Instructor job market?

[santan17]

I finished my fATPL in November and am now seriously considering getting an instructors rating. Does anybody know what the job market is like at the moment in the UK for instructors? Is it as hard to get an intructors job as it is an airline job?

Any info appreciated


Santan

[Terrain Ahead!]

Its pretty poor I'm afraid. The market is flooded with inexperienced instructors.

I suspect part time work is easier to get then full time, but be prepared to move around the UK to find a job.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

I would estimate that an instructing job is about as hard to find right now as an airline or GA job.

People graduating into the stagnant market of the last 18 months have often taken a FI rating as a proactive measure. Leading to a glut of newly minted instructors just at a time when PPL schools face a drop in students due to the Sept11th effect coupled with a worsening economic atmosphere.

Factor in a rise in prices passed on through spiralling fuel and insurance costs and the picture is not at all pretty.

WWW

[foghorn]

In most of the schools that I've been involved with over the last four years (including possibly the UK's busiest PPL school) the same faces are instructing as were there 18 months to two years ago. Six months prior to that new instructors were popping up left right and centre to replace instructors off to the airlines. That deomostrates to me how things have changed.

No movement to the airlines means no free instructor posts As WWW says add in the economic malaise and big increase in costs and you get contraction in the training industry, meaning that less instructors are required.

I am of the personal opinion that the rampant IT contracting market of the late 1990s fuelled a PPL training boom, because lots of people who dreamed of flying as kids suddenly had the disposable income to get their PPLs. I doubt if we'll see times like those in the near future.

cheers!
foggy.

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Foghorn is correct. I instructed for 1999, 2000, 2001. During that time I had a great number of students who were making a fortune a week as IT consultants and then wanted to do something with the cash - like a flying license. Similarly there were countless chinless wonders who had re-mortgaged their house only to find themselves with £50k in their back pockets burning a hole....

Those heady times have gone. The parallels with 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 are just so remarkable.

Here's crossing fingers for Danair, Air Europe and Paramount MkII....

WWW

WWW

[BroomstickPilot]

There is an additional factor you need to bear in mind.

I am an older pilot currently doing CPL prior to proceeding on to do an FI rating with a view to becoming a club instructor as my ultimate end.

Some of the FTOs I have spoken to have said to me (without any prompting on my part) that they prefer people who are going to become career instructors to those who are merely building hours toward an airline job.

The reason is quite simple. At least a small proportion of hours builders, who have presented themselves for instructing jobs, have proven to be largely uninterested either in instructing or in their students. This has been off-putting for the students and hence bad for business.

In happier times, when instructors were not two a penny, FTOs were grateful to have hours builders. Now, however, they can afford to be picky.

[BEagle]

Until there is a natural throughput of pilots triggered by airlines beginning to recruit pilots again, the FI employment market will remain stagnant. There is simply not enough demand from the general public wanting to learn to fly these days; many who do take the Florida route...

I have been advised that 'indications' suggest that some airlines may will have to start recruiting again in the not too distant future; however, Bliar and Dubya's actions concerning Iraq may well knock that for six. So until there is a definite and noticeable resumption of airline recruiting, I would suggest that the FI market will remain much as it is for the foreseeable.

Incidentally, the airline pilot world is now seen as offering neither the kudos nor rewards that it once did. Beancounters and their scheduling computers ensure that pilots are worked as hard as the rules allow, crews are locked into the flightdeck for the whole trip - gone are the days of inviting passengers up to the flight deck or strolling down the back to chat to the punters. Night stops down route are fewer; the opportunity for those 'room parties' of yesteryear are even fewer - either the press are lurking itching to catch another pilot or cabin crew member having a drink or the crew are on minimum crew rest in any case.

I am not a commercial airline pilot; these comments are made by those I know who are. For example, an ex-Trident Number One told me about the happy days of Manchester to Paris, night off in Paris, then back again the next day after a night on the town. Compare that to the multi-sector 20 minute turnround era of today - and it doesn't seem like much fun any more. Although aircrew being aircrew, they'll always find a way....

Regrettably, I feel that the 'cheap as chips - take it or leave it' attitude displayed by at least one of the low-costs is ruining the image and reputation of the airline world. It was OK with buzz - at least you were allocated a seat, you were looked after by a happy team and there was even an airline lounge at STN. But another STN-based airline treat their passengers like cattle; even though they are very cheap, things have been taken too far in my opinion. The glamour has gone out of flying - especially when you're treated no better than a bus passenger!

It must have been marvellous once; an ex-Argonaut/DC7 pilot I know told me that when flying the North Atlantic, they'd first meet for breakfast at the crew hotel - everyone had to stand up when the captain arrived! Then when they felt ready, they'd take a taxi to the aerodrome, do their flight planning, tell the airport when to send the passengers out to the aeroplane and ultimately set off. During the flight the crew and passengers would be served several meals - not just a tray with plastic cutlery! The captain would spend much time chatting to the passengers and everything was very civilised.......ah, nostalgia isn't what it used to be!

Sorry to have rambled on - no, the FI market is indeed saturated with inexperienced 'hours builders'.....

[Stampe]

Very well put Beagle as often.Sad but very true.I,ve enjoyed my time in aviation but wouldn,t want my children joining the modern aviation industry.Private flying still has a lot to commend it though and still think a PPL is a wonderful freedom if and its a big if, you can afford to do enough hours to become proficient and progress.

[witchdoctor]

God help us! Santan 17 wants to be sent to Top Gun:eek:

Thank goodness I'm all finished for the mo;)

WD

S - Wasn't 117 the porno plane?

[Wave Drag Jones]

I went to Yuma in 117 and was nearly never seen again:}