CFI shortage...my problem?
 

I got this unsolicited email today and thought it was...uhh, interesting. My only thoughts, increase pay to better than the airlines (shouldnt be hard...)and then you will have instructors again...:rolleyes: enjoy.



To Pilots and Instructor Pilots:

This is a letter to help make you aware of the current world situation and at the same time for the selfish purpose of attracting employees that are interested in adding to the improvement of flight training.

We all need the pilot community to know the real situation and hopefully to understand what the ramifications can be.

There is now an extreme shortage of Flight Instructors in this country. The Airlines have been hiring all the warm bodies they can find because of the general shortage of qualified pilots.

The industry needs to recognize the actual status of aviation in this country as well as the rest of the world. The cost of training to become a professional pilot and the ongoing media presentation of the dangers have contributed to turning away potential student pilots. In turn lack of industry contribution to advertising and pay has not given the young person any impetus to become involved.

Whatever the reason one can provide for the situation, it does not change the fact that for the past ten to fifteen years there have been considerably fewer new pilots versus the number of those retiring. A simple study of FAA statistics of the numbers of different ratings obtained and those maintained has shown the day would come when there would no longer be enough pilots for the demand.

An additional factor not shown in the numbers is how many of those pilots obtaining commercial licenses are actually foreigners that are not allowed to work in this country. Since the initial TSA requirement (approx. 5 yrs.) for background checks of foreign Students, there have been over 175,000 applications. Ab-initio students typically are required three checks during their training so there has to be almost 60,000 foreign students included in the FAA numbers. This means there are very few domestic pilots being trained in the country that requires the most!

The day has arrived. Today a new commercial pilot can go directly to an airline or other professional flight position. The demand has taken most of the young instructors from the flight schools leaving a shortage for the training of new pilots.

In the 1960's this situation existed where major airlines were hiring 250 hour pilots. At that time foreign pilots were allowed to come. Today, any foreign pilot is considered a terrorist until proved otherwise but with the immigration system currently in place still not allowed to work in the U.S.!

With a shortage of instructors, there being only older instructors available, there is no way to ever catch up with demand. The numbers just cannot be made to work! There is no way statistically to generate the number of pilots or instructors needed throughout the world without the Airlines participation. The older instructor pilots continue to get older and the new potential instructors no longer stay at the schools. Eventually the Airlines will find it necessary to have their own pilots do ab-initio flight training in order to supply their own needs. Those Airlines that understand this problem and begin doing their own training will be the ones that survive.

Until then a partial but temporary aid will be to encourage more of those without licenses to obtain licenses and those without medicals to become involved in that part of training not requiring the medical.

Re-thinking the way training is done by use of ground instructors teaching the non-flying aircraft operation and procedures.

More emphasis on simulation and simulated flight procedures with thorough drill to allow more efficient and progressive flight training.

Ground schools to emphasize more practical flight and radio procedures in addition to the usual required flight curricula.

Learning to fly and learning what to do with the aircraft differentiated to allow efficient and safe methods of operation.

It is no longer practical for a Flight Instructor to spend more than minimum time with the Student on the ground.

In reality, it is all about money. The time has come when the necessity of having sufficient training to increase the number of new pilots will require compensation to the Instructors sufficient to allow them to afford staying in that profession. The industry will gradually come to that.

Last time I checked, this school did not offer much in the way of pay. I think it was the lowest of all the schools I interviewed with.

Supply and Demand is at work here. The flight schools will have to raise pay to attract quality instructors.

When I was teaching at PAIFA the average CFI made about $18K with no benefits, now they can make up to $55K with benefits. Still not worth going back to instructing but for some it might work out.

http://www.panamacademy.net/

The flight school I currently work at normally has about 13 - 14 instructors. Now we're down to 5. We're bringing on a new CFI that I trained in March, but then again I'll be leaving in March so that doesn't do any good.

Another problem I see is that there's not going to be many instructors qualified to train new ones. For part 61 instructors, you have to have 2 years of experience and 200 hours of instruction to train initial CFI applicants.

For part 141 instructors, you must have an 80 percent pass rate (4 out of 5) and given 400 hours of instruction. This one's not so much a problem at busy flight schools, but part 61 guys have to wait 2 years. Not many instructors are hanging around that long.

It's going to be interesting to see how this all plays out.

Maybe the FAA should relax the rules on duty time for airline pilots doing instruction in their spare time. How many highly experienced pilots/CFI's are sitting reserve with nothing to do (me) that would be happy to work with the next generation. Only problem is, people say it will cost me my job if I do....

That might not be a bad idea, but I suspect that even if the rules were relaxed, most companies wouldn't want their pilots exposing themselves to certificate action as the result of a flight training incident.

I have a great instructor job....the pay is just a little above the highest figure mentioned on this thread thus far, but the BEST thing about my job is that the FAA has very little involvement. :D

I'd like to move into a regional or some turbine equipment, but I just can't give up the pay at this job. I penciled it out one night and figured that it would take 8 years at a regional to be money ahead of staying put.

That's a tough number to swallow, especially when I'm 34.

If they relaxed the rules the airlines would just want you to fly that too...

That e-mail, while doing a lot of wandering, certainly swerved into very good point:

Hearing an American accent on the practice area frequencies in the PHX area is the exception, not the rule. It would seen that a whole bunch of the certs issued currently are for non-US citizens....I know that my employer alone is more responsible for nearly 300 student pilot certificates per year that are used solely for training and produce pilots that are not employable in the USA.

The FSDO reports that CFI-initial rides have nearly come to a complete stop.

It'll be interesting to see how long it takes the market in the sector of aviation that traditionally follows instruction to respond to the shrinking pool of even 1000 hour pilots.

I feel it comes down to the cost of it all, for the initial stuff.

Compare flight training costs of yesteryears to today.

Pay for training to get your CFI or get it for free. Then look at pay.

Like I said, price...

Right there, thats what it boils down to.. And for that you can thank insurance and fuel prices because that alone is what drove up the price of flying. Makes me sick to think how much less it cost pre 9/11... now look... It can cost over 10,000 training in a 172 just to get a private pilot's license!

The other thing is that flight schools love to make more than the instructor does from the actual instruction fee... At the school I teach at they charge $43 an hour for instruction and I only see $18 of that! talk about a joke.. I make less than half of that, and "I" am the certified professional... This is whats wrong with this side of the aviation industry...

I doubt that the number of flight instructors being hired will go up if flight schools offer a higher pay that airlines. CFIs making $40k are leaving their job to work for $20k at a regional as a F/O. I'm planning to leave my $45k desk job for a $20k job at a regional too, so I don't think that pay has anything to do with it.

Those who can do
 

Instructors are pilots first of all. If given the opportunity to have an actual flying job I am sure that most would jump at it no matter what the pay was.

Those who can do the rest teach. Ancient Chinese Proverb

Skyhigh

Those who can't, teach. That's what I've always been told. :)

Western Michigan University, where I graduated from, just gave their instructors benefits and higher pay. For a family man this might work over going to an airline. I myself never got a CFI because at the time the lack of benefits and pay made for a regional job if I could get one a better choice so I took it. I Think that flight instructors need to be looked at as a long term professional career with pay to match. I think that there are some people out there that would leave an airline job to be home. Only problem there is that now you have raised the cost of training and lost more students. Supply and demand, airlines will have to start paying more to get pilots and that will trickle down and more people will start flying. Of course plane tickets will increase, lowering numbers of passengers, which lowers the demand for airlines. It is quite a chain of events but it will all work out.

Actually, it has a lot to do with it. We've got 40 instructors and presently there are none that are planning to go to a regional job anytime soon. I'm trying to save $$ to open up some options, but going somewhere else just isn't discussed in our crew room on a regular basis.

Families, homes, and financial situations dictate staying at a stable job instead of jumping into a unstable segment of the industry at an uncertain time just for the sake of doing whatever it is the people seem to think that they need to do by going to the regionals.

Someone mentioned that CFI rides have slowed. I know a lot of students see the airlines hiring at 300 hours and don't even want to get their CFI. They'll do anything to skip it. Maybe I'm biased, but my best students are the ones that want to teach, even if only for a year or so. Personally, I'd love to teach after retiring. If I could command 40 dollars an hour for instructing, I'd do it. But a 22 year old with 600+ hours can't really do that. If you have the track record and experience though, it is possible.

Yeah, I think that's what Skyhigh meant, his punctuation just sucks.

Those who can...do, the rest teach.

Thanks Guys
 

Thanks for the grammar lesson. I am not very good with spelling and grammar.

SkyHigh


Those who can...do, the rest teach.

Why wait to go to the regionals? The hiring boom could come crashing down at any minute with just a few simple changes in the market. Don't take it for granted. If you have a job opportunity at the regionals then go for it.

My generation was paying 15K for a regional job and 5K to be a CFI in the early 1990's. It was common to be stuck as a CFI for three years to be followed by three to five more years as a night piston cargo time before even coming onto the radar of a regional airline.

In any case it was no fun and made life very difficult.

If the pay was better I would become a full time CFI because I have 3 young children, so I can't be gone 4 days a week at an airline job. I have a cheap house and my wife works also, so even if the pay was 40-50k, I could live with that and be fine. But I would never leave my day job to be a CFI now because they make so little. So I do think $$ is the biggest thing. But like was stated above, if you double or triple the CFI salary, the cost of training will go through the roof...

If they were paying that when I was doing the full-time CFI gig, I would've probably went. I made $17-19k/yr when I did, and that was about 700hrs dual/yr, plus some other flying. I'm only 26, but I know when I "retire" I will still teach. I haven't ever stopped though either, minus my freight job.

Those who can, do.

Those who can't, teach.

Well Said. You at Skymates CFII?

I enjoyed a 45K instructing job and left for a 24K regional job. My justification was earnings potential. I was probably already maxed out at 45K. When I upgrade at my regional I'll be making upwards of 60K. The money might not be great, but there's definitely an advantage by beginning your career and getting that seniority ticking. First year has been tough, but I'm actually making it. Second year should be a festival.

Well, this might be a sign for times to come... hopefully. This is an exert from my flight school's website.
"In addition, it has been increasingly difficult to attract and maintain quality instructors during the current shortage of pilots. We will be making a small adjustment to the instruction pricing in order to remain competitive in the pilot market. Thanks for your support and understanding. Please direct any questions you may have to __ or __."

What are the restrictions?
 

:confused:
Does the FAA have a restriction for airline pilots flying for their airline, and instructing? If so, what are they?

Nice Pic.!
 

:p Hey nice Avatar!

Not directly, but if it conflicts with the airline schedule, you will be in trouble. But in 121, you cannot work more then 100 hours a month, that includes instructing, even though it is not 121. you can fly all the hours you want as long as you're not being compensated for it. But if you instruct 15 hours a month and you reach 85 hours at your job and you can't fly anymore because of it, your airline may not be too happy with you. That is how I understand it from studying the FAR's.

I would have to work at a typical regional for anywhere from 8-10 years to be money ahead of what I make right now.