Sim Instructor QOL
 

Curious if anyone knows what the QOL is like for sim instructors? Saw an LinkedIn post saying $150,000/year for 16 events. Is this accurate? Any chance to make overtime/work more? Benefits? Any other tidbits?

You're probably not going to get a lot of enthusiasm from seniority list pilots on this one, but yes the LinkedIn post is accurate. No idea what the benefits are.

accurate... but just know that a majority of people support only seniority list pilots being in the training department and touching our metal. So most guys aren't well received unless they are ex frontier employees or flew an airbus and actually understand our procedures and stuff. Usually they lack the tribal bus knowledge that you get from actually flying the line.

I can't believe they are going down this path again. From what I heard from senior guys in the training dept, the last time we did this new hires trained by non seniority list pilots had to be retrained by sim instructors who had actually flown the line. I'm sure many rationalizations and mental backflips have convinced them that somehow it will be different this time.

Can someone speak to the op's original question. Assuming for example you're a retired A320 CA/sim instructor who knows what they're talking about.

No clue what the benrfits are. I'm sre they aren't great but pay is way better than it used to be for non seniority list instructors. I think you must do 16 sim sessions per month. Sims start at 5am and run to 2am so expect either early mornings or late nights. The nice time slots will go senior obviously. MCO or DEN base.

I can’t substantiate but we had one or two in my newhire class, supposedly at least one of them already quit. I can only assume for the reasons you state. The position is a contractor position, pays just shy of $800 per session and 16 a month. Wild speculation from me, that could drive someone to quit, is being a local area retiree who was told “maybe could be up to” 16 and it ended up being assigned all 16. At the rate they were trying to train. Idk if they only keep you in DEN but I could see getting sent out to MCO living out of a hotel for a week at a time, and that would suck. And like you said, worst schedules I bet. All my instructors said your sim seniority begins when you start sim instructing, regardless of company seniority. Makes sense.

No, the position currently being hired for is not a contractor position, it's a full time employee position. They bid on schedules which all have 16 events on them. Instructors are based in either DEN and MCO, no living out of hotels. Schedules all based on seniority which is based on instructor class date. Worst schedules typically go to the most junior instructor, whether that's a line pilot or non-seniority list instructor.

Well at least that’s a little better. Sounds like it used to be a contractor position.

They have hired contractors in the past, but not currently.