Tristar
Pattern Altitude
Hey guys,
I'm in an interesting situation. I love my job as a flight instructor but its not exactly the highest paying job so I put forth a lot of effort into finding a part time job and recieved one at the local news paper. The news paper is also offering me a 32 hour night job which is from 9pm-whenever we stop. Currently I work from 11:30 - whenever we stop which is usually around 3am. Because of this, I need some time to sleep so I blocked off until 10am as unavailable. It's a little stressfull since I do have a student that wants to fly at 7:30am and another potential at 9:00am. My current boss is a little concerned about this because he wants me on full time too. He asked me what I need to stay on full time...which is a whopping 2.5 hour difference in the day but we have students that want to fly mornings. I totaled up a rough idea for him of things I have to pay for which exceeded the checks I was getting. I told him honestly that I dont think as a small company that he can match what I'm getting at the newspaper even though its only 8 bucks an hour there. He told me that he thinks I'll be getting about 100 hours a month this summer. I might believe that but summer will pass and if weather is bad, airplanes are down, or what ever, I have no way to pay for my bills which is not good. It still frustrates him and I feel bad that I have to sleep and pay bills and tell my boss that has been so good to me that I'm not sure he can afford to match what I'm doing. He basically ended it with "okay, I just want you out here full time, so I'll think about it and hopefully figure out something." Sigh...I have plenty of time, I just need students to be more flexable.
He would also like me to get my CFII but I told him very honestly that there was no way of me doing that since the cost of the airplane is basically a third sometimes half of my paychecks in the winter time. Thankfully he understood that.
To top it off....I kinda like having some extra income, I just wish the hours were a little more reliable instead of "whenever we finish." But at least, unlike instructing, I'm guaranteed a paycheck.
I'm in an interesting situation. I love my job as a flight instructor but its not exactly the highest paying job so I put forth a lot of effort into finding a part time job and recieved one at the local news paper. The news paper is also offering me a 32 hour night job which is from 9pm-whenever we stop. Currently I work from 11:30 - whenever we stop which is usually around 3am. Because of this, I need some time to sleep so I blocked off until 10am as unavailable. It's a little stressfull since I do have a student that wants to fly at 7:30am and another potential at 9:00am. My current boss is a little concerned about this because he wants me on full time too. He asked me what I need to stay on full time...which is a whopping 2.5 hour difference in the day but we have students that want to fly mornings. I totaled up a rough idea for him of things I have to pay for which exceeded the checks I was getting. I told him honestly that I dont think as a small company that he can match what I'm getting at the newspaper even though its only 8 bucks an hour there. He told me that he thinks I'll be getting about 100 hours a month this summer. I might believe that but summer will pass and if weather is bad, airplanes are down, or what ever, I have no way to pay for my bills which is not good. It still frustrates him and I feel bad that I have to sleep and pay bills and tell my boss that has been so good to me that I'm not sure he can afford to match what I'm doing. He basically ended it with "okay, I just want you out here full time, so I'll think about it and hopefully figure out something." Sigh...I have plenty of time, I just need students to be more flexable.
He would also like me to get my CFII but I told him very honestly that there was no way of me doing that since the cost of the airplane is basically a third sometimes half of my paychecks in the winter time. Thankfully he understood that.
To top it off....I kinda like having some extra income, I just wish the hours were a little more reliable instead of "whenever we finish." But at least, unlike instructing, I'm guaranteed a paycheck.