Instructor salary

[sky waiter]

Hi,

Seeing that there is a post on contract salary i was wondering how the instructors are fairing, if anyone is interested in posting what are the guys getting paid hourly, for pre flight briefings, for lectures PPL and Comm, basic salaries, and if they need to pay for the aircraft when renewal times comes along?

Would be interesting to do a comparison and find out what the industry norm is, heard about a flight instructors union maybe they could standardise things a bit, cause from my experience the rates vary hugely....

[dr27]

Hi

Its been a long time since my instructors days but the pay was piss ppor.

:} What is the only cheap thing in aviation...instructors

Many times I had to compete with chaps who flew for free just to build hours and stil had to pay for my own Jep, car house etc.

:mad: At least I didn't put on weight in those days..

I wonder about now...

[policepilot]

In 1999/2000/2001 it went from R80 to R85 per hour. Only paid for flying time. Nothing for briefings nor late cancellations. Not ungrateful as I can't imagine how I'd have built up those initial hours and networked with the charter companies. Although you wouldn't think so then!!!
Company sorted out renewals for full time instructors, medicals were yours. Managed to pass ATPL in that time too and get a real job.
With the aid of a coloured diagram explain to your student.....

[Shrike200]

Same time period, pretty much the same pay, although with a small basic (R1500-R2000?) Part time guys got about R100 per hour, but I can't remember if that applied to Gr III or II. The Gr II instructors got paid slightly (like about R10-R20!) more per hour. And we paid for all our renewals, medical etc, but got slightly cheaper rates on the aircraft. Thankfully we had a great boss, who was approachable, there all the time, and listened to us.

It was dirt, but it was good dirt at the time. My 'networking' with charter companies involved me getting sworn at by them (off air of course!) when I delayed them by so much as 0.00001 seconds at FALA, despite herculean efforts not to. Those who have instructed will understand the 'wading through syrup' feeling of getting a slower student to do something timeously without rushing them, all while two Kingairs, a Citation and a Lear bear down on you at the hold. This is of course after your student has somehow managed to park him/herself neatly in the only path onto the runway, again despite your very clear explanation of why we DON'T park in everyones way when doing runups. I laughed at the times I've had to do odd little 360's at the hold at least....

There I go again with instructors stories, sorry. You have to understand, it brings back very 'special' feelings! :)

[putt for dough]

Surely there has got to be more of you instructors out there
willing to give us an anonymous reply to the originator of this post.

What about all you CFA,43,Progress,LFC etc,etc instructors
out there?

It's all in the name of helping potential instructors out:ok:

Schweet...

[bosbok]

For me it's R100/hr briefing, R115/hr flying.

[wheels up]

"Thankfully we had a great boss, who was approachable, there all the time, and listened to us."

At least the contract flying didn't kill your keen sense of humour!

[dynamite dean]

Hi
Its been a long time since my instructors days but the pay was piss ppor.
:} What is the only cheap thing in aviation...instructors
...

Dead on the numbers! (when I did it it was 85rand per hour only when you flew!)not the other lot spent on the ground briefs were free and GII and III got exactly the same so out of two students of a total minimum dual of 25hrs each 50 * 85 = 4250 rand after Mbeki and his cronies take their cut 3500rands eishh! Here in the UK they take 75 pounds per hour do the math! But I don't think Instructors are millionaires here however. A being an instrucotor in winter is no fun I think.

[Jlo]

I get a basic salary of just over R3100 and get paid R100 per hour that I fly (Grade II) The hourly rate increases by R30 for every hour flown more than 50 in a month. Not too bad - except that TAX devours a huge chunk of it.

Does anyone know whether we are supposed to be taxed on our commission as well as the basic salary? I heard a rumour that we should actually only be taxed on the basic...

[Shrike200]

"Thankfully we had a great boss, who was approachable, there all the time, and listened to us."
At least the contract flying didn't kill your keen sense of humour!

Surprisingly enough, I was being serious! I'm talking about instructing at LFC, NOT my prior and less fortunate instructing job :)

[policepilot]

If you're freelancing, and fly for other companies too, (this doesn't work if you work for one company on a freelance basis) you can claim for uniform, medical, petrol, sunglasses. I paid my brothers accountant R250 and he got me 2 cheques back from the taxman totaling R7500 over a 24 month period. And all above board too.
I forget the details, it's easy to find, but you can get paid in full and then sort your tax out without the company getting into trouble with the taxman.

[wheels up]

The contract flying has obviously turned you dillusional.....or you worked at a different LFC.

[discobeast]

Is the rate mentioned the same between heli and fixedwing?