Hiring Instructors

[spectrumair]

As a CFI I get inundated with resumes from class 4 instructors looking for that first job. I also get to meet many of these young people who drop in to see me or I meet at refresher courses. I wish that I could hire many of them but I am limited by needs at our FTU.

There are not many ads for instructors on this website and many of these wannabe instructors out there have to resort to cold calling hoping to be in the right place at the right time.

I think that we may be able to encourage and motivate these guys to keep up the job search, by FTU's/CFI's indicating what hiring they have done in the past or are anticipating doing in the future.

Let me start. In the past two months I have hired 6 instructors, four class 4's, one class 2 and one class 1. They were hired to fill a need or an anticipated need at our FTU as we have experienced some upward movement in the industry lately. We are not a particularly large school, 15 aircraft and 12 instructors, and there are much larger schools in southern ontario.

Let's hear from some of the other schools out there as to what hiring they have done so that those instructors looking for jobs can see that there really is some movement taking place.

For the benefit of CS, I hired Bluenote two days ago, he's on a months probation so I will keep you advised as to how he progresses.

Phil Brasher
Chief Flight Instructor
Spectrum Airways

[Beefitarian]

This should be an interesting thread. Thanks for making it.

As a CFI I get inundated with resumes from class 4 instructors looking for that first job.

There are not many ads for instructors on this website and many of these wannabe instructors out there have to resort to cold calling hoping to be in the right place at the right time.

Can you imagine how many you'd get if you put up an ad?

[shamrock104]

Good on you Phil, we met on the Instructor refresher course back in February and you run a Class act. Its great to get that kind of feedback and encourages those looking for work.

[Colonel Sanders]

I hired Bluenote two days ago

Good Lord! Hades has iced up on me!

Fingers crossed that he works out ...

[Shiny Side Up]

I hired Bluenote two days ago

Good Lord! Hades has iced up on me!

Fingers crossed that he works out ...

We should get a pool going or something on this one.

[Big Pistons Forever]

It is great to see some movement in the Industry. Out here on the Best Coast almost every school is hiring

Bluenote. Glad to see you got your foot in the door, good luck !

[bluenote]

It has been a while since I posted anything.

Where do I contribute in the pool to see If I'll pass probation. I will try my best and see what happens at the end of the probation period.

I would like to also add that Mr. Brasher has given me the opportunity that no one else had and that is an entry level instructing job and again a class act. Thank you and I hope to be there past the thirty days that I am given to prove myself. I have never instructed before and want to do this permanently and hope to get better and better at it whether Spectrum Airways wants me or wishes to release me, understand completely.

thanks again for the comments positive or negative, always striving to learn.

[Colonel Sanders]

Congratulations, Bluenote!

Free advice:

1) Don't let anyone ever push you into doing anything unsafe or illegal, and

2) Try to keep things as simple as possible for the students. Don't do 2 hr
PGI's, don't do 45 min pre-flight briefs, and don't do a complete brain dump
of everything you know about a lesson on some poor farmer. Tell the student
what he needs to do, in the airplane, to perform the exercise.

[bluenote]

Thank you Colonel Sanders, but first I have to pass probation. I won't be official until I pass probation.

I hope to be there past the thirty days but time will tell.

Again to all pilots/new flight instructors out there don't give up because I sure haven't. Flying on and off for the past 30 years and loving to fly I always have strived to get where I want to be. It took me a while to get my instructor rating and another almost 3 years to get that first job so here goes.

thanks

[jgppilot]

Hi Phil,


I just wanted to thank you for starting this thread. I am one of the class 4's looking for the first job and I appreciate that somebody in your position would make the effort to help us out. On that note I believe I sent you my resume this past tuesday.

I will definitely be keeping a close eye on this thread!

cheers

[shamrock104]

Bluenote, dont worry, its also a period to see how you like the school, dont sell yourself short, if its not a good fit for you walk away and start again.

[niwre]

It's amazing to hear that there are schools that are beating away IV's and III's with a bat while we can even seem to get one to commit. We've advertised off and on for over a year, once we had one commit and then a week before they were supposed to come they bailed. Sure we may not have a twin (strike one) or located in a metropolis (strike two) or give the charter flying to you right away (strike three) but you will log tons of hours. We never make anyone work more that 5days a week or be on duty for more than 8hrs and never make anyone stick around if there is no flying to be done (if you do decided to stick around and help out around the place you get paid for that too).

[jgppilot]

It's amazing to hear that there are schools that are beating away IV's and III's with a bat while we can even seem to get one to commit. We've advertised off and on for over a year, once we had one commit and then a week before they were supposed to come they bailed. Sure we may not have a twin (strike one) or located in a metropolis (strike two) or give the charter flying to you right away (strike three) but you will log tons of hours. We never make anyone work more that 5days a week or be on duty for more than 8hrs and never make anyone stick around if there is no flying to be done (if you do decided to stick around and help out around the place you get paid for that too).

Hi niwre,

What flight school are you with if you don't mind me asking?

[niwre]

Border City in Lloyd

[Gessle64]

Congrats on the new job.

Free advice:

Just a little more...

1) Make sure your students are actually learning. Hopefully you've brushed up on your techniques to ensure progress. The thing that most instructors (even Class 1s and 2s) forget is that it's all about your student and not about you. What Col. Sanders said about keeping it simple is 100%.
2) Crack a book, often. Students never ask the easy questions. You have to know more than them if you're going to answer them properly. Take time to understand the machine you fly and the weather and airspace that you fly it in.
3) Don't work for free. For honest work, your time has a price. Filling out a PTR is a customer service that comes with a flight booking, ramping the entire fleet is not.
4) Don't ever take pressure to not snag a plane if it is broken. In typical flight school politics, this is a big one that can cause friction. The PRM must decide if it can be deferred, that's his/her job.

It's difficult and often unpopular to do the right thing. Have fun and be careful.

[Jojo1]

Great Thread. I just finished school and I don't want to see myself wasting all this great knowledge I have gained in school on a ramp for a year or two. I really enjoy helping others, considering on doing my instructor rating at the moment. Would like to see some demand before going too deep.

[Shiny Side Up]

It's amazing to hear that there are schools that are beating away IV's and III's with a bat while we can even seem to get one to commit.

I think I end up hiring a new instructor every year for the past ten. They mostly move up and on so there's been steady movement. It has been very hard to find replacements lately, not because there isn't any, lord knows I get a steady stream of applicants, but because the average quality is low. Hiring instructors is such a pitfall, lots of the usual methods of sorting through the resume stack just don't work very well.

[Colonel Sanders]

the average quality is low

I would agree with you SSU, but I think it's important
for the new kids (class 4's) to understand that we aren't
sh1tting on them. They aren't any dumber or lazier than
we were, 20 years ago, when we got our initial class 4's.

Rather, when you see a marginal class 4 instructor, what
you are seeing is the product of a marginal class 1 instructor.

What I see is that while many people out there hold a class 1
instructor rating, precious few of them are any good - or even
experienced - at teaching new instructors. Maybe 10% of the
class 1's out there are capable of producing a good class 4
instructor.

To class 4 instructors out there ... you think teaching a PPL
is challenging. Well, perhaps some day you will teach a new
class 4 instructor, and that surely isn't easy to do well, either,
which results in what SSU is seeing.

FWIW I had decades of flying experience and thousands of
hours and an ATPL before I finally got a class 1 instructor rating.

Frankly I would doubt the ability of any class 1 to do a good job
of teaching new class 4's, without at least a single decade's
worth of pilot experience.

[Shiny Side Up]

Rather, when you see a marginal class 4 instructor, what
you are seeing is the product of a marginal class 1 instructor.

What I see is that while many people out there hold a class 1
instructor rating, precious few of them are any good - or even
experienced - at teaching new instructors. Maybe 10% of the
class 1's out there are capable of producing a good class 4
instructor.

You're right Colonel, it wasn't my intention to crap on the new class 4s, though admittedly they do bear some of the responsibility in selecting their own class 1. A lot of these fellows have no business being class 4s, but it really should have been a class 1 out there who steered them away in the first place. Not everyone is cut out for instructing, I've had to turn away a few, and I wish some of the other class 1s out there would be a little more discriminating.

[Big Pistons Forever]

A lot of these fellows have no business being class 4s, but it really should have been a class 1 out there who steered them away in the first place. Not everyone is cut out for instructing, I've had to turn away a few, and I wish some of the other class 1s out there would be a little more discriminating.

I tell anyone who wants me to teach them to be a flying instructor I will only guarantee 5 hours of training. By five hours at the latest I will decide if they are instructor material. The 5 hours will also give the student a clear idea of the amount of studying and work he/she will have to put in and so I want a commitment from them that they will finish. My last student would have in IMO made a good instructor but was clearly unprepared for how much work the course required. After thinking things over he decided he was not really in a position to put the effort in and so we agreed to stop his training.

[trey kule]

Frankly I would doubt the ability of any class 1 to do a good job
of teaching new class 4's, without at least a single decade's
worth of pilot experience.

How very true. And it would be nice if the experience, or a part of it, was outside the FTU envirorment. I think it is entirely possible maybe, to get a class one instructor rating without ever having done a 1000 mile cross country, or flown more than one or two types of aircraft...blind leading the blind.

[Colonel Sanders]

The recent landmark Seneca accident - 3 people died in a Bonanza due
to disorientation at night resulting in a spiral dive - had as PIC a class 1
instructor with precisely seven hours of actual IFR time.

Just to show how depressingly little has changed in aviation over the
years, I might remind people about February 3, 1959, when the following
people:

Buddy Holly,
Ritchie Valens,
J. P. Richardson

died, due to the their pilot, Roger Peterson becoming disoriented at
night in - guess what - a Bonanza, and spiralling into the ground.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died

I know many people here treat history as quaint, uninteresting and
frankly completely useless to their bright futures flying plastic nosewheel
trainers, but you are doomed to re-learn it's lessons over and over
again. And the definition of stupidity is making the same mistake over
and over and over again.

[Old Dog Flying]

Learn from the mistakes of others...you won't live long enough to make them all yourself.

[DanWEC]

Well, isn't the entire concept and structure of flight instruction taking place at an entry level completely flawed and fundamentally backwards?

I am starting class 4 training soon, very possibly to maintain as a career. I do want to move into an operational capacity at some point, but want very much to simultaneously maintain a long term instructor position, so that I can relay the experiences learned from operations, and hopefully produce a better quality of student because of it.

[Shiny Side Up]

Well, isn't the entire concept and structure of flight instruction taking place at an entry level completely flawed and fundamentally backwards?

I wouldn't say that, but it does depend heavily upon the idea that we are all striving to do the best we can at it and improve it as much as we are able. There really is no reason that a guy with 230 hours can't be a good teacher to get another guy through 45 hours. It, like any other plan, doesn't work well when its participants aren't working to the best of their capacity, accept mediocre performance, or are actively trying to abuse the system.

Case in point, a tell tale sign of a bad class 4, or poor work of a class 1 is a declaration that they did the minimum ammount of ground work to complete the training. Copied briefing notes another sign of it. If you found that the ground work of the Instructor rating was the most difficult training you've done, then chances are your Class 1 did a good job. If not, you might want to go ask for your money back.