Don't get a MS in Aero Science. Econ or MBA if you can...At least you'll have lots of students and if ERAU gets the AF IFT program - you'll be 'golden'

-LAFF

so on the average, what do you make in a month?

I wonder how many ERAU IPIVs actually HAVE master's degrees. That's an odd requirement.

I'm sure you could get over that fact. Hey, it's more motivation to be a good instructor.

They also don't mention that you get healthcare, 401k benefits and life insurance. A pretty good package considering most CFI's get jack squat when it comes to bennies.

I'm not sure how much time one would have to do a Masters as a full time instructor unless you told your manager you only wanted 5-6 students. When I had 8-10 students, I was working 10-12 hour days easily, 6 days a week. We were payed bi-weekly and on a good two weeks, I usually brought home $900-1000 gross, which wasn't to bad. Of course, it was never consistant. During the slow summers, I'd bring home $400 every 2 weeks, which was pretty much food stamps for me considering I was paying $400 for rent alone. I flew 90-110 hours a month when business was good.

masters
 

Can't you take online classes through Riddle..... that way you could still work full time during the day... and fit in the "classes" in your spare time.

tuition isn't as bad as going to a campus either. (i'm pretty sure)

good luck

CFI pay...
 

In the Memphis, TN area, CFI's get $25 per hour and MEI's get $30. Ground instruction is paid at the same rates, if the instructor charges for it.

The instructors that are agressive in seeking students stay pretty busy. The ones that log "couch time" at the FBO, complain about not being busy.

At oklahoma state, the CFI's start at $10 / hr.. $11 for CFII, $12 for MEI, then $13 / hr once you get 250 hours of dual given at the school. And for the majority of people, thats where it tops out. If you become eligable for Initial CFI student instruction (Pt 141 School, 80% pass rate, 400 dual given over 5 students) You get paid $18 / hr, but only when teaching the students. ICFI ground is also $18 / hr. While normal Ground is $10 / hr. Nice fringe benefit of working at the university is you can get picked to teach a class, which lines your pocket with an extra $3,000 / semester for about 4 hours of work a week, Comes out to something like $50 / hr.

The ugly side of flight instructing is that your pay comes out to be about 2 hours of work, for one hour of pay, roughly. A day with 5 students is a 'long' day.

the upside of working at a university, is that you have a VERY high student load. I was teaching 16 students my first semester, and subsequently burned myself out. Now i teach about 9 students and Run a class, and my workload is much more managable.

Stay away from flight schools if you want to make more and move to an area where there is relatively low amounts of CFI's. I live on the border and am the only one here. I'm busy non-stop. I train Airforce guys/gals and have talked to the Sheriff's dept. and managed to get them to purchase a small plane they will need me to train them for as well :) Sometimes you have to sell yourself and not the plane. I find people already want to fly. You just have to give them a meaningful reason to do it. Esp. when it's not their money they are burning.

I worked at a school in Dallas (Arlington) earlier this year. It paid $17/hr and I stayed pretty busy. I think they're a little overstaffed right now though. The FBO at Mesquite has been looking for a full-time instructor I think, but I don't know what it pays.

Last year Monarch in Addison, McKinney, and Dallas Redbird (Exec) were paying $16/flight hour, but required a varying amount of gratis desk duty. Addison is the one where you can make a living and McKinney isn't too shabby.