200hr Wonder wrote:CAVESPRING, I have read the thread and guess what I would not hire you as an instructor based on it. May I humbly suggest that you be very careful with what you post here. There are CFIs who read this forum and it is not as anonymous as you would like to think it is.
First off, you are a JUNIOR instructor with zero experience and really nothing is below you at this point. What is wrong with the CFC job? They are at least being honest. I know of many flight schools that hire JUNIOR instructors and they get to sit there day after day, answer the phones, talk up prospective clients, give tours of the hangar etc. Do you know when they get to fly? FAM flights and when they finally get a FAM flight that decides to sign up for training. When you come into a school chances are good that all the other students have their preferred instructors, and second choice for the guy you are replacing. So you have no students anyway. You need to teach Ground School. It is a great way to get to know your student body, interact with them and maybe they will book you as an instructor should there regular one become unavailable or they have a conflict. Though judging from your posts you would not want to do these sorts of things.
As for your school not hiring the guy before you or you, can you tell us did they hire a Class IV? If it was a 3, well that makes sense for whole multitude of reasons. Timing is also an issue, being an instructor short for even a week can be a problem. Not to mention supervising a Class IV is a pain.
All I can say is suck it up buttercup. Situation is bad, you are a Class IV who needs three solo and three flight tests before you can operate on your own. There are lots of guys who are staying longer than usual in instructing or like me who are considering going back to it after a time off. You need to learn that you are not going to get everything handed to you on a silver platter. Would you rather take a temporary job pounding nails and shlepping lumber on a construction site or be the dispatch guy at a flight school? Your call. I can recommend that you apply to all the schools with cadet contracts starting April, try and give a few a visit. Six weeks to a Class 3 or at least a good portion of a Class 3. Actually funny thing about them Cadets, my first Cadet contract I was the last hired so I had to suck it up and teach ground school and only got 2 flight test recommends and 2 first solos. But hey, that is below you no?
Should you sell out and fly for free? NO!
Is there anything wrong with the CFC job? Not at all, seems quite clear and fair. If you don't like it don't take it I am sure there are plenty of people who will.
You are a Class IV, you have ZERO to offer a school as an instructor. They generally do not give complete idiots an instructor rating, so I could care less about your flight time, type and what not beyond that you have zero hours instructing and maybe a quick check flight. So my questions as a hiring CFI would be what does this person bring to the job beyond flying? For the record I have had to hire people.
+1 with some disagreements.
200 Hour Wonder; I'm really astonished that you think CFC is a good offer; perhaps I misunderstood. Maybe you were comparing CFC's offer with punching nails where the CFC job would eventually get you flying and the nail job wouldn't. If that's what you meant then I apologize.
But CFC is not a company you want to work for. Especially not a company that you want to pay your dues with *more on this later.*
A Class 4 instructor, even though he's junior, should still be instructing. Not doing dispatch and washing toilets. That's the kind of job that whores out the profession of aviation if you know what I mean. Yes, instruction should be in the form of GS or FAM flights in the beginning to gain student interest. I can say that first hand because I've taught GS at numerous schools and have done lots of private tutoring and guess what, there's a pretty good line up of students to keep me flying as a result of that. They'll want to exchange contact info with you so that they can "keep in touch" and for you to "call them" when you're available. (that came out wrong).
The airports I felt the most welcome at CZBB was PRO / Sea Land / PFC. From what I hear, their instructors are fairly okay with working conditions. But to each his/her own as there is always going to be the party pooper who doesn't like the operation.
In my opinion, the liking of an operation comes down to personal preference. But there always is a similarity between people. For example, the majority of people here like Steaks. I for one, don't like steaks.
Similar comparison comes to company's, interests, jobs, and etc. CFC is a company where most instructors/employees end up leaving unhappy due to the working conditions.
I don't know what your experience with CFC is 200 but I've had first hand experience.
Otherwise, great post pal !
Sorry I was not clear.
What does that mean paying your due when you just spent huge amount of money to a school which won' t hire you?
Paying your due to who? You owe what to who and for what reason?
As far as I know we use "paying your due" when you owe something to somebody.
My guess is that you mix up "more pilot supply than demand, which induce high competition and crap job" with "paying your due".
Sorry I was not clear.
What does that mean paying your due when you just spent huge amount of money to a school which won' t hire you?
Paying your due to who? You owe what to who and for what reason?
As far as I know we use "paying your due" when you owe something to somebody.
My guess is that you mix up "more pilot supply than demand, which induce high competition and crap job" with "paying your due".
Anybody starting out in the industry has things to learn, things to see, and things to experience. Because this candidate is so "new" to this industry, he/she can't expect to be offered a job so easily. In the beginning, it's what 200 said; what is this candidate able to bring to the job aside from flying. Because he/she could be a good aviator, but if there is to be little motivation for the employer to spend time supervising, he or she needs assurance that this guy is going to last and be an asset to his/her operation.
In the form of instructor ratings, the Class 1 typically likes to hire the candidate unless there's obvious reasons not to. The reason is that the Class 1 is an experienced pilot / psychologist. From this he/she can very easily comprehend if the person he/she is dealing with would be a good instructor with respect to all avenues.
Unfortunately, the class 1 may have begun an instructor rating when the economy was good and as a result, is unable to hire that person due to the economy's limitations.
So as a result, the class 4 has to match his previous work ethic for the obtainment of a class 4 rating, and use that kind of motivation towards proving other operators that he/she is employable. As unfair as it sounds, this is often times how jobs are started in aviation. Some people like my self, are a bit lucky and get employment. After a few flights, my class 1 threw me into teaching ground school and from there, I obtained student interest for flights (what 200hr said).
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