CFI Pay
 

Haha, here come the jokes...

Anywho,

If you are a past or currently employed CFI at ATP, Embry-Riddle or a CFI on Florida's east coast can you please post your company's pay structure?

Part-Time, Full-Time, Sim Instructor, Ground Instructor... etc...

Thanks in advance.

-Forest

ATP Pay
 

ATP pays their instructors $1000.00/month with no taxes taken out. If you live in a furnished apartment that ATP rents from a local complex, the pay goes down to $800.00/month. Also, instructors get bonuses whenever a student has a first time pass. If it a career pilot(full time student) you get $100 for the PVT multi checkride and the instrument checkride. All other checkrides are $40, that includes all other career pilot checkrides and add-on costumers. Ya the pay sucks, but you get all the multi time you need. Depending on the location, you could make more or less, it all depends on how busy they are. My largest check so far was $1300.00. I don't live at the apartment though.

Wow Thanks for the good info!

Bump, Bump..

Anyone else?

I would do a little searching. I make around 50k a year as a CFI. I train airforce pilots. I make $25 an hour and am guaranteed all the students I can want. I train 4 guys at a time in two hour slots. So that's 8hrs a day I bill because they only get 25 flight hours and they have to pass the written before they solo. So if it's bad weather I'm still giving them their full two hours. In the afternoons frm 5-7 and 7-9 I train civilians sometimes. It gets pretty tiring but I take it while it's there. I figure with the times I don't fly are made up by those flights in the afternoon.

If I were you I'd stay away from the big places. They make their money two ways. By sticking it to the students and sticking it to the employees. Find you a local FBO somewhere. A place where their primary concern is not flight instructing. A place where their main money comes from elsewhere. Where I fly they charge $27.50 and I get $25.00 of it. Most places charge like $35 and only give $15.00. F that. Just take your time and look for a good place. If you want PM me and I'll give you my login on climbto350.com. You'll get a job if you just hang in there! I was reroofing houses when I found this one. Just give yourself 2-3 months of hard looking and you'll get that job worth getting!

Toilet Duck
 

Believe me, I am not in it for the money, and being a prior Naval Flight Officer, I would assume, just like they did in Pensacola, that you are doing single engine VFR stuff and getting these guys their private licenses before they ever step foot in an Air Force aircraft. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but if you are looking to persue a professional career in aviation, it is not about how much money you are making, or who you are training. At a place like ATP, 90% of the instructors do nothing but fly multi-engine aircraft and that is what looks good on resumes. The more multi time, the better. So that is why I pursued a place like this to build up time. I could have easily instructed at a place like that, but if that is all you want to do, then more power to you and I have no problem with that.

Hey, good stuff...

I appreciate the posts.

Still looking for Florida/Georgia CFI pay because I am relatively limted in outreach due to the fact that I am an Florida Army National Guard pilot in Jacksonville, FL.

ATP sounds like a good way to build that multi-time and JAX is once of their main centers if I am not mistaken...

Still looking to hear more from any Florida/Georgia CFI's!

Thanks,

Forest

General pay there is around $15 an hour. I had a few offers out there. They seemed to all be around there.

Well I'm a CFII and I make a decent living flying. To me that is a professional career. But I plan on moving on in 8 months or so. I agree it's all on what you want. There were several things I looked at. Like i said take your time. One thing about an FBO that you don't find at the schools is connections. While hours are good, connections are great. My boss who owns the FBO has a Merlin IIIB that outruns a KingAir350. I meet many people, everything from cloud seeding to border patrol, that has good jobs. To me it is about the money. Among other things like the love of flying. You can be as professional as you want, but what's the point if you can't make a living doing it. I find FBO's get you out of the main stream. If want to get an Airline job you will be better off at ATP or some place like that. If you are like me and want to find something else out there like cargo ect then FBO's are the way to go. I don't care how much multi a guy has, if you meet the requirements and personally own the owner you're in like gin :D

ToiletDuck:

Hands down, you have the coolest avatar on this site...LOL everytime I see that thing...

Thanks,
LAFF

Took me a couple years of being on-line to find the one i wanted. but i got her! Thanks LA!

Well, you are indeed in a unique situation and should consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Where are you going to find many places that charge $2.50 more than they are paying you or places that will pay you even when the weather craps out and you can't fly? They are very few and far in between.

I don't necessarily agree with the "stay away from the big places" either. I worked for ERAU for a year and a half. I started at almost $13.00 an hour with a benefits package (full time employee) and was making about $15.50 when I left (this was 4 years ago). That's over $600 a week working 40 hours, which was easy to do with 8-10 students. Good health care, life insurance, 401k, tuition assistance, and 24 hour per week disability pay (based on 60% of a 40 hour work week - which saved my arse when I needed surgery). I had 8-10 students to work with during the Fall/Spring semesters (quite a bit less during the summer though). I taught in brand new equipment. New 172's, Arrows, and Seminoles. Maintenance was top notch. They don't screw around there. I can't say the same for some FBO's and yes, I tried the FBO thing before applying to ERAU and it lasted 2 weeks before I left. There was just something about sitting around on beautiful days with 3 or 4 other CFI's waiting for a prospective customer to walk in so I could play salesman and try to land myself a student and then fly POS aircraft for $13 an hour I couldn't take. After a year and a half at ERAU, I had about 1000 hours of instruction given in the aircraft and another 200 or so in the sim.

The only downsides were: Slow summers (3-4 students to work with), no pay when a flight Cx'd for weather, lots of politics getting into the Seminole at the time, especially after 9-11, busy airport/airspace created some challenges for the instructor to provide the most efficient flight training possible. Getting in as much training as possible in the amount of time you had after spending 15-20 minutes to get off the ground and another 15-20 minutes to get back in became an art. Students got comfortable with the busy airspace and radio work though, which was a plus. Conjested airspace required you to have about 6 eyeballs around your head. Had some close calls with near midairs.

You're 100% correct about me being lucky. Don't think I don't wake up and just thank my lucky stars about how I got here. Like I said I was running work crews before this happened. I love it. Great aircraft, I get to fly the Merlin, I have students that have absolutely nothing to do except what I tell them. They are all very intelligent, most are engineers. I'm my own boss. I make well. I don't have any benefits but I can see a doctor or dentist for $25 in mexico here(only 3 miles from where I live) and they are actually GREAT! Many are americans that went there because there is no red tape. One is my neighbor here. You can walk in, see the doctor, get your medicine and be out in about 45min and just as much money. Also like I said I looked long and hard here. I flew over 200hrs in december alone working for the oil company making crap. I'm just saying while things are tough now wait and look around a bit. If anyone wants just PM me and I'll give you my climbto350.com info so you can search the jobs. that's how I found this one.

TRUE!!:D :D :D

Hey Tankerdriver,

I'm looking at employment with ERAU Daytona and I'd like to get some more advice from you...

If you could email me at Flightle AT gmail DOT com that would be awesome. Just curious as to what you are doing now, what you did at Riddle, advice for an incoming IP, etc.

Thanks!

-Forest

I'd like to know how much the Ari-Ben aviator guys make. Also if the ATP guys could explain how living at the ATP apartments work compared to living at your own place. Around here the lowest payed I've seen was $25.

where is around here? That's good stuff. I was offered a job at Naples or whatever it's called. No joy there.

bump...

Anyone else out there?

I would check out FIT in Melbourne. Good equipment. Decent pay...and you could find a roomie from the flight school pretty easy. I have friends down there, and I could get a place with a pal of mine for $400/month with everything included (Utilities, High-speed net, Cable...the works)

I just got a letter from them actually.

You start at $15/hr and I think it is a dollar ($1) increase every 300 hrs of dual given. After a year you can apply for a full benefits package. (what that entitles you to, I am not sure)...hope this helps...

Laxrox

I don't have anything against FIT, but to have to wait a full year to get benefits is a major turn off, especially in the wonderful world of CFI'ing, where most people only stay a few years. ERAU gave me benefits from day one.

Flight Instructor 2 Job Posting

Looks like they start you at $14.72 an hour these days. I think that's pretty close to what I estimated in our email FLightle. If you can work 40 hours a week (which is not hard to do in the Fall and Spring semesters), that's over $28,000 a year with full benefits. When you get 750 hours of dual given (at least 500 in the aircraft), it's $17.07 an hour. That's almost $33,000 a year. $33k a year in Florida is not bad pay at all. You're not going to get rich off of it, but the cost of living is cheap enough down there (especially if you room with someone), that you'd be comfortable.

He, no offense taken. I just know that they are in need of instructors. Just wanted to pass on the info - help ya out. I totally agree with you on the benefits. That is partly the reason why I am not making the move down there again:p I will be working up in either PA or NJ after my internship with PDT...provided I don't get hired by them afterwards?!

Good luck. If you need any more recomendations, PM me.

Laxrox

my instructor west fl is making 20 and they start off at 18. pm if u want to know more.