Fewer Students
 

The FBO that I instruct at here in the midwest is scary slow right now (and has been for quite some time). For all you instructors out there are you seeing less students lining up to get their certs and ratings? Less GA activity and airport use overall? With the economy in the dumper it's hard to rationalize spending thousands of dollars for flight training, and those $100 hamburgers add up quick! I even saw ATP had lowered their prices for the career program:eek:.

Recession
 

I was a full time instructor during the recession of the early 1990's. It was like the flip of a switch. On day there were new students coming through the door and the next it was laid off pilots holding resume's. I was in Alaska at the time and even years later it really wasn't any better.

Skyhigh

Bons-about how many students are you able to keep right now?

ilbartlett,
I have ONE full time private student right now. A few others bailed cause of $ reasons. Other than that, and a few flight reviews and intro rides, it is quiet on the homefront.

We're slow here, too. I don't want to give away my identity too much, because I hate e-stalkers, but my flight school is university affiliated. And we're quite slow. A couple of aircraft have been sold, and the instructors do not get replaced when they leave.

I feel your pain, my friend. I think it's everywhere.

Regards,

Fortunately, in New England student loads appear to be average from where I'm sitting. The weather in the winter here always knocks down the productivity though.

One flight school I used to work for was horribly slow about 2 years ago but now they are flying non-stop.

I am in the middle of a record breaking month for myself and the school. (I set the previous record in January) When all the doom and gloom hit the media, I hit the phones. Sure, I lost my KA gig thanks to the Lehman Brothers, but that was part time anyway. This month I've flown 80+ hours and done roughly 40hours of ground. I also took last weekend off. And had to take an FAA checkride on top of it.

I've been CFI'n for a year and a half and my experience thus far has been that theres up's and downs. There are CFI's at my school that whine about not being busy because of the economy. Sure if you want to sit on the couch and wait for someone to walk through the door, you are going to starve. But if you hit the streets hard and call all the old students that disappeared, get the email inquiry list from the office then you'll be fine.
I wear either a shirt or a hat with my schools name on it whenever I'm out and keep a pocket full of business cards. I have four full timers that I aquired just by walking through Wal-Mart, Home Depot and the Sportsmans Warehouse. They stopped me and asked about flying. Get an intro right then and there. It might take an hour or more of your time but it beats the hell out of top ramen.

I live in a town with 30,000 people and we are a contract flight school for the University. If you work hard enough you'll find students.

I don't know anybody on this board and I am in no position to judge. I Just thought I'd tell you guys my experience since you asked. CFI'n is dues paying. I decided the best way for me to pay them was to go full steam ahead, no excusses. My goal is/was a single and multi ATP, AGI, Gold Seal, Chief Flight Instructor and to be the most profitable CFI in the companys history. So far I'm on track. That way, at an interview, I can say that I did everything I could possibly do in the world of flight instructing. The days of 250 and a right seat are gone. The faster we get on board with that thinking the faster we will have a better job. In the mean time, build your knowledge, read the AIM, rub some elbows and hope for the best.

Above poster is dead-on. In bad times, you have to be more aggressive with your marketing. I do the same---bars, coffeeshops, grocery stores, craigslist. Albeit I've have a lot more "I always wanted to fly" followed generally by "oh thats expensive..."

I'm doing okay with students, but would most definitely like more. My problem is with a couple students who can only fly once every couple weeks. I feel that not flying that often allows them to lose proficiency and thus more likely to develop the resignation attitude when they aren't achieving their goals due to disuse of the material. It really does require dedication and time.

Any innovative methods used to 'recruit' students? I'd be interested to know.

One thought I had when I was flight instructing was to put an advertisement on my gym bulletin board. Most health clubs are full of young, athletic, successful professionals. Perfect candidates for flight training. I really think this would've added some students to my schedule, but back then I was so busy I never did it. These days, I think I would be trying it...

Also wonder how many students out there are actually foreign that will return to their countries once training is over?