Let me tell you how I see it:
I charge $45/hr for instruction. If a client wants to go to the beach for the day on a cross country flight, I will charge not only for the flight time, but the time spent at the beach where I could have had another client booked.
Put another way, if I had a client at another airport who needed me to fly to that airport for his/her instruction, I would not only charge for the time to preflight the aircraft, but also the flight to and from that airport, as well as the flight of instruction.
Ultimately what I am trying to garnish is that I charge for my time.
So on to the specifics:
Right. Especially, if you don't want the job. $200/day/5 day/week is an annual income of around $52,000. $375 a day would be over $95,000. Given that most instructors make less than half of the lower figure, how is $375/day a fair rate?
$45 * 8 = 360, a full days work.
Now, honestly I get paid on average OVER 8 hours per day because of ground school. So with an 8 hour day ferry flight, I actually LOOSE money.
You don't get paid every second you are home, so why should you expect to get paid every second when on a ferry flight?
Herein lies what I believe to be the root of where we disagree on the subject. (And when I say "you" I am referring to the general population, not you as an individual). Just because you do not get paid for an 8 hour+ day or booked for 8+hours doesn't mean that people don't.
Here is where I am coming from, over the next 30 days I am currently booked 205 hours, or on average 6.7 hours per day for a 7 day week, or 9.8 hours if you make it a 5 day week. Of that I may bill 130 hours due to wx and unused time which is still 6+ hours paid per day on a 5 day week.
If you want to do the flight (not sure I would want to make that flight in a 152) then consider your "opportunity cost" of the lost flying at home, the value you place on getting to do something different vs. being at home and give the guy a price. He should cover the extra costs like hotel and meals and your trip home.
Thinking out of the flight instruction realm, as a contract employee, I require per diem expenses such as food/lodging. The gov't website:
http://www.gsa.gov/Portal/gsa/ep/contentView.do?contentId=17943&contentType=GSA_BASIC
lists the average per diem rates according to state, but on average you get about $100 per day for hotel, $50 in food as a reasonable cost.
Even as a flight instructor, we do not spend all the time at home, the majority, yes, but take for example (and mind you our domicile is near PHL) our instructor who just got back yesterday from a flight training excercise TO THE BAHAMAS and back! Billed 25+ hrs for 3 days, average of 8 hrs per day.
The fact is there are lots of guys that do this kind of flying for a lot less money.
sure are, and those are the ones who have the reputation for doing it for cheap. I however depend on my reputation as an instructor, just like that person depends on their reputation. You can make a name for yourself either way, but it's hard to change that reputation once it's established. I prefer to be remembered for high quality service with a rate compensatory to the product delivered. Stated differently, I am the BMW of flying
Presumptius? Perhaps. But let me say I didn't start out at $45/hr. I charged what I was worth when I was worth less.
Many it seems, are 121 guys that can get themselves home for free and the owner wouldn't even have to pay the ticket. I've had several opportunities to ferry airplanes and in every case, there was a "ferry specialist" that undercut me usually by finding their own way home.
Yeah that's too bad that 121 can get a free ride, I can't either. Doesn't mean in my eyes though that I should undersell myself. If me and a 121 guy quote the same price for time, but the 121 guy doesn't require a ticket home, then the job goes to the 121 guy - obviously. Saves the client $300-500 and who wouldn't be prudent in doing that?
It's kind of like wholesale vs. retail. If you can't buy in bulk you can't get the discount, so how can you be competitive? My answer to that is "reputation."
Yesterday I bought an item from the discount store which I usually buy from the "gourmet" store. The discount store item (exactly the same mind you) did not last as long as the "gourmet" store item usually does - which is why I usually pay the extra few $$ from the gourmet store to begin with!
Why do I pay the extra $$ usually? Because the SAME product usually lasts longer (in this case). Relating it to the discourse at hand, you offer the same product:
so sell yourself as a better option than the 121 guy, why are you better for the same price, or why are you better for the price (which is why they should pay for the trip home)?
$.02
. Headed east is not that bad tho, just tuck her in on the ridge and it will be the first time you ever saw 1000 ft/min in your 152.
