Average flight instructor pay

montanapilot

montanapilot

Well-Known Member
Hey CFI's just wanted to do a little survey around the US about pay.

What does your school charge the students? and what goes in your pocket?


Thanks
Kelly
 
I live in a hangar, what does that tell you...?


On the upside, that lets me afford jelly to go with my PB... One of these days I might even splurge on bread!
 
My hourly rate is average BUT we are allowed to charge .5 for pre and post flight briefings so that adds up if you have 4 flights a day
 
Does anyone mind posting actual rates? I'm a bit curious to compare to what I used to make. Ten years ago, I made only $12/hr. I'm hoping it's come up a bit.
 
2 years ago, I was making 11.76/hour for flight, ground or sim (didn't matter which, and all pre and post flight briefing was billed) in addition to a weekly salary of 200/week. A typical month was 90-110 hours of billed time. I also had a fairly minimal health/life insurance benes package. This was at a 141 university flight school with maybe 100-150 flight students and 15 CFIs.
 
Flight instructor pay will be all over the place. Newly minted CFIs obviously are not in demand so their wages will be much lower than professional CFIs with years of complex experience. The longer you teach and develop a reputation, the greater the demand for your services and the more you can demand to provide them.
 
We charge 46 an hour and I get 35 of it. I have been averaging 4-5 billable hours during the week and 7-8 on the weekends.
 
Blackhawk said:
Flight instructor pay will be all over the place. Newly minted CFIs obviously are not in demand so their wages will be much lower than professional CFIs with years of complex experience. The longer you teach and develop a reputation, the greater the demand for your services and the more you can demand to provide them.
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:yeahthat:

Flight instructing doesn't have to involve 12 hour long days and poverty level wages like a lot of people might lead you to believe. But you have to prove yourself as a good teacher first.
 
montanapilot said:
What does your school charge the students? and what goes in your pocket?
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Simply by the way you're framing the question, it appears as though you are looking at compensation in the wrong way.

The best job is not defined by the largest percentage a CFI receives relative to the amount charged to the client.

If a school charges clients $60/hour and pays the instructors $30/hour, that's a better deal than a school charging $25/hour and paying the CFI $20/hour. CFI #1 is making $10/hour more than CFI #2! Why care what percentage your cut is, as long as you're making a good living?

If you want to do well as an instructor, focus on providing an outstanding experience to your clients. Put yourself in demand. Learn the ins and outs of the business and see for yourself what certain services are actually worth. Once you're established as one of the best CFIs in the area, you have a lot more leverage to ask for a raise, or leave the school if you don't feel you're being fairly compensated.
 
ATN_Pilot said:
Does anyone mind posting actual rates? I'm a bit curious to compare to what I used to make. Ten years ago, I made only $12/hr. I'm hoping it's come up a bit.
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$20/hour, in half hour increments, paid directly to the CFI at my club. Most of the FBOs around here pay about $25/hour, and charge students $40 or so.
 
drunkenbeagle said:
Most of the FBOs around here pay about $25/hour, and charge students $40 or so.
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Similar pay in my area. Though as Jrh and others have pointed out, the more seasoned instructors (not that many of these exist) see better pay. However, I've not heard of anyone here getting over 30 at our local FBO's. No benefits, 401k, or any other perks. Just pay and hours.
 
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