Flight Instructor Questions
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Flight Instructor Questions
Hello fellow pilots,
I am currently hour building and very close to doing my CPL flight test. My plan has always been to do my MECIR now, funded through student loans (after funding myself up to this point) as a have a good part time job and am at a flight school which I enjoy and trust. Following this, my goal was to hopefully head north. However, while hour building I have had the opportunity to share my passion for aviation with a number of old school friends and family - something which has made me more and more interested in instead doing my instructor rating and spending the next few years teaching fellow enthusiasts how to fly
. I have a few questions.
Is there any need to have an MECIR initially as a flight instructor?
What is the market like for new instructors right now and where would I expect to land a job (city or country?)
What sort of flight hours would a full-time instructor do in a year? At the end of the day its still going to be about building time for a regional or jet job.
What about the MECIR? How possible would it be to do it down the track while working as an instructor? Also, would an instructor get the multi-time required for some jet jobs?
Thanks for those who take the time to answer, I have spoken to others but just wanted an opinion from pilots outside my friend group
I am currently hour building and very close to doing my CPL flight test. My plan has always been to do my MECIR now, funded through student loans (after funding myself up to this point) as a have a good part time job and am at a flight school which I enjoy and trust. Following this, my goal was to hopefully head north. However, while hour building I have had the opportunity to share my passion for aviation with a number of old school friends and family - something which has made me more and more interested in instead doing my instructor rating and spending the next few years teaching fellow enthusiasts how to fly
. I have a few questions. Is there any need to have an MECIR initially as a flight instructor?
What is the market like for new instructors right now and where would I expect to land a job (city or country?)
What sort of flight hours would a full-time instructor do in a year? At the end of the day its still going to be about building time for a regional or jet job.
What about the MECIR? How possible would it be to do it down the track while working as an instructor? Also, would an instructor get the multi-time required for some jet jobs?
Thanks for those who take the time to answer, I have spoken to others but just wanted an opinion from pilots outside my friend group
You don't need a MECIR rating to be an instructor.
The next bit is all in my opinion, other people will have differing opinions - take what I say or leave it as you see fit.
Doing an instructor rating (if taught well) should be like learning to fly all over again (it will make you think how little you knew) and will add good things to your flying. Do the rating with a school that has good, career instructors.
Don't do it just to build hours and think it is an easy way to get a flying job, do it because you enjoy flying and teaching and mentoring.
It doesn't pay well and many in the industry don't hold it in high esteem (particularly if you have low hours and go straight to instructing - not saying you shouldn't or won't do a good job, just you won't have much cred without wider or more experience).
It can be a personally rewarding journey in itself and can be a good step along your flying career but not if you are only doing it to get easy hours - in that case you will hate it, your students will hate it and your employer will want to be rid of you.
If you are only in it for hours, instructing can make you all bitter and cynical.
MECIR...
If you are working full time as an instructor it can be awkward to get time to do the MECIR if at a busy school.
Then once you have it and with minimal hours and a grade 3 FI rating you probably would not be giving any twin or instrument training anyway - that would go to instructors with more twin experience, not to low time instructors.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't do that training, grab it if you can (or can get it subsidised) just don't expect to get much twin/instrument time in your log book as a junior instructor with a brand new MECIR.
Instructing can be great fun and challenging but only if you see it as worthwhile in its own right and want to throw yourself into it. If it is just hours to get up the ladder - don't get a FIR, do as you planned, head north and look for other flying jobs. You will be happier.
NB I am not saying only do a FIR if you plan to make it your career - plenty of good instructors I knew, always planned to move on and did end up doing more 'glamorous' things once they had done their time instructing but while they were there they instructed with passion and professionalism.
As for getting a job as an instructor - much the same as any low time CPL - you have to be persistent, make a good impression and probably willing to travel. If you can find a good school with a passionate and experienced CFI, who loves instructing, that is gold. A good CFI is what makes a school.
And remember - pay is not good. Instructing is the bottom of the food chain. You do it because you want to.
Like I said, others will have different opinions.
The next bit is all in my opinion, other people will have differing opinions - take what I say or leave it as you see fit.
Doing an instructor rating (if taught well) should be like learning to fly all over again (it will make you think how little you knew) and will add good things to your flying. Do the rating with a school that has good, career instructors.
Don't do it just to build hours and think it is an easy way to get a flying job, do it because you enjoy flying and teaching and mentoring.
It doesn't pay well and many in the industry don't hold it in high esteem (particularly if you have low hours and go straight to instructing - not saying you shouldn't or won't do a good job, just you won't have much cred without wider or more experience).
It can be a personally rewarding journey in itself and can be a good step along your flying career but not if you are only doing it to get easy hours - in that case you will hate it, your students will hate it and your employer will want to be rid of you.
If you are only in it for hours, instructing can make you all bitter and cynical.
MECIR...
If you are working full time as an instructor it can be awkward to get time to do the MECIR if at a busy school.
Then once you have it and with minimal hours and a grade 3 FI rating you probably would not be giving any twin or instrument training anyway - that would go to instructors with more twin experience, not to low time instructors.
Doesn't mean you shouldn't do that training, grab it if you can (or can get it subsidised) just don't expect to get much twin/instrument time in your log book as a junior instructor with a brand new MECIR.
Instructing can be great fun and challenging but only if you see it as worthwhile in its own right and want to throw yourself into it. If it is just hours to get up the ladder - don't get a FIR, do as you planned, head north and look for other flying jobs. You will be happier.
NB I am not saying only do a FIR if you plan to make it your career - plenty of good instructors I knew, always planned to move on and did end up doing more 'glamorous' things once they had done their time instructing but while they were there they instructed with passion and professionalism.
As for getting a job as an instructor - much the same as any low time CPL - you have to be persistent, make a good impression and probably willing to travel. If you can find a good school with a passionate and experienced CFI, who loves instructing, that is gold. A good CFI is what makes a school.
And remember - pay is not good. Instructing is the bottom of the food chain. You do it because you want to.
Like I said, others will have different opinions.
Doing an instructor rating (if taught well) should be like learning to fly all over again (it will make you think how little you knew)
Now why would that be? After all you will probably be taught to be an instructor by the very same instructors that taught you to learn to fly. So why should an instructor rating be like learning to fly all over again unless you had a lousy instructor from the beginning
Why would that be? Because you have to learn in properly, understand it back to front, and be able to explain it in ways to suit each individual student (and not simply recite it from a text book).
I can only speak of my experience, yours may be different and you may have reached a level of understanding, depth and skill from you ab initio and CPL training above mine - I can only speak of my experience.
I believe (still do) that I was well taught initially but I found doing my FIR a humbling experience as a pilot (I had around 1000hrs out in "the real world" when I started my FI rating and I did not do my FIR at the same school I did my initial training). I thought I had a pretty good grasp of it all.
I found there was a big difference in the understanding and skill required to do training exercises to a level of proficiency that is safe and meets the standard required of a PPL or CPL pilot to having a level of understanding and skill that allowed me to fly those same exercises accurately whilst giving a a concise, precise and pertinent explanation of exactly what inputs I was supplying, with my words timed to match exactly my control inputs and then having demonstrated the exercise, being able to monitor how the student flew those exercises and how I could look for and detect any misunderstandings or subtle mistakes they may have been making.
I found learning to do that (and continuing to learn it once instructing) gave me a whole new feel for operating an aircraft. Like I said I found it unexpectedly humbling and challenging. I still find instructing can be a humbling and challenging experience that makes me think about exactly how I fly.
That is my experience though, others may breeze through their FIR I guess, I didn't.
(eg. a Cessna 172/Warrior does NOT need to be pointed directly into 5kts of wind if it means blasting the hangar/taxiway/aircraft directly behind you.)
On a positive note, if you do devote your full attention to it, instructing will give you some of the best improvement in your skills and understanding of flying and also the ability to move into training & checking roles later in your career if you so desire.
