Setting up as a self-employed instructor
 

Hey folks, I'm looking at the feasibility in the next couple of years of instructing in my local area (UK based), but as there are no schools nearby I'd need to be self employed and presumably I'd register as a DTO. Does anyone have experience of doing this, who would be able to share their experiences? Specifically, keen to understand what challenges you faced from both a commercial perspective (i.e. what sort of salary you were able to generate for yourself), how feasible it was, and in terms of regulatory constraints/requirements whether this was overly burdensome.

(Obviously this could vary widely depending on the available market in the area, ability to run a business and whatnot so assume there is a market locally and I know what I'm doing from a business perspective.)

Thanks in advance!

Not sure why any prospective students would want to hire an instructor working independently outside a training school environment. What you propose just doesn't sound feasible to me.

At the moment I wouldn't bother, get a proper job and fly for fun or do a wingly type thing !

This is probably a comment you should pay attention to.

Second that, except for the wingly type thing. The FW market won't recover that qiuckly, will take years to go back to where it was since most airlines are slashing fleet sizes considerably and laying off thousands of pilots.

The rotary market was tricky before but fixed wing was booming, now I wouldn't recommend aviation (FW or RW) to anyone for the next couple of years.

Where abouts in the UK are you based? You'd have to be an unrestricted instructor and set up a DTO. Have you got access to a helicopter?
I might be able to help. PM me.
CH

Any freelancer should be aware of the lack of Master-Servant relationship you would get with a "real" job - I'm talking about liability. Make sure you have insurance to cover you as an independent contractor, even if you do end up working freelance for an organisation.

Also, if you do get to the dizzy heights of owning your own machine (the taxman may expect it), have it owned by a separate company (yours of course) and "hire" it from that company - that separates your asset.

Phil

I had dreams of semi retiring into my own small training school.
IE One grumpy ex ME IFR pilot/CFI/Examiner/Owner and an R44 (Was a B47 when the dream started) and max 2 students at a time. Sometimes none.....

CASA and insurance turned it more into a nightmare.

Should be happy they saved me from myself before the industry collapsed.....

Don't get too disheartened about setting yourself up with a DTO, if you really want to do it and love instructing then go for it. It is feasible but you should carry out thorough research on your potential student client base, operating costs, aircraft availability, insurances, teaching base, admin.,landing fees etc. My advise if you can, is to be able to generate an alternative income stream from some other source certainly initially, for when the students fail to appear for a day a week or a month. Good luck you only live once, no point in looking back and saying ''I wish I had done that''