TurbineTime

As a guy near the bottom of the seniority list at the academy, I feel like I have a pretty current view as one of the guys looking upwards. You will stay BUSY here, no doubt about it. I was hired with just the CFI initial and as soon as standards was complete I was assigned 4 students who were ready and motivated to fly. The scheduling system seems to be based off of the airlines, you bid for your schedules, you are assigned training blocks with each student and equipment and (at least on the contract side) students show up well before their flight is supposed to leave. Again, you will be busy and a lot is expected from you. However, the management team that the CFI's report to directly has been great as far as assisting instructors with any issues. Overall, I'd say this is a pretty darn good place to be, lots of flying to be done. Do yourself a favor though and get your CFII, It'll be well worth it in the end. Good luck to all those applying.

Also, I was hired on in the slowest month flying wise at the school..... still flew double the hours I would have at my previous school.

ArcherDvr

Do a touch and go at a nearby airport on most of your flights.

elabayarde

I did my commercial there back in like 2005. I had a good experience.

Muredhawk

Fantastic

Chinese commercial time building is the goodness. 55hrs+ per student

Personally I've got over 1200 in my 2000hrs dual here.

Muredhawk

Relevent question posed from a PM

saw your posting on coming in to USAA as a CFI and not CFI and CFII. I was considering coming in as a CFI and get my CFII while instructing as a CFI. It sounds like you did that but didn't enjoy it. I was wondering if you could elaborate. Was it just because of the money? What is the difference between cfi and cfii as far as pay?

As a CFI coming in the beginning you will make the same. However, because of the student volume it is not uncommon for another IP to cover him on time off or sick leave. If you only have your CFI, you won't be able to fly with Instrument or commercial time building students. Therefore, you're limited in earning possibility.

Also, to get your first raise you need to have your CFII.

Send me PM's if your interested in Applying

USAAcademy

BigJetLilJet What kind of questions do you have Sir?

rebels152

It's a great place to build time, but if I was looking for a cfi job I would probably look elsewhere. You will spend most of your time in the 152s that are old and always having maintenance problems. The company is run by non pilots and I think that is one of the major problems. They will push you to solo guys that aren't ready so that they can finish on time per their contract with the Chinese. Soloing students that barely speak English at a towered airport might be the scariest thing I've ever done, though my students never ended up having any problems. You get one day a week off and don't get to make your own schedules. Don't get lured in by the King Air promise. By the time you reach King Air level you will have enough hours to go to an airline. They also screwed me out of about $500. I can't complain too much though because I built a lot of time quickly and it got me to where I wanted to go career wise.

Muredhawk

Not sure when you were there but everyone that is running it now are pilots. I can allude to the previous people running it did push pretty hard to get them soloed but it certainly isn't happening now. The owners however are not pilots...

stbloc

Do they really make you work 6 days a week and make your schedule?

rebels152

Yeah and the one day off isn't usually a weekend day for the new guys. But that's part of the reason you are able to build time so fast. It's better than some CFI's who struggle to fly 2-3 days a week. Even working 6 days a week you're still not considered full time which means no benefits. Was it the best place to work? No. Do I regret going to work there? No.