Wits End

Is a major problem is you are not current and because of this you are finding your job to be difficult and stressful?

If this is the case, DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!!

I'm guessing you have done little more than trips in the pattern and some basic "check out" type stuff with another instructor. Why don't you get some solo time in? How long has it been since you've done a long cross country?

Why don't you explain your situation with someone at your flight school and ask them to let you rent one of their airplanes for a reduced rate. Tell them you are enjoying the job but don't feel as proficient as you used to, and you'd really like to get some quality flight hours in and knock off some rust.

I can understand it would be a little intimidating trying to explain cross country planning to a student when you haven't actually flown one in forever. Get out there and do it. Plan your flight on the sectionals, calculate stuff with your e6b. Take a stopwatch and time your checkpoints.

And don't be afraid if you don't know all the answers. My instructor was in his 80's and had brain farts on the more obscure regulatory stuff. It didn't make him a bad instructor.

Also where you instruct makes a huge difference. If the other instructors or the owners of the flight school are jerks... working there is going to suck!

PS if you're near NC I'm your age and i'd be happy to go flying with you sometime.
 
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Years ago I quit my CFI job for a gig as a waiter. If it is a not enough love for flying then move on. If it is a lack of currency causing stress then do study up.
 
JustAnotherPilot said:
I would like to take solace in knowing maybe ONE day I'll be able to sit back, watch tv and feel like I made it/I'm ok.
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You say your friend is "there". Trust me, he's not. He can be laid off tomorrow. Blink of an eye.

He has to stay up on tech changes. His programming knowledge becomes more obsolete every day if he doesn't continuously learn.

There's never any guarantees. Only plans, changes to plans, and raw stubbornness. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
You say your friend is "there". Trust me, he's not. He can be laid off tomorrow. Blink of an eye.

He has to stay up on tech changes. His programming knowledge becomes more obsolete every day if he doesn't continuously learn.

There's never any guarantees. Only plans, changes to plans, and raw stubbornness. ;)
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A lot of jobs are like that. Trust me. Its not as great as they appear. I'm an engineer, and small software changes can cause big problems. We have to write a lot of mini programs just to analyze output from larger ones, and if those larger ones change, we have to figure out how to make ours work. :mad2:

And yea, one program gets canceled, 200 people get laid off. Its luck that its not you.
 
I saw an article in Flying today. Guess what, Dick Karl got a Commercial, 2nd Class medical, and Learjet type rating, and applies for a job at Part 135 carrier (on the same $20k a year perhaps). In case Mr. JustAnotherPilot does not read Flying, Dick is a surgeon who made it so well, that he cruises around in a Cheyenne -- he's not some lowlife $74k/year programmer. And yet...!
 
zaitcev said:
Do they really pay that little? I don't think it's possible.
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$19000? That MUCH? There are kids lining up to yank gear for that princely sum! They pay that much because there are plenty of avitutes out there willing to give it up for that amount.

Hell, my first street captain job paid $600 a month (that was many years ago) and I was happy to have it.
 
OK, I have not read this whole thread, so someone may have already said this; Don't take it all so seriously, your taking all the fun out of it, for you and your students.

The fastest and best way to learn anything is to have to teach it. Be upfront with your students, tell them that you are rusty in the areas your rusty in, such as FARs, and learn it with the student. Look things up together.

The more you do anything, the better you will become at doing it. You are not always going to be rusty at FARs, especially as a teacher of FARs. Heck, you were rusty at FARs the day you got your certificate.

As long as your a decent pilot now, you can do nothing but improve by being a teacher. Flying a little 150 or 172 every day can get downright boring, which might just be your real problem, your bored.

You have just started at being a CFI, your not the CFI you think you should be, so you want to quit, so you can go and find something else to do that your not good at either, so you can quit doing that as well. When does being a failure stop?

You started out wanting a career in aviation, you spent a bunch of money to prove it. Your like the guy who never owns his own business because he never can raise enough money to own the business he will end up with in thirty years if he works his butt off to get it.

Or the kid in the audience who wishes he was the rock n role star but doesn't want to go through the work and hassle it takes to become one.

You have something tangible in your hands right now, something many people would kill to have, a job in aviation and your a CFI no less. Wow! that's a big deal to many people, but it's too hard for you?

You gotta quit taking it so seriously and enjoy what you have now. Become the best CFI in the state. Who do you think the airlines are going to want to hire, you, or the best CFI out there?

You want to learn FARs, buy ten copies of it and set one every place you might possibly be for more than ten seconds, start with the back of your toilet.

Anyone can be a quitter. Anyone can convince themselves they are no good at it. I'll guarantee you, if you quit this, you will quit the next thing you decide to do as well.

There is a word for people who get themselves caught up in your kind of thinking, it's called loser. Stop it now, don't live up to it.

No matter what card your handed, play it the best you possibly can. By the way, I'm a veteran of the 101st.

John
 
Here is a site that can help you become more confident with your present job.

http://www.exams4pilots.org/

Set it up for just ten questions, it will automatically be that every time you log on.
Keep the necessary equipment you will need at your computer.

Do ten questions every day, no matter what. Like I said in my last post, the more you do it, the better you will be at it. Do not guess at any of the answers, look it up if you don't know. They give you plenty of time.

John
 
Not sure if the OP is still around, but:

1. It's normal to be overwhelmed in your first job, regardless of profession. Hang in there. Don't make a hasty decision to leave. Obviously you have to be safe. You have to make the decision if you're safe.

2. It's tough being new and having no experienced CFI's around. Agree not best situation. Find a CFI mentor at another FBO, perhaps in another town.

3. Read, read, read. I here you are in a funk and understand. At least give it a try to improve your skills.

4. If after a year, your heart is just not in it, use this job to save money to pursue something else. Remember it's called work for a reason. I love what I do overall but there are definitely days, weeks, and months of drudgery.

5. If you do change, don't jump in more debt to do it.
 
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