Getting those students...
 

Being new to the CFI thing, I was curious to know how you guys have acquired students in tough times.

Its my impression (perhaps wrong?) that there has been a slow down in people wanting to learn how to fly---In the past, or perhaps now, what methods have you guys tried in order to 'recruit' people to start training? I was thinking of placing business cards on the cork boards at restaurants, etc. Any other creative methods you guys have tried?

How bout applying to a flight school? thats the easiest way. Free-lancing is not something you can really do right off the bat until you get your name out there. not to mention in my experience VERY few schools will let you rent their aircraft and instruct in it if you dont work for them.

Plus if you work for a school they do the advertising and generally have a steady flow of students even in these tougher times.

Stryker,

I'm sorry, I shoud've been more comprehensive. I do work for a flight school, however I'm technically an independent contractor. Unfortunately the school has a hard time finding people as well so I wanted to go out myself and dig for people to help everyone out.

Is there a local community college? Offer to teach a PPL ground school as a continuing education class. When I was in your shoes, I found a nearby CC that offered a PPL ground school and the guy teaching was doing it for fun and not looking to instruct. I asked him if I could come to the class and make a presentation for my flight school. Guess nobody ever thought of that. I got three or four students from the 10 or 12 in the class.

If you are willing to do BFR's, put a flyer at the local airport bulletin boards.

Put your business card up on bulletin boards at local colleges, laundromats, apartment complexes community boards, grocery stores etc.

Also (though it costs money) rent a plane and volunteer to fly a Young Eagles day. You won't get any kid students (they are usually age 6-14 or so) but you get to talk to their parents and I've got more than one student that way.

Does your school offer intro flights at a discount? You can strike up a conversation with people anywhere (the mall, events, in line at the movies and give them your card and say if you are interested in going for a ride for a special discounted price to call you. Also there is www.beapilot.com where they can print a coupon for a discounted price for schools that participate.

You could put an ad on craigslist too. Figure out a creative category to put it in so it gets noticed.

If you try to give out at least 3 business cards a day, you will see the difference in flights...not saying these will all be serious students wanting to get their license, but hey an hour is an hour when you are scraping to survive.

Good luck...

Read The Savvy Flight Instructor. It's primarily written for independent CFI's who want to drum up some students. I'd recommend it to any CFI though as it deals with student psychology and the instructor-student relationship in more detail than most of us received in our training.

Hmmm, I was about to start a new thread about taking lessons again after a year long hiatus. Now that I am all pretty much situated with professional commitments, I think I can carve out some precious time for this and finally get my PPL.

MEMpilot, could you PM with where you are instructing? Location of the flight school makes a difference with me as I refuse to drive more than 30 miles to one any longer. [On a more personal note, you missed out on a great visit to the museum and the F-18 sim ride. :)]

I went from instructing at two big flight schools that had more than enought students than I could handle, to teaching an hour every other day. I moved back home to hawaii, where the aviation school scene is rather small here. I went through all the old records that the school had and called all the guys on there that hadn't finished their ratings. Some had finished, some had financial problems, but I found five that just got lost in the transition when their instructor went to the airlines. This is what I would suggest if you can, I'm also an independent contractor, the other is to get your name out and just hang out at the FBO and be the airport rat. I know it sounds tedious, but it really does help to get your name out. Hopefully this helps!!!!!!!! Good Luck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My first week at one of my first instructing jobs all I did was hang out at the airport and sold it to whoever walked through the door. The first few weeks are rough but over time you'll build up students. Then, when you have students, you'll be at the airport as it is just working... picking up more students while you're there. Tough at first but it starts to pay the bills. Every day I learn that instructing is a good chunk of paying your dues in more ways than I could have imagined... just keep at it and bring some homework for the downtime.