Realistic zero to CFI cost/time

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FutureFly

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FutureFly
Currently, would it be realistic to say, from a zero to CFI 1 scenario. Would cost $30k and 6 months? At the minimum cost amount, of course depending upon needed hours,retraining due to weather, scheduling issues ect. Time- I realize everyone is different but if scheduling rentals and weather work out favorably, would 6 months of flying 3 times a week be a practical realistic timeframe to ground school to CFI? I’m down in the Sunshine state if that helps my question scenario.
 
texasclouds said:
1-2 years, $50-100k.
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Thanks for the prompt response. Any idea the chances of getting hired with just CFI I these days compared to CFI II? Askin, as to if one could gain paid flight hours on their way to CFI II, MEI, ATP.
 
There is no question that you can find work as a CFI. There's a huge shortage. But don't expect to earn much as a CFI.

You will probably spend about $12,000 to get your private certificate, if you are a quick learner. I am not a CFII, so I don't know how to estimate the cost of the instrument rating you will need. You will need 250 hours to get the commercial certificate, so, including the cost of the private, you will be well above $40,000 by then. And next you will need to be trained for the CFI rating. And then multi-engine training, which is very expensive.

Good luck.
 
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FutureFly said:
Thanks for the prompt response. Any idea the chances of getting hired with just CFI I these days compared to CFI II? Askin, as to if one could gain paid flight hours on their way to CFI II, MEI, ATP.
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Hired?

Go independent like I did.

Yes I need to hustle for fresh students, but I’m used to that from past employment in sales.

I also charge local market rates the schools charge and all of that goes into my pocket.

I also tend to get the students who want to put in the effort and proper amount of work and are a pleasure to train. First meet up I share how things work and my expectations. I also assure them they are getting the quality they are paying for, not some young’n building his airline qualifying time on their wallet.

I also make sure they are having fun.

It is a fun gig and I actually enjoy going to work.
 
$45,000 and 2 years of time minimum. And while you are thinking that is too much, the written tests and practical tests including the plane is going to cost $4,500.
 
Not realistic both price and time wise.

I think the easiest is PPL, which I spent about a couple months training 60 hours, to add a 2 month Covid shutdown and a 1 month wait time for an examiner plus a reschedule, then you have the written to study for, schedule and attend to and pass.

If you say about $200 per hour for plane and instruction, 60 X $200 = $12k plus the exam fee and checkride. That doesn’t include travel time, gas, meals, etc. However you want to calculate it.

Then for instrument training, I probably did another 75 hours, I enjoy flying with my instructor and just made it part of my routine. You can save money finding another student but my instructors hourly rate was $45/hr, still is, and I don’t mind paying it. I’m not charged extra for ground time unless it’s doing logbook sign-offs for checkrides. I probably spent 7 months on instrument training, including rescheduling the checkride a few times due to weather. On that calculation you’re looking at 15k plus exam and checkride fees and any other costs (gas, time, meals, etc).

For commercial, I took my time on that, it was about another 1.5 years, then it’s a lot of work to get to the 250 hours, I probably had closer to 300 hours, so if you count hours since last checkride it’s about 165 hours. So total cost about 33k plus exam fees. Now granted I did a lot of traveling to places, got my own airplane, which I’m not discounting since maintenance costs are real and things do break. I had to reschedule checkrides a lot for CPL and I had personal / work travel to attend to, so I was also busy and available less during this period. The hours is time building, not skills building or learning per say. This one you could do cheaper but I doubt it, renting an airplane and fuel is not cheap no matter how you put it, and you could definitely do it a lot faster but it’s a lot of flying. You’ll need breaks now and then.

PPL 60 hrs 12k (4-5 months)
IR 75 hrs 15k (7 months)
CPL 165 hrs 33k (19 months)
Checkrides 3k
Exam fees 600
Complex extra rental fees 1k
HP extra rental fees 1k
Tailwheel was 200/hr even
Approx 65,600 PPL IR CPL (30-31 months)

Fuel driving to airport
6 gallons roundtrip to airport
Let’s say $5/gal average X 6 = $30
Avg 2hrs per lesson (150 trips to airport)
150 X 30 = $4500

Meals?

Easily pushing 70k and I haven’t really kept track.

That’s not counting fuel premiums at destinations, airport landing and parking fees, other instructors higher hourly rates, etc.

I’m guessing I could do CFI with approx 20-30 hours more training. The materials for the written are a lot and I’m not sure that I’ll use it, so I have placed this on pause for now, I rather do the multi. So add about 4-6k plus checkride and exam fees.

My hours include complex, HP, and tailwheel endorsements, also my total time includes checkride aircraft rental time so I think it’s roughly approximate enough.
 
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RyanB said:
You will never go zero to CFI with $30k. Maybe 10yrs ago, but not in today’s world.
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More than 20 years ago I spent $100k and I started with a PPL.

$30k/260 hours is $115/hr. I'm sure there are places in the country where you could still oil that off, but it's it's not where I live.
 
How many hours you need for your Private and Instrument Rated get swallowed up in the requirements for the Commercial.

So, you need 250 hours for the Commercial. At the local rate of around $165 per hour for a Cessna 172, you are looking at $41,000 just for aircraft rental.

Add in 100 hours of dual at $50 hour, you are at $46,000. Plus ground time, say another 100 hours, so $51,000.

Flying 3 times a week, at say 1.3 hours average per flight, that is 65 weeks. Or a bit over a year. But that is ambitious. In USAF UPT I flew about 170 hours flying time in 10 months. And that was a full time job. To do it in 6 months, means flying 10 hours a week.
 
190 hours for Part 141, which is why I recommend that type of program for a situation like this.
 
Pinecone said:
How many hours you need for your Private and Instrument Rated get swallowed up in the requirements for the Commercial.

So, you need 250 hours for the Commercial. At the local rate of around $165 per hour for a Cessna 172, you are looking at $41,000 just for aircraft rental.

Add in 100 hours of dual at $50 hour, you are at $46,000. Plus ground time, say another 100 hours, so $51,000.

Flying 3 times a week, at say 1.3 hours average per flight, that is 65 weeks. Or a bit over a year. But that is ambitious. In USAF UPT I flew about 170 hours flying time in 10 months. And that was a full time job. To do it in 6 months, means flying 10 hours a week.
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1st, if money is the object, you don’t get the luxury of a 172 and need to find a 150/152.
 
mandm said:
Not realistic both price and time wise.

I think the easiest is PPL, which I spent about a couple months training 60 hours, to add a 2 month Covid shutdown and a 1 month wait time for an examiner plus a reschedule, then you have the written to study for, schedule and attend to and pass.

If you say about $200 per hour for plane and instruction, 60 X $200 = $12k plus the exam fee and checkride. That doesn’t include travel time, gas, meals, etc. However you want to calculate it.

Then for instrument training, I probably did another 75 hours, I enjoy flying with my instructor and just made it part of my routine. You can save money finding another student but my instructors hourly rate was $45/hr, still is, and I don’t mind paying it. I’m not charged extra for ground time unless it’s doing logbook sign-offs for checkrides. I probably spent 7 months on instrument training, including rescheduling the checkride a few times due to weather. On that calculation you’re looking at 15k plus exam and checkride fees and any other costs (gas, time, meals, etc).

For commercial, I took my time on that, it was about another 1.5 years, then it’s a lot of work to get to the 250 hours, I probably had closer to 300 hours, so if you count hours since last checkride it’s about 165 hours. So total cost about 33k plus exam fees. Now granted I did a lot of traveling to places, got my own airplane, which I’m not discounting since maintenance costs are real and things do break. I had to reschedule checkrides a lot for CPL and I had personal / work travel to attend to, so I was also busy and available less during this period. The hours is time building, not skills building or learning per say. This one you could do cheaper but I doubt it, renting an airplane and fuel is not cheap no matter how you put it, and you could definitely do it a lot faster but it’s a lot of flying. You’ll need breaks now and then.

PPL 60 hrs 12k (4-5 months)
IR 75 hrs 15k (7 months)
CPL 165 hrs 33k (19 months)
Checkrides 3k
Exam fees 600
Complex extra rental fees 1k
HP extra rental fees 1k
Tailwheel was 200/hr even
Approx 65,600 PPL IR CPL (30-31 months)

Fuel driving to airport
6 gallons roundtrip to airport
Let’s say $5/gal average X 6 = $30
Avg 2hrs per lesson (150 trips to airport)
150 X 30 = $4500

Meals?

Easily pushing 70k and I haven’t really kept track.

That’s not counting fuel premiums at destinations, airport landing and parking fees, other instructors higher hourly rates, etc.

I’m guessing I could do CFI with approx 20-30 hours more training. The materials for the written are a lot and I’m not sure that I’ll use it, so I have placed this on pause for now, I rather do the multi. So add about 4-6k plus checkride and exam fees.

My hours include complex, HP, and tailwheel endorsements, also my total time includes checkride aircraft rental time so I think it’s roughly approximate enough.
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75 hours for an IR? Yikes!
 
Sierra_Hotel said:
190 hours for Part 141, which is why I recommend that type of program for a situation like this.
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Part 141 commercial flight training is 120 hours. You know many people completing their private and instrument in 70 hours.
 
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Yes, go to part 141 to save money :) LOL…. MAYBE you can save time, but it isn’t the norm…
 
If you had enough money up front to buy a solid cheap-ish aircraft that would last you through the training and time building, you *might* get your costs down, but you are rolling the dice with that.
 
Clip4 said:
Part 141 commercial flight training is 120 hours. You know many people completing their private and commercial in 70 hours?
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Didn't say anything about whether OP would do it in those hours, just that it can be done.
 
FutureFly said:
Currently, would it be realistic to say, from a zero to CFI 1 scenario. Would cost $30k and 6 months? At the minimum cost amount, of course depending upon needed hours,retraining due to weather, scheduling issues ect. Time- I realize everyone is different but if scheduling rentals and weather work out favorably, would 6 months of flying 3 times a week be a practical realistic timeframe to ground school to CFI? I’m down in the Sunshine state if that helps my question scenario.
Click to expand...

My zero to CFI was from 1996 to 2000, flying only occasionally, and cost $26k. To put the cost in perspective, the Cessna 172 I frequently used was $46/hr, and the Cessna 210 was $80/hr. The cost today is 2-3 times higher.
 
270 hours to CFI at $170/hr for the plane is $45900 then 125 hours of an instructor at $60/hr is $7500, plus 4 checkrides, written tests and supplies is at least another $5k.

I think you are looking at $60k and 18 months minimum and that would be in a cheap part of the country. More realistic is closer to $75k and two years.
 
RyanShort1 said:
If I could go back in time and start over, I would save my pennies and buy a Piper Colt with maybe 300-600 SMOH on the engine that had enough instruments to do the IR rating and have enough engine life after 250 hours of flying to resell.
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This is exactly what I would do as the OP if at all practical.
If you're in a rush to get 250 hours, and you KNOW you're going to fly a ton, I'd buy an LSA or 152 or something that sips gas and has a bit of time until it reaches TBO. Get a good prebuy then roll the dice and hope nothing goes wrong with it, sell it later if needed.
Not only do you save a tremendous amount of money compared to rentals, but it eliminates scheduling bottlenecks b/c the plane is available whenever you are.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Hired?

Go independent like I did.

Yes I need to hustle for fresh students, but I’m used to that from past employment in sales.

I also charge local market rates the schools charge and all of that goes into my pocket.

I also tend to get the students who want to put in the effort and proper amount of work and are a pleasure to train. First meet up I share how things work and my expectations. I also assure them they are getting the quality they are paying for, not some young’n building his airline qualifying time on their wallet.

I also make sure they are having fun.

It is a fun gig and I actually enjoy going to work.
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You don't mention the cost of owning a trainer and the cost to insure it.
 
Zero to hero in a short amount of time doesn’t really help with real world flying experiences. Flying way beyond the minimums hours and time really does teach you much other than book/classroom flying
 
Gilbert Buettner said:
You don't mention the cost of owning a trainer and the cost to insure it.
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Because I don’t own an airplane for training.

I associate with an airplane rental outfit. Students are set up as the customer and rent me as an additional transaction.

Rental outfit charges student a competitive wet rate ($135/hr wet for 172N). They take care of ownership and maintenance responsibilities.
 
With that skimpy budget, OP needs to avoid as many rental hours as possible. That means hanging out at the airport, bumming rides, safety piloting, and in extremis, pumping gas or scrubbing bellies for plane time.

It can be done with nearly $0 and a whole lot of free time. With 30k I would try to get my PPL and IR as efficiently as possible -- so writtens done early, PPL by flying 3+ times per week, and as much sim time as comfortable for IR. Then just get those hours for CPL and dive into CFI. The advice about 150s is good. Rent the ugliest cheapest thing around and flog it. Frankly the older machines are usually better teachers.
 
sarangan said:
My zero to CFI was from 1996 to 2000, flying only occasionally, and cost $26k. To put the cost in perspective, the Cessna 172 I frequently used was $46/hr, and the Cessna 210 was $80/hr. The cost today is 2-3 times higher.
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Try 4x or higher. Locally C-172 is about $165 per hour.
 
schmookeeg said:
With that skimpy budget, OP needs to avoid as many rental hours as possible. That means hanging out at the airport, bumming rides, safety piloting, and in extremis, pumping gas or scrubbing bellies for plane time.

It can be done with nearly $0 and a whole lot of free time. With 30k I would try to get my PPL and IR as efficiently as possible -- so writtens done early, PPL by flying 3+ times per week, and as much sim time as comfortable for IR. Then just get those hours for CPL and dive into CFI. The advice about 150s is good. Rent the ugliest cheapest thing around and flog it. Frankly the older machines are usually better teachers.
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But he also wants fast. NO way you are going to be able to bum that much time in 6 months.
 
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AggieMike88 said:
With the current nutty hiring FO environment, I’m not sure I understand the need to be so rush rush.

Seniority, yeah, but you gotta get hired for that to happen.
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The quicker you’re hired, the better the seniority.

Six months is doable, but it’s full time.
 
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Too bad, with the lower costs, I would consider coming out to do my MEI to make my other CFI ratings current again.

The change in HP to over 200 really screwed things up.
 
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