rickair7777

If you are young, or have no management/leadership experience, this is a very valid consideration. Working as a CFI teaches you some fundamental points about how to be be a captain someday.

While I agree that it is better to hold a CFI AND have some CFI experience, the rating alone will help hone your flying skills to some degree and your knowledge to a greater degree.

Regional interviews are oriented towards their target audience...which is 1000+ hour CFI's. If you are a part 91 commercial-piston pilot you will be at a disadvantage at an interview when they get technical. Remember all the miscellaneous aviation knowledge and regs that you had to talk about on your commercial checkride, and have long since forgotten? CFI's deal with that stuff every day, and they know it by heart...regional interviewers will expect you to also.

You don't need a saint-like devotion to your students to do some CFI work...you just need to work hard at it while you are doing it and try to find a way to enjoy.

Some people say they don't want to CFI because they don't like dealing with people, mentoring, or teaching...those folks should look for career single-pilot jobs, preferably not involving passengers. Airline captains have to mentor and teach new FO's, provide leadership to the entire crew, deal with irate pax, etc.

With all that said, ME time is going to be the key when hiring resumes. After the last downturn, it took 350-500 ME hours to get an interview. There were plenty of 1500+ hours ASEL pilots, so they used ME to thin the herd. Also the aviation safety bills in congress require airlines to "emphasize ME experience" when making hiring decisions. The bill does not set forth a minimum, but if it passes it will most likely cause airlines to raise their ME requirements. I don't think you will ever see another airline pilot with 50 (or 15 ) hours AMEL.

AirWillie

While I agree that having a CFI is great, not having one is not as dire as you make it out to be. I would actually say that the most advantage you have at an interview for entry level flying is not being a CFI but being IFR current. After all that's what you'll be flying in training and on the line. I've flown with plenty of CAs that were not CFIs they are fine. A personal preference is flying with CAs that have prior pt135 single pilot. That is REAL PIC flying experience.

rickair7777

Not having one isn't all that bad...as I pointed out ME time is far more critical, the more the better. But if someone's motives for not wanting to CFI have to do with not wanting to deal with people...that's not someone who is going to make a good team player or leader in an airline/crew environment. If someone happens to have a rare opportunity to build quality time without the CFI...go for it.

Lowlevel

I don't really think the airlines look at CFI as a good or bad thing. Seems that what they want to see is that you have been working as a pilot, not just flying around for fun. That said, there are a lot of different types of flying jobs other than instructing (traffic, pipeline, banner tow, jump plane, etc). I know a lot of guys that never instructed, and were hired at airlines. I know a lot of guys with a CFI that can't even find a job instructing.

My honest advice, since you have a Master's, is go look for some other job besides an airline. I guess if your USAF retirement pays the bills, you could fly at a regional for "the fun of it". If you are hired, after the thousands of other guys with more time get hired, you will most likely spend a long time on reserve and hanging at a crash pad (if you do not live at your base). Not much fun in that!

Not sure if the crew time has any pull in the hiring process. It doesn't count for any time, just as a "familiarization with aviation, weather, etc" I had over 2500 hours as a crew member in a KC-130. During the interview at my airline they asked to tell them a time when I experienced an emergency and how did I deal with it. Most of my examples were in military aircraft. Seems military aircraft have a lot more issues than anything in civilian aviation!

ImperialxRat

For what it is worth, I do not have my CFI and sometimes wish I did.

I was fortunate to fall right into one of those aerial mapping jobs right after finishing up my commercial ratings, so I never continued on to get my CFI. I went from the mapping gig to the regionals. This was back when the regionals were hiring like mad. After my furlough from the regionals, I could not find a flying gig to save my life. My friends who got furloughed went back to instructing... some of them making decent money while doing it.. they were staying current, building time, etc etc.

After 13 months of not touching an airplane I managed to get an interview at a 135 gig (Ameriflight). I hopped in a sim (on my dime), and was rusty as hell. I hopped in a plane and got a BFR and IPC which were not very good after not flying so long, and managed to get hired at AMF.

I think if I were to try and go that same route with this next regional hiring wave, I would not get selected. The aerial mapping time is great... but it is single engine, mostly daytime vfr. No multi time, not much IFR, and not much night... Regionals will be selective in the beginning, because they can.

CFI would be a great experience, invaluable to you as a person, and gives you a great fallback or side gig to stay current and have fun with general aviation.

skork

thanks for the great points. i am going to continue to self study and get the CFI on the cheap. i have several friends that are CFIs and am already proficient flying from the right seat. i even have a CFI position at a military aero club when I finish, so that is all very good. should be able to get a couple of hundred hours of instructing in the next couple of years. on another side note, i fly for a Sheriff's Department as an unpaid volunteer in a law enforcement role. it is the bulk of my recent flying. since it is not paid, will a hiring board consider it important? thanks again for all the input. it really helps deciding how to spend a limited supply of dollars.

dojetdriver

It won't be counted as unimportant. It counts towards your total time/experience.

skork

just trying to figure out what experience I should play up.