Realistic zero to CFI cost/time

[GaryM]

Currently, would it be realistic to say, from a zero to CFI 1 scenario. Would cost $30k and 6 months?

A lot of good posts here have already covered the unlikelihood of pulling this off in 6 months for $30K. I'll just add one more reason why finishing so quickly would be a bad idea, even if it were possible.

You'd never have experienced 4-season flying, and the weather challenges each season can bring. Students would be ill-served by an instructor who has never flown in winter...or during the late-summer thunderstorm season, or in the windy, gusty conditions of early spring...or whatever local seasonal challenge may have been missed during the mad rush to get the ticket.

 

[DesertNomad]

You'd never have experienced 4-season flying, and the weather challenges each season can bring. Students would be ill-served by an instructor who has never flown in winter...or during the late-summer thunderstorm season, or in the windy, gusty conditions of early spring...or whatever local seasonal challenge may have been missed during the mad rush to get the ticket.

Agree 100%. I had 1,000 hours and had flown my plane to 40 states and 4 foreign countries before earning my CFI. At 251 hours, the vast majority are not ready to be a CFI.

 

[TCABM]

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.

I don’t disagree, just trying to give the OP another data point.

Blows my mind that program is pushing six figures now.

 

[Pinecone]

What change are you talking about?

In the past, there was one sign off for complex and HP, and the number for HP was 200 HP. So Arrow, Mooney, 177RG, etc all qualified. Now it is OVER 200 HP.

 

[ja_user]

In the past, there was one sign off for complex and HP, and the number for HP was 200 HP. So Arrow, Mooney, 177RG, etc all qualified. Now it is OVER 200 HP.

Thanks for clarifying, I thought you meant something recent

 

[RyanShort1]

A lot of good posts here have already covered the unlikelihood of pulling this off in 6 months for $30K. I'll just add one more reason why finishing so quickly would be a bad idea, even if it were possible.

You'd never have experienced 4-season flying, and the weather challenges each season can bring. Students would be ill-served by an instructor who has never flown in winter...or during the late-summer thunderstorm season, or in the windy, gusty conditions of early spring...or whatever local seasonal challenge may have been missed during the mad rush to get the ticket.

The USAF doesn't necessarily agree with FAIPs being a thing, but they train in a much more rigorous environment.

 

[Bonchie]

Part 61 is almost always going to be cheaper. So start there.

Find a school with a 152 or clapped out 172 for rent. Do your PPL and IFR in it. Then find someone to split time with for time-building with the hood hack. Make sure you are checking all the boxes for Commercial during your time-building stage. Get the commercial, which is pretty easy and not a ton of cash. Then get the CFI, which is much harder, but still not a lot of cash because the hard part is on the ground. I think I flew only 10 hours training for my CFI.

MEI is a bit of a waste unless you are going to a school that has a multi-engine plane. Most don't. So just go do a 3-day course to get your ME Commercial down the road. No rush on that because you aren't getting a job to use it anytime soon.

Will you be able to do all that for $35K? Not even close. But it's doable in 6-9 months if you find a school with that kind of availability and you do it full-time.

 

[Bonchie]

A lot of good posts here have already covered the unlikelihood of pulling this off in 6 months for $30K. I'll just add one more reason why finishing so quickly would be a bad idea, even if it were possible.

You'd never have experienced 4-season flying, and the weather challenges each season can bring. Students would be ill-served by an instructor who has never flown in winter...or during the late-summer thunderstorm season, or in the windy, gusty conditions of early spring...or whatever local seasonal challenge may have been missed during the mad rush to get the ticket.

Maybe so, but that's still the career path that makes the most sense. The airline hiring is set to pick back up at the end of the year as they fill captain slots. He needs to get going sooner rather than later.

You can learn a lot in a short amount of time CFIing in the right situation. Especially with the right guys around to help. Almost every school has old, retired guys teaching to stay in the air who can impart wisdom.

 

[write-stuff]

If you want to be a good instructor, I don't see the benefit in rushing it. Build more experience before presenting yourself as an expert to others.

 

[Racerx]

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.

I had the LSA thought this morning actually. I know of a high school stem program that built an rv12. But i actually wondered if an enterprising individual could monetize building an rv12 then using the aircraft for a flight school.

Regarding op's timeline....every school near me has a 3-4 wait list.

 

[Outerlimits]

Thanks for the info on the costs .

 

[AggieMike88]

If you want to be a good instructor, I don't see the benefit in rushing it. Build more experience before presenting yourself as an expert to others.

Since we can only like a post once, I can do this...

 

[Sierra_Hotel]

Wait, we're supposed to present ourselves as experts?

 

[Tai]

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.

Excellent breakdown and appreciate the time it took for you to type it. It really puts things in perspective!

This is essentially what I was told by the flight school I plan to attend. Instead of doing the IR separate, I was encouraged to do it at the same time as the CPL to save costs.

I was quoted ~$63,000 for PPL + IR/CPL based on the average amount of hours most students take to receive these licenses and ratings. The minimum I was quoted was $58,500, based on the minimum hours required. I plan to attend a school that has discounts depending on how much $ is paid upfront to apply to your account. The $ is deducted as you take lessons, until it is depleted ($ stays on your account until you can take lessons which helps with flexibility).

For instance, $5k at a time will save a student $5/hr. $10k, will save $10/hr... I'm assuming other schools do this as well.

 

[Sierra_Hotel]

Block time is a decent way to save a little money, just make sure you're going to use it all as I don't know of a single school that will refund it if it's left on the books. In other words, unless you already have some flight time or have taken some intro flights, don't buy a big block right out of the gate. Make sure the school is a good fit for you before you commit to a big upfront purchase.

 

[Mongoose Aviator]

Make sure the school is a good fit for you before you commit to a big upfront purchase.

 

[RyanShort1]

If you want to be a good instructor, I don't see the benefit in rushing it. Build more experience before presenting yourself as an expert to others.

And if you want to have experience, you'll need to seek variety in aircraft and missions. A brand new CFI that has only flown three types of aircraft and never gone more than a state away doesn't have much to offer.

 

[Tai]

Block time is a decent way to save a little money, just make sure you're going to use it all as I don't know of a single school that will refund it if it's left on the books. In other words, unless you already have some flight time or have taken some intro flights, don't buy a big block right out of the gate. Make sure the school is a good fit for you before you commit to a big upfront purchase.

YES! They have block time, which is how the savings are applied (what I was told). They are also flexible with my work schedule and I was told that I set my schedule and they’ll work with it.

I definitely plan to use all my block time, because I’m planning to get a PPL within a year, if not faster. I’m studying the free manuals now, hoping I won’t waste time once I start flight school. I’ve been poking around this forum and the information I’m finding on here is invaluable! Thank yall!