For flying school managers/owners

[FireDragon]

Don't really know what forum to put this one in, so I'll see if any response is got from here - apologies if it's the wrong forum.

I have been considering starting a flying school; whilst I'm aware of the requirements needed, I would be really grateful if somebody with experience of this could give me an insight into the questions below

As a school owner or manager, what is most of your time during any one day spent on.

Are you an instructor yourself, or would you not have the time to instruct and run the school.

How do you cope with the quieter times.

How do you manage when instructors move on unexpectedly, and you can't get a replacement either immediately, or for the forseable future.

Do you enjoy what you do, or are you sorry that you started it.

Thanks for any replies, I'm really interested in what people have to say

[flybymike]

One of the most interesting questions I have read on here in a long time. I can't wait to read the responses ;)

[mad_jock]

From what I have seen.



As a school owner or manager, what is most of your time during any one day spent on.




Moaning at the Instructors about everything. Aircraft going tech. Student notes not up to date, the wx, the time of day it is, time keeping, and instructors having the cheak to ask for days off. etc etc.



Are you an instructor yourself, or would you not have the time to instruct and run the school.



Apperently no time to instruct the moaning takes 110% of the days time and there isn't enough people available to listen to the moaning in a 2 seater. But if a fit burd turns up chocks away.



How do you cope with the quieter times.



Moan even more than usual and try and think of pointless things for the Instructors to do without being payed anything.


How do you manage when instructors move on unexpectedly, and you can't get a replacement either immediately, or for the forseable future.



That really is a good excuse for a good moan. Usually slag them off to everyone that will listen. Have a try of cocking thier chances up with their new job. Then figure out a way you won't have to pay them the money that you owe them.


This is all tongue in cheek but unfortunetly all so true in some cases.

[FireDragon]

Mad Jock

Thanks for 'tongue in cheek' reply, gave me a laugh!

Seriously, if anybody can offer some insight/answers about all (or some) of the questions, that would be great.

If I do go down this road, I'll try not to live up to Jocks expectations!

Thanks

[flybymike]

Brilliant Jock. Just the sort of answer I had expected..:D

[FlyingForFun]

I love MJ's reply - definitely fits in with some individuals I know!

I'm not a manager, but this thread doesn't seem to have attracted any replies from managers, so I'll have an attempt at a serious reply - don't take this as gospel, but it might get some managers to come out of the woodwork to add their comments.....

> As a school owner or manager, what is most of your time during any one day spent on.

Depends. Some managers are not instructors, in which case they might spend their day in the office, answering calls, greeting students, arranging maintenance, putting together instructor schedules, organising marketing and advertising, etc, etc, etc. If the manager is an instructor, then he will probably be the CFI - quite likely won't have any regular students, but will do progress checks, new member checkouts, fill in for sick instructors, etc. He might also be a qualified examiner, in which case he will probably be the first choice examiner for the school's students. Or he might have other interests outside the school (e.g. a flying for a charter outfit with which the school is associated). If the manager is not in the office, though, he will probably need to hire someone else to be there full-time to answer phones and greet customers in all but the smallest of schools.

> Are you an instructor yourself, or would you not have the time to instruct and run the school.

I have seen it done both ways, and both ways can work. When the manager is also an instructor, though, he will probably need help with the office-work, as I said above.

> How do you cope with the quieter times.

By drinking tea. Or do you mean financially??? By planning for them in advance. After a year or two, you will know what kind of revenue you can expect in each month. Must be a bit hit-and-miss until you've got some reliable figures, though, I'd guess.

> How do you manage when instructors move on unexpectedly, and you can't get a replacement either immediately, or for the forseable future.

By having part-timers available. The two most common sources of part-timers is retirees and ATCers. Retirees are generally happy to work full-time for short periods when schools are short-staffed. ATCers need to fit in around their ATC shifts, but by keeping their shift-pattern quite low to start with, it's usually possible to increase the number of shifts they work when necessary. The same can be said for part-timers from other backgrounds, too.

> Do you enjoy what you do, or are you sorry that you started it.

Does anyone really enjoy their job every minute of every day??? See Mad_Jock's reply!!!

I think that's a fair summary of the schools I've worked for and trained at, but I've seen such a diverse range of schools (and also never been a manager of a school) that it can't possibly be a complete answer.

FFF
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[mad_jock]

Just a few pointers if you do decide to start a school.

I have managed a school while the boss was away so there is proberly more to it than I saw.

The first 2 questions

You have to decide what your primary role actually is.

Are you going to be the person on the ground and examiner and the relief instructor when required. Or are you going to instruct and examine and only do minimal book work.

If you are on the ground there is about an hour of paper work to do per day. It includes filling fuel reciepts, updating the engine log books, updating the accounts from the previous days activitys, sorting out when and were planes are getting serviced, ordering stock and other faff. This lends itself to minimal paper work and zero job creation.

After that you only really do the odd check flight and test and answer questions on the telephone, meet trial flights and generally sell your school and supervise the restricted instructors. This generally works quite well. You don't need to employ someone for the phone which saves 15k per year and everything gets done the way you want it to. Also as well you can spend some quality time selling the product than getting a FI to phone someone back in between debriefing someone and briefing the next one.

If you decide you are going to fly you have to employ someone who is a bit of a sales person and also knows what they are talking about in regard to flight training (not cheap). A hour builder works quite well (you can pay them in flying and min wage) and some one reading ATPL notes and is keen on flying looks alot better than someone doing thier nails and reading OK. Alot of schools are let down by employing someone on minimal wage and then doesn't have a clue when someone asks a none standard question which really needs a pilots answer.

The next stage up is to have a phone answerer to sell trial flights etc and run the booking system/shop and you available to sell the product.

There is nothing worse than a keen TF being fobbed off by a FI because they have 15mins to have a dump and a bite to eat before they go again. The customer needs pampered for 30 mins over a cup of coffee. Parents need to have the commercial pilots training system explained to them and told how crap going to the US is :D .

The second 2 questions are part and parcel on how you run your team.

FI's are generally not thick and without stimulus will go bad very quickly if forced to hang around doing pointless "jobs" or even just sitting there doing nothing. A day of nothing is way more sapping than flying 8 hours. And several days of it will not put them in a good selling mode.

There are alot of bosses who take the view that they are the boss so if its quiet they get the time off. They then leave the FI who is bored ****less and not getting payed sat in the school. If you want FI's to send out CV's and not tell you this is the way to go about it.

Most FI's get fed up instructing after about 700-800 hours sep the trick is to have a mixture of new instructors and old ones who are in various stages of being pissed off with the whole thing. Personaly I would never employ a FI who had worked at another school unless they were restricted and hadn't worked full time somewhere else or were coming back to instructing in thier spare time. They have the potential to bring way to much baggage with them and poison the rest of the FI's and the customers.

The moaning stereo type flying school owner is nearly always the type who dissappears at a drop of a hat and/or who delegates everything and then always slips in and out of the job without ever taking the job back. Thier apperances is nearly always announced by turning up and then bollocking everyone and anyone that comes close to them because all the stuff they delegated hasn't been done the way they wanted it done or they had fogot that they had told you to do it that way. They then make you redo the job and then usually change thier minds when it doesn't work so you have to redo it again. After a couple of hour's moaning they decide its time to go again and then the CV's start going out again.

If you don't bully and enslave the FI's they will be quite open when they apply for a job. They won't then go sick for interviews and sim checks at short notice. But you have to bite the bullet and give them the time off if they require it. Even if you are a top boss you will still get the occassional phone call on Monday, Interview on wednesday, and start type rating on the next Monday. Shouldn't be a problem though due to the fact that your seen as a good employer, phone up a local FIC school and next day a couple of fresh instructors will be round for interview.

The customers become very loyal to thier Instructors, if you loose an Instructor on bad terms especially one who is percieved as good. It will hit your sales big time. The ppl hires won't fly as much because they don't like to hear all the bull****. Some of the instructors students will loose interest, because if its been building over a couple of months you can bet every student in the school knows about who said what and to who and it will be very one sided in the Instructors favour.

[Dude~]

Wow, Mad Jock that is an exceptionally perceptive post!

This Christmas break has been my first break since starting intsructing a year ago and its interesting to look back and agree with everything you said! The sick days for interviews make me laugh - you are right, a friendly boss will be informed before hand but a pain in the butt boss will not.

A very good point about having a broad range of instructor experience if poss. Having a bunch of 1000 hr instructors positively itching to move on can't be good for the business!

If only I got paid for moaning at work I'd be a millionaire!

[FireDragon]

Mad Jock

Very interesting post, thanks for that. You make very valid points, which I'm certainly going to take on board.

Thanks again

ps Dude~ just beat me to it!

[Flingingwings]

As an Ex Instructor I've seen most of MJ's tongue in cheek observations and then some. I left instructing because of the treatment.
I'd also add - Employ a good CFI and or CP. A person that the less experienced FI's can look up to and trust. Might also be an idea to decide whether you want a seperate manager and CFI or an individual who attempts both. 'Attempts' being the operative word. Very few experienced FI's make good managers.
And remember that whilst some owners may feel that a 'friendly' phone call about the recently departed instructor is warranted. Instructors tend to stick together and as you'll no doubt read/ have read on these pages they also have VERY long memories :E
IMHO any flying school is only as good as it's FI's :ok:

As my wifes grandfather used to say - 'Those who can do. those who can't teach' For whatever reasons some FI's stay teaching because they simply can't do anything else within the industry. That is by no means a dig at most instructors as they work hardest within this industry in the section that is least forgiving. Avoiding those less desirable individuals who talk a good flight is no easy task. Good luck