Do you enjoy instructing?

[Halfbaked_Boy]

Hi there people, I'm a VFR CPL (i.e. Single engine, no additional ratings), I've around 500 hrs, spent some time doing aerial photography in Ireland, and I'm what you'd call a grass strip pilot I guess!

I'm undertaking the FI rating very soon, and I want to do this properly - I'm not getting the rating as another string to my bow, and I'm not doing it in the hope of getting a few single engine hours or to 'keep me flying'. I can live without flying if I need to, although I miss it if we're kept apart too long, so I'm not too cold hearted!

Ultimately I'd love to end up in the left hand seat of a Falcon or a Lear or something similar, but I'm absolutely in no rush, not in aviation for the money (convenient, eh?), simply want to better myself and be a productive asset to the industry, whether my influence stretches far or not.

Enough of that - the question remains... Do you enjoy instructing? What kind of instructing do you do? I'm interested to hear from civil and military backgrounds alike. I'm interested in instructing for the 'medium run', as a pre-career you might call it. As it stands I'll be able to instruct people towards the gaining of their PPLs of course, but as funds eventually allow I aim to expand on that and use it as a self improvement journey also. Best way to learn something is to teach it, I'm a big believer in that.

And the bottom line is, I've always enjoyed playing the 'instructor', whether that be in an aeroplane, supervising a learner driver, or on my Duke of Edinburgh walk over ten years ago!

I've got the advantage of having worked both a normal job for a few years, and having flown commercially from grass strips for long hours, so there's no illusions instilled, but I'm only gathering my knowledge from myself at the moment.

Any inputs?

p.s. I'm already broke, so don't need any warning on that issue

[RTN11]

Yes, it's a great experience, very rewarding and you meet some great people. I've been instructing for over 3 years, PPL, IMC ratings and night. The night and IMC is great fun, you do get a bit tired of straight and level after a while.

Students vary massively, some are the best people you will ever meet, some you would never want to see again when they step out of the aircraft. On the whole, it's well worth it for the life experience.

but...

It's a difficult lifestyle to keep. You never really know how much money you're going to make each month, so if a big bill comes your way it can wipe you out. If you can get a salary positions, you must be some kind of god.

It can be very frustrating when you sit at the club all week when the weather is pants, and on the day off when it's good weather and you're meant to be enjoying a day with the family you feel bitter because you could be flying and earning money.

In certain clubs there can be a lot of rivalry for who gets the most hours each month, and if you're on the wrong side of the ops girl you can find you don't get allocated much at all.

It would be very difficult to make a career as a PPL instructor these days, which was my original intention, you would have to move on to CPL or IR instruction to earn a wage. Everyone says money isn't important if you're living the dream, but you have to at least get by.

I would recommend instructing to anyone who really wants to pass on their knowledge. If you're just looking to build hours I think you would be wasting the students time and there are enough people doing that already.

[Aware]

If you have a great sense of humour, are flexible love flying GA aircraft, and have another occupation that actually pays a decent wage its fine.

The expense of flying greatly reduces when you have an FI. I have a 1000 hrs FI and it cost me 6K, that many hours if I paid for them would have cost £100,000 or so , so do the maths.

Buts its not for everybody, I enjoy it in the main because I have variety, and its a release from my financial services business, last week I did PPL IMC and tailwheel flying, but its true you meet some really great people, but you do fly with people that you wouldnt share a beer with and are quite honestly a P I T A , but you have to remain professional at all times and produce the best pilot you can.

And if you do it, be the best instructor you can, dont do it if you cant put all your energy into it. Its really about reading people and finding whats suits them best, which unfortunately the FI course lacks I feel.

Most of us are not teachers when we do the course and find its pretty tough teaching a new skill to people of hughly varying abilities.

[mrmum]

Yes, it's brilliant and I love doing it. BUT, it's not for everyone by any means.
To put some context on my view, I've being doing it for teens of years and have getting on for seven thousand hours instructing. All at flying club level, teaching for the N/PPL, Night and IMCr, with a few seasons of MoD Flying Scholarships in the early years.
I've never done it full-time, typically I'll fly about 3 days a week and have always had a "proper", non-aviation job to pay the bills. As you seem to be aware and will now be told repeatedly, there's not much money in it.
That could be why I still enjoy it, as I've got the normal job as a comparison, so flying has never become the mundane, day-in, day-out slog.
PPL instructing is at least as much about the personalities of your individual students, as it is about the flying. It's challenging, immensely rewarding and sometimes sooo frustrating.
I've always shyed away from doing any more "advanced" instructing, such as for the CPL, especially not for an integrated provider, that just doesn't appeal to me. It's too standardised and structured for me I think, you won't get to develop the relationships with students you get at a flying school. Although I occasionally think that doing the FIC might be interesting.
You as an individual FI, have a huge effect on what kind of PPLs we end up with, your attitude rubs off on them. It's too easy to teach down to the minimum syllabus requirements, how often do we come across PPLs who've never sideslipped, or operated from grass. Their only experience of simulated emergencies are the obligatory EFATO and PFL, even for those, they new they were going to be happening that flight. I would so love the ability to be able to "fail" all kinds of systems and controls, to be designed into training aircraft.
Being an FI is as good a job as you choose to make it, introduce variety and challenges into your lessons, don't be constrained by the standard hour in the LFA and X/C to the nearest two airfields. Most students will be up for doing some more interesting stuff, take them away for a whole or half day, show them what they can do once qualified. Even trial lessons can be fun, you will get some that are just a PITA, but on the whole, they're excited and enthused to be there. I've got little time for instructors that moan about TLs, they're your shop window in effect and we should be sending our customers away happy, so they'll tell everyone they know how good it was.
If you do decide to go ahead, I suspect you'll pick-up a job pretty quickly, your CV would standout from the 200 hour heroes (no offence), who having thrown £80k at OAA or somewhere, then decide that actually, they've always wanted to be an FI . or at least it would if it dropped into my inbox/letterbox.

[sevenstrokeroll]

LIndbergh said that you never really know how to fly untill you have taught someone else how to fly (paraphrase).

he is right

your students will put you into situations you couldn't imagine...so be ready for anything every second in the flying environment. be ready for students who do just fine and then turn into idiots.

I know one guy who checked a ppl out in a brand new cherokee archer...he rented it and flew from thed San Francisco area toward phoenix...he left late and decided to do an off airport precautionary landing because it was getting dark (oh, he had a beautiful girl with m hime)...so he landed on the desert and took off the next day.

of course, he could have flown west and held on to the light till he found an airport...or just flew at night (you are allowed to)

be ready for anything.

oh...DON"T give lessons on credit...give the lesson, GET THE MONEY as soon as you have finished the lesson.

[Heston]

Yes I enjoy it a lot. But as the others have said it is not for everybody and has its particualr irritations too.

Very hard to make a living at it (I'm semi-retired so have other sources of income that allow me to do it)

H

[S-Works]

I love teaching and examining. I would not do it as a full time job as the wages and hours are terrible. In my job I get to fly commercially and teach so have a great balance.

[foxmoth]

I love it as well, but like others who have replied so far, only instruct as a sideline as I fly bigger stuff full time. Also do not do much basic instructing, mostly Aeros, formation and tailwheel.

[Halfbaked_Boy]

RTN11, indeed the question I asked myself most often before making this decision was, am I doing this for myself, or am I doing it for my potential future students? The answer I came up with is both, which I think is the best mindset to be in. I can well envisage the differences involved with flying an aeroplane, and teaching somebody else how to fly an aeroplane from scratch, and it feels like something I've wanted for a long time, which is a job that rewards you in direct proportion to the effort you put in and the approach you take.

Aware, that's another good point regarding the costs, but I've had a flying job that resulted in me doing those very calculations, so I feel fortunate enough to be able to venture into this with no preoccupations about what I'm getting for free, so to speak. For me this is about a new experience, and something that I hope will be very satisfying (as well as frustrating!).

mrmum, I've never taught somebody how to fly (except the courtesy "Look, if you move the stick back the houses get smaller, if you move it forward, the houses get bigger!" when taking friends flying!), but even so, I would like to envisage myself teaching beyond the PPL when I myself have the necessary skills and ratings to do so.

You have raised a point, however, that is possibly my biggest worry regarding this journey... I will be responsible for the attitude of future PPLs, and I know that these people will be watching me when I fly as a form of role model. How did you handle this pressure when you were new to the job? I don't think this is something that 30 hours of flying can teach you!

sevenstrokeroll, I bet he weren't much older than myself!!

Cheers guys

[MartinCh]

at least when you teach zero time pilots with proper 'pilot to be' personality, you can imprint some airmanship, safety stuff, common sense etc. And teach them stuff they don't know.

[Genghis the Engineer]

Originally Posted by MartinCh

at least when you teach zero time pilots with proper 'pilot to be' personality, you can imprint some airmanship, safety stuff, common sense etc. And teach them stuff they don't know.

As a CRI teaching existing pilots who may have lapsed licences, not flown with an instructor properly for some time, or being brought up to speed into a syndicate on a type they've not flown before, I hope I'm doing that on a regular basis too.

And answering the OP's question - yes I massively enjoy teaching: the enjoyment of sharing my own passion for flying, and helping other people be better pilots is great - but so is the regular opportunity to spend time as PiC in a variety of often interesting aeroplanes (and get paid for it!), and meeting people with interesting backgrounds and their own passions for flying. Add to that that pretty much every sortie I teach, I learn something that makes me a better pilot - and I get a big kick out of being as good as possible at something I enjoy.

G

[fa2fi]

I do mostly. Gets a bit tedious when the weather is beyond poor and you have pushy parents pressuring you into fly because they want their little Johnny to become a pilot at 17 to have a token pilot in the family and to live out said parents failed dream of becoming an airline pilot. That and there's other pressures on you too but it's a great job really.

[sevenstrokeroll]

lindbergh was 25 when he made his famous NY to Paris flight. had about 2500 hours or so

in the USA you can't be an instructor without an instrument rating and commercial certification...isn't that the case in the euro zone?

[mrmum]

No, in the UK (& most of Europe?) instructors will generally have a CPL or ATPL, as we need a professional licence to allow us to be paid. Although under the JAA rules you could get an FI rating with a PPL, but not be paid, this option required the applicant to have more PIC time and to have CPL TK. So it wasn't a particularly popular option, I personally only know of one person who did it that way. As we change over to the new EASA regulations, they will allow the PPL holder with FI rating to be remunerated and to instruct for the new LAPL, they won't need CPL TK, so we may see a this being a bit more popular.

There's no requirement at all, to have any instrument qualification to teach the PPL.

[mrmum]

Hi Halfbaked,

You have raised a point, however, that is possibly my biggest worry regarding this journey... I will be responsible for the attitude of future PPLs, and I know that these people will be watching me when I fly as a form of role model. How did you handle this pressure when you were new to the job? I don't think this is something that 30 hours of flying can teach you!

Yes you will, you need to be considerate of always being watched, but you shouldn't worry about it too much. Just be aware that students will pick up on what you do, even when you think you're not specifically teaching something, so try to always operate the aircraft in the manner you wish them to. You can't play the "do as I say, not as I do" card very often.
Unfortunately, I can't really remember too much from my early days of instructing, it's been a while so I'm not sure what, if anything I did specifically different because I was new to it.

Having looked back through all the replies to your original question, I think all the respondents except RTN 11, seem to instruct on a PT basis. So perhaps that's the key to a long and enjoyable career as an FI?

[172_driver]

My first job in aviation was flight instructing. Reflecting back on it now you come to some insights that weren't apparent at that time. Overall I think a job is a job after all, when it becomes routine and too much of the same thing happens it has the potential to become boring. I was fortunate to do a little bit of everything, PPL, IR, ME + ground instructing, administrative etc. The variety kept me going for 3,5 years. At the end I realized my own limitation, and as I was getting tired of it (which easily happened after 4 flights of steep turns in 35 deg heat) I decided to move on. The students also deserved better. They needed a mentor, someone to nurse them through a demanding challenge, rather than someone who came to work, did the job, took the money and got the hell out. At the end, I did not feel I was that person.

Don't get me wrong though, I totally enjoyed instructing for several reasons; To share knowledge and experience, To grow as a person myself and develop my own abilities, Not to mention the times you took a C172 or BE76 to Santa Monica, Las Vegas or Catalina Island for dinner and come back. You could have so much fun with the students while also conducting serious flight training.

Let's face it… the vast majority that starts in aviation aim to one day fly a big shiny jet. Not necessarily everyone, but most... I have a friend that spent €70 000 - 80 000 on training, working as an FI and says he's happy and have no motivation to get into the airlines he says. But for most FI is a transition job, a way to gain experience, it doesn't pay enough to be a career choice either.

Today I wouldn't mind coming back doing instruction, if not in a C172 I know the airline does train simulator instructors to do initial type ratings. As someone said before, you never really know how to fly untill you have taught someone else how to fly.

[de facto]

As someone said before, you never really know how to fly untill you have taught someone else how to fly.

Ever had a student flying better than you?

[TheOddOne]

Natural talent

Ever had a student flying better than you?

Oh, yes, several times! I've never reckoned myself to be a natural pilot, had to work at it to get my PPL, so can empathise with those who take a little time to 'get it'.

The young 17 and 18 yr old studes I get occasionally who just have that natural talent are a joy to watch, I just get a buzz from thinking I've helped them on their way. Some of them I hear are now instructors themselves...

It has occurred to me latterly that we don't actually TEACH people to fly, we just provide the right environment for them to learn for themselves.

The Odd One

[172_driver]

Ever had a student flying better than you?

Actually yes, and I take cred for that


… and then their are the odd ones who THINK they fly better than you

It has occurred to me latterly that we don't actually TEACH people to fly, we just provide the right environment for them to learn for themselves.

That, sir, I agree is VERY true...

[mrmum]

Quote:
It has occurred to me latterly that we don't actually TEACH people to fly, we just provide the right environment for them to learn for themselves.
That, sir, I agree is VERY true...

Indeed, it has been said that we are just there to stop them breaking the aeroplane while they teach themselves.