Becoming a flying instructor

[Steve Larkins]

I am hopeing that someone here can help with my question. I am planning to become a flying instructor and obviously need to raise the nesessary funds to pay for the relevant courses. To do this I have applied for a loan under the Professional Studies Scheme from the HSBC Bank. My main concern is am I going to be able to keep up re-payments after my courses have finished.

I therefore would like to know how great is the demand for flying instructors at the moment?
and, Roughly what would be the starting salary be for a new instructor?
Also can anyone recomend any flying schools that offer this training?
Any help on these questions would be much appreciated.

Many Thanks

Steve

[eyeinthesky]

If you do a trawl through the past pages of this forum you will find much discussion of the questions you pose.

A short summary would be:

1) There is always a demand for FIs, but not enough to make it a seller's market;
2) Pay is very low (<£500 per month) for long hours of sitting around waiting for the weather to improve;
3) Most people advise doing some job that gives you a steady income and then fit in the instructing around that. Trying to make a living (and pay off a loan) from instructing alone is very difficult;
4) Expect no loyalty or reward from most schools; they see you as someone who is lucky to be allowed to use their assets on the way to an airline job;
5) Several schools do FI courses, I can't recommend any. Depends really on where you live and how much you are prepared to travel.

Good luck!

------------------
"Take-off is optional, Landing is mandatory"

[RVR800]

Its seasonal - summer months can be busy
Its national minimum wage at the bottom end
Vacancies occur more frequently down south and at the top end of the food chain such BAe/OATS/Cabair when you have 500 instructional hours and multi experience
salaries can be 30K then.
Its best not to give up the day job
initially and its bect if you day job has
flexible hours
Contrary to what you might read there is not a shortage of instructors
Otherwise the rate would not be £10 per hour
which over a day equates to what an office cleaner gets
Well you wanted an honest answer didn't you?

[zzzz]

If you are keen on becoming an instructor, rather than taking out a bank loan and risking failing to meet repayments because either you cannot find a job or the salary you do get from the job is not high enough to cover repayments (plus other luxary items for FIs like food!),why not try for a sponsorship.

There are instructor sponsorships out there, and yes the pay remains poor, but at least your sponsorship 'loan' is being paid off through the work.

There has been a somewhat negative slant on instructing, i.e. terms and conditions and PAY. But if you go in with your eyes open and expectations realistic it can really open up the world of aviation potential to you.

In the past the following companies have offered instructor sponsorships or an element of instructional work within their schemes:

Cabair
Cabair/KLMuk
Air Atlantique
Tayside Aviation
A&G

I don't know who might be running schemes at the moment.

[Markgil]

Have a look at www.gapan.org (http://www.gapan.org) as they are offering a Flight Instructor (Restricted) Rating Scholorship.

Good luck

Mark

['I' in the sky]

Re the market for instructors.

Normally at this time of year the schools are starting to advertise quite actively for instructors for the spring/summer season.Those sections of Pilot/Flyer are noticebly bare at the moment.

Don't give up the day job until you are happy you have found a school you are comfortable with.

[pitotheat]

Steve

Difficult to advise you given the limited information you provided but for what it is worth here are some pointers:

There were plenty of people I met along the way who failed because they ran out of money. Don't budget on getting through every exam/test first time it will not happen.

Try to find contingency funds from anywhere should your loan run out.

Do as much studying/exams/tests whilst still in full/part-time employment elsewhere unless you can raise the capital (£40k plus) to go for it in one go.

Save every penny you can and cadge/beg every hour in a plane possible.

If you have a partner/spouse make sure you have their total commitment, they will be way down the priority list whilst you are studying.

Remember at the end of it you still may not get a job straight away but don't give up.

Enjoy the process.

The bottom line is get the finances sorted out first, you can not afford the distraction, stress and agro of running low on funds part the way through.

Good Luck.