Chocks Wahey
I refute the suggestion that all instructors with 200 hours have marginal flying skills and are unmotivated hours builders.... Its rude and disrespectful to the majority of instructors. Everyone has to start somewhere... we've all had that first day in a new career....if a person has passed the FI course.. they have demonstrated the requisite flying skills and talents to be instructors, end of story. Of course, there will be those in every career that excel and those who aren't up to it in the long run, or have the wrong attitude. The aircraft handling abilities of a 250 hour CPL with an FI rating are orders of magnitude better than a PPL with 45 hours. However that doesnt mean we dont occasionally make mistakes, or slightly cock up one of the demo's
Any person who has worked hard, invested heavily in their future and with high ambitions will eventually become depressed and demotivated if forced to work under terrible terms and conditions, low pay (rarely enough to actually live on)
Also, most people go thru phases of enjoying work and putting in more effort and then phases of not enjoying it so much.
Instructors are human too...not machines designed to perform at 100% ability and capacity 100% of the time. I have bad days in the office sometimes, when I cant get the message across
In my experience, the most jaded instructors are those that have been doing if for ages and are desperate to move on, most 200 hours people have a lot of enthusiasm for the job. Not that I wish tot arnish anyone with the same brush, we're all individuals and what motivates us and demotivates us varies in individual cases.
I've been instructing for a year and I put in every effort that I can towards students, I'll always go the extra mile for a student if I feel that they deserve it (ie if a student is friendly/polite, doesnt cancel lessons all the time at short notice and puts some effort into their own learning).
Yes I instruct to build up my experience, I also enjoy instructing, the feeling of satisfaction I get from someone going 1st solo, succesfully completing their QXC, passing the skills test and even getting a student who is struggling with something thru a sticky patch is second to none. Just because my overall aim is airline flying, doesnt mean I dont give a monkeys about instructing. I'm a professional and do my job to the best of my ability. I expect that the cats majority of instructors in the same situation would agree.
With regards to money I just feel that flying schools should pay their instructors for the time that they put in... not just the actual brakes off to brakes on time.. ie.. if I have a student for a 2 hour slot.. including brief, 1hr or 1h15 flight, then debrief and my pay is £12per hour.. then I should receive £24 for those two hours.. not just £15 for the flight. If its a 3 hour slot... I should be on £36... and so on......
I dont expect this to happen, as I said in my last post market forces dictate. If there is ever a shortage of instructors then pay may rise. maybe.
I'm not expecting to be paid when I dont have students..I'm not even bothered by not getting a retainer, its not a salaried postion and the school gets no income when no-one is flying..I just feel that we should be paid for the whole package... paid for our time and expertise as people in every other job are.
I'm not sure what a union for instructors would achieve..... as long as operating costs (driven largely by ridiculous tax on fuel and VAT) remain high, profit margins and instructor rates will remain low, and as long as their are many more instructors than there are jobs, people will work for less and less while they want hours.