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How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:03 am
by . ._
I was searching and searching on here and couldn't find a thread on this topic.

How long did it take you to get your instructor rating? Did you work on it full time? Part time?

I'm thinking VERY seriously about getting an instructor rating now.

Watch out! ISTP could be coming to an FTU near YOU!! :twisted:

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:10 am
by cdnpilot77
God help us all!!! :)

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:19 am
by jamesel
Way back earlier on in the last century, started on May 14th, finished with ride on June 29th. Flew on 4 weekends, until school was out, then 10 days straight with a coupla weathered out days. So 14 days of flying, but with a lot of ground work on those weather days and in between flights, so I guess 3 weeks might be a good minimum, (weather dependent) if doing it in a straight stretch.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 9:42 am
by iflyforpie
Feb 7 2004 to June 30 2004, during which I was working full time, buying my first house, and becoming a father. Because of the last two I haven't used it for years.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:03 am
by kmf.kenif
I did my FIR beginning of May 2011 and finished it beginning of August. There was 2 weeks of bad weather at the end of July, or else I would've complete it in exactly three months. Was basically a full-time student, was at the flight school from 8-1800 almost everyday except for the weekend (at times I did do Saturdays). Then you can get a good grasp of the operations and the people walking in and out of the flight school, gives you a chance to help out other students who studying for written exams or just needing help figuring out stuff. Its also nice to be able to back seat some instructors and get a grasp of how they teach.

Its the quality that matters most for FIR, don't try to rush it.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 4:07 pm
by ant_321
I spent 3 months doing the training and then spent another 3 months waiting for a TC examiner.

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 6:51 pm
by Beefitarian
More importantly, how's your mandarin?

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 8:42 pm
by SuperchargedRS
All self study, logged about 5hrs in the plane with a instructor, all in 2.5ish months and 1500 bucks.


I was a teacher in another field for a while while I was doing my flight training though, so that might have helped.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2011 10:04 pm
by Frank Uckër
All self study, logged about 5hrs in the plane with a instructor
Waving the bullshit flag. Ever heard of CAR 421.69 that you claim to have contravened?
An applicant shall complete in aeroplanes a minimum of 30 hours of dual flight instruction
So, you are claiming to have fraudulently padded your PTR for your class 4 instructor rating? Transport takes a very dim view of logbook fraud for licences and ratings upgrades, with very severe penalties. If Enforcement finds out who you are, you're toast.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 7:35 am
by tractor747
If someone committed log book fraud, is there a time limit to enforce by Transport? Sorry about the off topic question.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 8:28 am
by AUGER9
Did mine in about 3.5 months during the summer, 2-4 bookings a week.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 9:10 am
by Frank Uckër
is there a time limit to enforce by Transport?
Nope, amazingly enough there is NO statute of limitations with respect to CARs contraventions. After one year, Transport isn't supposed to fine any money, but they have gone after pilots many years after the event with heavy licence suspensions.

In the case where a licence or rating was fraudlently obtained on the basis of false logbook entries, they will revoke the licence or rating regardless of any time considerations.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:28 pm
by DaveC
Frank Uckër wrote:
is there a time limit to enforce by Transport?
Nope, amazingly enough there is NO statute of limitations with respect to CARs contraventions. After one year, Transport isn't supposed to fine any money, but they have gone after pilots many years after the event with heavy licence suspensions.

In the case where a licence or rating was fraudlently obtained on the basis of false logbook entries, they will revoke the licence or rating regardless of any time considerations.
I heard that is correct as well. I heard a story about a guy who got his float rating illegally (due to not having insurance for the solo part of he rating), then eventually started teaching float ratings himself. Apparently once TC found out about this, he lost his seaplane rating and all of the students who trained with him lost theirs as well.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Thu Oct 20, 2011 12:49 pm
by SuperchargedRS
Frank Uckër wrote:
All self study, logged about 5hrs in the plane with a instructor
Waving the bullshit flag. Ever heard of CAR 421.69 that you claim to have contravened?
An applicant shall complete in aeroplanes a minimum of 30 hours of dual flight instruction
So, you are claiming to have fraudulently padded your PTR for your class 4 instructor rating? Transport takes a very dim view of logbook fraud for licences and ratings upgrades, with very severe penalties. If Enforcement finds out who you are, you're toast.
Should have added, this wasn't in Canada

I only have aboot 10hrs in aeroplanes, the rest is in airplanes, if that helps :wink:

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:34 pm
by LLJ
I did mine this year in 4 weeks. so, it's possible to do it quickly, but it's definitely not something I would suggest or ever do again. Get the Pultz Instructor Guide and whatever other material you can find to learn everything you were never taught about theory, human factors, and instructional techniques. The Pultz guide is pretty dated but there are a lot of great mock exams in there and it's not like the theory is ever going to change. Talk to everyone you can who has taken the AIRAF and learn from their mistakes. There are a lot of typical TC questions that make you go "huh??". Good luck!!

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 3:02 pm
by tractor driver
4 weeks here also, then a 2 wk wait for a ride. Had several years and thousands of hours @ the time, so that helped. Carried on to the class 1. A great experience sharing your passsion with fellow enthusiasts.
Hope you do it and have fun!
g

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 7:40 pm
by straightpilot
Ok, in 4 weeks (20 days) you flew 30 hours of dual and did 25 hours of ground training.

You didn't miss a single day due to weather or aircraft unserviceability or instructor availabilty.

Every day for a month, you flew 30/20= 1.5 hours of dual, and also did 25/20=1.25 hours of instructor ground training.

Impressive!

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 7:52 pm
by tractor driver
Kinda helped that at the time I owned the school. is that cheating?
Average time for any of the instructors I have trained has been 6 wks. Some as little as 4, some longer. A big time consumer is getting the instructor notes / lesson plans in order. Kind of miss it some days.
Cheers!
g

p.s. 4 wks = 28 days not as impressive as you may be imagining

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:18 pm
by straightpilot
My point was that people here are not telling the full story, so their times aren't very realistic.

"I got my flight instructor rating after 5 hours of dual", and "I got my flight instructor rating in 4 weeks (but I owned the flight school)" are not very helpful or typical.

If you pass your flight instructor rating flight test 8 weeks after you commence training, you are doing pretty well, regardless of the hero stories you might read on the internet.

Re: How long did it take you to get your instructor rating?

Posted: Sun Oct 23, 2011 9:20 pm
by jpar84
I started at the end of march this year and just did the ride last wednesday, so 6.5 months almost 7. Went on vacation twice for a total of about 2 weeks, my instructor also went away for 2 weeks so lost a month on that. Aside from that a busy insructor meant I was usually only able to book twice per week. Just glad its finally done now!!!! :smt040