerous but if you are on the ball you develop a sixth sense to see what they are going to do that is dangerous before it even happens and allow it to go just far enough to be a learning experience but not to far to be a near death experience. This is probably one of the biggest assets of being a flight instructor.

You say you want to teach UAT/Aerobatics...teach someone to land a taildragger like DE said and you will pray for primary students in a cessna. A taildragger is squirrely enough when you are flying it, let alone someone who has never touched one before. You really cant teach someone UAT or acro if you cant teach first. You need the cessna/piper time and that sixth sense before you go jumping into a plane and putting it in inverted stalls.

The basic moral of the story is that instructing is great and so far for me the ups have seemed to outweigh the downs, you just have to take it in stride and dont be afraid to be humbled.

Of course it would be great to go into a place, a newly minted CFI and say "I dont really want primary but I will take the commercial and ME and Acro students" They will probably look at you like you have two heads. It is no different than someone with 500 hours flying Citations. But of course most people know someone who is flying Citations with 500 TT so you never know..maybe that instructing job you are looking for exist after all.

stinsonjr

Thanks for the reply - and for confirming de727UPS about the Taildragger training. Not so much a fear based upon danger to me, as it is danger about what happens to them after. Understand about walking into a place and demanding multi-students or commercial, etc. I was actually thinking of buying a Seneca, 310, or old Baron and offering the plan, and myself, to a school that doesn't currently offer multi. I figured that would be the way to get loads of ME instruction logged.

Slice

I never soloed anyone, only have 200 hours of dual given. A lot of fam flights, aircraft checkouts, and 2-IFR tickets to my credit. To me, teaching instruments was the most enjoyable.

usmc-sgt

thats good.. as for buying a twin...stick to the old faithful possibly affordable such as the duchess/seminole/seneca models

be prepared to pay quite a bit up front for the initial investment as well as a lot of maintenance cost and overhauls if the plane is flying alot. I dont see it as even being remotely profitable but I am completely guessing here as I have not worked the numbers. It would be great if it worked though. Barons either the 55 or 58 are quite costly and can be maintenance intensive in a training environment. Not a great training platform

stinsonjr

Thanks - it is something I am kicking around. I am also not sure if the numbers work out - but you do get loads of multi time, and when you are done the plane still has value so you can sell it. I am still contemplating this, but am on a fence.

de727ups

I just got a very nice Apache with the Geronimo mods for 60K. You can burn car gas in it. I don't believe it will be much more expesive to run than 300hp retract single, like a 210 or an A36.

the King

Like it was said, primary students are fun, but they are a challenge. I teach at a university so we get the entire strata of students with all their baggage too. You will be a better stick and rudder skill guy and also will begin to see what your first CFI was saying when he talked about using the rudder and feeling the plane. Usually, we subconsciously develop these skills, but when you fly with someone who doesn't have them, it becomes painfully obvious and lets you know what to look out for.

Sidenote: In previous semesters, many of the new-hire CFIs at our school did not get student pilots because flying with a commercial student has skills that are recent to you and also allows you to get your feet wet without the high responsibility for a student pilot.

Instrument students are interesting and are in many ways like student pilots. Early on, you will have many times to wonder "Where is he going? I said turn to ____________, or hold ____________!" It can be frustrating, but in the end, when you do the cross-country flights, you can really enjoy it (and seek out IMC). Just make sure they study a lot. Another benefit: the training is pretty much all dual, like primaries.

I haven't had any Commercial students, and I feel for any I get (jk). Personally, I think it's very reasonable for the student to be able to hold altitude, heading, and airspeed on the dot since they are fresh out of Instrument. Also, they need to have a much better decision-making ability than say a student pilot. After all, they are a PPL with Instrument priveleges. I should NEVER have to ask them to check weather, W&B, or preflight. Those are the things you do anyway no matter what you fly. Obviously, you can't have those kind of standards when they first begin practicing the new maneuvers, but for PPL maneuvers (straight and level, climbs, turns, descents, steep turns, and stalls) there isn't much excuse for not meeting at least Private PTS.

jedinein

It's the multi students that scare me. They can screw up something and I won't be able to recover. Engine failure on takeoff, student feathers wrong engine, student leaves gear down, and/or student leaves flaps down. Presto! the marginally survivable situation has just become a crash.

As if to prove my point, the local bottom feeder flight school lost both of its multis less than a week apart. The first, they were able to skip off two roofs before settling on a third. The second was a nosewheel collapse on landing.

Most of the other local multis have crashed with MEIs aboard conducting multi instruction. Very few have survived their crashes.

I'll do my multi training and recurrency stuff in the sim. Once the pilot proves there is only a slim chance of him killing me, then we might actually get up into the airplane and go fly.

stinsonjr

This is interesting. I was under the impression that Multi would perhaps be the most risky in some ways...if for no other reason than I got my PPL at a field that was named after the Airport owners son who happened to die while doing multi-training at that airport. Happened years before I was born but apparently they lost the critical engine on an Apache (Not the Geronimo version, but stock 150hp's per side) on a HOT day (Houston, TX) with an observer in the back seat. I believe, on the old Apache's, they had the hydraulic pump on the left engine only...so if you lost that, the gear was in place (down in this case, it was take-off). The did a VMC roll into 70 ft. pine tree's at the north end of the field.

the King

That's why blue line is so stinking important. I agree with the sim. That's what we do. Get your instrument proficiency back and practice procedures before you get in the plane. Saves money too, since you aren't renting the multi for that time.