In my very best month as a PPL flying instructor I took home £800. That was over 100hrs in a month in a sweltering PA38 cockpit and it wasn't big and it wasn't clever. In Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb I was routinely taking home £450 a month. Even living at home not far from the airfield it was a struggle to live - let alone save.
Repaying the FI rating (which I didn't have to do as it was a freebie from the CAA) would have taken at least a year of flying.
It got me 1000 instructional hours though. And that got me a FI job at a commercial flying school in Jerez. Which was the second rung on the ladder. So in the end it was worth it. And the golden PPL instructing summer of 1999 was one that I will cherish for the laughs, the friends and the scares that occurred.
So its not the worst plan in the world to become an FI. But at 19 you won't be very good. I started part time instructing at the age of 20 whilst still in Uni. Under the auspices of the Air Cadets it was a good introduction to the craft of teaching at such a young age.
Nevertheless when it came to teaching PPL student who might typically be successful 40 year old businessmen, retiring professionals taking up a hobby or some mad-keen penny-strapped 25yr old airline Wannabe, it was VERY VERY difficult to be 22 years old.
To say !no, that wasn't good enough, I'm not sending you solo". Thats just cost them a couple of hundred quid! They perhaps don't like being told No. They are angry and embarassed.
There is a lot to it.
You have to give your student a bollocking for failing to prepare as tasked. But they are still the paying customer.
There is also the constant pressure that they could get lost and kill themselves or crash on landing and burn to death. Its serious stuff. Not fun. Not a hobby.
In your teenage years you just aren't going to be very good at it. Most Chief Flying Instructors and Flying Club owners would agree with me. Therefore you WILL find it hard to get work.
And as I already covered, its hard at your age to be the lucky one at an airline interview as you have so little to talk about and what you do have is so small that its all a bit naff.
Therefore I really do think that you should find something else to do, not necessarily Uni, for the next 2 or 3 years. The come back at it a bit older, wiser and with a hopefully some more money in the bank.
Good luck,
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