Career Instructor

[Blake]

Hi there, just wondering if anyone out there has made a career out of instructing? If so what are the good and bad youve run into?Pay and benefits? Just curious I havent seen any post that relate to it. Just on people starting with instructing. Thanks for any replies

[artygunchief]

If you want to make a career out of instructing build your dual given time, find a school where you are allowed to teach full down autos and become comfortable with them and look into LSI at Ft Rucker. Pay and benefits are amazing for the hours you work, and no they dont hire just former military pilots I was civilian trained and got on with them. The course you go through is very demanding be ready to memorize pages and pages verbatim. You will fly the TH67 which is a N registered 206, they are getting older but are well maintained. The only downside is no XC or Instrument flying if you teach Primary which, if you dont have any actual IMC you probably will be teaching, so get used to alot of patterns. It is a rewarding job though teaching Army officers how to fly and trying to get them ready for the challenges that lie ahead of them.

[Blake]

Yea I have read a little about LSI. It does sound like a pretty good job. Thanks for the extra info.

[kodoz]

Hi there, just wondering if anyone out there has made a career out of instructing? If so what are the good and bad youve run into?Pay and benefits? Just curious I havent seen any post that relate to it. Just on people starting with instructing. Thanks for any replies

 

Well...there are Chief and Assistant Chief Pilot positions with flight schools out there...you can see what the requirements are by looking in Part 141. I was interested in doing career instruction as well, but the story I got is that you instruct so that you can build time and then you move on so another guy can step in and get his time. You could also look at starting your own school, but making that work I think takes more than being a good instructor. Another option would be freelance instruction--look on Barnstormers.com and you'll see ads for a few guys who will come out to a client's location and train them on their helicopter. There are also companies who do this--maybe transition training or specialized training. I talked to a few at HAI, and basically they are looking for very experienced pilots--guys who have flown many different models, are experts on a particular model, or are experts on a particular operation. It's not primary training, but it is instruction.

[FauxZ]

If you plan to be a career instructor, and you're good at it, and you make it known what your goals are, few schools will "throw you out the door." There are always lead pilot and assistant chief positions, and then if the cards align there are chief pilot spots. I know the Chief Pilot at Quantum has been there her whole flight career. She trained there, instructed for a few years, then moved into the chief spot as it was vacated. Been there 12 or 13 years now. Just one example.

 

The other option is freelance of course, which can be VERY lucrative. Its all about having the right clients and the right credentials. Oh, and you have to be good at it. All the passion in the world won't make you a good instructor, and sometimes the hardest person to convince is yourself. Let's face it, unless you're really bad, no one is going to tell you you're just not that great.

[Blake]

Thanks for the input. Thats what I was looking for. Not quite sure what career direction I want to take. I just know I want to fly. Only taken one lesson so far, but everyday I find myself researching training and careers. Been hooked since my first offshore flight a few years ago. Now im at a point to do it, and want to be well informed and do it right. This is a great sight and ive learned alot reading through all the questions and answers. Im currently in Iraq and have enrolled for the fall semester at University Louisiana Monroe. Ill be back to check it out in about a week. They partnered with Johnston Flying services. Anyone know much about them. They've been very helpful on the phone and getting me paperwork even over here. Ill be going down there to check it out before I sign anything, but im impressed so far.

[Greeny]

Doesn't it scare you that you will be teaching with no commercial experiance?

 

I understand (and hate) the fact that most instructors are straight off student status

 

But if you are going to make a career out of it and aim one day to become chief pilot / examiner

(by definition: the one at the top with all the answers and experiance)

 

If you have never hit a confined mountain pad at MAUW

If you have never dropped your 100ft load though a hole in the trees to workers you can see

If you have never shot your offshore approch in full IMC

If you have never landed on a freeway in the dark and rain doing EMS

 

Is it just me or are you not failing your students and (and lower time instructors below you)

 

What can you offer them from your experiance if most of your flying is round the airfield you know

 

Blake don't take this personaly it is not aimed at you

(good luck with Iraq and what ever flying career you get into anyway you can)

 

It is aimed at and industry that I believe is fundementaly wrong

 

Just my 2 cents

[Blake]

Not taken personaly at all. Thats good advice, and thats what im here for. Not to say someone without those experiences couldnt make a great instructor or even chief pilot, but i do agree it would be very beneficial to someone higher up the chain such as a lead instructor or chief pilot to have those experiences. Thanks

[ADRidge]

You know, I learned a great deal from my sub-1000 hour instructors. However, I learned more flying two hours with a 12,000 hr RW guy whose daily job is flying for the US Gov't than I would have from ten hours with those same sub-1000 hour guys. It's not a difference in ability to 'wiggle the sticks" really. It's more like "well, let me give you this scenario... how would you handle it?" The folks who have had things go completely haywire tend to have some insight that, frankly, some others do not. I'd call that experience. If I were looking for a CP, I'd look for experience over sheer number of hours flown.

[FauxZ]

To play devil's advocate, I'm going to say the job of the primary instructor is simply to provide a basis for passing the checkride. Their goal is to get you the license, your job is to learn the details. Honestly, I don't really see a big deal with new CFI's teaching private students, or even instrument students. It'd be nice to have more experience for Commercial, but again, you're trying to pass a checkride. Your first job should provide you with at least some training.

 

That said, I'd love it if all instructors were high time guys with commercial experience. It would be interesting to see who would fare better with a private student, a 200 hour new CFI, or a 1500 hour new CFI. Just curious.

[Vert_ED]

Doesn't it scare you that you will be teaching with no commercial experiance?

...

 

If you have never hit a confined mountain pad at MAUW

If you have never dropped your 100ft load though a hole in the trees to workers you can see

If you have never shot your offshore approch in full IMC

If you have never landed on a freeway in the dark and rain doing EMS

 

Is it just me or are you not failing your students and (and lower time instructors below you)

...

 

It is aimed at and industry that I believe is fundementaly wrong

 

Just my 2 cents

 

My "experience" so far is only an intro flight to make sure it didn't scare the hell out of me before I applied for loans; so take my comment with a grain of salt and I mean no offense.

 

I would like my instructor to have real world experience, but I certainly don't see it as neccesary. I expect from my future instructor only the knowledge I need to operate the helicopter safely and efficiently. I wouldn't expect my driver's ed teacher back in high school to give me deep insights into how to drive NASCAR, High Speed Pursuit or Emergecy Response on a winding country road... I think your examples fall in the realm of on the job training.

 

I realize you were just making a point but if you expect an instructor to have that breadth of knowledge I don't want to think how much his time would cost me.

[helonorth]

Greeny, you're puttingthe proverbial horse before the cart. New pilots don't fly IFR, do not fly long line, do not take off or land in high altitude confined areas MAUW (whatever that is) or

off airport in the dark. When it comes time to do those things, you will probably have quite a few hours, and hopefully some good judgement to go with it. I'm sorry you hate the system the way it is, but it works just fine. Would an instructor that landed IFR offshore in IMC or landed in the dark off airport have been helpful during training? I can't see how.

[Darren Hughes]

I'm sorry you hate the system the way it is, but it works just fine.

 

Sorry Helonorth, I have to disagree here. The current system doesn't work "just fine". Look at all the unemployed instructors out there, and the major shortage of experienced pilots in the upper ranks. I'm one of those sub-1000 hour instructors that are currently preparing people for the "real world". With 650 hours I can assure you that I know a 20 year guy would be able to prepare people like my students way better than I can. Sure I can prep a student just fine for a Private, Instrument, Commercial, or CFI checkride, and I have a really good record to date. But, those checkrides aren't based on real world flying.

 

It probably won't change anytime soon, because like most things, big business(insurance companies) will decide if and when we can change our system. But it can be better, much better in fact. Discussing it here probably won't have a huge impact, but it does need to be discussed. Hopefully, eventually change will happen and people who actually have a passion for flight instruction will take up the majority of instructor positions!

[helonorth]

We really weren't talking about the job progression. I thought we were talking about how the current system of low time pilots teaching low time pilots was "fundamentally flawed". I disagree. You ARE teaching people to learn the basics, and you are honing them youself. That is why "real world" jobs go to 1000+ hour pilots. A 20 year pilot will not be able to prepare students for checkrides any better than any 500 hour decent instructor. The point is is that students need to crawl before they can walk. To a GOM company or an EMS company, you are just beginning to show that you have the maturity and skills to safely perform their missions.

"Real world" flying jobs go to people that have learned the basics well, as you are doing now and as every instructor did before you. What we do in the "real world" is not much different than

what you teach every day. It's all about learning the basics and developing sound judgement for the first 1000 hours or so. After that you try to maintain it.

Edited July 21, 2009 by helonorth

[Eric Hunt]

I got my instructor rating in 1976, when I had 1500 hours. Now with 13,000 hours, I am back in a flight school, after all those years in the commercial, instructional, and government fields. Our school has a mix of high-time (45,000 hrs between 3) medium-time (500-1000 hrs instruction)and brand-new juniors. It is obvious that the high-timers are easily able to analyse a student's problems by relying on what they have seen and learned over their 30-40 years in the game.

 

Experience is only an accident that you DIDN'T have. The oldies are able to steer the student away from situations that lead to accidents, whereas the newbies have yet to face the situation themselves, with no guarantee that they will back off in time to avoid the accident.