CFI

CNU_QB

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When you become a DCA CFI...do you get to stay an instructor for as long as you want, or do they let you go after you reach the hours to be interviewed by the regionals? Is there a regular schedule for the CFI's like 5 days a week, or does it just depend on several things. Do CFI's get jumpseat privileges, or is that just for airline/regional pilots? Thanks for your time
 
Not a CFI myself but I can answer some of the question.

CFIs used to work 6 days, but now it is 5 days. CFIs don't get any jumpseat privileges, but they do get free flight on Delta and Delta Express carriers.

I am not sure about this one but I think you can stay as a CFI if you don't get hired. Although my understanding is that CFIs really want to get out once they are eligible to interview, I have seen people coming back. But sooner or later they have been picked up by someone else.
 
Some additional information on being a flight instructor at DCA.

Schedules are different at each location. The satellites (Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale, and New Bedford, MA) typically work on a normal 5-6 day schedule, usually Monday thru Friday or Saturday, depending on whether or not the instructor wants to work the extra day. The main location at Sanford, FL (SFB) works differently. At SFB, instructors bid for their schedules depending on their seniority in their current assignment. The bid is for a 5-day work schedule, but many work an extra day. The choice to work the extra day is the instructor's.

Instructors sign an agreement that gets them an interview at the end of 800 hours of dual instruction given in airplanes. As most instructors are successful on this interview (currently Comair and Chatauqua are hiring), they typically leave the Academy around the time of that interview and start class within a month or so of that date. In special circumstances, instructors not hired by an airline may be asked to stay on. One such situation might be if that instructor was designated as a Check Instructor, had a good employment record, and requested to stay on. In some circumstances and for exceptional instructors, the Academy has been successful in getting the instructor another interview at another airline.

Patrick Murphy
Director of Training
 
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