Flying Hours

[nott00shabby]

Hi there, I plan on becoming a career instructor because i love teaching and flying. I know that you only get paid for the amount of actual flying time and i was just wondering how many hours does the average flying instructor fly a week. (depending on the weather of course)

Thanks

[michael95u]

I have been an instructor for more than a few years (now I own a flight school). At my busiest, I could average 6 hours of FLIGHT time per day with a student. 8 hours was possible every once in a while, but you burn out very fast when you do that. I always tried to take one day off a week when I was flying 6 hours/day. So you are looking at 36 hours/week at peak flying. Typically it is more like 3-4 hours per day.

A good living can be made when you are a good instructor. You need to do something that sets you apart from the rest (some sort of specialty).

Michael

[RSFTO]

best thing is to work on fixed salary for fto without no matter how much you flight, this gives you security and capability to plan your life. when I work as fi I only take these kind of jobs ( oxford, cabair, coventry, intercockpit.... ).

once again: fixed salary and fixed hours on the job (phisical presence at the fto , it does not matter if you fly or not , usually 35/40 hours per week)

[kme]

Can only agree with previous, try to avoid 8 blockhours per day.

You can get a lot of time but it screws you up completely. Try 2 or 3 days in a row and you will get the point....

happy landings

[RodgerF]

You can normally reckon 2 hours for each day worked over the year

[Badgeman]

At the flight school I'm at, we bill for ground lessons as well. I do 1 hour of gound with my students for every 2 hours of flight. You'll find that crummy, Part 141, Cessna CMM TCO at many flight schools. Whereas this helps you cover your @$$ when it comes to getting your students ready for their check-rides, it only covers the basics. Don't expect your students to do well at an airline interview if you leave them only with the information gleemed from the overly simple Cessna video lessons. Having gone to an airline affiliated flight school to get all my ratings up to CFIi, I am shocked by how little most of my BFR applicants know. My point here is there are "grounds" and "sims" you can do that don't take quite as much out of you and should comprise 1/3 of your income if you dont land a salary CFI job.

BTW. I find one of the biggest flaws with the Cessna CMM courses is that you NEVER see the guys flying the airplanes use check lists. EVER. This encourages very poor flight discipline and lack of procedure.

[PAPI-74]

Some schools offer a salary now - typically 20k (plus if you teach IMC / Aeros)

[BigEndBob]

Its about time we started charging for time spent on the ground briefing.

Some years ago got checked out in Orlando. Friend and i were briefed and answered some questions on US procedures. We then got billed at the end of the check flight for $30 each ground time.

Think this is just about unheard of in the UK.

If the situiation had been reversed i would have probably offered the chap a free coffee and spent all afternoon talking discussing UK procedures and charged...well zero, zilch, nowt!

[nott00shabby]

thanks the for the replies theyve been very helpful