All interesting reading, but a point of view that has not been mentioned is the CPL / FI part time weekend instructor who had to pay out a fortune to meet the CAA requirements as they were set out.

I learnt to fly in 1966 and was taught by excellent PPL instructors some were ex WW2, others new generation Chaps, all very good and competent for the non radio / canvas covered / clear airspace environment that existed in those days.

In 2000 at age of 54 after early retirement ( redundancy ) with the best part of 1000hrs in the log book I felt I had enough knowledge and experience to Instruct. I decide to take up a part time career of instructing. The actual costs for CPL Gnd school / CPL flying / FIC Course / Night FI / Aeros FI and IMC FI was in excess of £18000. I also did an IR Single course for another £9500 but ran out of money before passing the IR. That's a total cost in excess of £27500 then add to that exam fees, hotel, petrol and equipment cost you come up with a figure of around £30,000 if not a bit more. Ending up with a CPL / FI etc

I started instructing in 2002 for £10 an hour flown, no retainer and no pay if scrubbed for wx.
Additionally even though I was registered as self employed the Inland revenue insisted I nominate one place of main business and I would not be allowed to claim petrol money for attendance at the place.

In the 11 months to end Feb. 2008 I worked around 150 days and flew 240 hrs at £12 and hr flown and for Ground school.
I have just returned from my accountants having been told that my net income for that period will be less than £3800 after deductions of Class 2/4 NI, Tax,expenses and accountancy fees. All those days worked were for between 8-10 hrs a day.

That around £2 70p an hour. (By the way I have 43 years qualifying NI but still have to pay )

There are a lot of comments on this forum from people who have never paid a penny towards there flying training, who operate in subsidies environments, who use PPL instructors but still charged students for Instructional time and pocket the profit, and other who have personal agendas. Then of course we have the 'Well you are doing it for Love' comments from club owners who are screwing the instructor for every penny they can.

Now after 42 years in Light Aviation I have had enough and have ceased trading as an FI.
I and people like me are the backbone of the UK flying training industry and all you are doing is stitching us up and kicking us in the face.

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orionsbelt

What an interesting post - certainly gave me a different angle on the low renumeration for someone so well quailfied. Especially as I am looking at returning to instructing.

It also makes me smile when you read comments about students (and clubs) moaning that all there instructor is interested in is hour building. But if you got a mortgague, kids and traing costs to pay off then landing an airline job must be like winnng the lottery.

Do you think that all your extra CPL training has made you a better instructor or has it just been a series of expensive time consuming hoops that you have had to jump through? Would you be just as competent instructor if you held a PPL?

As for the future do you really have to give it all up. I bet you would miss it. Couldn't you work 1 or 2 days a week say at weekends. Surely this would be apprieciated by both students and aero clubs alike.

No one is kicking anyone in the face, this is not about slagging and bitching. The bottom line is money, or lack of it. The cost off flying lessons has gone through the roof as it is, if it continues to rise flying training for the PPL will cease to be. No one is going to shell out £1000s for a CPL/instructor rating anymore (unless money is no problam ). This is no ones fault its just one more sad fact of living in stupid overprised dump England.

"The bottom line is money, or lack of it. The cost off flying lessons has gone through the roof as it is, if it continues to rise flying training for the PPL will cease to be"

So do you think allowing PPL holders to instruct for remuneration would lower the costs involved in flight training without reducing the quality? I do.

Hi Mickey

Thanks for your response, a nice surprise.
In answer to your question

When I did my PPl exams in 1967 I think we only did 3 subjects Air Law, Met and Nav. Additionally when did my first IMC test in Sept 79 I did not have to do a theory paper as now. As we were non radio I did not do RT practical until much later.

So 34 years and 1000hrs later after years of small strip operations to be honest my theoretically knowledge was rubbish, I did not know of the existence of human factors and had no concept of A/C performance calculations or any idea of the current PPL exams required at year 2000.

So with the fantastic help of PPSC, I did the old UK CPL national exams (the very last sittings ) which covered 15 subjects in 2 groups. 6 Tech and 9 Nav subjects over a 9 month period studying full time.

1 It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do.
2 It was the best thing I ever did, really got me up to date and up to speed
3 As all the Instructors were ex Commercial / Airline / Military it developed my attitude from 'small strip' to Professional.
4 It really focused the mind 'do I really want to do this'.

So yes the CPL ground exams gave me the knowledge and confidence to teach all the PPL ground subjects in both formal and informal ground school. Also it gave me the contacts and connections to help me develope as an instructor. I could not have done it as a PPL and in retrospect I think I would have been a very poor instructor.

The CPL flying training really gets you up to speed its a good kick in the right direction.
In my view you cannot instruct in today's environment without this sort of background training.

From my 1500 hrs of instructing maybe only 10% of those people I have trained have the ability to progress onto professional flying and instructing. Very few are going to hang around the PPL world to instruct when they have the ability to progress further.

Mickey I have some mates who are Excellent BCPL instructors as you and if you have the time get yourself up to speed and go for it. I have had a great time but enough is enough

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