Helicopter Flight Instructor Pay

[ATPMBA]

What is the average pay for a part-time flight instructor per hour for instructuing PPL students in the UK (R22, S300c) ?

[windowseatplease]

£40-£50 per flight hour.

[Up & Away]

freelance Helicopter Instructors could get £40 per hour here in the UK in 1985!!:sad:

[Phil77]

I used to make $20 per hour (flight and ground instruction) here in the north east US. But worked the office when not flying and got $1,000 base pay a month - equated to a mere $7/hour! :eek:

[dragman]

New Zealand instructors; loaded. Start on as low as $25,000 salary.

[P1DRIVER]

Hi
Instructors working in the Middle East are on £60000+ with the current exchange rate.
Onwards and upwards

[HelikoPeter]

Norway pays about 50$ per hour instructing R22 and R44

[Disguise Delimit]

In Oz I'm getting $130,000 but I'm not a newbie Grade 2 -I'm an old Grade 1.:8

[Disguise Delimit]

That's Oz dollars unfortunately, the South Pacific Peso.:uhoh:

[Heliringer]

DD,

That is top dollar for an instructor, in fact any pilot in Australia.

I guess you are teaching NVGs etc on the Sunshine Coast.

Nice one anyway, something for us all to aspire too.

Ringer

[fluffy5]

Yep, it is terrible pay. In the uk market the pay has not changed for the last 10 to 15 years, 40 to 50 pounds an hour. some get a retainer. but the company will see a way in making a ceiling for you, average monthly pay in the summer for a free lance will any where between 2000-3000 quid. yet in the winter periods can go down to 1000 quid a month. Corporate has gone tits up in the uk, so alot of pilots will not be able to supplement there income doing charter.
I'm even in a more awfull position, just about to get a wage increase which will put me more 75,000 sterling a year, TAX FREE. Oh hang on, better say it again for any people working in the UK "TAX FREE" :}
Feel tired, overworked, fatigued that I have to get up from my large villa, travel to work my 5 minute drive, do the awfull part of flying for a few hours, done my 6 hours duty if I'm on afternoon's, S.E vfr training. Finish then have the most terrible time round the golf course, cold beer and then back home for a swim in the pool. :{

If only I could go back to free lance instruction back in the UK, of being stiffed by a few cowboy companies and then by the tax man.
Life can be so cruel. :E

[Jonwil]

Fluffy,

your the man!

[Tarman]

Fluffy wrote:
I'm even in a more awfull position, just about to get a wage increase which will put me more 75,000 sterling a year, TAX FREE. Oh hang on, better say it again for any people working in the UK "TAX FREE" http://static.pprune.org/images/smilies/badteeth.gif

Yawn

[P1DRIVER]

Hi F5

Think youre wrong there!!!?? Its more like £71556 TAX FREE. But don,t forget the Extra months pay for every 12 months so its £77519

[fluffy5]

Thank you very much P1driver, forgot about the extra after every 12 months, it really cuts deeply to the bone. :eek:

[WylieCoyote]

Fluff,

I think it's time you started a thread ' I have a very big handle and I know how to wind it'.:E

[dragman]

5 minute drive to work? Lazy b@$t@rd! Haven't you got a bike?

[WylieCoyote]

Of course Fluffy has a bike, she's Thai... Ping ping or something or other and her mate Ting tong, why do you think he has to drive to work!

[Leftpedal]

In Seff Effrika you get 350 - 400 Rand per hour. That's about Twenty - twenty three pounds. Or 3 and a half - 4 cases of beer.....

[jonseagull]

How much tax do you have to pay on 3 1/2 - 4 cases of beer?

[dragman]

Depends on the alcohol percentage

[fluffy5]

Sorry I have not got back sooner Wiley, yep it is a shame can't fit the bike in the back of the porshe, get's in the way of the fillipino girls :}

[fluffy5]

And no not messing around simond, that's what we generally earn at the current exchange rate in the middle east for the military training. :eek:

[WylieCoyote]

Messing around! I wish he was, as a friend recently said 'he landed his arse in the buter with that one!'
But then mecenaries have always historically been well paid types;), I'd have said the only thing he's telling porkies about is the Porsche, Fluffers in a Porsche....christ Miss Daisy drives quicker than he does!

[Camp Freddie]

Fluffers in a Porsche....christ Miss Daisy drives quicker than he does!

I will second that, pathetically slow is what I would call it, a steady jog would keep up :)

CF

[Whirlygig]

pathetically slow is what I would call itDoes Fluffy come from Norfolk then? :}

Cheers

Whirls

[Camp Freddie]

whirly,

in a former life I have the honour of having taught fluffy to fly :eek:

but not in norfolk

CF

[Camp Freddie]

5 years on, is it still £40-£50? or has inflation finally set in?

[tu154]

Depends on the operator, the 'largest' paid 40 an hour for FI work, 50 for public transport a year ago, I believe a near London competitor on the same airfield paid more, maybe 70 for the FI work... Have things changed? Possibly a straw poll of current rates?

[Camp Freddie]

I think it's quite hard to recommend it as a career unless the punter can afford both an IR and an FI rating if they don't get picked up by a major.

[Helilog56]

VFR in Western Canada on piston aircraft...$90/hr, turbine....$100/hr, IFR.....110/hr.
Easy to fly 6-8 hrs a day 5 days a week.

[nuthin]

Thats for a Class 1 H56. You can start at $65ph as a Class 4 and add $10 an hour for Class 3, Class2 respectively.
Thats also all you get. No retainer or salary and thats before tax.
Better than most places for sure though.

[Helilog56]

It's what I get paid with my class 3....I just do fill in on my time off crane!!!!!

[Foureyedflyer]

I am amazed operators are still getting away with paying peanuts to Flight Instructors.

Why on earth hasn't the pay gone up since the 80's? Some instructing work is easy, some is bloody dangerous! I know the guys just want their hours but that shouldn't mean working for a wage that doesn't even pay off the cost of training.

I was lucky, I did the FI rating on a PPL(H) and then went on to CPL. The guys these days have a hell of a lot of outlay to be able to whip around the circuit in a Robinson.

[Cylinder Head]

Unfortunately instructor pay has been stagnant for far too long, largely because there are always new instructors prepared to work for peanuts just to get a foot in the door.
Some of the less reputable flying schools out there are not paying restricted instructors at all, expecting them to work, just to get to their upgrade. This is a disgrace and a black mark on our industry.
Good instructors are hard to find but unfortunately the economics of helicopter training means that no-one makes enough money be they the school, the helicopter owner or the instructor.
We pay £48 per hour to restricted instructors, probably one of the highest hourly rates in the country but of which I am still ashamed considering what they have invested. We still find it hard to attract good instructors. Anyone looking can PM me.

[ApolloHeli]

I'm curious about the state of this today. Any FI(H) pilots out there who can put a word in? It's been just shy of 5 years since the last post.

[Ovc000]

no update needed, sadly instructors pay is still the same as 5 years ago :ugh:

[Flying Foxhunter]

Sadly when I look back, I see my hourly flying instruction rate in 1997 was £45/hr with ground school instruction provided by me for free. This is the same now some 22 years later, hence I now prefer to charge for my time on a day rate basis whenever I can.

[gulliBell]

In the Australian case, minimum salaries and conditions of employment all set out in law.

https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/documents/modern_awards/pdf/ma000046.pdf

[Ascend Charlie]

Last time I was doing it, the pay worked out to be around $580 per flying hour, and not counting the interminable hours giving ground school or sitting behind the students in the sim. If I tried to count all that time, it would probably come down to about $70 per hour for a 9-hr day and 4 weeks leave per year.