Becoming a flying instructor

[Lagentium]

Good evening ladies and gents, the more time I spend flying the more I am enjoying myself and am considering becoming a flying instructor eventually, although I understand that's way, way down the road! I was just wondering what the best route is to becoming an FI? I am a low hour PPL at the moment and just wanted some advice, I don't mind how long it takes either, all advice is greatly received!

Cheers, Jim :ok:

[Piper.Classique]

Do plenty of touring, study to the best level you can on your own, then decide if you want to be a CPL or PPL instructor. Take the exams as appropriate after the required training, and do the course!
You might decide microlights are the way to go or even for the Lapl. Instructing is basically the same in any machine with an engine, but the sums don't add up the same......in any case get some solo time in while you think about which route to go. Enjoy!

[RTN11]

Currently in order to earn money from flight instruction you need a CPL. This looks to be changing with EASA, where you could earn money from a PPL/FI, but you would still need the CPL groundschool.

If you only have a PPL you need 200 hours to do the FI course, so the saving you make by not doing the CPL is lost in building an extra 50 hours.

The FI course is currently about £7k, but it usually seems pretty difficult to get that first job. I was in full time work with regular students perhaps 6 months after qualifying, but that was 6 months of scratching around between 4 local schools doing trial lessons and trying to get noticed.

You need to be supervised for at least the first 100 hours, some schools are more open to this than others, and usually pay restricted instructors less. During these 100 hours you also need to send some people solo, and note down 25 examples for the CAA.

Once unrestricted you can send people on their first solo, as well as first solo nav, and hopefully a nice pay rise (mine was in the order of 25%).

If you're looking to change to a career in instructing, be aware that the take home pay will be in the order of £12-15k, so not a lot for your investment. If you go on to be a career instructor with plenty of experience I'm sure you could negotiate something better, but for basic PPL that's about it.

[Big Pistons Forever]

I hold a Canadian Class 1 instructor rating which entitles me to teach the FI course. In Canada you have to have a CPL to be able to hold a FI rating.

Most of my instructor students have been 200 hr ish fresh CPL's. Everyone of them required significant training to improve their basic flying skill to an acceptable level. The standard I want to see is altitude + - 20 feet, airspeed + - 2 knots, ball no more then 1/8 of its diameter out of the cage 95 % of the time and the other 5 % will be correcting deviations. Takeoffs and landings should be right down the centerline and touchdowns should be within 100 feet of the chosen touchdown point.

By the end of the course everyone I recommended could meet this standard. The universal comment I got from my students is I was the first instructor who insisted on accurate flying. However they quickly understood how much easier it was to demonstrate and teach an exercise when accurate flying was automatic.


If you are serious about becoming an instructor then I would would work hard on every flight to improve your basic flying skills. Be hard on yourself and strive to fly accurately. I would also say that you should start reading up on aerodynamic theory. This is a perennial weak spot with FI students so arriving at the start of your FI course with a solid understanding of the principals of flight will give you a big leg up.

[4_blues]

+ - 2 knots

I assume this is IAS? In which case, how do you check this?

[Big Pistons Forever]

I assume this is IAS? In which case, how do you check this?

When he says he is going to fly final at 65 kts and the airspeed indicator says 68 I say "airspeed !" :rolleyes:

[blagger]

The standard I want to see is altitude + - 20 feet, airspeed + - 2 knots, ball no more then 1/8 of its diameter out of the cage 95 % of the time and the other 5 % will be correcting deviations.

and that'll be another generation of instructors that spend more time staring at the instruments rather than looking out then...

[mrmum]

Not necessarily methinks, from what I read of BPF's posts, I doubt he'll produce instructors that don't look out of the windows.
I we gave those parameters to teenage PPL students with 5-10 hours and years of MS Flitesim, then you'd probably be right. :(
I think I can achieve that accuracy without resorting to full-time needle chasing, as experienced pilots with professional licences and instructor ratings, surely we should be able to maintain an altitude and airspeed, simply by setting an appropriate power, selecting and holding the correct attitude and being in trim, then confirming with an occasional check of the instruments.

[Big Pistons Forever]

and that'll be another generation of instructors that spend more time staring at the instruments rather than looking out then...

Sigh.... another ignorant comment from somebody who doesn't have a clue about ab initio flight instruction :ugh:

For ab initio training it is much easier to fly accurately by looking at the natural horizon than by chasing the wobbly needles in the instrument panel of your usual spamcan trainer. In any case if you start staring at the instruments I just cover them up (a particular problem with MSFS aces, I hate you Mr Microsoft:mad:). I often cover up the ASI as well during climbs and descents. Take the Vy ful power climb. Properly taught any PPL student should be able to fly at exactly the specified speed simply by setting the correct attitude without having to reference the ASI at all.