Enrollment

kdwilkes

New Member
I am planning on starting in August. I have a PPL SEL with 110 hours. Should the current CFI backlog problem deter me from enrolling at FSI? Does anyone think the backlog will be fixed by August 2003 when it is time for me to apply for a CFI position?
 
Will it be fixed by August 2003???? Let me get out my crystal ball, hold on one second. In August of 2003 I see many many instructors, I see girls in bikinis, Wait a second?!?? What's this?! Playboy has bought flight safety and bunnies are now part of the briefing process! Buddy, I don't know it there will be jobs but I see playboy bunnies in the future so it doens't matter.............(Joking aside you'll be fine..)
 
I hear Hugh Hefner used unfair tactics *under* the bargaining table! As honest a guy as Warren Buffet is, I heard he broke down when he got a few kickbacks and fringe benefits!
 
Seriously KD, right now the backlog should work in your favor. You should be able to fly almost every day. If your IP doesn't let you fly, switch to one who will. If you have a personality conflict with your IP, switch. It's a buyer's market.

No one knows how things will be in the year or so that it will take you to get your CFI, but things are already starting to look up. The airlines are starting to hire again and soon many IPs will moving along, barring unforseen circumstances.
 
That is good news davetheflyer, I am planning on attending in June . . in fact I am leaving CA May 1st to move to Vero. I am one of those who wants to fly every day. I was afraid that would be a problem, I am kinda spoiled here, because I can get the plane anytime I want to fly, and I had an instructor that would fly anytime I wanted to fly.
 
I have told all of my students that they are in better shape than I am. Summer 03 life should be good for instructors. Airlines and thus airlilne pilot training is cyclical. What I forsee happening over the next year is first, the airlines will start hiring, slowly at first (which we are already seeing) and then at a reasonable pace. The FSI instructors will be the first to go. We have the best training, and outstanding numbers. As airline hiring picks up two things happen. Instructors get hired, and student enrollements soar (at least at FSI). I may be wrong, but a year from now most flight schools, including FSI will be looking for CFI's like they were a year ago.

I'm seeing so many people make the mistake right now of putting off training because of the poor pilot job market. I, like all my buds, saw airline hiring at ridiculously high levels a few years ago, and decided to get into the airline training world at the top. Well, now its at the bottom. Let me ask you a question...Do you want to buy stocks at their highs or lows? The same applies for airline flight training.

Let me give you an example. An ex FSI student/instructor stopped by last December. He left FSI about four or five years prior did his time at the regionals, and had been at American long enough to avoid furlough. American, not American Eagle! This guy got into flight training during lean times, was at the right place at the right time, and now he's where everyone of us aspire to be.

Food for thought. Hope to see you around campus
 
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