How's the life of a CFI
 

Seeing how airlines are slowing their hiring, how's the life for a cfi? Did you guys notice any "shortage" of students? Also, does CFI's get paid tax free?

Haha I wish we get paid tax free :)

I'd imagine that a lot of schools are seeing a shortage of students due to rising oil prices... fortunately for me, we have a contract with the naval academy to do their initial flight screenings, so as long as the navy needs pilots, we keep getting students :)

If you're looking for a CFI job, I would probably suggest finding one of the bigger schools who can spend the money on advertising. The mom and pop FBO schools are going to start to suffer. :( imho

I second the above. Fortunately we have alot of government contracts as well. Though interestingly, we still have people coming in wanting to start up a hobby, career, etc.

Alot of the academies are going the route of foreign contract and our economy here doesn't seem to effect that too much. Of course I don't work at them, but they still seem to be going strong.

No shortage of students at all, we deal mostly with foreigners.

I had a friend who was a CFI at one of those flight academies for an Asian airline and he worked pretty hard. Lots of students and quite a bit of ground instruction as well. The nice thing was that if he told his students to study up on a particular area they sure as hell did it! Always nice to have motivated students who work hard.

It is also due to our Airspace structure and amenities. We are the best in the world when it comes to services available to the every-day pilot.

Some foreign students are motivated....some are not.

But, either way, there are PLENTY of them over here!!

If you teach in the state of FLORIDA, they DO NOT have income tax! I can refer you to the flight school that I used to work for. If you are not interested in working at a FBO, there are plenty of pilot factories down in FL that are looking for CFI's. Some offer free housing, or discounted housing, a meal plan, etc. PM with questions.

Lax

im teaching right now for atp and not a single slowdown in students... two career pilots start every week just about and im just at a small location too.. phoenix is insane with students