Hey all, I have a buddy that is considering a CFI job at Bel-Air. I've googled them and things don't seem very good from a students perspective but what about as an employee? He wants to build as much time as possible upwards of 100 hours per month.

He has a job now somewhere else where he will get this but San Fran is home so he would like to do that but the concern is that he will leave a job where he will get a lot of time to go somewhere else (it is more pay) but won't get the hours.

Any current or recent instructors there that can give some insight? Thanks...

It's been a few years since I instructed there. It's very hard to describe the experience. The CFI job there is good for time building. If he only wants to get 100 hours, it won't take long at all. I can't say I felt unsafe in the airplanes, but the MX there wasn't quite what I was used to.

The most difficult part about working there is the boss/owner. Some days he will be your best friend, other times he will fire you on a whim only to rehire you 2 days later. I definitely would NOT recommend this school for someone to do training. He's very sneaky with the money, and is borderline sketchy. He would also force students to fly 5-6 hours per day when the schedule was a little bare. Also, unless it's different now, he should be prepared to pay for his own check out flights once hired.

So all in all, I don't regret working there. It was my first instructing gig when hiring was slim and opened a lot of doors for me. It's definitely a place you want to CYA though..especially when it comes to MX, inspections, MELs, etc.

That's a brief rundown..feel free to PM.

I'm sorry, I should have said he would like to do 100 hours per month. Thanks a lot for the info though!