Full time flight instructor avg salary

tcco94

tcco94

Future GTA VI Pilot
For planning purposes...I know the pay varies and I've seen anywhere from $15-$20 an hour. I can do the math if I'll be flying 100 hours a month but not sure what else to expect as far as how much oral or how most flight schools work on paying their instructors.

I'm trying to decide what is cheap rent ($600 a month?) and then factoring in student loans so I can at least have an idea of how poor I will be....
 
I never did do a full year at full-time pay at UND. At the time (2008), it was 27 per hour and I recon that would have come out to around 30k. Average for me was probably around 18k per year for the 2 years I worked there. I had 500 for rent and utilities at the time. No student loans though. I had a 350 dollar per month car payment though and between that, rent and other expenses, it was enough I guess. Only saved about 2500 dollars during that period for retiremen though... Wouldn't have bought that car at that time knowing what I know now
 
UAL747400 said:
I never did do a full year at full-time pay at UND. At the time (2008), it was 27 per hour and I recon that would have come out to around 30k. Average for me was probably around 18k per year for the 2 years I worked there. I had 500 for rent and utilities at the time. No student loans though. I had a 350 dollar per month car payment though and between that, rent and other expenses, it was enough I guess. Only saved about 2500 dollars during that period for retiremen though... Wouldn't have bought that car at that time knowing what I know now
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So half time flight instructing was still making you 18k a year?

I made $26k last year as a ramp agent and managed fine with that being in school but didn't have this wave of loans...I know TransPac is salary $28k which sounds awesome but not sure if that's what most other full timers average.
 
Trans PAC is salaried with most weekend a off, and they also have benefits which isn't a bad deal.

ATCA in Phoenix is also salaried wth starting pay at $40,000 and benefits.

I instructed in Denver for $30/hr, and worked my tail off. No benefits, and was making $36,000 a year more or less, but I was usually working 7 days a week relentlessly and no benefits included, plus Denver is getting expensive.
 
Zondaracer said:
Trans PAC is salaried with most weekend a off, and they also have benefits which isn't a bad deal.

ATCA in Phoenix is also salaried wth starting pay at $40,000 and benefits.

I instructed in Denver for $30/hr, and worked my tail off. No benefits, and was making $36,000 a year more or less, but I was usually working 7 days a week relentlessly and no benefits included, plus Denver is getting expensive.
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I'll look into them. I am wondering how pay and hours are like for American Flyers but guess I'll find out when I head down there and ask.

How is instructing in Denver in the winters? Lose lots of hours and pay during those months? I was under the impression to get 1000 hours fast I'd need to go somewhere it was sunny most of the year...am I wrong?
 
Denver is pretty sunny (over 300 sunny days per year), and we had guys flying 900 hours per year (the exception rather than the rule), but December and January can be tough. Flying picks back up in February pretty quickly though. Denver has a very strong and large aviation community but it is saturated with flight instructors. If your goal is to fly 1000 hours a year, I recommend Arizona or Florida.
 
tcco94 said:
So half time flight instructing was still making you 18k a year?

I made $26k last year as a ramp agent and managed fine with that being in school but didn't have this wave of loans...I know TransPac is salary $28k which sounds awesome but not sure if that's what most other full timers average.
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Averaged out, yes. I'd have to go find the w2s, but I think it was something like 10 the first year(very part-time) and 28 the next with summers being the only months with the full 6 student load or more. Usually had 4 while going to class. I think 4 and 5 students got you 18 an hour. I dont remember for sure. That's about the most I could handle and still have enough time to be social and get at least a B grade in class. Balancing act for sure
 
You might look at aerial survey if you are single. You will live on the road but the pay is much higher and the hours come easier.
 
It really depends on if you're billing for every moment of instruction given on the ground or if you're pretty generous with your ground time... I too, worked at the pilot mill and was pulling in ~1700 every two weeks. Didn't work there for long tho.
 
Thunder-Robo said:
It really depends on if you're billing for every moment of instruction given on the ground or if you're pretty generous with your ground time... I too, worked at the pilot mill and was pulling in ~1700 every two weeks. Didn't work there for long tho.
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Where were you at?
 
My experience is anecdotal, but there are schools that aren't pilot mills where you can make much more than $20/hour and fly close to, if not more than, 100 hours/month. The school where I did my CSEL paid $26/hour and is, to this day, very busy.
 
I was a salaried full time CFI for Pan Am which later became Trans Pac. Back in 2005 I made $30K with nights and weekends off teaching the Koreans. It was actually fairly easy as the Koreans spoke English very well and they studied their butts off. They made me look like a Gold Seal instructor with very little effort from me. This was the complete opposite of my experience at the same school teaching the Chinese.

Anyway I think you could expect near $40K for a job there now.
 
The salary as with living expenses varies with location. Ironically I made the most as a flight instructor ($50/hour, flight and ground), in a low cost area (El Paso, TX).
 
TransPac Salary in 2009 was 30k my second year there was 36k and around 3-4K a year in bonuses. You will work A LOT it is a 24/7 operation and over the course of a year there is a good chance you have flown every possible time of day. There were nights where I flew into the sunset and back into the sun rise. Weekends are not actually on the weekend, it's 2 consecutive days off which might be Saturday/Sunday, might be Tuesday/Wednesday you don't have a choice but they did change about every quarter.

I know the pay has decreased since my time, but it's a good place to get some good experience and move on.
 
There have been a number of independent CFIs on this forum over the years, although I don't know of any presently. The two that I do know personally both charge around $50 per hour for their services, and have full schedules of students, working with various clubs and FBOs. I have been told it takes quite a bit of word-of-mouth to build a reputation as a good independent CFI/CFII, but you can do quite well with it if you work at it.
 
skypilot6 said:
TransPac Salary in 2009 was 30k my second year there was 36k and around 3-4K a year in bonuses. You will work A LOT it is a 24/7 operation and over the course of a year there is a good chance you have flown every possible time of day. There were nights where I flew into the sunset and back into the sun rise. Weekends are not actually on the weekend, it's 2 consecutive days off which might be Saturday/Sunday, might be Tuesday/Wednesday you don't have a choice but they did change about every quarter.

I know the pay has decreased since my time, but it's a good place to get some good experience and move on.
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TransPac has always been at the top of my list for flight schools that I wanted to work for. I'm not sure I understand what people mean by you will work A LOT...as in flying/oral lessons a lot? For me I don't care about "weekends off"... I would like 2 consecutive days off and they say that they will give you a schedule also so I don't see what's wrong with that? Currently at my ramp agent job I deal with the same thing working poor hours 4pm-2am but I get my Weds/Thurs off and I've loved it for the last three years. I don't have a problem with the 12 hour work days or anything to that nature.

I'm just curious because I have read that a lot online and don't know what to take from a CFI perspective...if that means you'll have lots of students, lots of flying, etc. They claim 100-125 hours a month so that does seem like working a lot but at least you get the hours right? I have a colleague there so he's given me a lot of the rundown on how they are and he loves it.

Also thanks everyone for the input. Thought $28k salary that TransPac was offering was a lot but seems like some CFI's make $30k+ which was better than I expected. I was thinking it was ballpark around starting regional pay.
 
@tcco94 by working A LOT it can be long tough days. When I was there I had 4 students most of the time, sometimes 5 sometimes 3. 4 lessons a day on average, include a pre and post brief. an average day is 9-12 hours at work. However depending on how the resources are being used, you could end up with a few hr break in the middle. If your student is behind, you might be doing an extra lesson a day, or additional sim time. It's also possible to do 4 lessons in the plane and then add a sim or 2 at the end. And the 100-125 hours a month is pretty accurate, but it's not all flight time. If you have private students it's mostly flying, If you have Instrument students about half of that will be in the sim. The Schedule? You don't find out your schedule for the next day until about 5-6pm the night before.

Its tough work, Teaching the Chinese guys is very challenging at times. Most of the students are very smart and well educated. But the language barrier can be difficult to overcome. And the Majority of the students have never driven a car before. Some never ridden a bike! It's tough work, you have to put in extra effort to fill the holes in ground training.

For the most part the students come in prepared and eager to learn. If you put forth the extra effort it will show in their performance and can be a very rewarding for your students and yourself. It's been 5 years since my last flight there, so YMMV but as far as I know its pretty similar as it was years ago.
 
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