Trade CFI hours for avionics product development help?

[BoulderBill]

I develop product prototypes using small development circuit boards. I'm super psyched to get my pilot's license, but want to keep my costs low. I wonder if there would ever be an opportunity to trade CFI hours for in-kind hours developing some avionics product idea said CFI has. Does this sound far-fetched? Are there CFI's out there that have cool ideas they would want to pursue? If this sounds like a workable idea, I would ask for advice on how to find a good match in the Boulder, CO area (KBDU, KLMO, KBJC).

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks.

 

[EdFred]

I trade all the time. HVAC work for me giving instruction, custom database for my A&P and we traded hours for that. Flew that one girl to dinner in exch....well...nevermind.

 

[dmspilot]

Trading is fine but I am not sure there are many CFIs itching to develop their own avionics

 

[BoulderBill]

I think that was more my curiosity: Do pilots sit around and say things like "man, I wish I had an instrument/device that did X" ? I recognize it's a long process to bring a device like that to market, but I'm sure prototypes are experimented with. Maybe it's a long shot.

 

[sarangan]

I develop product prototypes using small development circuit boards. I'm super psyched to get my pilot's license, but want to keep my costs low. I wonder if there would ever be an opportunity to trade CFI hours for in-kind hours developing some avionics product idea said CFI has. Does this sound far-fetched? Are there CFI's out there that have cool ideas they would want to pursue? If this sounds like a workable idea, I would ask for advice on how to find a good match in the Boulder, CO area (KBDU, KLMO, KBJC).

Thoughts anyone?

Thanks.

I don't know about avionics, but I would like see an electric airplane that can carry 4 people and fly for 5 hours at 150 knots, and recharge in under an hour. Can we get to work on that ?

 

[BoulderBill]

I don't know about avionics, but I would like see an electric airplane that can carry 4 people and fly for 5 hours at 150 knots, and recharge in under an hour. Can we get to work on that ?

Sure! I better be one damn good pilot after that trade, though!

 

[Juliet Hotel]

Maybe it's a long shot.

Not maybe, definitely a long shot. Think you'd have better luck finding a CFI that wanted a one off Arduino controlled gadgets for the house. Maybe offer to build them a smart mirror for their bathroom that was programmed to project the local TAF and Metars as well as which local pizza joints are currently hiring delivery drivers.

 

[EdFred]

Not maybe, definitely a long shot. Think you'd have better luck finding a CFI that wanted a one off Arduino controlled gadgets for the house. Maybe offer to build them a smart mirror for their bathroom that was programmed to project the local TAF and Metars as well as which local pizza joints are currently hiring delivery drivers.

Now that you mention that, I'd like voice control for my house that ISN'T tied to Alexa the spy, or looks at me with Googly eyes.

 

[whitepines]

Now that you mention that, I'd like voice control for my house that ISN'T tied to Alexa the spy, or looks at me with Googly eyes.

Ditto. I really should look at some of those Raspberry Pi-driven systems. Many many years ago I had been looking at Sphinx for the speech synthesis part, but it was quite heavy for the hardware of the time.

The biggest problem nowadays is the lack of wired lighting controls with a separate data channel. Everything on the market is wireless (Insteon is famously hackable) or ancient as the hills and somewhat unreliable (X10).

For now I have to make do with the oh so tedious chore of actually walking to a light switch or the thermostat... /s

 

[RussR]

@BoulderBill, I wish you luck, but that is going to be a really narrow combination of factors which creates a vanishingly small market for your trade.

As a CFI, in general, I try to avoid trades like this. I know for some people this kind of thing has worked out, but it has to be just the right combination of people and wants/needs to make it work. I'd just prefer to keep it clean and simple - I charge my rate, you charge your rate. Maybe we end up basically just passing the same money back and forth, but anything else raises questions of who is getting the better end of the deal. Mechanics get this type of question all the time - ask any mechanic how many times they've been approached with the offer of "if you work on my plane (for free), I'll let you fly it for the cost of gas". Problem is, of course, you can't put food on the table with free flight time...

 

[denverpilot]

I generally avoid trades as well, but I also build my own electronics gadgets.

Plus there’s this really easy way to trade called prices. You sell me an expensive widget, I charge you by the hour for instruction. We both keep our tax accountants happy.

Technically... trading has to be tracked as income — but of course that’s probably the only reason many do it — money trail disappears.

Always tip your server in cash.

I don’t think you’ll find a bunch of instructors looking for custom electronics. It’s a different market. Avionics, only the ones who own aircraft would even maybe have some experiment they’d want to try. And that’s a long shot.

At the end of the day, ramping up some sort of side hustle making popular widgets with the board layout and design skills and selling online, completely unrelated to aviation, probably gets the bank account fat enough to fly, faster.