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How is it to work as an Instructor?
The biggest change from being a student one day to be an instructor the next
day, is that now when you wear a uniform and bars everybody expect you to know
everything!! Mayby not everybody, because all the other instructors remember how
it was - but everybody else! I remember what my examiner on my CFI checkride
told me, when he wrote me my CFI license. "This is your
license to learn" and he was right. As a new instructor you might not have
the answer for everything right away, so you need to go home and study and find the answer
for the next day.
I started as a junior instructor 9 February 2004 with HAI.
I got two PPL students the first day and by the end of the fourth day I had my
two PPL students, one IR student, two R22 transition students and one CFII
student. I have been busy with my students ever since. Every time one of my
students finished up a license or rating we normally continued to the next stage
until they were ready to do their CFI. When my students started on the CFI
training I normally got a new student to take care of. At HAI there are always
students who want to fly - so it is up to you as an instructor to take some time
of. Something I wasn't really good at... I often worked 6-7 days a week!
The
first week in every month I taught the first four days of our IR ground school.
It was normally some busy days, because I still wanted to fly with my students at
the same time. But with four hours less every day I either had to start early or
work late, to get it all done.
The last three month I worked at HAI I became a team
leader and a stage check pilot. As a team leader I had to take care of the 6-7
instructors in my team. I helped the new instructors with the paperwork (which
there for sure are a lot of!) until they were able to do it themselves. Later I
just had to double check their students files were ok. If the instructors had
any questions about their students progress etc., we had a talk about it and
maybe I or one of the other experienced instructors did a flight with the
student to see how they were doing.
As a stage check pilot I had to evaluate the other
instructors students before they could move on to the next stage in their
training or before they could do a checkride. Depending on what type of stage
check it was (Presolo, Private, Instrument, Commercial or a R22 checkout) it
normally consisted of two to four hours of ground and a flight. It was
interesting to get to fly with new students and evaluate their performance. I
tried to tell every single student I did a stage check with, that they should
see the stage check as a part of their training and just do what they normally
did with their instructor. I know it is very easy to say - I remember my own
stage checks. When you know you are getting evaluated and need to perform to a
certain standard most people are getting nervous. But as a pilot you need to get
used to be evaluated. Later on you will most likely have to do some kind of
checkout flights with your chief pilot or a company check pilot.
I was able to keep an average of 75 flight hrs/month when I
worked at HAI. That is included the two months were I went home to Denmark (a
total of 24 days) and August and September 2004 where we had a lot of days were
we could not fly due to the hurricanes...
I have not calculated how many hours I worked (flight and
ground) a month, but a guess will be around 130-150 hours. That is paid work!
Normally I spend the double time at the airport so I didn't have time to very
much else. I will update this with the exact numbers next time I come back to Denmark.
Are you getting paid as an instructor?
I don't know how many have asked me this question - but
for sure it is a lot! Yes, we do get paid - but only for what we charge our
students for. So if you have some days with bad weather you are making less
money. At HAI you are getting paid based on your experience. I think it works
pretty much the same way at other school. We start at $15.50/hr. Then for each
250hrs of flight time you get $1.00 more. We are getting paid the same for
flight and ground instruction. Our pay scale looks something like this:
| Flight time |
<250 |
<500 |
<750 |
<1000 |
<1250 |
<1500 |
1500+ |
| $/hr |
15.50 |
16.50 |
17.50 |
18.50 |
19.50 |
20.50 |
21.50 |
| Stage check pilots: Gets $1.00
extra/hr |
| Teamleaders: Gets $2.00 extra/hr |
In Denmark I was used to pay close to 50% in tax. Luckily you pay a lot less
in tax in FL 
After I finished my tax for last year - 2004 - I have calculated that I paid
approximately 10% in tax.
Last update:
07-Mar-2007
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