View Full Version : Flight Instructor Next Steps
heading225
6th Sep 2013, 17:37
I am a flight insructor with 646 hours tt. Any ideas for the next step towards an airline?
It seems like the airlines don't want instructors. Why?
Slowbird13
6th Sep 2013, 18:47
Perhaps tell us more about about yourself, specific ratings, age etc
heading225
6th Sep 2013, 19:17
I'm 22, have fATPL, current multi (39hrs multi), 492 hrs PIC, 350 instructor.
Go and do some para dropping and get some turbine time, ideally twin turbine.
mikemorgan81
9th Sep 2013, 21:56
I've been wondering the same thing. I have almost identical hours to yourself. I'd like to advance as an instructor but the EASA rule changes have meant needing 200 hours IFR time to become an IRI. As the previous poster commented - being a flight instructor seems to count for nothing anymore when it comes to airlines.
RTN11
10th Sep 2013, 17:14
As the previous poster commented - being a flight instructor seems to count for nothing anymore when it comes to airlines.
What a load of crap!
If by airlines you only mean BA and Ryanair, then maybe, but there are plenty of airlines out there who value decent flying and instructing experience. In fact, the two airline vacancies I've recently seen advertised stated an instructor rating would be an advantage.
I hit the same wall during my instructing career, two years in and felt like I was going nowhere, difficult to move on to CPL instruction. I then phoned every single flying school in the country and collated a list of their likely vacancies, and what they might then lead to. At the time I was hoping to break into CPL instruction, so drove to visit the schools that would be likely to enable me to do that. I was happy to take a sideways step to teach PPL at those schools, knowing my experience would back me through to CPL instruction eventually.
A lot of the schools I visited would happily have taken me on with the prospect of CPL instruction, and I also found many of them had some sort of link to airlines, which they generally kept reasonably quiet. I moved to a new instructing job, which directly set me up with my dream airline job.
The jobs are out there, but they don't come knocking on your door, and sending a CV is worthless. Get out there, and make the right contacts.