Free CFI

[Morgan3820]

I covered that her

Care to back that up with some background on yourself and your experience breaking into the private sector aviation industry and putting food on your table with your FAA certs?

Never made a living with my FAA certs, never tried to. I still remember what my first flight instructor told me, "Son, (I was 14 he was 40 something) you can either work in aviation and starve or go find something else to do for a living and fly for fun" Taking his advice seriously, I chose the latter. He left instruction to fly corporate.

I remind my teenage daughter that 'The world does not owe you a living or anything else for that matter'

 

[James331]

Never made a living with my FAA certs, never tried to. I still remember what my first flight instructor told me, "Son, (I was 14 he was 40 something) you can either work in aviation and starve or go find something else to do for a living and fly for fun" Taking his advice seriously, I chose the latter. He left instruction to fly corporate.

I remind my teenage daughter that 'The world does not owe you a living or anything else for that matter'

Your old instructor was a fool, plenty of money to be made in the industry, just not for the meek, and it ain't easy, but the thing is, I don't really go to work, nearly a decade in the industry and I still fly my own stuff on my days off, enjoy a decent quality of life.

 

[Cooter]

Written by two people who have never put food on a plate with their CFI ticket

You have offered nothing more than your opinion, which you are certainly free to do. But what you have failed to do, is establish a basis for obligating others to share that same opinion. As far as trying to imply that only those who CFI for their primary income have a voice or valid viewpoint, that is simply highlighting your inability to persuasively make your point. As pointed out above, other CFIs owe you nothing. Funny movie BTW.

 

[JoseCuervo]

Pilots have made much of their own problems, it's sad how most folks first 121 gig can often be the lowest paid gig on their career, how as an industry, for the level of education and responsibility, pilots are paid for crap now, it's like this because cheap whores like the OP, who deleted his first post for a reason, just keep lowering the bar for the rest of us.

Also you don't see many plumbers, nurses, engineers, etc who will work for free, now I'm not talking some type charity thing like young eagles or helping in some pizz poor country, etc, or helping a personal friend or family, obviously that's a different situation.

Most nurses work for free while pursuing their final certification.

Quite common.

Same for engineers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Everskyward]

Note that James doesn't come after me with that "you've never put food on the table..." argument because he knows it's not true.

I think CFIs and pilots should charge whatever they want, including zero. They certainly shouldn't be required to charge a certain fee because someone else wants them to do so.

 

[mscard88]

There's probably such a small percentage of CFIs that don't charge it's really not worth an argument.

 

[Dave Theisen]

I do some part time work at a flight school, they charge what they want. When I freelance, sure I charge full rate for a professional that owns his own airplane. But I've charged a lot less to the line guy that's busting his ass trying to get ratings to get a break. Certainly given away my share of time as well. I don't think I'm ruining the industry, I'd like to think I'm helping keeping the industry going.

 

[LDJones]

When I instruct now, it's not exactly for the hours or money, I enjoy it and kick the money into my weekend funds

That said, I don't consider myself a worthless instructor and charge a fair rate, if anything it's a matter of self respect and respect for the industry, especially those who are trying to break into it.

Something about be the change you want to see in the world and all

Then there's the whole "Give something back" concept some of us believe in.

 

[Dave Theisen]

Then there's the whole "Give something back" concept some of us believe in.

Exactly!

 

[James331]

I'll give y'all that, helping the line guys and whatnot, sure

But, despite deleting what he wrote, what the OP was trying to do, it was nearly along the lines of PTF, and that ain't cool.

 

[mscard88]

When I freelance, sure I charge full rate for a professional that owns his own airplane. But I've charged a lot less to the line guy that's busting his ass trying to get ratings to get a break.

Yup I've also done this from the start. I even traded my fees for haircuts for a barber I was instructing.

 

[denverpilot]

Also you don't see many plumbers, nurses, engineers, etc who will work for free, now I'm not talking some type charity thing like young eagles or helping in some pizz poor country, etc, or helping a personal friend or family, obviously that's a different situation.

There's plenty of nurses who essentially work for free, it's called residency, and recurrency training, and all sorts of long hours not always covered by the time clock or salary. My wife did all of that at various times in her career. Even had to follow another nurse certified in her current specialty around and log a certain number of hours, just like a pilot, without pay, in order to receive that certification in what's known as a "preceptor" program. Now she does it for new nurses getting the certification.

Engineers, too. It's called internships. Or hours of study. Or building stuff to put on a resume', that isn't part of a job... tons of free work as any sort of engineer, early on.

All at similar places in life as a young pilot willing to teach for free, even.

I can't really speak to plumbers... most do some sort of apprenticeship, however, and the master plumber makes the big bucks while they might scape by with enough to make some PBJ for lunch the next day.

 

[skier]

Engineers, too. It's called internships.

Nah, engineering internships are typically paid, and paid pretty decently at that. >$20/hr isn't uncommon for an engineering intern. More common is upper teens/hr.

 

[denverpilot]

Nah, engineering internships are typically paid, and paid pretty decently at that. >$20/hr isn't uncommon for an engineering intern. More common is upper teens/hr.

Depends on the company and supply and demand. Right now perhaps, but I've seen plenty of people take unpaid internships to get into "hot" companies or below poverty line pay to get a foot in the door.