I know there's a ton of variables, but about how much flight time do you figure a full time CFI can log per week, assuming it's a busy school in the right geographical area?

 

Yes, there are a ton of variables which makes every CFI job different.

On average, with the busier flight schools in the country, a busy CFI would log around 100 hours per month. This is just a ballpark figure. But that's assuming good flying weather every day of the year. Usually that is not the case unless you are in certain areas of the country. That's best case scenario.

Realistically in most climates, CFI's log more when it's summertime and little to none when it's wintertime. You can't really ask the question "how many hours per week". A more reasonably fair question would be "how many hours per year", cuz it fluctuates by the week, and even by the month.

Most CFI's, if they want to work hard, log around 1000 hours per year on average. To get the weekly average, do the math. A highly motivated CFI who wants to work hard can log more. I've heard of CFI's logging up to 1500 hours per year (that's just flight time, not counting ground school hours.

The lazy CFI's (and yes they are out there) log much less.

 

A lot more info is needed here. How many days a week are you working? 5, 6, 7? How is the WX at the school? Are airplanes available and not completely filled?

I flew for a larger 141 with decent WX most of the time. There is no hard and fast rule. One month I billed just about 130 hours flight time and the next month it was just over 60. WX, aircraft, students progress are all factors. I think I had 7 or 8 days off when I flew 130 and 3 of those were WX days. Technically you could fly up to 240 hours if you had everything perfect. I would never wish that on anyone because I would imagine that the individual would either be needing to live at the airport or would be highly fatigued. At a larger 141 a good guess on average would be about 4 hours 4 days a week. In the summer bump that up to 4 hours 5 or 6 days a week. These numbers are only if you have good aircraft availability and students that need to learn.

 

This is another good point-

when looking around for a CFI job, my guess would be that you would want to pick a school that has several airplanes, not just one or two- because at any given time airplanes will be down for one reason or another (maintenance, 100 hr, annual, oil changes, etc etc). And if the school has a high flow of students, the planes will be down ever more often due to increased wear and tear and need for maintenance. IMO, the best bet is to pick a big school with a good size fleet of planes.

 

If your goal is build a lot of hours fast, you need a school with a reasonably sized fleet located in the southwest or FL. Make sure they only employ as many CFI's as they can keep busy. Some schools "hire" all their grads, but in reality that just means you're on call with no pay and you get to fly a couple times a month. In that situation you have to pay a lot of dues and kiss a lot of butt until they decide you're one of the few who gets enough work to count as full time.

 

I could answer this question since I am currently CFI'ing and flying my butt off as much as I possibly can.

My schedule is open Monday-Sunday 8 am to 8pm. I rarely take any days off. I work at a busy flight school in Southern California with perfect weather all year round. I log in average 90-100 hours per month. This month, I am logging almost 120 just because we happen to be low on CFI's.

Flying 100 hours a month is A LOT and takes quite the toll on you, so you have to want it really bad. Furthermore, there are pros and cons with flying in places that have perfect weather all year long, such as CA or AZ.....and one of them is in the summer, when the days are super long and the heat is unbearable. You'll be flying 7-8 hours a day in a flying greenhouse with very little breaks and it's easy to get dehydrated, but, if you wanna move on quick...you gotta pay your dues.

I've logged about 1000 hours in the past 11 months.