FI (R) Job market at present
Join Date: May 2001
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I have been instructing since january and have just got called for a jet interview, my first interview in fact.
Certainly wouldn't have got this without the hours gained from instructing.
Many FIs I know have got turboprop or even jet jobs, one recently went to jets with just over 1000hrs TT. Of course, some of my friends are still slogging away with over 1500hrs of SEP time and are nearly getting mad, but instructing certainly opens doors and its cheaper and less risky than SSTR.
I love filling in this bit on forms. As a PPL I used to fly anywhere between 5 and 40 hrs a year. Now I've done:
222hrs in last 3 months
437hrs in last 6 months and
672hrs in last 12 months.
And I've got paid for every hour. Beats sitting at home getting rusty!
Certainly wouldn't have got this without the hours gained from instructing.
Many FIs I know have got turboprop or even jet jobs, one recently went to jets with just over 1000hrs TT. Of course, some of my friends are still slogging away with over 1500hrs of SEP time and are nearly getting mad, but instructing certainly opens doors and its cheaper and less risky than SSTR.
as all the airline application forms I have seen seem to focus on recent flying hrs ie. last 3, 6 and 12 months flying totals.
222hrs in last 3 months
437hrs in last 6 months and
672hrs in last 12 months.
And I've got paid for every hour. Beats sitting at home getting rusty!
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Many FIs I know have got turboprop or even jet jobs, one recently went to jets with just over 1000hrs TT. Of course, some of my friends are still slogging away with over 1500hrs of SEP time and are nearly getting mad, but instructing certainly opens doors and its cheaper and less risky than SSTR.
I'll stand by you and your choice, Dude. happy for your 1st job.
PZ
Join Date: Nov 2005
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You couldnt have put it any better Papazulu.
There are far too many of these sorts comming out of the system and bringing the level of competancy, and the whole instruction industry down with them! Especially on the PPL front.
As you say they expect, rather than realise that gaining employment in an airline or any operator for that matter requires the same amount of determination and savvy as any other job.
Many go through the saussage machine schools and come out hitting a large brick wall!! All the marketing and bull noit paid off!!
Then see gaining an instructors rating as a pain. This then reflects in thier attitude to thier students and the flying, as they are just thinking, ' I should be in the RHS of a jet not in a clapped out 152. Then starts the vicious circle. The way I see it, its a sad fact and part of the industry that is here to stay. A great shame!
Anyway thats my two cents worth. Currently running for cover!!!
Expedite
There are far too many of these sorts comming out of the system and bringing the level of competancy, and the whole instruction industry down with them! Especially on the PPL front.
As you say they expect, rather than realise that gaining employment in an airline or any operator for that matter requires the same amount of determination and savvy as any other job.
Many go through the saussage machine schools and come out hitting a large brick wall!! All the marketing and bull noit paid off!!
Then see gaining an instructors rating as a pain. This then reflects in thier attitude to thier students and the flying, as they are just thinking, ' I should be in the RHS of a jet not in a clapped out 152. Then starts the vicious circle. The way I see it, its a sad fact and part of the industry that is here to stay. A great shame!
Anyway thats my two cents worth. Currently running for cover!!!
Expedite
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Well...Thank you for your two cents. At least you confirmed that what I think makes sense after typing, which for a no-native English speaker is quite an achivement...
The sad part, as you said, is the attitude and the sense of frustration that comes with the first PFO letters or doors slammed into your face. I am not immune from that but it is a long story.
Sooner or later the famed MPL will kick in, and the cut will become deeper, I feel...Everything evolves, but I wonder if it's always the strongest that survive.
let's see
PZ
The sad part, as you said, is the attitude and the sense of frustration that comes with the first PFO letters or doors slammed into your face. I am not immune from that but it is a long story.
Sooner or later the famed MPL will kick in, and the cut will become deeper, I feel...Everything evolves, but I wonder if it's always the strongest that survive.
let's see
PZ
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There are far too many of these sorts coming out of the system and bringing the level of competency
Are you referring to me? You don't even know me! I spent many years flying as a PPL and have wanted to become an Instructor for a long time. I receive extremely good feedback from students. I do not take my position lightly and neither do I expect to get a jet job just because I instruct.
I chose to instruct because I wanted to stay in the GA scene for a while. Now I have worked in GA I would like to move on. That doesn’t imply that my standards are lower than someone who wants to remain an instructor.
Join Date: Aug 2004
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I might have been confusing, sure not pointing my finger against your choice Dude. Why, if I took the same decision? What I meant is that as well as you underline that FI rating led you to your first job, in the old fashioned way, all those who succeded in getting a jet-job with a SSTR can state the same simply changing "FI rating" with "SSTR" in you post. I think anyone would evaluate two potential FOs in different manners if he had to compare a FI's experience with a SSTR and no time on type...In between there are all those who risked everything and got a fist full of dust.Clear now? Didn't mean to criticize anyone, just read it back and you might agree. I am not very happy with the FI choice but, as I said it is another story and not related to anyone experience at all.
Once again:
PZ
Once again:
I'll stand by you and your choice, Dude. happy for your 1st job.
Join Date: Aug 2004
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Join Date: Sep 2002
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expedite08,
Who should fill the vacant instructor positions?
There are far too many of these sorts comming out of the system and bringing the level of competancy, and the whole instruction industry down with them! Especially on the PPL front.
Join Date: Oct 2003
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Hold on, if the potential instructor passes the course to the standards required, does that mean that the course is not good enough?
That the examiners are not looking for the correct skills, or is it that the new instructors are looking at the jobs market from a very different angle.
If the instructors have got their heart set on flying the tubes, well good on them.
Instructing is another skill on the CV for many pilots in a market that requires you to show your experience and determination to succeed.
It is all well and good people taking pot shots on an anonymous forum at other instructors who may be very competant at their jobs. After all if they did not get to the standards required they would not have a job instructing?
That the examiners are not looking for the correct skills, or is it that the new instructors are looking at the jobs market from a very different angle.
If the instructors have got their heart set on flying the tubes, well good on them.
Instructing is another skill on the CV for many pilots in a market that requires you to show your experience and determination to succeed.
It is all well and good people taking pot shots on an anonymous forum at other instructors who may be very competant at their jobs. After all if they did not get to the standards required they would not have a job instructing?
Join Date: Oct 2006
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Intructor shortage and microlight view
Yes, and today one of them!
I run a microlight school in Scotland, and also have a shortage of instructors - even at 30-odd pounds per flying hour.
We have to offer career instructiing, since one's microlight hours count for nothing further once you have an instructor's rating.
Yet the C42 Ikarus we have can also, with different placards, be a light aircraft!
However, a microlight instructor's course - for a basic ppl with 100 hours on microlights - is about three grand and four weeks. So microlight instructors don't have the same capital - in time and money - invested in training to recoup.
So as other posters have mentioned, the shortage of instructors is a) having to mean instructional rates go up, so flying lessons go up, so fewer students learn, so fewer instructors needed, so instructors' wages fall back! or b) ab initio light aircraft instruction maybe looks at the microlight route - and checks it out for safety, competance, value for money etc.
My personal aim at the airfield I have bought is to give instructors a "living wage" - I will never be able to compete with airlines - unless they drop their pay rates, which I hope for all they don't!
I see a "living wage" as being the national average wage - if you want a definition - which is about 21k a year.
Not great if you have invested all that cash - 60k and a coule of years - in a CPL etc, but not too bad if your dream is to instruct and you have invested 3k and a month on a training course.
Very best wishes to all
Join Date: Aug 2004
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I got a FI position offered in a nice FTO a week ago and, so far, I have to say that I have accepted...Then I got a text message for Belgium from a friend going TRated on a TP for a regional in Co-EU, after two years far away from amything flyable...Is this not supposed to make me feel sick? Sorry to go a bit off topic but time is ticking for me and I trew the dice once again...Heart is pounding, eyes are watering and jaws are stiff. IDidn't I want it bad enough? Nevertheless I hope I can still be a decent FI without that feeling of frustration, without asking why it does not happen... All I want is a make-a-living-job on a plane possibly somewhere warm and I really feel bad anytime I try to make a point for FIs.
However I really had great time in UK even if those years I was not flying and I am sure there will be other sunny days even where if it doesn't rain it pours...!
Hope to hear you on air soon! And stop this SSTR madness...!
PZ
However I really had great time in UK even if those years I was not flying and I am sure there will be other sunny days even where if it doesn't rain it pours...!
Hope to hear you on air soon! And stop this SSTR madness...!
PZ
Join Date: Jul 2005
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Any Scottish clubs / schools hiring then I know two (hopefully) well respected FIs (one a CFI) who have run for the hills and are looking for immediate work. Their school at Cumbernauld looks like it's gone tits up and thoughts / suggestions appreciated. 
Join Date: Mar 2000
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Well, there are going to be some new jobs going up here very soon. We at Leading Edge have just been asked to take over the provision of PPL training at Perth. So we're going to need people both there and Cumbernauld. We already have a great team, but we are going to need to expand it.
