Thanks, once again, to all those who have offered advice and support either on this thread or in private messages. I have now left FlyTeam, and have found myself another job, which I start in a couple of weeks. My new school has more aircraft available for basic training than FlyTeam, fewer instructors, and a fuller booking sheet. What's more, they also pay a daily allowance, which should at least cover my rent, if nothing else, if I don't fly at all due to weather or lack of bookings or any other reason, which I didn't get at FlyTeam. I am feeling very positive about this new opportunity, and looking forward to starting.
I thought some PPRuNers might be interested in the story of what happened when I told my current boss that I was quitting. It started off very pleasantly. He was upset that I was leaving just as the aircraft were coming back on-line and bookings picking up - he told me that I had a full weekend booked (the full weekend, from looking at the booking sheet, appeared to be about 2 hours each day) and that if I had stuck around things would soon have picked up, but he thanked me for letting him know.
Then we came to the subject of money. I had previously invoiced him for £116, which is what I'd earned in the 4 weeks I'd been working for him. He asked if I'd like to offset that against what I owed him for my checkouts. I was a little surprised at that, but he was adamant that I had agreed with him that I would pay for my own checkouts.
I had actually done two checkouts at the school, one on the C150 and another on the PA28-180. When he got his calculator out, he figured out that I owed him £191. That means that, after having been with the school for 4 weeks, I had made a net loss of £75.
Some heated words were exchanged at this point. I haven't heard of a school charging its instructors for a checkout before (I know of at least three other schools which certainly don't do this), and no mention had been made of it until I said I was leaving. I know the subject of instructing for free gets discussed from time to time on this forum, but I was being asked to actually pay my school in order to instruct for them!
Of course because there was no written contract at this point, neither of us had any way of backing up our arguments, and I was getting ready to walk out the door and write off the £116 which I was owed as a bad debt. But then the boss relented and agreed that he wouldn't charge me for my checkouts, and he would even pay me for the flying I'd done. However, he had previously agreed to pay me a minimum daily amount for those days when I was in the office but flew for less than around 2 hours - but he now refused to pay that minimum daily amount, and would only pay me for the actual flying time I'd done.
As I said, I was almost ready to walk out with nothing, so when he offered to settle up for my flying time I said yes. Maybe that was a bad move - there were so few days where I'd earned more than the minimum daily amount (just one, in fact) that what he was offering was considerably less than what he actually owed me. But I figured I ought to take what was on offer before he changed his mind. I left with a cheque for £42 - that's £10.50 for each week I worked for him. Possibly even worse than that is that we parted on a bad note, which was never my intention. I generally don't make too many enemies in life, and had certainly not intended to do so at FlyTeam, but the choice was either that, or to pay them for working for them.
This happened a few days ago, and I have taken a bit of time to cool down. But now that I am not so emotional about the incident any more, I'm actually quite glad it's happened, because it has, to me, at least, completely justified my decision to leave and find somewhere else to instruct. My new school is 250 miles away from home, and I will need to find a new place to live, and to leave my family and my girlfriend in London. This was obviously not an easy decision, but as a result of what has happened at FlyTeam I am absolutely convinced that it was the right decision.
A final note for anyone who has read my account and been put off instructing by it - please don't be. I honestly believe that the majority of schools and individuals out there are honest, and that it is only a small number of bad apples that you need to look out for. Whilst I was getting no or very little work at FlyTeam, I had a call from another school who needed me to cover for a sick instructor for a couple of days. After checking with my boss that he didn't need me for those days, and would not be able to give me as much work as the other school, I agreed. Everyone at this school was friendly and helpful, getting me checked out and up-to-speed on a type that I hadn't flown before, helping me find my way around the office, going over student records with me so that I knew exactly what I was supposed to be doing, helping me find my way around the local area when a trial lesson wanted to overfly somewhere I hadn't heard of, and, at the end of the two days, paying me exactly the amount of money that was due, in cash, without any further hassle. What's more, I logged nearly three times as much instructing time in two days at this school as I had in four weeks at FlyTeam! From what I see at other schools, I am sure (and I hope that others will back me up) that this is a far more common scenario, and I hope that my bad experience doesn't put anyone off what I'm sure is a rewarding career.
FFF
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