Part-Time Instructor to build time. Thoughts?

jgheggie

jgheggie

Well-Known Member
So I have actually started to tackle the daunting task of getting the CFI. I'm taking it seriously this time and have already studied more in the last month then I think I ever did through my entire flight training experience. The study techniques are for another thread and a another time....

My question to all of you is...

Is it practical to instruct part time to build hours? I know the short answer is YES, duh. However, I am curious if anyone has actually instructed part time for a few years to get to ATP minimums, or even 135.

Here's my situation, as some of you may know. I have a current job/career in law enforcement. My department works 12 hour shifts. Basically, I work sunday, monday, tuesday, and every other wednesday. Thats pretty much set in stone from here on out unless I want to switch to the "other side" of the week. That leaves a solid thursday, friday, saturday to instruct. With, of course, the additional wednesday every other week.

My schedule is perfect for getting the cfi and any other training I want. I also make the money that I need to fund the cfi, whereas I could not before.

To eliminate the "just fly full time" comments:
-I make good money with good days off.
-I don't want to give up my current law enforcement gig unless I am absolutely sure of a good flying gig.
-I have medical for my wife and daughter.

Now...is it a good idea? I do not want to get burned out as I would likely not have many hard days off keeping both careers going. Thats my initial worry. Any thoughts??
 
There are lots of CFIs working full time jobs and building their flight time from instructing part time. Depending on where you live and how busy the school is you can easily build 2-300 hours a year this way.

I instructed part time for about a year until I had 600 hours TT (300 dual given) when I lost my full time job and went full time as a CFI for another year before meeting 135 mins.
 
My CFI,CFII,MEI does exactly that. He is a PhD at a large heath care organization. With his commitments he is only able to instruct on Saturdays. Based on my conversations with him, he has shared:

1) He barely makes any money instructing, but does build time
2) Students often want more instruction opportunities than just once a week, so this limits his potential students
3) He brings a completely different perspective to teaching vs the up and out CFIs that are very prevalent
4) He has made a lot of good friends that invite him along on trips he would not always have the opportunity to do. It has given him many new airplanes to fly and places to go.
5) It takes a while to accumulate hours.

He seems to like it and it is his hobby. He also loves to teach and this is his way of getting out side of work.
 
Been doing that for couple years now, only weekends and nights after work. I'm not logging nearly as much time as I was hoping for but don't know of a better way that doesn't involve quitting my day job. 200h per year is a good estimate.

What are you going to do when you hit the ATP or 135 mins?
 
hammerhat said:
Been doing that for couple years now, only weekends and nights after work. I'm not logging nearly as much time as I was hoping for but don't know of a better way that doesn't involve quitting my day job.

What are you going to do when you hit the ATP or 135 mins?
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well I cannot really afford to live on regional airline wages right now. Perhaps by the time I reach the minimums my wife will make better money and it would be practical. To be honest, I'm not sure what I want to do in the long run. I am really enjoying my time in law enforcement. Perhaps I may persue a law enforcement flying gig. I am also interested in 135 on demand charter stuff. Or even medevac work. I am not in a hurry to quit my day job to go fly. So building time slowly and waiting for the right opportunity seems like a good idea right now.
 
I'm in the same boat. I have a great full time gig in IT with amazing benefits, so quitting that is kind of out right now. I'm studying for my CFI, and hope to take the ride later this summer. I have a P/T aerial survey gig, but I get maybe 100 hours a year doing that. I gotta add something else for the evenings and weekend days I'm not taking pictures if I'm ever going to hit 1500.
 
Checkouts, FRs, IPCs.

Also intros and scenic rides (if your school offers them). Some intros will become regulars but yeah like someone mentioned above most students want to fly on their schedule and it's usually not the one you can accommodate working p/t
 
Since you can work the tail end of the week that isn't bad. Also the fact you are available during the days gives you a leg up. How close are you to the airport? When I was instructing at two of my schools I lived a 45 min drive away, meaning all the down time I had between students sucked, in my last job I lived a four minute drive away, which improved my QOL tenfold. If you live really close by, having a student before work from 6am-8am and then another say at lunch 12pm-2pm and then one in the evening 6pm-8pm is doable. In my CFI jobs I had to take what I could get, I wasted a lot of my life away sitting around not getting paid!

Most students, depending on your location, are going to be weekend flyers. Sat+Sun are the busiest days.

I look back and think about my time instructing and think how in the world did I even make it through it?!? Guys who came out of school a year or two later than me went right into 121 gigs bypassing the whole thing. Lucky bastards.
 
I instruct part time on weeknights and weekends while studying full time. Right now I'm pulling about 25 hours a month, but I don't work Sundays. That's about to change. I'm taking as many courses as possible; set to graduate this December. I'm sitting at almost 700tt. The hours are slow, but I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
 
Hi jgheggie,

It seems to me that you can be successful at being a part-time instructor while also working a full-time job based on your schedule. I have been blessed to make a success of it for the past 5 years. I too have a very good job as an engineer with an excellent salary and benefits. Since my job is in the aviation field I have also gotten some buy-in from my managers and HR to consider my pursuit of my ATP as an educational enhancement. My company likes employees with practical experience so my experience flying also assists me with my full-time job. But most importantly, using my company's flexible schedules to my advantage has allowed me to fly as much as I can during the week and then work back the hours as necessary.

A few pointers:

1) Although you are part-time, don't approach instructing like it's a part-time job not requiring a full time effort. Exceed the effort of the full-time instructors (it may simply mean being better at customer service). No one must be able to tell you do it part-time unless they ask. I have found that I've had to build a reputation as a very good instructor in order to gain new students. The truth is that word of mouth goes a long way to help you gain more students. Since I am at a "mom and pop" school, some months I have even logged more hours than the full time instructors.

2) Make a long term plan to build your hours else you would burn yourself out and go crazy about not reaching your goals. Below is my time progression over the past 5 years. As you can tell, I exponentially increased the hours I flew as my reputation as an instructor increased which is helping me build the time quicker. I currently fly about 30-40hrs/month. When I finished my CFI in 2010, I had about 350 hours.

2011 100
2012 100
2013 200
2014 350
2015 400*

*estimated and on target to get to 1500hrs by December with just over 200hrs to go.

3) Do NOT fall behind on your effort at your full-time job no matter how much you love flying. It's the full-time job that is paying the bills! Last year was one of my most successful years at my full-time job.

4) With respect to family, it's a sacrifice of course with your time away. However, the extra income I make (flight instructing alone I make at least $1000/mth) has allowed my wife to not have to work outside the home for the past 5 years. It's a tradeoff where I make enough money at my part-time jobs that my wife is able to be at home with the kids which is something that she enjoys. I also want to spend more time with my family and so I am putting in a little extra effort to complete my ATP mins later this year.
 
I instruct part time and crawled my way to 135 minimums.

One other thing that I'll add: the local airport can be an incredible networking opportunity. I know several CFIs who are in real estate full time. The bulk of their clients started as students. The thought is "I trust you with my life ...I'll certainly trust you to broker the vacation house deal."
 
panman-pilot said:
Hi jgheggie,

It seems to me that you can be successful at being a part-time instructor while also working a full-time job based on your schedule. I have been blessed to make a success of it for the past 5 years. I too have a very good job as an engineer with an excellent salary and benefits. Since my job is in the aviation field I have also gotten some buy-in from my managers and HR to consider my pursuit of my ATP as an educational enhancement. My company likes employees with practical experience so my experience flying also assists me with my full-time job. But most importantly, using my company's flexible schedules to my advantage has allowed me to fly as much as I can during the week and then work back the hours as necessary.

A few pointers:

1) Although you are part-time, don't approach instructing like it's a part-time job not requiring a full time effort. Exceed the effort of the full-time instructors (it may simply mean being better at customer service). No one must be able to tell you do it part-time unless they ask. I have found that I've had to build a reputation as a very good instructor in order to gain new students. The truth is that word of mouth goes a long way to help you gain more students. Since I am at a "mom and pop" school, some months I have even logged more hours than the full time instructors.

2) Make a long term plan to build your hours else you would burn yourself out and go crazy about not reaching your goals. Below is my time progression over the past 5 years. As you can tell, I exponentially increased the hours I flew as my reputation as an instructor increased which is helping me build the time quicker. I currently fly about 30-40hrs/month. When I finished my CFI in 2010, I had about 350 hours.

2011 100
2012 100
2013 200
2014 350
2015 400*

*estimated and on target to get to 1500hrs by December with just over 200hrs to go.

3) Do NOT fall behind on your effort at your full-time job no matter how much you love flying. It's the full-time job that is paying the bills! Last year was one of my most successful years at my full-time job.

4) With respect to family, it's a sacrifice of course with your time away. However, the extra income I make (flight instructing alone I make at least $1000/mth) has allowed my wife to not have to work outside the home for the past 5 years. It's a tradeoff where I make enough money at my part-time jobs that my wife is able to be at home with the kids which is something that she enjoys. I also want to spend more time with my family and so I am putting in a little extra effort to complete my ATP mins later this year.
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Great advice!

#3 especially. That was actually one of my worries. Like flying, my current job requires a lot of alertness and attention to detail. Lack there of may get you killed. My worry is that I may be tired or worn out at my full time job. Every body enjoys days off, but I can honestly say that sometime you NEED days off from law enforcement. So spending those days off somewhere else working seems like it could be a drag. I do not want flying to feel like a drag...
 
jgheggie said:
Great advice!

#3 especially. That was actually one of my worries. Like flying, my current job requires a lot of alertness and attention to detail. Lack there of may get you killed. My worry is that I may be tired or worn out at my full time job. Every body enjoys days off, but I can honestly say that sometime you NEED days off from law enforcement. So spending those days off somewhere else working seems like it could be a drag. I do not want flying to feel like a drag...
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Make sure you schedule down time AND STICK TO IT. As a part-timer, the flight school needs you more than you need them.
 
I'm a retired NYC police detective. I had been flight instructing for a few years part time while doing the cop thing. One thing I often did was to take any of our overtime in time instead of cash. I ended up building a good bank of time. I had a good CO and often took days off to go CFI. We had a five day work week but I often only worked two or three days. I still had plenty of vacation time to, well, go on vacation. For me, I wasn't in any rush to build hours as I liked being home at the end of the day. Plenty of days I read the TAF, saw winds over 20 and said I'll pass on flying. I made my own schedule, did it part time and now I'm at a regional. On the one hand, I don't have students trying to scare me, but on the other hand, the regional schedule leaves something to be desired. When I wasn't flying, I would often study, keeping my knowledge base up in case one day I did interview somewhere. I also managed to get a Hawker type rating while instructing part time. The bottom line is, yes, you can certainly do it part time. I flew just enough to always keep me coming back for more but not too much that I got tired of it.
 
I teach part time. Lately, life and my day job have taken up most of my time. It can ebb and flow like that. You won't fly a lot, unless you never want to see family and friends.

Realistically, you can handle 2 or 3 students at a time. Plus whatever flight reviews and checkouts walk through the door.

If I was seriously "career changing," I would fly more. But I am not. Do not burn yourself out, and it is all good.
 
medicopnyc said:
I'm a retired NYC police detective. I had been flight instructing for a few years part time while doing the cop thing. One thing I often did was to take any of our overtime in time instead of cash. I ended up building a good bank of time. I had a good CO and often took days off to go CFI. We had a five day work week but I often only worked two or three days. I still had plenty of vacation time to, well, go on vacation. For me, I wasn't in any rush to build hours as I liked being home at the end of the day. Plenty of days I read the TAF, saw winds over 20 and said I'll pass on flying. I made my own schedule, did it part time and now I'm at a regional. On the one hand, I don't have students trying to scare me, but on the other hand, the regional schedule leaves something to be desired. When I wasn't flying, I would often study, keeping my knowledge base up in case one day I did interview somewhere. I also managed to get a Hawker type rating while instructing part time. The bottom line is, yes, you can certainly do it part time. I flew just enough to always keep me coming back for more but not too much that I got tired of it.
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That's exactly what I have been doing! I put any holiday and overtime into my comp bank to use as days off. I have only been at my job a little over a year and I have a ton of comp time built up. I was saving it for a rainy day. But now that you mention it, it would be good to use to finish a student up quickly who is close to a rating.
 
Im in a similar boat, have a full time job and rating including CFI, but conteplating a cheap C150 just to enjoy/time build in between.
 
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