mayanflyer

Has anyone worked as a CFI at either Transpac or Westwind School of Aeronautics at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix. If so what are the pro's and con's? Im looking at possibly applying to one or both this fall, and trying to get an idea.

ArcherDvr

I work at Trans Pac of the King Air side. Don't know much about the piston stuff at either place.
If you are from out of state and looking at moving here to CFI, look at CAE in Mesa. I think they have a sign on bonus and relocation assistance, plus it was a good place to work when Inwas there.

yeahbutstill

I would avoid Westwind at all cost, they offer no insentives and their planes are not equiped with any traffic info system, which trust me you will want it flying around Deer Valley. In today's work market for CFI's, you can be choosie, even with a wet cfi ticket.

ArcherDvr

Definitely want the traffic info system if you're teaching anywhere in the Valley.

ajm757

I'm just started recently at Transpac. I'm liking it so far. You can expect about 4-5 PPL students that you will take all the way through CMEL, if you have your MEI. I'm still pretty new, but it's looking like around 70-80 hours/month for private. I try to pick up mx flights and other students when I can. The real hours are during IR. I've been hearing between 130-140 a month. Standardization was about 2 weeks with a few flights. $5,000 sign on bonus is one of the main reasons i picked Transpac. The planes are decent and are maintained reasonably well. Your students are smart and dedicated, some fly better than others. Phoenix is not a bad place to live. I'm from NJ so it was a big move for me. The flying here is much different than back home (kind of boring with some mountains), but if you want to build lots of hours, it's not a bad place to be.

Cosgr

I worked at TP from '13-'14, and I would recommend it if your goal is to build time quickly and move on. They have a sign-on bonus and I hear they'll put you up your first month while you go through stanz. I was building up to 140 hrs a month while I had IR/CPL students and had two days off a week. There are the downsides of flying older beat archers and students that try to kill you sometimes, but it was a good experience overall.


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Av8rPHX

Had several near misses over the years training out of DVT. The NW practice area gets real busy at times and the Chinese students were often hard to understand when they were giving position reports on frequency

Flyboyxc91

I worked at Transpac for some time and had very mixed feelings about it. I had a wet ticket and loved the place at first then started getting BURNT by so many briefings and they make you do "duty CFI" which frankly is a baby sitter position and most new guys have to do it sometimes for weeks on end coupled into briefings and hopefully you'll fly once that TEN+ hour day. Overall it was decent to start with but there are completely better options out there even if you're a wet CFI.

I'm making $47K salary now not too far from there.. We are hiring currently and you don't need an MEI but it's preferred. Currently getting 60-75 hours a month and the work life balance has been stellar here. All aircraft are under 1000 TT and we are taking deliveries and equipped with G1000s! PM if interested...