2nd Career

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cowboynjco

Filing Flight Plan
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cowboy
I'm 55 and getting close to retirement. I have my private and working on my instrument. Seriously thinking about getting my CFI and becoming a flight instructor post retirement. I have read several posts on the web about flight instructing income potential. I live in the Denver Metro area and schools see plenty busy around here. Can some one give me the straight poop on income potential. Can you make $500 a week? That is really only 5 or 6 students a week? Thank you in advance
 
Welcome to the PoA Forums!!!

We have a good group of diverse folks based around Denver. They should be along shortly and can provide additional comment about the CFI environment around Denver.
 
Yes, you can make $500 a week or more, as long as you are a quality, professional instructor. Your age and work experience go a long way towards that, because being a good CFI is more about teaching than it is about flying.
 
Thank you for your post. Its really not about the money but if I'm putting in the time it would be great to make decent bucks
 
$500/week???? If you have good weather. I have had paychecks that were $27 for 2 weeks during the wintertime in WI as a full time cfi.
 
$500 a week in Denver as a CFI ? Twenty years ago that's about how much I made in month as a CFI working at KAPA. Maybe times have changed but I doubt it. You'll need to supplement that plan with a Walmart Greeter job or Home Depot "Maze Director".
 
us AAirways said:
$500/week???? If you have good weather. I have had paychecks that were $27 for 2 weeks during the wintertime in WI as a full time cfi.
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Yes, but that is in WI in the winter.

Location is everything. I am not sure about Denver, but part time $500 per week would be easy to get in SoCal or Phoenix.
 
From my experience on the other side of the equation is that it will take more than 5-6 students. I always scheduled two flights a week. I bet I was lucky if I averaged 1.5 lessons a week. Maybe when you crank in some longer cross country flights it will bring the average up. However at some point your students will be flying solo.

Not sure how others feel but when we could not fly, I was always happy to meet with my instructor and work on ground work. By the time I took my check ride, the oral was a breeze.

Jim
 
If you are making $50/hour that takes 10 hours. You will get weather. You will probably have students who will need to fly on weekends and evenings. Students will have to cancel, sometimes on short notice. You'll have to schedule more than 10 hours a week to get 10 hours actual instruction.

As a new instructor, what do you have to offer the student? Maturity and life experience, of course, but not much flight experience. I would personally not recommend a student go to a green CFI. I'd rather have one who has flown a number of airplanes over a number of years and who can provide more perspective than a "see one, do one, teach one" CFI, a "shake and bake buck sergeant" type of NCO to use a simile.

So, you don't have a lot of flight experience and credibility to bring to the table. You'll be competing with young, hungry, eager CFI's who are after the hours for the money and to move up. They'll take worse airplanes, worse weather, worse students and worse schedules than you are hoping for.

Not trying to be negative, just providing a perspective that is possible.

Oh, yes, you'll be saying that as long as you are hanging around waiting for students, you might as well sit right seat in some charter flights and gain some of this experience you know you need.

FBO recliners are not a good place to sleep when you're 55.
 
jnmeade said:
As a new instructor, what do you have to offer the student? Maturity and life experience, of course, but not much flight experience. I would personally not recommend a student go to a green CFI.
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My instructor for the Commercial rating is fresh out of ERAU and doing a great job. Even worse, he's time building! Oh the huge manatee

Earning ratings is mostly about learning crap you'll never use again so who cares?
 
jnmeade said:
If you are making $50/hour that takes 10 hours. You will get weather. You will probably have students who will need to fly on weekends and evenings. Students will have to cancel, sometimes on short notice. You'll have to schedule more than 10 hours a week to get 10 hours actual instruction.
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I am not a flight instructor, but I was under the impression that my CFIs and others at other schools do not receive the entire amount I pay per hour for them. Is this inaccurate?
 
jnmeade said:
I would personally not recommend a student go to a green CFI.
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Yes, let's only allow experienced CFI's to teach, and after another 10 years or so...well aviation had a good run. ;)
 
Welcome to POA! I fly out of BJC - there's a number of Coloradoans on board covering a lot of the state.

Do you have your own plane? Freelance instructor or going with one of the clubs/schools?

Are you considering APA, BJC or FRG or other?

Perhaps PM Mark Kolber (midlifeflyer here via Community) or maybe he'll see this and respond. He did instruction at APA before relocating.
 
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One of the problems is most CFIs are green because they are building hours to pursue airlines, or whatever.
I am happy that my primary instructor is a CFI by profession. Her an her husband are both CFIs, and they are doing what they want to be doing. At some point they were green as well.
 
MDeitch1976 said:
I am not a flight instructor, but I was under the impression that my CFIs and others at other schools do not receive the entire amount I pay per hour for them. Is this inaccurate?
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Depends....if they are employed by a flight school then no, they don't typically recieve the entire instruction rate that the student pays.

On the other hand, an independent CFI will receive it all.
 
I was on active duty when I got my CFI, and instructed part-time until I went full-time at retirement. I'm certain that I would not have been able to live on my CFI income until I had been at it for about four years.

Bob Gardner
 
There are a couple of factors that will make you more successful in the long term than the young kids out of something something school of aeronautics aiming to become airline pilots:
- You'll be there to see a student through an entire rating., Smaller chance of dropping a student mid-way because some survey flying job in west texas has popped up that promises more hours/month.
- most aircraft owners are old guys. They don't care to have some 22 year old kid tell them anything. If you have some skill, you will build a following of owners for BFRs and IPCs. Takes a while to build that customer base.
- grey hair or absence of hair equates to experience for anything from car repair to surgery.
 
Fearless Tower said:
Depends....if they are employed by a flight school then no, they don't typically recieve the entire instruction rate that the student pays.

On the other hand, an independent CFI will receive it all.
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And it's usually alot less.
 
jnmeade said:
If you are making $50/hour that takes 10 hours. You will get weather. You will probably have students who will need to fly on weekends and evenings. Students will have to cancel, sometimes on short notice. You'll have to schedule more than 10 hours a week to get 10 hours actual instruction.

As a new instructor, what do you have to offer the student? Maturity and life experience, of course, but not much flight experience. I would personally not recommend a student go to a green CFI. I'd rather have one who has flown a number of airplanes over a number of years and who can provide more perspective than a "see one, do one, teach one" CFI, a "shake and bake buck sergeant" type of NCO to use a simile.

So, you don't have a lot of flight experience and credibility to bring to the table. You'll be competing with young, hungry, eager CFI's who are after the hours for the money and to move up. They'll take worse airplanes, worse weather, worse students and worse schedules than you are hoping for.

Not trying to be negative, just providing a perspective that is possible.

Oh, yes, you'll be saying that as long as you are hanging around waiting for students, you might as well sit right seat in some charter flights and gain some of this experience you know you need.

FBO recliners are not a good place to sleep when you're 55.
Click to expand...
Just because someone has a bunch of flight experience does not mean they know how to teach, which is what being a CFI is all about. When I was in CFI school, the student in my "class" who had the hardest time with the ground work and practice teaching was the oldest, most experienced member of the group (he had something like 11,000 hours and wanted to get his CFI so he could teach his son to fly). He did it and I'm sure he's an excellent CFI now, but it's just proof that more time does not always equal more ability as a teacher, which is what a CFI is. Heck, I was recently in a conversation with a Hawker captain at an FBO and he bluntly told me, "I'm not smart enough nor do I have the temperment to be a CFI anymore." I'm sure the not smart enough part was exaggerated since we're CFI's not aeronautical genious's (spelling?), but it still proves my point.
 
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