Airline Pilot Central Forums - Chief Flight Instructor vs. Flight Instructor

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Quote:

Originally Posted by USMCFLYR (Post 874031)

Maybe it is a function of size as others have mentioned, but if it is a big enough school to have a "Chief Instructor", AND that person is salaried,

Depends a lot on the salary. Pay for chiefs can be a combination of salary, stage check fees, and regular instruction charges. Duties will vary and the school doesn't have to be all that large to have a Chief - sometimes all it takes is a desire for uniformity and a need for someone technically in charge for establishing training policies, enforcing them and running meetings.

You don't really know what the OP's situation is without, well, knowing what the OP's situation is.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoyGonnaDoIt (Post 874355)

Depends a lot on the salary. Pay for chiefs can be a combination of salary, stage check fees, and regular instruction charges. Duties will vary and the school doesn't have to be all that large to have a Chief - sometimes all it takes is a desire for uniformity and a need for someone technically in charge for establishing training policies, enforcing them and running meetings.

You don't really know what the OP's situation is without, well, knowing what the OP's situation is.

This is probably my military side coming out, but like we use to tell young Marines - if there are two privates standing in a room - one of them is senior and in charge :D

USMCFLYR

Under 141 (Pilot Schools) they require a Chief Instructor and, if needed, an Assistant Chief Instructor, amongst other official titled positions (Check Instructors, etc), requiring a close relationship with the local FSDO.
You'll never find anyting requiring a "Chief Instructor" or any other title under 61. Mostly sounds like a guy at the "flying club" who's been there a bit longer than the other instructors who takes care of some administrative desk work. Sounds like he/she has a little more experience and/or advanced ratings on his/her CFI than you. Other than, you're equals.

Well said Keith Stone, CFI is doing usually some administrative work, keeps training streamlined, etc.. To do so, and to know what the real world is like, he also has to instruct sometimes though... :)
But as said, that's only true for Flight Schools and not for local flying clubs...

Quote:

Originally Posted by TurnHeading360 (Post 873402)

I'm currently flight instructing at a part 61 flight school. The Chief Flight Instructor is directly instructing students. Is this right?

How can a regular flight instructor compete with a chief flight instructor. When given a choice the student is clearly going to pick the chief.

Curious?

I say this as a CFI without nearly enough students:

If the Chief has free time on his hands after whatever his administrative and check duties are, then, depending on the specifics at the flight school, he should probably be directly training students. The flight school isn't keeping the Chief around to sit on his thumbs. He's there to help in their business of training students.

The flight school isn't there for you to build experience on your way to an airline career. It's there to make money and train student pilots. Hopefully, you have a decent Chief Instructor who is not just out to pad his experience totals or his paycheck while neglecting the junior instructors, and hopefully the flight school doesn't have too many instructors to be able to keep them busy with their student load. If that happens to be the case, or the situation isn't otherwise working out for you, perhaps you should start looking for another situation. However, there is nothing wrong or unfair about a Chief Instructor instructing students.