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Hello, sorry for posting in the Lessons Learned, although I suppose if I'm getting a raw deal then it would indeed be a lesson learned for me.
I am a CFI associated with a small part 61 FBO/flight school operation. I am a part-time instructor and am treated as an independent contractor. (I have checked the IRS rules on ICs and as far as I can tell I meet all of them - and I'm happy with that arrangement.)
I am wondering if our school is more or less in-line with others, since I only have experience with one other school, and I was an employee there.
Essentially I have two questions:
1. What is a typical ratio of what students pay the school for instruction vs. how much the instructor gets paid? Obviously the actual amounts will vary by location but what's a general ratio out there for independent-contractor CFIs? They charge $40 an hour, I get paid $25 an hour. Is this a normal differential?
2. What does the school provide for this differential? Working independently as I do sometimes, I can easily charge and get $40 an hour that all comes to me. Of course, out of that comes any costs for materials, taxes, and insurance. But at my last flight school, we had computers available with training and test prep software, ground school slides, syllabi and other documents, a library with various training references, a classroom with such things as a giant E-6B, whiteboards, PCATDs and other useful things to allow us to train effectively, so we were getting something for that differential. At my current flight school there isn't much - there is a classroom with a whiteboard, but no computers or other training materials unless you bring your own. As far as that goes, it's not much different than when I work independently with an aircraft owner - I have to generate and bring all the training materials I might need. So what am I getting for that differential in cost other than some marketing (and not always that, I've found about half of my own students)? Is it all for insurance, or am I essentially paying the school $15 per hour for the right to give instruction in their airplanes?
Obviously all of this varies by flight school and specific circumstances, so I'm not looking for comments about my specific scenario. Rather, I'd be interested to know what other CFIs experience at their flight schools.
Thanks!
I am a CFI associated with a small part 61 FBO/flight school operation. I am a part-time instructor and am treated as an independent contractor. (I have checked the IRS rules on ICs and as far as I can tell I meet all of them - and I'm happy with that arrangement.)
I am wondering if our school is more or less in-line with others, since I only have experience with one other school, and I was an employee there.
Essentially I have two questions:
1. What is a typical ratio of what students pay the school for instruction vs. how much the instructor gets paid? Obviously the actual amounts will vary by location but what's a general ratio out there for independent-contractor CFIs? They charge $40 an hour, I get paid $25 an hour. Is this a normal differential?
2. What does the school provide for this differential? Working independently as I do sometimes, I can easily charge and get $40 an hour that all comes to me. Of course, out of that comes any costs for materials, taxes, and insurance. But at my last flight school, we had computers available with training and test prep software, ground school slides, syllabi and other documents, a library with various training references, a classroom with such things as a giant E-6B, whiteboards, PCATDs and other useful things to allow us to train effectively, so we were getting something for that differential. At my current flight school there isn't much - there is a classroom with a whiteboard, but no computers or other training materials unless you bring your own. As far as that goes, it's not much different than when I work independently with an aircraft owner - I have to generate and bring all the training materials I might need. So what am I getting for that differential in cost other than some marketing (and not always that, I've found about half of my own students)? Is it all for insurance, or am I essentially paying the school $15 per hour for the right to give instruction in their airplanes?
Obviously all of this varies by flight school and specific circumstances, so I'm not looking for comments about my specific scenario. Rather, I'd be interested to know what other CFIs experience at their flight schools.
Thanks!
