How many hours do you guys get on a average year?? and whats the pay like for starting instructing?
Thanks
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shimmydampner
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What? Pay? You're supposed to get paid? Ah shit man. Well, guess I've been screwed again.
Seriously though, hours and pay depends on where you work. But one things for sure, with maybe a couple exceptions, the pay will suck. I got a couple hundred hours in maybe about 7 or 8 months. And I suppose I was one of the exceptions, I was getting paid decent for a class 4 instructor, that is to say, I was surviving paycheque to paycheque without needing a second job.
Seriously though, hours and pay depends on where you work. But one things for sure, with maybe a couple exceptions, the pay will suck. I got a couple hundred hours in maybe about 7 or 8 months. And I suppose I was one of the exceptions, I was getting paid decent for a class 4 instructor, that is to say, I was surviving paycheque to paycheque without needing a second job.
Last edited by shimmydampner on Tue Oct 26, 2004 7:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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groundtoflightdeck
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bush pilot
You may want to look at moving up north somewhere and going the bush pilot route. If you can manage to get on full time doing dock work and whatever else you could get by.
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shimmydampner
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VeRmiLLioN
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Shiny Side Up
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Hours are slim instructing in the winter as well as the daylight hours put a crimp in doing most of your ab initio stuff for starting instructors - never mind Christmas and New Years all the students are too inebriated to fly for about two weeks.
I range about 30-40 hours a month instructing, but during July and August it goes as high as 90, not including any charter work I do.
My best advice to starting out instructors is have a part time job where your hours are flexible until you at least build up a student base that keeps you flying regularly. Pay wise, lets put it this way, the dispatcher usually earns more than the instructors do. So unless you're living with your parents its not enough to put food on the table.
I range about 30-40 hours a month instructing, but during July and August it goes as high as 90, not including any charter work I do.
My best advice to starting out instructors is have a part time job where your hours are flexible until you at least build up a student base that keeps you flying regularly. Pay wise, lets put it this way, the dispatcher usually earns more than the instructors do. So unless you're living with your parents its not enough to put food on the table.
We can't stop here! This is BAT country!
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Right Seat Captain
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It depends on you not the school. I started with no students working the desk in july. I spent all day on the phones calling old students who gave up, looking for new students everywhere I could. Now I have close to 20 students, the school gave me maybe 5.
If you want to fly your ass off, find the students, light a fire under them and make bookings for yourself. Dont wait for them to book you. Then once you get busy you can log 50hrs in a month no prob and make 1500ish a month.
If you want to fly your ass off, find the students, light a fire under them and make bookings for yourself. Dont wait for them to book you. Then once you get busy you can log 50hrs in a month no prob and make 1500ish a month.
When I was instructing, I flew 500 to 600 hours per year.
I agree that winter sucks. Your flight school probably won't like this idea - they want you to hang around on the promise of an hour a week - but go down to Florida for December, January and February, which are totally dead months. Catch up on your sleep, get a great tan, hang out at airports and meet a different group of pilots - there is more to aviation than the GTA (or Pickle Lake, for that matter).
Then come home in the spring and fly your ass off for the summer, putting away some cash. If you get busy enough working, there's no time to spend the money!
I agree that winter sucks. Your flight school probably won't like this idea - they want you to hang around on the promise of an hour a week - but go down to Florida for December, January and February, which are totally dead months. Catch up on your sleep, get a great tan, hang out at airports and meet a different group of pilots - there is more to aviation than the GTA (or Pickle Lake, for that matter).
Then come home in the spring and fly your ass off for the summer, putting away some cash. If you get busy enough working, there's no time to spend the money!
