Bob, gulp!!!
Whatunion, helpful as ever.... I'm sure your reply is truthful, but I doubt it's typical!
KpX, that's exactly the kind of reply I'm looking for.
So, my first week.... I logged 30 minutes. Yes, that's correct, one 30-minute trial lesson, and that was it. Other than that, I had to come into the airfield on two other days, when I did no instructing at all but was able to sit in the back seat for a couple of lessons, and every other day I was told I was not required. The CFI did at least have the decency to offer to cover my petrol and lunch costs for the three days I was at the airfield, though...
My second week got off to a good start when I found myself with three trial lessons, each 1 hour long, on the Saturday. But when I arrived at the airfield I found that one of those had been re-assigned to another instructor. As it turned out, the other instructor was running late, so I ended up doing all three trial lessons anyway, though.... my first (and only) full day of flying.
On the Sunday (yesterday), I was schedule to fly another trial lesson, and then do a checkout with a prospective renter. But by the end of Saturday, the schedule had been changed, and both flights had been assigned to other instructors, leaving me with no flying. And again today, no flying. In fact, I'm convinced that the only reason I flew on Saturday was because one of my students was my girlfriend, who would only fly with me, so they had no choice but to get me to come in.
The reasons given for the lack of flying are that bookings are inexplicably light at the moment. We have a couple of aircraft out for maintenance, but even those aircraft which are left aren't fully booked. Some students (apparently) have chosen to stay away while their aircraft are being serviced rather than fly another aircraft, and will, of course, return when the aircraft are back on-line. In the mean time, one instructor is about to go on holiday for a month (that's what everyone tells me except the instructor in question, who swears he's only on holiday for two weeks), and two other instructors are applying to the airlines so they are "bound to be moving on soon", which is why I've been employed....
Unfortunately, I can't afford to live on air - I don't expect a full schedule on my first day, but I do need to earn enough to live on, and I can't see any sign of my bookings increasing very much in the near future. I've spoken to instructors at my local airfield, who say that anything less than 4 hours a day, especially at weekends, is simply not normal this time of year. My old PPL/IMC instructor is currently struggling to not become fatigued - she's being asked to fly 6 hours a day, and having to tell her CFI that she can't do it.
KpX seems to confirm that my experiences are not normal. My two-week "trial period" ends on Friday, and I have to be honest when I say it would not surprise me if I do not get any more instructing time between now and then. Am I correct in thinking that I should be looking for a new job? What would you do?
FFF
--------------
PS - If anyone knows of a full-time job going anywhere, please let me know... I'll be happy to re-locate to anywhere in the UK, and would consider jobs abroad too!