Should I go for CFI?

[forseth11]

Hello everyone!

I recently got my commercial license and I am going to go for my multi-engine add-on in a month. After that I am not sure what I should do.

First let me give a background of my situation so my options make sense.

My family owns a Mooney, so it is fairly cheap for me to gain complex hours. I currently have 342 hour, so I can't get a SIC job yet. Currently for income, I work as a part time software developer, but the job is not really stable (meaning my earnings fluctuate greatly from month to month). I am also currently in high school for one more year along with duel credit classes at my community college, but I go to online school for high school, so my schedule is really flexible except for the community college classes. I am very interested in becoming a CFI, but I am not sure if it is worth it. Also, what is the chance of being hired for a SIC job when I reach 500 hours when I am still a full time college student?

Anyways, here are my choices now that you know my situation:

1. Continue gaining hours in my family's Mooney. (I will be taking a direct loss on operating costs)
2. Keep saving hours until I get 500 hours then apply for a job. (Costly at first with the result being free plus some)
3. Work toward CFI (Takes more training, effort, and money at first, but I could change my schedule to fit my college classes)

 

[Kritchlow]

Hello everyone!

I recently got my commercial license and I am going to go for my multi-engine add-on in a month. After that I am not sure what I should do.

First let me give a background of my situation so my options make sense.

My family owns a Mooney, so it is fairly cheap for me to gain complex hours. I currently have 342 hour, so I can't get a SIC job yet. Currently for income, I work as a part time software developer, but the job is not really stable (meaning my earnings fluctuate greatly from month to month). I am also currently in high school for one more year along with duel credit classes at my community college, but I go to online school for high school, so my schedule is really flexible except for the community college classes. I am very interested in becoming a CFI, but I am not sure if it is worth it. Also, what is the chance of being hired for a SIC job when I reach 500 hours when I am still a full time college student?

Anyways, here are my choices now that you know my situation:

1. Continue gaining hours in my family's Mooney. (I will be taking a direct loss on operating costs)
2. Keep saving hours until I get 500 hours then apply for a job. (Costly at first with the result being free plus some)
3. Work toward CFI (Takes more training, effort, and money at first, but I could change my schedule to fit my college classes)

What is your end game? Do you want to fly as a hobby or as s profession?
If you just want to teach than that's a whole nother story. That requires updates every two years and a lot of record keeping... not for me, but you may be different.

Bottom line... what do you want out of aviation??

 

[denverpilot]

Do you want to teach?

 

[Vance Breese]

I found teaching made me a much better pilot.
I love to teach.
I have no idea what you should do.

 

[mscard88]

Seems you have a lot of free time besides going to college classes. Why not get your CFI which allows you a flexible schedule to instruct. IOW, for example, you could instruct mornings if you had classes in the afternoon. You mentioned going for MEL rating next. While you're at it, you could get your MEL instructor simultaneously and add the SE CFI and CFII later. A lot of ways to do it. Even if you end up in a different career, having a CFI Certificate could come in handy as a part time gig or whatever you want it to be. I say go for the CFI.

 

[Lowflynjack]

I've been pondering the same question. I had a friend who bought a Luscombe to learn in. One of the requirements from his insurance company was that the instructor had to have 200 hours in a Luscombe! This is getting hard to find. He asked if he could add me to the insurance and since I had a Luscombe already insured with them and have hundreds of hours in Luscombes I was already covered. I flew from the right seat and eventually had him doing the takeoffs and landings and everything in between. When we finally found an instructor, the instructor told him to save his money and keep flying with me. Once I felt like he was ready, the instructor took over and it took a lot less time to get his license. I enjoyed this a lot.

I now have a friend who wants his wife to learn to fly. I took her up in the 140 and got her comfortable flying it. He wants me to become an instructor and instruct her, so he's offered to let me use his Mooney for the cost of fuel.

We're lacking any instructors at our field. I've always hesitated because I don't want to feel like I'm leaving a student waiting when I'm going to a fly-in. And even though I don't care if I make any money at it, I also don't want to throw a lot of money away. I might never make enough money to pay for the training. I do enjoy teaching though... still pondering! Tough call for me.

 

[jordane93]

Go for it. It's always nice knowing you can make some extra money having your CFI.

 

[mscard88]

Jack, I think you'd enjoy it and would be good at it. At least a CFI Certificate for now. You could evolve into a TW CFI and might get real busy! Plus they'd come just to have their pic taken, which you do some well!

 

[Lowflynjack]

Jack, I think you'd enjoy it and would be good at it. At least a CFI Certificate for now. You could evolve into a TW CFI and might get real busy! Plus they'd come just to have their pic taken, which you do some well!

Thanks! I enjoy it and I stay calm, which our last local instructor didn't. I'm amazed at how many people were afraid to make a mistake after flying with him. I think I say "breathe" & "relax" a lot for the first few minutes we're flying, reassuring them there is nothing they can do that will harm us.

 

[mondtster]

If you're thinking of pursuing an aviation career I'd suggest spending the money and time getting the CFI ratings. My observation has been that simply having the ratings will open up some flying opportunities that you wouldn't otherwise get even though the opportunities aren't related to instructing and you would be qualified for the job even without the instructor ratings.

A semi-local to me DPE believes that you don't really know much about flying until you have to teach someone else to fly. I agree with that, at least partially. I believe that a person should supplement the hours of instructing with some other flying, to expose themselves different challenges and environments. You will be a more well rounded pilot for it.

Instructing can be fun, or it can be miserable. It depends on how much desire both the instructor and the student have to be doing what they're doing. I've had fun with it and made a lot of good friends doing it. I say go for it if it is something you're wanting to do.

 

[forseth11]

What is your end game? Do you want to fly as a hobby or as s profession?
If you just want to teach than that's a whole nother story. That requires updates every two years and a lot of record keeping... not for me, but you may be different.

Bottom line... what do you want out of aviation??

My end goal is to become an airline pilot.

Do you want to teach?

I would really love to but I don't know if the time and effort is worth it for my given situation and end goal.

Seems you have a lot of free time besides going to college classes. Why not get your CFI which allows you a flexible schedule to instruct. IOW, for example, you could only instruct mornings if you had classes in the afternoon. You mentioned going for MEL rating next. While you're at it, you could get your MEL instructor simultaneously and add the SE CFI and CFII later. A lot of ways to do it. Even if you end up in a different career, having a CFI Certificate could come in handy as a part time gig or whatever you want it to be. I say go for the CFI.

Good idea thanks, but I think I would do MEI after getting the other two as I wouldn't be prepared in time and I'm going to be doing one of those 3 days to multi engine addon.

Thanks for all the responses guys. Looks like I have something to be busy with all summer now.

 

[jordane93]

What are your plans after community college? Are you going to get your bachelor's eventually? Since you want to become an airline pilot I'd highly suggest you get your bachelors. Regionals won't really care about your education but pretty much every major or legacy will want you to have at least a bachelors degree.

 

[forseth11]

What are your plans after community college? Are you going to get your bachelor's eventually? Since you want to become an airline pilot I'd highly suggest you get your bachelors. Regionals won't really care about your education but pretty much every major or legacy will want you to have at least a bachelors degree.

Yea I am going for a bachelors in computer science as a hobby/backup plan in case I become unable to fly.

 

[Zeldman]

Finish college first. That silly degree will open doors for you.

 

[JCranford]

Just curious, but how many people are going to take instruction from a 17/18 year old? I'd do the gain hours thing and finish college.

 

[James331]

Do you WANT to teach, that's the biggest factor, if you don't want to teach DO NOT try to become a CFI, it's a disservice to students and you will not enjoy it, other jobs for a fresh CPL as well outside from CFIing.

Go offer to ground tutor some folks at the local school (for free), see how you like it.

Finish college first. That silly degree will open doors for you.

Lol, perhaps not as much as one would think, I'd follow your heart and if you have the chops to make money, the money will follow.

 

[jordane93]

Just curious, but how many people are going to take instruction from a 17/18 year old? I'd do the gain hours thing and finish college.

Probably other 17/18 year olds. I got my CFI when I was 21 and mostly had students around my age. I also had a decent amount of students there were twice or more my age.

 

[Lowflynjack]

Just curious, but how many people are going to take instruction from a 17/18 year old? I'd do the gain hours thing and finish college.

I was 17 and I think my instructor was 19. I liked him because he was a good pilot and I knew I could finish my license with him before he went off to the airlines. So many of my friends had to go through several instructors.

 

[weilke]

Just curious, but how many people are going to take instruction from a 17/18 year old? I'd do the gain hours thing and finish college.

My glider instructor was 18. He was eager and made time for us club students. One of the best and fearless instructors I ever had.

 

[James331]

I was 17 and I think my instructor was 19. I liked him because he was a good pilot and I knew I could finish my license with him before he went off to the airlines. So many of my friends had to go through several instructors.

Yeah, that's not cool.

I don't like that, if you know you're going to be leaving stop taking new students and finish up your current guys, any employer will understand and appreciate that, if they don't, you probably don't want to work for them anyways.

When this happened to me with a job offer (not 121 though) I told my students right when I knew, said I could get them done if they could work with me and do more lessons, otherwise I could also recommend a CFI who I knew would atleast be around enough to get them done

 

[kayoh190]

I'd instruct unless you feel you'd be terrible at it, or just really don't want to (in which case if you did anyway you'd likely be terrible at it).

You said the end game is the airlines, and if that's the case building time as quickly as possible should be the goal (and yes, get the degree in there somewhere too). Listening to Jordan pound out 100 hour months, it seems to me that instructing is probably the most reliable way to get to 1500 ASAP. I doubt there are many 500 hour SIC gigs that'll give you to 1500 in such a short period of time.

 

[bobmrg]

Hello everyone!

I recently got my commercial license and I am going to go for my multi-engine add-on in a month. After that I am not sure what I should do.

First let me give a background of my situation so my options make sense.

My family owns a Mooney, so it is fairly cheap for me to gain complex hours. I currently have 342 hour, so I can't get a SIC job yet. Currently for income, I work as a part time software developer, but the job is not really stable (meaning my earnings fluctuate greatly from month to month). I am also currently in high school for one more year along with duel credit classes at my community college, but I go to online school for high school, so my schedule is really flexible except for the community college classes. I am very interested in becoming a CFI, but I am not sure if it is worth it. Also, what is the chance of being hired for a SIC job when I reach 500 hours when I am still a full time college student?

Anyways, here are my choices now that you know my situation:

1. Continue gaining hours in my family's Mooney. (I will be taking a direct loss on operating costs)
2. Keep saving hours until I get 500 hours then apply for a job. (Costly at first with the result being free plus some)
3. Work toward CFI (Takes more training, effort, and money at first, but I could change my schedule to fit my college classes)

You will not find an employer whose insurance carrier will touch you with the proverbial ten-foot pole with only 500 hours. How do I know? As soon as I logged my 500th hour I hit up a friend/Part 135 operator for a job and he let me down easy. Read 61.55 to see what it takes to be SIC.

Bob Gardner

 

[JB1842]

Just curious, but how many people are going to take instruction from a 17/18 year old? I'd do the gain hours thing and finish college.

Just did a Cub check out with a 18 year old instructor. No issues at all. It was a 40 year old instructor that almost let me die a couple times. Good kid. He barely even looked up from his smartphone the whole time we were up.

 

[forseth11]

You will not find an employer whose insurance carrier will touch you with the proverbial ten-foot pole with only 500 hours. How do I know? As soon as I logged my 500th hour I hit up a friend/Part 135 operator for a job and he let me down easy. Read 61.55 to see what it takes to be SIC.

Bob Gardner

I have a friend who got a job with Boutique Air as soon as they got 500 hours.

Do you WANT to teach, that's the biggest factor, if you don't want to teach DO NOT try to become a CFI, it's a disservice to students and you will not enjoy it, other jobs for a fresh CPL as well outside from CFIing.

Go offer to ground tutor some folks at the local school (for free), see how you like it.




Lol, perhaps not as much as one would think, I'd follow your heart and if you have the chops to make money, the money will follow.

I would love to teach! I've seen so many instructors rush students through when they aren't ready just to gain hours and I hate that they do that.

My glider instructor was 18. He was eager and made time for us club students. One of the best and fearless instructors I ever had.

I was once told... A fearless pilot is a dead pilot, and he just doesn't know it yet.

 

[weilke]

I was once told... A fearless pilot is a dead pilot, and he just doesn't know it yet.

Dunno. That was almost 30 years ago and last I hear he is doing fine. To teach and solo 15 year Olds, you have to be fearless.

 

[James331]

I have a friend who got a job with Boutique Air as soon as they got 500 hours.



I would love to teach! I've seen so many instructors rush students through when they aren't ready just to gain hours and I hate that they do that.


I was once told... A fearless pilot is a dead pilot, and he just doesn't know it yet.

In that case I'd go CFI

I wouldn't go "FO" for boutique, I fly a PC12 and they are built from the ground up to be single pilot, you'll learn lots more CFI/Iing than being a seat warmer FO in a single pilot plane.