There may be a few instructors in USA that made a sucessful career of it. I would suspect the number is quite small. For many the CFI rating is just a stepping stone on the way to an airline job. I never depended on my flying to make any money. I had an engineering career and flew for fun.

I do sometimes see an advert for a local part 141 school looking for instructors but they are rare. Typically these flight schools use their own graduates to teach the next batch of students.

As for instructing in business jets- sure if you have a few thousand hours turbine time you may find a job as a sim instructor. How do you plan to get the experience needed?

I'm not the right person to tell you how to make money from flying. Maybe someone who actually did that will step in and paint a more rosy picture.

Understood. I think my plan for now is to just go for the CAA CFI and become an instructor in the United Kingdom, I've heard the pay is pretty bad unfortunately but hopefully it is just a stepping stone onto something bigger, whatever that may be, only time will tell.

bakerin,

I'm probably not understanding your medical situation. Have you had any contact with an FAA AME to at least ask what effect your vision would have on getting an FAA medical ?

Rather than wonder, maybe having a chat (without actually taking the physical) with an FAA AME would clear this up for you ? Might be a few dollars well spent.

Enter the search criteria in this website to locate an FAA AME in the UK. I found 22 in the UK:

https://designee.faa.gov/designeeLocator

Thank you bafanguy, I will consult with one tomorrow. I greatly appreciate it.

You may even need to look into the option of surgery outside of UK/EU.
Right now there is so much different information stirred up that you can’t see the first through the trees.
You can contact the FAA medical branch in Oklahoma yourself.

Here is something that may or may not have been mentioned before.
Certain surgeries will prevent you from being able to get a UK/EU medical but it will still allow you a FAA Class 1 medical.
Think LASIK and similar.
It is very well possible you’ll be able to hold an FAA Class 1 after recovery.
Look into that first before you do anything else.
Not even your PPL in Florida as that may prevent you from getting an F1 visa

B2N2,

I never thought of that. Fortunately, I have no experience dealing with that bunch in OKC. The one career glitch I had was handled by my VERY experienced senior AME.

But with my low opinion of the FAA, I can see hitting a brick wall trying to explain a complicated medical situation to them over the phone...from the UK. If bakerin had a sit-down with an FAA AME in the UK, he could present any medical test results he has and get an educated opinion about his prospects.

But, it sure can't hurt to try...and the price is right. :ok:

Who is them ? FAA ? EASA ? Not sure how this works in EASA land.

As for the FAA, I don't advise withholding information from them. People have gotten in a lot of serious trouble doing that. With the pervasiveness of electronic records and insurance company records, one can never be sure the FAA won't find out what a person has done if the FAA pursues the question. I'm not aware of any statute of limitations on violating disclosure of required medical records.

Just a thought...

I don't know about UK but FAA takes a very dim view of lying about, or withholding, medical information. It could be grounds for permanent revocation of any and all certificates held. Not really a risk you'd want to carry for your entire, perhaps short, career in aviation. If I were thinking of cheating the system I wouldn't be posting about it on a public forum.

Yes, but it's a minimum wage job so you'll need a second income, do you have any experience flipping burgers or making coffee?

bakerin do not even think about withholding medical information particularly any operations, in the UK you actually sign to say that the CAA can access your medical records if needed.

A recent overseas student of mine already a holder of an ICAO PPL recently applied for a UK class 1 & told them that he had laser eye surgery many years ago. Apparently this seemed to open a can of worms and instead of a straightforward one day initial class 1 it took several referrals to specialists costing yet more time & money. He did eventually after 2 months finally got his UK class 1. Despite the potential hassle do not mislead aviation authorities.