Freelancing CFIs

Cloud Surfer

Cloud Surfer

All Roads lead to Trantor
Has anyone done it? How much do you charge per hour, and how hard is it starting up?
 
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Cloud Surfer said:
Has anyone done it? How much do you charge per hour, and how hard is it starting up?
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Rock bottom at $45/hr, and it's been dead easy to start up. I haven't done any marketing or anything thusfar ... and haven't been particularly good at the business side of things as I've only been doing it part-time while working at HP. I could easily raise my rates to $65/hr without losing any business or damping it... but I don't feel right doing that until I've gained more experience.

The key is to not have a degree. See, people with degrees have a more thoughtful approach to..

.. oh, wait. ;>

-Fox
 
@Acrofox

How many hours do you fly each month? That is a rather high rate compared to what most CFIs make hourly. Have any of your students indicated that those fees are too lofty given that most flight schools charge students anywhere from $15 - $25 per hour?

I won't be doing any freelancing any time soon...I'm just curious how some of you freelancers go about managing your business model and building your time (if that happens to be your way of moving onto bigger aircraft).

Also, what relevance does being a degree-holder have to do with freelancing? I don't see how not having a degree could hurt your business too much if at all...although I suppose it could give you a leg-up in some ways than someone who has no degree.
 
As far as most flight schools charging 15-25 an hour..I've never seen that. The flight schools I've been to charge $44 & $45 an hour for dual, yet the CFI only gets about $15 of that money. Personally if given the choice I would rather the CFI keep the whole $45, but that's just me. ;)
 
@Hefner

Yea, I've also rented from FBOs that charged ~$40 for instructor fees. I've never inquired as to how much the instructors are paid out of that, although that stinks that they aren't given the full amount.

The two schools that I have worked at paid their instructors $15 - $30 an hour. That always seemed pretty low, but it made up for it in the amount of hours that you can fly per month.
 
Cloud Surfer said:
@AcrofoxHow many hours do you fly each month? That is a rather high rate compared to what most CFIs make hourly. Have any of your students indicated that those fees are too lofty given that most flight schools charge students anywhere from $15 - $25 per hour?
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Doing it "full time" would be a lot of work, but I could easily put together a business package of 25-40 hours of composite instruction per week, if I tried to turn it into a full-time business. I wouldn't want to do more, but I think it would be possible. BTW, nothing around here is $15-$25/hr... instruction rates range from $45 (me) to upwards of $100/hr, ground or flight.

I won't be doing any freelancing any time soon...I'm just curious how some of you freelancers go about managing your business model and building your time (if that happens to be your way of moving onto bigger aircraft).
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Well, it's pretty straightforward, to be honest... building a customer base, getting your name out there, getting positive word of mouth, and then having too many damned students to deal with. XD

Also, what relevance does being a degree-holder have to do with freelancing? I don't see how not having a degree could hurt your business too much if at all...although I suppose it could give you a leg-up in some ways than someone who has no degree.
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It's just a bit of a dig about the other thread... not really relevant here. What DOES give me a leg-up is being a respected high-tech professional, oddly enough.

-Fox
 
@Acrofox

Thanks for the input. It sounds like freelancing can bear its own set of challenges/hurdles than just by being employed at a flight school, but if you're good at it, the results of becoming successful while freelancing can be pretty rewarding. As an added plus, it sounds like you can make your own schedule to fit around whatever other jobs you might have.
 
Cloud Surfer said:
@Acrofox

Thanks for the input. It sounds like freelancing can bear its own set of challenges/hurdles than just by being employed at a flight school, but if you're good at it, the results of becoming successful while freelancing can be pretty rewarding. As an added plus, it sounds like you can make your own schedule to fit around whatever other jobs you might have.
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Yup! That's most of the point of freelancing, actually. If you really want to instruct... REALLY want to instruct, and not do anything else ... you can make your own market... find your niche and fill the heck out of it and get your name out there as a "household" word in that circle. And that's pretty awesome. The limits are only the limits of your ambition and drive.

~Fox
 
Hefner said:
As far as most flight schools charging 15-25 an hour..I've never seen that. The flight schools I've been to charge $44 & $45 an hour for dual, yet the CFI only gets about $15 of that money. Personally if given the choice I would rather the CFI keep the whole $45, but that's just me. ;)
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I think I was paying the flight school $20/hr in 1992 for instructor. Everybody around here charges $40+/hr now.
 
Cloud Surfer said:
@HefnerThe two schools that I have worked at paid their instructors $15 - $30 an hour. That always seemed pretty low, but it made up for it in the amount of hours that you can fly per month.
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It's pretty low because the instructors are not being paid what they are worth. It seems unethical to justify low wages with more working hours. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
 
modernicarus said:
It's pretty low because the instructors are not being paid what they are worth. It seems unethical to justify low wages with more working hours. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
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I agree that it is, but that's the free market at work, and it's also pretty low because the folks that run these schools know that we are in a bind seeking out ways to build time fast. That's why suckers like me and the other instructors working at pilot-mill schools accept low-paying jobs like them; the same reason why so many of us undertake that $20k per year regional job. Either we do it or get out all together :/
 
modernicarus said:
It's pretty low because the instructors are not being paid what they are worth. It seems unethical to justify low wages with more working hours. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
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It's low because the flight school needs to make money somehow. They are paying for rent, electricity, insurance, marketing, someone to answer the phones - all of which costs them money. These are costs that a freelance CFI does not have.

The better flight schools around here charge $45-60/hour dual, and are paying CFI's $25-30, which seems reasonably to me. Most airplane owners aren't going to get bent out of shape paying $50+/hour to a CFI - they are paying far more than that for just about everything else.
 
I'm a freelance instructor out of Santa Fe, NM and $50/hr is the going rate here, so that's what I charge. I personally don't know of any instructors here who charge less than $50 (the local flight schools are both in the $50 range) and the few who charge in the neighborhood of $60/hr do so because they only do "specialty" instruction such as mountain and tailwheel; however, the trend seems to be moving upward towards $60 based on some of the talk I'm hearing from local CFI's, so I may end up going towards that as the trend does and I gain more experience.
 
Aah, I found this thread after I had started this one here http://forums.jetcareers.com/threads/cfi-i-rates-in-your-neck-of-the-woods.194307/

I am looking for an instructor to finish my Instrument. Rates here in West Central MN/eastern NoDak - range from 40-75. Most of them charge by the time they arrive at the airport. Only one guy so far - charges by the Hobbs time; and says that as long as the prop is not spinning he don't care. That includes pre/post flight.
 
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