Cost of Instructor Rating

[Time will tell]

Can someone please advise if $24,000 if a fair price for an initial Instructor Rating or are they getting at me because its Vet Fee Help ??

[717tech]

I would say that is a little over the top.. shop around mate.

[Time will tell]

717tech,

Thanks. I was just looking at different web site and note that MFS charge $17675 flying all with Instructors, mutual with a grade 2 or 3. Tristar offering $16,445 mutual with another trainee for 20 hours but includes flight test.

How does an organization justify an extra 7-8K because the have fee help.. Oh that doesnt include flight test and other sill fees.

I can understand an additional admin fee.. But come on $7000.. These guys seem to be ripping people a new one because they are the only ones offering FEE Help for this course. At the moment..

TWT

[CPT733]

Costs approx $16,000 at school im at Pacificflight.com.au

[Homesick-Angel]

Warning warning!!
Walk the other way.

20g is at the top end, 15-18 around the norm these days, I've seen as cheap as around 14 but 24 is a gaping hole to swallow you up, and remember you STILL pay for it.
Rip off merchant pr1cks!
They'll crap on about how it cost them this or that to get the approval to do it but how can you charge that? Pr1cks!!

I feel better.

[Time will tell]

Thanks

I will save a little more and keep searching..

Its obvious that the Aero Club at Moorabbin are just milking the poor and desperate that cant yet afford to an instructor rating.. I see they are charging $25K for an MECIR too..

I did my MECIR with them a few years ago and it cost approx 18K with the initial multi..

I have asked a couple of the guys on the current course. Its not as if they are getting the whole course multi or anything. Just a basic course...

Dont do what I nearly did and fall into the trap.

TWT

[jas24zzk]

TWT,
have a chat to Yarra Valley Flight Training. They'd happily take not so much of your money.

[MakeItHappenCaptain]

Whoever you go with, find out how many of their graduates got at least their first 100hrs with that school following the rating. Very difficult to get that first job with no experience.

[avconnection]

I know I did my FIR a few years back now but I'm shocked at the increase. I paid $11,000 at the RVAC in the mid 2000s. To see they've increased their fees to $24,000 is nothing short of a rort.

[Jack Ranga]

Do not pay any money up front for any rating/endorsement you do.

Ahhhh, what happened to the formatting of this post by the way??

[propelled]

well said JR..

I have been looking at the VET FEE HELP route to complete my instrument rating.. it too is around the $25k mark.

it is obvious the 2 or 3 schools that can offer 'fee-help' in this country are charging a premium for this. this extra $5-7K (really, extra 10-12K- see notes below) is a lot of money, but may be enticing for a lot of students who cant afford a rating..

Time Will Tell,
Also note that with FEE HELP, a 20% premium (govt charge and not the schools fee i believe?) is added to the course cost which will need to be paid back. so that $24K course as advertised, turns into almost $29K. is almost double what you could possibly do a rating for elsewhere on your own terms..


For me, I've decided to just wait a few more months and save the $$ and do it on my own terms, at a non-sausage factory type setup, and at a reasonable price.

Why is it that only a couple of schools offer this VET FEE HELP?
i could probably answer that with my thinking that there is alot of bull**** to go through in order to provide..
More competition would provide a better outcome for the student.

[The Kelpie]

The VETFEE help is suppose to make these qualifications more accessible, which it is, but at what cost?

Given the limited number of flying schools able to offer VetFee it seems that this apparent lack of supply is jacking up the course costs considerably to the point of being, in my view, a wrought of the system.

The Kelpie has this issue on his radar and fully intends to use the political connections I have to bring this practice to the attention of the relevant authorities.

I have also become aware that there may be also other dodgy practices being undertaken that are seeking to use VETFEE funding to finance flight training that under the Higher Education Support Act 2003 it shouldn't be!

More to Follow

The Kelpie

[Elevator Driver]

lets just get this into perspective

(rough industry rate)
24 hrs multi (P68) @ $500 p/h = $12000

12 hrs single (pa28) @ $300 p/h = $3600

19 hrs sim @ $150 hr = $2850

2 week irex course usually around the $1000 mark

[LexAir]

MECIR & Flight Instructor courses are only $14,490.00 each at Essendon and include the flight test, landing fees and all ground theory.

[propelled]

Elevator driver,

Whilst those rates are reasonable, the number of hours are a bit excessive i think? even after allowing 5-6hrs for an initial twin..

Most schools with good names seem to get it done with about 15-20hrs SIM, and 20-25hrs flying (with a mix of both single and twin hours)..

Also, note that the FEE-HELP does not cover other costs such as the Flight Test fee, etc.

LexAir,

yep, that seems to be about the money at several schools.. just add an initial multi ($2-3K?). $20K should be about the max i would think based on what everyone else can offer..

But back to the instructor rating.. all of this would be on a single right?
seems to be a $5-7K margin again on this one, comparing to other providers..

[Jack Ranga]

Good Man Propelled, good things come to those who wait (and save)

Are you a gen y that actually does research and uses common sense?

[LexAir]

Rates at Essendon (before any discounts) in a single are around $320 -$340 per hour dual, including landings. Solo is between $220 - $240 including landings.

What the schools charge for the ground theory component, PMI etc is variable but at least 150 hours of contact time is the minimum, in my view, that should be provided. Allow say $1500.00 for ground time.

The flight test takes at least 1.5 hours and many ATO's and CASA are now charging about $700 to conduct an FI-3 initial issue test.

Assuming a mutual component of 20 hours at half the solo rate, if you ad all this up it comes to a retail price of $15,160.00 so $14,500.00 is a good price.

[Elevator Driver]

Whilst those rates are reasonable, the number of hours are a bit excessive i think? even after allowing 5-6hrs for an initial twin..

Sure they maybe, but at the end of the day the course is aimed at the average driver & getting them to pass. So keeping in mind your getting more than just the minimum hours then the cost of the fee help course isn't overly excessive at all.
sure there's a margin that the school is trying to make, which is fair enough in my opinion, as there is a lot of work involved in getting the fee-help approval.

and at the end of the day it's helping guy's to get the skills to land that first job that otherwise would have struggled to come up with the extra $ to get an IR.

[just a dumb pilot]

Knowing someone who's familiar with the process and the club it appears that one of the driving forces in the cost of Vet Fee help program is the cost of approval and the registration process. Also the paperwork makes it CASA times 2, oh! and there are audits and the RTO approval too.

I am told that the first group of instructors who took the vet course have completed and each of them has a job and before anyone assumes that they are working for the club It appears that only 1 from the four is in that position. They each have also completed cert 4 as part of thier training.

The initial Diploma MECIR course is apparently into the final module which is the IF Multi flying and test!

[The Kelpie]

They each have also completed cert 4 as part of thier training

was this also funded using VETFEE?