instructor hours a month

[Pete]

Im sure this has been brought up before but to all instructors at medium sized schools out there, how many hours do you average a week...or a month? I do about 60-70 a month...or 15-17 a week.

Only asking to see what other instructors do...Im sure bigger schools, instructors average more...thats why Im curious for the medium sized ones.

[Cat Attack]

Well I can't say anything for medium or large schools but stay away from the little ones. I got 25 hrs last month and maybe only 50 the month before. It's a tough market out there.

[C-GGGQ]

I got 50 ish billable hours last month, 12 of those were flight hours

[wxguy]

I've heard of 100+ by some

[Cat Attack]

What do you mean by billable hours? I guess I've been working about 32 hrs. a week of dispatch and answering the phone that kind of stuff? More that then flying. Just holding in there till I get my thousand hours, I've been told that's the magic number to get right seat some where.

[C-GGGQ]

by billable i mean not just flying. PGI's, dispatch shift, etc.

[alexdenham]

I usually average around 100 billable hours a month in the summer at my current school. That is PGI and Flight Time. It depends upon the school you work at more than the size of the school in my experience. I was at a school about three times the size of my current one and we definitly did have a lot of work to keep us going. But I find I have just as much work here at my current school because the owner does a very god job of student management and recruitment.

[MorganAirCFI]

At one point I was doing 100 hours of flying a month instructing in the winter. But now as the CFI I do maybe 40. I get paid more and work less.

[MichaelP]

I got 50 ish billable hours last month, 12 of those were flight hours

Then you are doing your job!
Don't forget that we are supposed to be doing PGI, pre flt and post flt briefs...
Learning to fly is done on the ground and practiced in the air.
It's a problem because students don't like to pay for ground briefings, but they save money if they do!

But now as the CFI I do maybe 40.

You're doing your job too

[AuxBatOn]

4 hours on the ground for 1 hour in the air? Poor student!!

[MichaelP]

Well trained student!

How many hours study does one do to get the PPL and then the CPL?

I bet that there are more hours spent in the books than the 4:1 ratio you think is 'poor'.

[AuxBatOn]

Spent in the books, at home, perfectly fine. Prepare on your own time all you want. However, 4 hours of briefing/debriefing on how to do slow flying on a 172? Excessive IMHO. We're getting away from the original subject

[MichaelP]

to do slow flying on a 172

Any flying in a 172 is slow flying in what you're flying

Who knows the context of these billable hours?
Navigation as a PGI with student supervision until it's done properly can easily be four hours.
Sometimes this particular item is done over as students take a lot of work to grasp it.

The point is though, that a reasonable proportion of billable hours should be ground instruction, maybe not often 4:1

[C-GGGQ]

Who knows the context of these billable hours?
Navigation as a PGI with student supervision until it's done properly can easily be four hours.

I just started 6 fresh students, the first briefing they each have is lessons 1-5 at a prescribed length in the schools syllabus of 3.1 hours. then a 1.2 flight, then another 1.1 hour briefing then 1.2 flight then the briefings start being your normal .3-.5 hours. That's why the ratio is so high at this point. Also We've had some pretty rough weather out here for the last little bit so they have been getting briefings instead of flights. At other schools i've worked my PGI's were a fraction of what they are here. This being said this syllabus seems to work very well for the students especially for the first few flights there is so much to go over before hand.

[AuxBatOn]

Why do you brief students if you don't fly??

[MichaelP]

Why do you brief students if you don't fly??

That's an odd question....

Like the example of the navigation exercise, there's a lot of briefing involved and sometimes the student does not come prepared even after this briefing, the weather has not been checked etc...
As for groundschool, I have not seen a decent groundschool course that fully prepares a student for navigation.

If the weather is too bad to fly, then an instructor should take the opportunity to increase the student's knowledge through groundschooling them.

It will save them money later on when someone is asked to do a preflight test prior to the actual one and then finds holes in that student's knowledge.

IMHO the forty hour PPL groundschool requirement is not adequate unless the student is motivated enough to do a lot of self study.
For many students groundschooling by the instructor is important.

[AuxBatOn]

Seen, but if a student is not prepared to go flying (for a nav, for example, the log card is incomplete, pre-flight planning missing, etc) then he should not go flying. Same thing goes for manoevers, if a student can't describe you how to do a stall in the briefing, he obviously didn't do his homework and should not go flying. It's just going to be a waste of your time and his money. That's my opinion. However, I do agree that some students feel the need to have an instructor teach them stuff vice them reading and self teaching.

[pilot_navigator77]

ONCE I HAVE FLOWN 143 HOURS A MONTH , WELL THAT WAS IN A CADET PERIOD. USUALLY I FLY 110-120 A MONTH.

[sugarfree]

Why do you brief students if you don't fly??

That's an odd question....

Like the example of the navigation exercise, there's a lot of briefing involved and sometimes the student does not come prepared even after this briefing, the weather has not been checked etc...
As for groundschool, I have not seen a decent groundschool course that fully prepares a student for navigation.

If the weather is too bad to fly, then an instructor should take the opportunity to increase the student's knowledge through groundschooling them.

It will save them money later on when someone is asked to do a preflight test prior to the actual one and then finds holes in that student's knowledge.

IMHO the forty hour PPL groundschool requirement is not adequate unless the student is motivated enough to do a lot of self study.
For many students groundschooling by the instructor is important.

Any where in there where the students actually gets to understand "flight"... If you are training a student to fly is that what he/she should be doing. How else can you demonstate what the controls are actually meant to do.. Stalls must be felt and understood, in the air.. A memorization of procedures does not always constitute that the student actually grasped the concept.

My Dad flew bombers back in WW2 in England. They where taught to fly by numbers, repeat said procedeure and that was it. Now go fly your missions and that was with a cadet that had maybe 25 to 40 hrs total. The picked up the theory while in combat!!!

Yes I agree that 40hrs is not enough and I also believe that the night rating should be part of the initial training and not selective as it is.

SF./

[Cat Attack]

I like your point of view but the problem I'm having lately is that the students aren't smart enough to pick things up that fast and if you take them up and do the teaching without procedure memorization they just get over whelmed and give up. It's probably been a year since I've had a student competant enough to progress quickly.

Is anyone else finding this?

[Cat Driver]

Deleted, wrong forum.

[Pete]

Here's an addition to my original post...to the past instructors,

Whats a good number (these days) to move on from instructing? I have heard 1000 is more then enough...but when did some of you posters move on from instructing? For say a right seat IFR job?

I am enjoying myself...I dont see myself moving anywhere for now...but the way the industry is currently, whats a marketable figure for the next step up the ladder? Merci

[sugarfree]

I like your point of view but the problem I'm having lately is that the students aren't smart enough to pick things up that fast and if you take them up and do the teaching without procedure memorization they just get over whelmed and give up. It's probably been a year since I've had a student competant enough to progress quickly.

Just maybe the student these days expect everything handed to them on a silver platter, maybe there just there for the high dollars .. (well you know what I mean)

I was talking to a PPL with about 200 hrs, all he kept talking about was the numbers... did not undertand the whys just the hows..

Is this sufficent ???? What happens to such a pilot in an emergency landing ??


Sorry for hijacking

SF./