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View Full Version : USA Flight Training costs to rise as Instructor shortage looms?


porridge
12th Apr 2001, 05:48
I have just read two interesting articles in the US NAFI (the US Instructors Association) Mentor magazine titled as follows:
1) Position Report:
Turning Point – The Flight Training Industry has the chance to reshape itself, by Phil Poynor NAFI Director
Some extracts:
“Anyone active in flight training has seen a dramatic shift in the commuter hiring practices. Most now hire pilots (our instructors) with as little as 1, 000 hours total time. At my flight school we’re losing instructors who have fewer than 1,000 hours total time and 35 hours multiengine time tot the commuters. Their entire instructing career is less than 750 hours. ………. This is the current training model in the US and it is causing problems………………..You ain’t seen nothing yet. Before the year is out we will see the commuter airlines continuing to reduce their hiring minimums, we will reach a point where airline wannabes will bypass flight instructing entirely.”
2) Members Views:
Instructor issues: Is the CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) shortage as real as it seems?
a) “Today with the same student load, I have no resumes on file and no instructors asking me for work.” – Patricia Knight MCFI A&M Aviation
b) “I joined the group in November and by January I had a job with an airline after accruing only 34 hours as an instructor.” – David Coleman, Burlington, Vermont

I have heard that the Part 141 (Commercial) Flight Schools who wish to retain their instructors are envisaging starting pay for 1000 hour plus instructors with CFI, CFII & MEI at around $45k/annum. This would make them as well paid, with better disposable incomes, than EU based Commercial School instructors.

Food for thought on the escalation of Flight Training costs for the EU based Wannabe?!