Hi,
Well I know of places that paid £10 per day + £12.50 per hour, one place I worked at paid £25 a day "flight" retainer+£15 per hour (which means if you turn up you get a miniumum of £25 but you wont get more than £25 until you you have flown 1.7 hrs or whatever) .
another was £12 an hr with no retainer, though eventually I got an £80 a week retainer but it included more or less running the place.
One place I know in the South of England pays £25 an hour no retainer.
I'm currently on £15 an hour, no retainer.
I'm strongly in favour of a minimum payment where if you have have a bad week or month your income is topped up to an agreed miniumum level so you at least dont spend a week at work and earn £30 or something.
I dont really see why its not possible to pay FI's a decent hourly rate.. it would mean a small increase in the hourly rate that students pay and would make an enormous difference to an FI's pay packet.....
It does frustrate me somewhat to find a good place to work with an excellent atmosphere etc and then wonder whether u can actually afford to stay for any decent length of time...
I think if flying clubs and schools want to keep decent FI's full time, they will have to pay some form of retainer or minimum payment.... I find the problem with instructing is not so much the low pay but rather the instability... never having a clue what you will take home one week to the next.
With so many people opting for type ratings instead of FI ratings... the pool of instructors may slowly dry up and FI's really have been subsidising PPL training for long enough.. who knows.. maybe FI's will end up earning more than F/O's... (dream on)