What does a flying instructor get paid these days?

Chuck Ellsworth · Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:27 am

Flying should be a reasonable paying trade or skill.

So how much does a flying instructor make in 2015 in a normal month?

Slick Goodlin · Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:59 am

In Ontario you'd be hard pressed to find a flight school that didn't have a University or College program attached and as such they all seem to have busy instructors. I hope it's at least thirty bucks per billable hour but even then how many can you bill a month? 80? 100?

Chuck Ellsworth · Wed Oct 07, 2015 1:13 am

The reason I am asking is about seventeen years ago I had a lot of spare time from my overseas contracts and I was going to start another flying school.

My plan was to hire the best instructors I could find and pay them a decent living wage based on them being able to finish a PPL student in fifty hours.

At that time the average PPL took around 75 hours a month to get the PPL.

In other words the instructor would be paid a flat rate for a PPL....which is supposed to take 45 hours...I figured fifty should be doable.

What do you people think of that idea?

By the way when Barney and I got our PPL the minimum requirement was 30 hours which we both got our PPL in.

Slick Goodlin · Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:46 am

Chuck, I think that's a great idea but with one small detail that needs to be included: I think the only way to do a 50 hour PPL nowadays is to do it all in one shot. Six weeks ought to be enough (four should be doable if the wx cooperates) and I think a major key to success would be to have the school somewhere really nice. Make a PPL part of a sort of vacation package. Could you put a Canadian flight school in a different (warmer, sunnier) country?

Nark1 · Wed Oct 07, 2015 4:15 am

Perhaps Turks and Cacos? Isn't that a Canadian territory?

Chuck, during my short stint of instructing I found that students didn't come motivated to fly. Granted, I'm not a shit hot instructor but I found that those who had a vested personal interest finished closer to the minimum 45-50 hrs.

I keep all my instructor certs up to date, but I haven't formally taught since 2009.

Colonel · Wed Oct 07, 2015 12:43 pm

[quote]I haven't formally taught since 2009[/quote]

Looks like I'll be taking a couple-year
break from flight instruction. At some
point I will probably get my CFI/CFII/MEI
but no hurry.

Been instructing for 25 years in Canada,
trying to make people better pilots and
reduce accidents, and what I get in return
is endless venom spewed at me from 4900
Yonge St.

Blech.

Chuck Ellsworth · Wed Oct 07, 2015 3:38 pm

Another idea I had regarding the fixed price PPL in 50 hours was the new student would have the choice of the fixed price course with a calendar time limit should they exceed the time further training would be done at the pay rate the instructor gets for the 50 hour course, unless of course there is a compelling reason the student was unable to fly...such as to many weather days or sickness etc.

Anyhow it all went to hell when TCCA refused to issue me a FTU license and would not let me teach in Canada.

ScudRunner-d95 · Thu Oct 08, 2015 2:34 am

[quote author=Nark link=topic=934.msg3626#msg3626 date=1444191334]
Perhaps Turks and Cacos? Isn't that a Canadian territory?

[/quote]

No it is still a British Protectorate, they offered the islands to Pierre Trudeau so they would have become under Canadian jurisdiction and he said no :o

I think there was also an attempt to claim them back in the 50's,

Liquid Charlie · Thu Oct 08, 2015 1:14 pm

Maybe the law of supply and demand would solve this problem -- increase the licensing requirements by about 1000 % or more -- enabling pilots to choose to be an instructor as a career and make a good living at it -- right now being an instructor in many cases is just an extension of the puppy mills -- not acceptable for students -- always reminds me of that saying "babies having babies" --