Is the UK flight instructor industry heading for crisis?
 

Flight instructor pay is stuck where it was 15-20 years ago (£45-£55 per flight hour)...

The CAA are deliberately making FI renewals hard in order to "improve standards"...

Hardly anyone is doing an FI course because it costs about £34,000 and the wage returns/career progression are just are not there...

Fewer and fewer people renewing their FI rating each year....

What does the future hold?

I would be interested to hear everyone's thoughts

Where on earth are you getting £34k from?!
Pre Covid I was offered an FI course for under £8k and they said I could pay £4k and work off the balance with them...

£34,000 is what Helicentre quote.

I think It's 35 hours x £650 per hour, plus groundschool, plus VAT

Other schools probably cheaper, but I doubt they are under £25,000

Is that FI(H) or FI(A)? I suspect that it's (H) as the rates for a fixed-wing hour are slightly lower.
Edit: just checked one provider, course costs less than £10k.

£10,000 for 30 hours of flying + groundschool.

I find that very hard to believe, given even R22 dual PPL training is around £420 per hour everywhere now

sloanehelicopters dot come

says £16,800 here.

I'm pretty sure that price list way out of date as R22 training is now £420-ish per hour everywhere

....I paid £24K on R44 last year

I put one of my CPL's through then FIH course in May this year. Helicopter Services quoted around £ 20K Sloanes £ 17k all plus vat and on an R22 so no idea where £ 8 k comes from. As it happened went to helicopter Services with Leon as we were using one of my 300c's. Tom Sanderson did all the training one to one , i now have a very very good instructor !
As to rate of pay my instructor ( now a full one ) earns £ 300 a day but only if flying, has clocked up around 150 hours since passing back end of July

Hughes500 - I think you are the only person in the UK paying day rates for FIs

Yup, I'm a moron. Didn't notice it was in Rotorheads!

When I left flight instruction, that operator was training a fair few foreign students, about two thirds of his business, who would convert their American rating to their native licenses.
Specifically, I was told by one he could get a US RW CFI and have a nice vacation traveling America for the same price as doing the rating back home. Smart guy, retiired now and bought a ranch after his career.

The quote of 34k is quite high but hearing where it comes from, I understand it :-),
20k still sounds a like a lot but guess that's the price nowadays, I would have guessed something around 15-18k.

Most CPL(H) pilots nowadays try to get a commercial job first and rather invest in an IR instead of a FI(H).
With indeed the CAA making it harder and harder to stay an FI, people are giving up and that in combination with not many new FI's, will result in not having enough FI's to train new pilots.
As an FI there is more and more theoretical stuff you need to teach and as an FI you mainly get paid for flying hours so with the increase of theory, it will reduce the flying hours per day.
This doesn't make the FI job very attractive to pilots.
Also more and more people want to learn to fly helicopters, especially for just PPL(H) so more demand which makes it even harder.

Solution.......if there is one...?
The big companies (CHC, Bristow, air ambulances etc) will have the problems in the future, not getting enough new pilots. They should mainly hire people who at least did 1-2 years of instructing. Sounds harsh but that way you will produce FI's in the industry.
They can provide bonds for IR and type ratings but if there aren't FI's there won't be any pilots to put on a IR or typerating...
How it is now, it will be a slowly increasing problem....
Another thing that could cause a problem in the future, CPL examiners and FI examiners.......

Gemany is the same. The FI-H here is probably around 35.000 Euros, and pay is a joke. I receive a monthly allowance of 150 Euro gross pay on top of my base salary and I "only" paid around 11.000 Euros back in 2016 with Sloane in the UK on the 22. I can teach PPL and CPL btw. and have 4 current types with more than 3000 hours. Just ridiculous.... wouldn't recommend it to anyone nowadays and sure as hell wouldn't do it again.

Not that I over think this but I've never known if Helicentre is a sausage factory for the benefit of Helicentre or if there really is something in the way they do business. The scholarships must have been going for a decade or more I guess, do these pilots go on to rewarding careers in the main? I suspect that the answer to that likely answers the OP initial point.

Yeah... same here! 😆

Hi, just out of interest may I ask whether there is a difference in pay whether you are instructing at a local airfield or at a commercial flight school?

..

not just for the FI-H they are doing it for the FE-H as well,

​​​​​​​its definitely something when you see people who have been doing this stuff for 20-30 years who are now frightened of renewals, and talk about giving the whole thing up..

I wonder if the people in charge of Heli renewals at the CAA are reading this. I would hope so.

Not only do FI's doing this for 20-30 years get frightened, some even don't want the extra stress anymore and possibility to fail a test after 20-30 years and they give up their FI, resulting in less FI's but a huge loss in knowledge and experience .
New FI's of course are capable but I always like it when a school has a few older FI's with experience and knowledge where another FI can go for guidance/answers etc.
I understand the higher standard the UK CAA wants but the result will be a lower standard on the practical side.....

Part Time FI Rating?
 

Quick side questions for you knowledgeable folks, would I be able to carry out my FI rating part time e.g. 1 hour a week?