Considering an Instructor`s Rating?

[Cruise Alt]

Having read the threads here a lot of people are suggesting that an Instructor’s rating is the solution to getting a job with low hours. Be warned that getting work as an instructor is not easy and you may well end up with more debt (£5k - £6k).

I am currently looking for an instructor’s job after my last school went out of business and there are none around. Speaking to one CFI he said that he already had 35 instructors on a waiting list.

When I started instructing earlier in the year there were several vacancies. This was because people were getting airline jobs. As this has stopped, instructors have stopped moving on. Additionally many people who got airline jobs in the last few months have been made redundant and are going back to instructing. The clubs and schools have the choice of very experienced instructors and are unlikely to choose a newly qualified one instead.

I am not trying to put people off but as there many people suggesting getting the rating I would like to show the other side of the story. Please check possible jobs before spending thousands of pounds on another expensive course.

[GonvilleBromhead]

What's the situation like at the traditional "big schools" Cruise, (Cabair, SFT etc) nothing doing ?

cheers.

[Cruise Alt]

Ones I have spoken to no foreseeable vacancies and possibly laying off with drop on demand for Commercial training. If any jobs they are saying 500hrs instructing experience min and IMC instructor rating.

[Meeb]

And yet the latest issue of Flight has a rather large advert from BAe looking for Instructors in sunny Spain! They must be optimistic about an upturn in student numbers, by all accounts it is probably a reasonably good time to be starting out on a course, as by the time you are qualified (2 years hence), things should hopefully be moving quite well again.

[mglepd]

What was the cutoff date for the advert? I'll bet you'll find the ad went into Flight either before Sep 11 or shortly thereafter

[Luke SkyToddler]

Nope. Word from a chap I know who works there is that they definitely are interviewing at the moment, and are actually about 10 instructors short at the moment.

Having said that, the CPL training market has totally gone pear shaped at my work, and I've just been asked by the boss to go and find something else to do for the winter :( :( :(

So I guess unless Jerez want me, it's going to be a case of "Would you like fries with that?"

[G-LOST]

Sorry to hear that Luke. Have you considered going home for the summer - that would be my contingency if things went sour, must be a few instructing jobs available in Godzone altho with the Ansett / Qantas NZ thing who knows? Anyone over there who can comment?

LOST

[clear prop!!!]

Bad luck Luke :(

Just as a matter of interest, are your lot up there getting the RIF RAF cadets back next year, or has that gone pear shaped as well??

Good luck mate!

[Cruise Alt]

I checked BAe and they want Multi Engine Instructors, 1000hrs TT, 500hrs instruction. As I said getting a rating now won't help. That said I would give my right arm to work at Jerez.

Sorry Luke, let's hope things get better next year.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

They are interviewing. 1000hrs TT and 500 instructional would be a realistic min. Twin intsructional a definite bonus...

WWW

[Luke SkyToddler]

Cheers for the sympathy lads ... it's a crazy world we live in isn't it. Just got a email today from a guy that I authorized first solo, saying how much he's loving the 767, and we must catch up for a beer next time I'm around Heathrow :rolleyes:

clear prop - at the moment the funding for the RAF Flying Scholarship contract is no more, but there is still a certain amount of pressure being applied on the minister by various high ranking RAF personnel, to bring it back next year, albeit in some scaled down form. We were supposed to have a definitive answer from them back in August and still nothing, I guess they're a little distracted at the moment.

G-LOST : yeah I'm going home for a bit of a summer holiday (just can't get used to this bloody cold winter xmas concept!! :D ). I would love to stay back there and sit this one out until things get better in the UK, the trouble is I'm up to convert my work visa into a proper UK passport next year, it's more or less automatic approval but one of the few ways you can b******s it up is to leave the country and work elsewhere for too long in that initial 4 year period. So I'm kind of stuck here for another year at least.

I'm probably just going to go back to university or something, just do enough to keep my ratings current and put the flying on ice for a year or so or until the airline hiring comes right again. This bloody instructing has left me on the brink of financial ruin as it is, I've got 1400 hours of instructing up now anyway and to be honest I don't really feel that I need much more C152 time to prove my point to the airlines ... I'd crawl across broken glass for any kind of multi time, but what are the chances of that at the moment?

Funny to see all these IT people posting on here, agonizing about throwing it all in to take up flying careers ... take it from someone on the other side of the fence chaps, flying's great and you'll have a ball but for christs sake don't burn all your bridges with your old profession, until you've got that first couple thousand hours of turbine time secure under your belt - you never know when you'll find yourself in a situation like the one I'm in. I just wish I had some other marketable skill to fall back on myself right now, alas I don't really :(

If anybody wants to swop a crash course in Java programming for a bit of down'n'dirty dual training, you know who to call :D :D :D

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I would have to agree that it is a poor time to be doing a FI rating. Of the few jobs that I know of there are dozens of very able applicants. At the moment the cost/benefit ratio says NO.

Thats 5 years of recommending FI ratings to people out of the window then... interesting times! :rolleyes:

Cheers,

WWW

[AH64 APACHE]

I find that incredulous that they are looking for those mins with instructing at Jerez at the mo. No wonder they have such a chronic shortage of instructors at the moment. My mate who is out there has flown a mere 6 hours in six weeks of when he was supposed to be flying every other day. What a joke - most of the current courses are at least a month behind due to the joke of the instructor situation and the restrictions.

Surely they would be better hiring low hours people and at least get the cadets in the air. The situation would then be better as you could then get the cadets at least up to PPl with the low hour instructors before sending them onto twins etc..

No wonder they also advertised for a new head of training... :eek:

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Well most airlines insist on those mins before they allow their cadets to fly with them... although these days there a precious few cadets left. :(

WWW

[AH64 APACHE]

I did not realise that the airlines had minima for their cadets. could not the schools get people in low hours for the ones who are self-sponsored and then build them up ready for the airlin training?

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

No becuase then you'd have certain instructors not able to fly with certain courses and not every day can be garaunteed to be a cadet course free day. It becomes a planning nightmare so they just don't bother.

Besides - the self sponsored guys paying £40 - 50k + would NOT be happy with green FI's and nor should they be at £160odd an hour for single engine flying...

WWW