So what do you do to earn a living
 

Hi all.

I' ve been instructing for 2 months now and I'm skint.

What do other instructors do for a living, especialy during the winter months to make ends meet ?

What is the weirdest jobs that you have had to support your lack of instructors wages ?

Facts only , no sarcasm bloggs. OK you have control .;)

Cubby.

i love this topic because it is so true. I can think of very few flying instructors who make their living by just being a flying instructor... especially junior instructor such as myself.

For myself its the all time pavourite pizza delivery driver :)

Well I don't bl**dy instruct to earn a living!
Spent 7 months last 'summer' full time instructing and ended up owing lots of money (mortgage, kids, cars, blah blah blah). And I was living in a bl**dy caravan! Have spent 14 months (and some to go) paying for instructing for 7 months last summer. I saw my full-time job as merely subsidising the (rather lavish) life style of the flying club owner. I am now in the enviable position of instructing part-time, so I fly for free, and the 'income' generated pays for my medical, ratings etc, and the odd hour in the twin. Don't think I feel hard done by - I know I needed the experience to get the part-time job.
My advice is to instruct during the summer full-time and part-time or not at all in the winter - you will not lose a great deal in terms of airline jobs at the moment cos there ain't any.

i am now fully type rated on a till in tescos in the evenings.

4.80 an hour on the checkouts.

MJ

Move back in with the folks.... seems to be working for me.

Well, for now anyway.

SF:D

At various stages during my instructing career I worked at Oddbins, Victoria Wine, went fruit picking, worked at a video game arcade and a indoor go-kart racing centre, and a wee bit of rock concert event security - just about all of it while putting in 40 hour or more weeks at the flying school.

It's a tough road to the top ....

Teach piano/guitar, play gigs in a band.


"And my students get all mad when I fall asleep with them under the hood!! They just don't understand!"

Wages
 

I know the feeling.

There's too many instructors out there who are willing to fly for peanuts. They think their helping GA but in reality their just killing the industry.

I work full time for a flying school and get about £12000 a year. If I instruct outside of normal school hours I charge £35/per hour - and I always make sure I get it! It makes quite a difference to the bank balance.

My advice to all poorly paid instructors - Don't be worried about asking for more money, you've earned it. If the school won't pay it go somewhere else.

Nuff said.

Know the feeling! I work at a school where we get an attendance fee so even though it is still peanuts if the weather is bad we get something. Things have started to change here as well due to there being three full time instructors all with well over 1000 hours each so we are all fed up of taking s**t from the manger and CFI who are taking £50000 between them in wages for doing nothing!! They want us to teach ground school in the evenings, which we are all willing to do, but they said they would only pay us £20 for 2.5 hours work, we have stuck together and demanded a min of £50 for the evenings work or no ground school! So the three of us are now sticking together and gradually forcing out a liveable wage. What would be better is there was an instructors union for the country where we could all come together and say NOone is learning to fly until there is a decent wage for us poor b****ards who fly around in the freezing cold in 30 year old bug bashers!