Moonwolf

Has anyone been or is currently an flight instructor at Sierra Academy of Aeronautics? I'm curious to know the overall impression people got from working there. Also the quality of life in Atwater, Ca. I'm not too familiar with the area. Anything helps.
Thanks

da_flyn_hawyn

I have about five students that instruct there now, they love it. They are constantly trying to get me over there to instruct. If you need more info, i can try to have one of them contact you.

Moonwolf

yeah that would be great if you could do that. Anything helps

pagey

What's their policy on the "assisted" CFII and MEI?....I only have a CFI. Info on the area would be fantastic also.

morerightrudder

I heard they had cut pay and benefits for the CFIs, though it might have been just a disgruntled ex-employee talking. What is the current pay there?

lifter123

$3500-$4500/month. Not sure if that is salaried or just an estimate.

CFI's $3500-$4500/month

asdf

I used to work there. I have mixed feelings about the place. The people that run the place are slimy *******s, but you can instruct there for months on end without ever having to deal with the people in charge. In the 12 months I was there, they fired about just as many people as that left willingly. If you do something to **** off the owners, you're out. When I was there, I made nowhere near 3500/4500 a month. I made a maximum of 2500 a month, and I flew 120 hours some months.

pagey

sounds shady..what were people being fired for? I have some experience working for "slimy" flight school owners, makes going to work not very enjoyable. The pay is hourly im assuming, so 3500-4500/month seems a little high...dont know many CFIs making $40-45/hour unless they are freelancing. How about when you aren't working? Anything to do around there? How many days off etc...

rickB

it seems pretty legit and ive visited the school... all foreign chinese students so you gotta bear with the language barrier and atwater.. well it smells like cow poop everywhere you go... lol its out in the middle of nowhere but if you want to fly a lot and make some decent money i know a few people that work there ...

da flyn hawyn kuuuuuuuumuuuuuuu call me!!!

-rick

asdf

When I first started all instructors made $18 an hour for all flights, sim, and ground lessons. Then a few months in, they raised it to I think it was $20 and hour but if you FLY more than 40 hours a month, you got $25 an hour for each hour you flew, but all ground and sim were still $20 an hour. In order to get 4500 a month you need to fly 180 hours a month, or about 6 hours a day, 7 days a week. A lot of instructors would fly maybe 100 hours a month, and then bill the school for 50 hours of ground time, when they only really did only like 5 hours. Basically they were ripping the school off by getting hundreds of dollars in free money. There was an incident a little less than a year ago when a few instructors turned in time sheets with over 100 hours of ground time billed, plus a ton of flight time, plus a bunch of sim time. The owners got mad and decided to withhold ground time. As soon as the instructors found out about this, they all decided to "strike" by not doing any flights until they paid their full paychecks. We all got paid by the end of that day, but the guy who sort of organized the strike was fired.

Shortly after I left I heard they completely stopped paying for ground time and sim time.

As far as days off, you have as many as you want. if you want to take a week off, have at it. If you only want to work monday through friday, you can do that too. You basically set your own schedule. Which is great, but if you expect to make $4500 a month, you're not going to be able to take any days off.