Flight Instructor Pay

[mlee]

Hi could anyone please give me the average wage, per hour of a newbie flight instructor?

Regards Mlee

[kneedwondean]

I heard that the fixed wing guys working next to our heli school started on around £15 per flying hour. I wont tell you what we earn as Heli Instructors because it will make your sick as a dog....

[VFE]

The key is to bargain for your pay - don't just accept whatever a school offers - ask for more. They can only say no. If every new instructor did this one thing we would all be earning more in time... and I think we deserve it too! Skies are becoming more crowded, weather is less predictable, people learning to fly are not always yer sensible upper class brigade anymore, commercial pressures are higher due to the impending reccession etc... We deserve more money IMHO.

VFE.

[polohippo]

See if you can get a basic salary as well, I instructed in the UK at 2 schools at the same time during the winter (Oct-Jan) and only managed about 100 hours in the 4 months! Earning 400 pounds a month and then spending 200 pounds a month on fuel doesn't leave you with much!!

[will fly for food 06]

Can someone please tell me if possible which schools actually pay their FI's a salary.I would love to build up a picture nationally. I understand this may be so at some of the commercial schools. I am currently on a very small retainer as well as being paid per flying hour. This is great in the summer when I am flying 5 or 6 hours a day but come winter it will be a very different story indeed. Currently trying to stick to a budget and only just keeping afloat:{

Sob story over.

Thanks in advance.

[cessna310]

Hi,


No retainer only getting £20 an hour.working 5 days a week.I don't know what will happen when winter comes.

cessna310.

[will fly for food 06]

I feel for you Cessna310. Good Luck when the clocks change.

[OneIn60rule]

I suggest you get a retainer or go PART TIME.

That means not working 5 days a week, only work when you are needed sort of thing.

Get a full time job elsewhere and go part time on the instructing. That's about the only way you'll stay afloat.
I would not be coping with per hour basis. If I did that I'd need 2-3 jobs (the two others not involving flying).


As an Assistant flight instructor you are on the deep scale since you are limited so not many options yet. It will take almost a year to get the restriction off.

1/60

[timzsta]

I have a part time job I do Monday to Friday in the mornings up until lunchtime. Saturday and Sundays are Instructing days, and I also fly in the afternoons when needed. That is the only way to keep the head above water financially as instructing pays so little and the is no guarantee of work. Best month I have ever had Instructing I earnt £650.

The down side is days off, where you have a complete day of no work, are few and far between, and that makes you tired after a while:(

I think £20/hr for teaching PPL is not unreasonable in the present market. £25 for Night/IMC/Aero. £40-£50 per hour for CPL/IR. Retainers should be sufficient to cover travelling expenses and food. £15 a day not unreasonable.

[inverted4]

I'm a full instructor, have been for 15 years and instruct for 2 days a week, I only get £17/hr and no retainer or travelling expenses! I think the only way ahead is to teach commercial or do private tuition for PPL's on their own plane i.e tailwheel, aerobatics etc then you can charge £35/hour or more. Trouble is building the contacts to get regular work. Does make one wonder if it's worth the expense of renewing the instructor ticket

[gibr monkey]

my two penneth...

In my school... one instructor is on £24k salary, one is on a £500 a month retainer and £12 per hour and another on £15 per day and £14 per and hour... so go figure , its what ever you bargain for really.

[Vortex Thing]

I earnt £10 per hour in one school and £20 per hour in another, then got retained but with no hourly rate on top and have seen instructors earning £35-45k doing CPL/ME IR whilst other instructors in the same school earnt £12ph if the weather was good that day with no expenses or retainer.

At the end of the day most of schools making you work as self employed know that they are breaking the law from an IR 35 perspective but to be honest if you were to point that out chance were you would never work as an Fi again anytime soon in the region so I would just negotiate whatever you are able and either have another job or set a time scale whereby you will leave unless you happen to have a private income or live at home with friends or family and do not need to contribute.

Everyone knows that it is not a living wage which is why guys go out and buy type ratings as its cheaper than living on an FIs salary for 18 months plus when you tot it all up.

[FlyingGasMain]

It's a real mixed bag out there. I'm still restricted and one school I was at paid £20 an hour and I argued to get £10 on days when there was no flying, to cover petrol. The next one paid £25 an hour. The last one paid £18 an hour with a small daily retainer which covered petrol.

I think with the winter coming, if you're doing a good job and the school doesn't want to lose you, you've got to argue the case for being on a salary. Otherwise, with wet weather, short daylight hours etc. leading to less flying, you'll find yourself better off at Tescos !

[Natstrackalpha]

Few schools except the big ones make enough money. When you do the Cash-flow you can see that it is hard, if not impossible for a flying school/club to make any serious lolly.

£15 quid an hour is not bad pay. The more you fly the more money you earn. It is a hard job. Not to teach but to patter for hours on end and is still worth £15 quid an hour (or more).

To say negotiate for more pay is not always realistic when talking about a nice grassy airfield out in the bundu but the bigger schools may well have higher pay rates as their traffic is higher and therefore so is their turnover - admittedly this will increase their running costs but if you have several aircraft flying then these are offset by the other aircraft flying too which also takes care of the fixed costs so you have more aircraft, flying often or always in the larger establishments/operations - if you get what I mean - and there you may well be able to negotiate a more favorable rate for your labours - but then again the bigger schools will have a larger pool of available instructors and applicants to choose from, so don`t negotiate your way out of a job.

Again, as far as the little clubs are concerned - you will be lucky to even get paid at all.
I am not advocating flying for free but a number of schools are now flying "volunteers" which makes me sick in the stomach and I hope they go out of business as everyone has to eat - AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE. (the baskets)

[dobbin1]

You seem to have resurrected a thread from 2008! It is quite sad to see that pay rates have not improved very much since then.

...and £15 per hour is bad pay!

[GgW]

@Natstrackalpha

£15 quid an hour is not bad pay.
(£15 x 650hrs = £9750) I'm sorry, but I do not agree with you.

May be if you work for one of those "small time" clubs, that still operates Tomahawks and 150's.

The more decent/better/bigger clubs will pay an monthly retainer of £300-£500 and between £20-£30 per hour. Look after your staff and they will look after your business and customers.

[Rithalic]

I was on 28k euro plus a 7.5k euro hours based pay program. Working at a large ATO. Teaching SEP (CPL, Night, IR).

[gazPP]

I am / was considering an FI course. First quote £7,700 inc vat. My other half has a domestic ironing business that pays a better hourly rate than a basic FI and it's not seasonal and it doesn't cost a fortune and a lot of effort to qualify. FI time may pay off as a stepping stone to a commercial job but compare the lost opportunity cost when you could have simply splashed out on a TR and fast tracked to a living wage. Otherwise just be an FI for the love of it and hopefully have other incomes to supplement the low and unreliable pay, particularly in the winter months.

[Lokki]

Poland seems to be a good place to get an FI rating on a budget..

[ChickenHouse]

At my school of preference FIs are solely paid per minutes flown a whopping £0.53 All-In. Do you really want to enter that "business"?

[hobbit1983]

Strange way of putting it. Still, if that's PPL instructing it's approximately 59% more than the last school I was at.

[BigEndBob]

Helicopter instructor at our old school 1990 would get £40 hour.
We fixed wing £8.
Knew I was in the wrong side of Aviation.

I'm the CFI of my school.
I pay myself less than minimum wage and we just keep afloat.
When I pay an odd part timer they get more than me per hour.

I don't know how other schools survive and I'm busy this last 7 years..

[Danny boy]

I find in aviation there are people who have done quite well in general business etc, decide to come into aviation for perhaps fun or something, abandon all their business skills and keep financially propping up a hopeless situation...

They must like the kudos of owning a flying school or a FBO, most of my competitors must be losing money...

I don't do too bad out of flight training generally, but it has its moments...in the old days we had a high volume of students but the instruction was not always the best in the difficult time constraints, now we have high quality (instruction), but don't have the volume of students...not sure which one is best..

Still will be flying again tomorrow so not all bad..