Low days as a CFI

jrh

jrh

Well-Known Member
Being a CFI, especially a part time CFI, sucks.

Ok, maybe not, but that's the way I'm feeling at the moment.

One of my students busted his private pilot checkride this afternoon. I've been working with this guy for the past 9 months, I'm 100% confident in his abilities, and he busted over some stupid junk I know he can do better at. I'm at a loss for how to retrain him because the things he busted over he's never had a problem with while flying with me. The examiner wasn't much help either--very nebulous suggestions on how my student could be improved. I'll be moving away soon, too, and I'm not sure if we'll get a retest done before I leave.

Another student of mine, one of the most dedicated, serious students I've ever flown with, is almost ready to solo, but our only plane went down for the 100 hour inspection today. Since I'm moving away next week, he'll probably have to switch instructors and wait longer to solo.

I've also got a guy 80% of his way through his instrument rating, but between his schedule and mine, there's no way he can finish before I leave town.

I'm tired of this. I'm tired of trying to cram flying in around my regular day job outside of aviation. I'm tired of having obligations to a bunch of different people, putting in tons of energy trying to get them to succeed when it just doesn't work out for one reason or another. I'm tired of working somewhere just long enough to build up a decent student base, then leaving just in time to screw all my students over. I'm tired of working all day when the weather is beautiful and having all my free time when the weather is miserable.

This is why I want to fly cargo. I would go in, fly the plane, then go home. I wouldn't have a bunch of peoples' personal plans depending on me. I wouldn't have the never ending liability. I'd probably have a better pay check. I could go outside and enjoy myself on a sunny day instead of working all the time. I could actually get good at what I do.

As it is, especially since I'm CFIing part time, I feel perpetually rusty. I'm never as sharp on book knowledge as I'd like and I don't physically fly the plane like I know I should. Basically, I think there's too many distractions in my life, pulling me different directions, so I never do as good of a job as I should. It pisses me off to not be at the top of my game.

Does anyone else ever notice the same things? Or am I in sort of a unique spot, being a part timer?

Oh well. I'll probably think differently in the morning. Thanks for reading my rant.
 
Dude, we all have good days and bad. But to be honest, if you don't like doing what you are doing, get out.... You are not doing yourself nor your students any good and your negativity will rub off on them. Truly we all have felt like crap after days that just did not go as planned.

I would say, either go full time and give full commitment or go into another area of aviation. You leaving is just the nature of the beast unfortunately. But honestly, it only gets better and you only get better if you live, eat and breathe it....... Believe me I know....

Good luck.
 
jrh said:
Being a CFI, especially a part time CFI, sucks.
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I've been reading your posts since I signed on to this fourm and to tell you the truth, you seem like a very dedicated CFI which is a rarity these days.

However I think you pinned it on the head when you said that part time is holding you back. Go full time or like you said go to cargo.

Good luck and keep us posted!
 
Man, you've put a lot into your teaching over the last couple of years, and believe it or not the results of your teaching has reached beyond your students already. Take it from me; two years after you taught me how to fly in the clouds I'm passing that on to many other students myself, and I find it one of my best areas.

I can definitely see how you feel, as I've felt burned out with about half the amount of teaching you've done. My thing is, just hang in there. Use your new toy and just have fun flying for a while this summer.
 
CFI burnout is something that happens. As much as I think being a CFI is a great thing everyone should do, if you have 1200 total, it's probably time to move on.
 
jrh said:
I'm tired of this. I'm tired of trying to cram flying in around my regular day job outside of aviation. I'm tired of having obligations to a bunch of different people, putting in tons of energy trying to get them to succeed when it just doesn't work out for one reason or another. I'm tired of working somewhere just long enough to build up a decent student base, then leaving just in time to screw all my students over. I'm tired of working all day when the weather is beautiful and having all my free time when the weather is miserable.
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Oh, the joys of being a part time CFI. My schedule right now happens to be that I fly only on weekends, so if we get a bad weekend due to weather, I don't fly for two weeks. Not fun. And yes, being inside all damn day is the worst, just to get out when the afternoon t-storms start popping! Argh. It's like busting out of jail just to find another wall with razor wire on top!

You say you have to keep leaving -- do you have to relocate often for your job? Part time CFIing is tough, but it would be 100x worse if I had to keep leaving my students. I can see why you're sick of it, putting so much effort in and then just having to let it go.

jrh said:
This is why I want to fly cargo. I would go in, fly the plane, then go home. I wouldn't have a bunch of peoples' personal plans depending on me. I wouldn't have the never ending liability. I'd probably have a better pay check. I could go outside and enjoy myself on a sunny day instead of working all the time. I could actually get good at what I do.
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This sounds almost too good to be true. :p

jrh said:
As it is, especially since I'm CFIing part time, I feel perpetually rusty. I'm never as sharp on book knowledge as I'd like and I don't physically fly the plane like I know I should. Basically, I think there's too many distractions in my life, pulling me different directions, so I never do as good of a job as I should. It pisses me off to not be at the top of my game.
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I have to just rent an airplane occasionally and fly it. I can tell a student how to fly a maneuver or whatever and provide a good critique, but it's incredible how rusty I feel after not doing it myself for a few weeks. I also go in the sim regularly for instrument practice. I just have to. It's an expense of time and money that I don't like, but it just has to be done for me to feel that I'm keeping proficient. And it ends up fun once I stop complaining and actually get in the airplane/sim and start flying!

I'm sure this is a particularly low spot right now and that you will feel differently later. If your experience is anywhere like mine, that is. The part timing seems to run hot and cold. For a few weeks, I fly regularly, and it's an absolute blast -- I look forward all day to leaving my fake day job and going to the airport. My students make tons of progress, and it's very rewarding. Then, I'll have stretches of weeks (like right now) when I feel like I don't have enough students or the weather hates me. So yeah, it would be the best ever to just be able to commit full time to flying, whether it's instructing or 135 or whatever. One day, I'll be able to shed the golden handcuffs of my fake job ... maybe you will, too?

-C.
 
Hey, thanks for the good words everyone.

The reason I'm not able to go full time right now is because I'm still in college, sort of. I worked as an instructor for two years while in college, part time during the school year and full time during the summers.

Then I decided to take a year off school and do something totally different with my life--I got a job at a high school and kept CFIing on the side. That's what I've been doing this school year. I did it because I saw myself on the "fast track" of aviation and wanted to stop, smell the roses, and become a more well-rounded person. It's been an awesome experience. No regrets at all about taking the year off. I really like working with high school students, but it definitely is stressful trying to balance my job at the high school with my job as a CFI.

Now I'm moving away to go back to college, hence my comment about moving around a lot. I've got enough flight time to get on at a cargo company, but I need to finish my degrees first.

And honestly, I don't think I'm even burned out on teaching. When I'm in the plane, zooming around, talking about flying, I love it. I'm more burned out on some of the circumstances surrounding my particular lifestyle at the moment.

As I said in my first post, having a night to sleep on it helps a lot. My student busted a checkride--he'll retest and get his license one way or another. My other student is almost ready to solo--maybe it's for the best that he switch instructors. If I solo him and his new instructor isn't comfortable letting him do more solos, what good does that do? It's better for the second instructor to sign him off to begin with. And my instrument student--I've been prodding him for months. He's known since Day 1 I plan to leave on June 1st, so it's not really my fault he isn't done. It's just a matter of him being busy, me being busy, and the training not fitting. It could've happened even if I was a full time CFI.

I have a lot to be thankful for. I've gotten to fly with some great students at a beautiful little airport. I've made a lot of progress with all of them...just because we haven't gotten to the milestones we both hoped to reach before I leave doesn't mean all my time spent with them has been worthless.

For how ticked off I get at times, this teaching thing is addictive. I'll probably end up CFIing for another year or two yet, even if it is only part time. I can't really see myself doing anything else in the near future.

Now I've gotta run. It's a beautiful afternoon and my instrument student wants me to shoot some approaches with him in a C-182. Adios!
 
Maybe my story will cheer you up:

I was at about 35 hours with my part time instructor and just had a night xc and checkride prep left on the agenda. Both he and I were totally confident that I would be able to pass the PPL checkride in another 2-3 flights.

Then he got promoted at his other job and had to leave for training. At this point, I was forced to switch instructors as well as airplanes, which ended up being incredible for a number of reasons.

First, my next instructor was a real hardass. I ended up flying about 20 more hours of duel with him. Things we worked on: Tons and tons of emergency landings (he made me do 5 in a row perfectly before he'd sign me off...I absolutely hated it at the time, but I am honestly glad that he did it that way), worked on slips to land since I was apparently near clueless on them and learned quickly that letting airspeed drop below 60 knots in a C152 while slipping on short final is not exactly a safe practice, ground freakin reference maneuvers (this part was not exactly useful, but I sure got good at them), and I learned dozens of quarky little things that my previous instructor had failed to emphasize or point out.

One random example that I've always thought was kind of funny: I found the perfect, and I mean the perfect area to do turns around a point. 4 square fields with a prominent structure right in the center. It looked like something from a text book. Just as I was setting up to enter on the downwind, my new instructor asks, "Hey where is Lockhart airport from here?" He always asked this sort of thing, so I didn't really think much of it. "Well, I'm pretty sure it's northwest of here about 5 miles." "Oh yeah? Why don't you climb a little and double check that." I climb a few hundred feet and notice I was setting up at basically traffic pattern altitude on the 45 to downwind at Lockhart airport, which was no more than a mile away. Not exactly a prime location for practicing maneuvers...

Another one: Flying to San Antonio, he has me divert to San Marcos. I turn to a rough heading based on the last checkpoint I crossed, took a few bearings to verify that position, and pretty much did everything by the books. However, it took me a few minutes to calculate my new heading, gs, and time enroute. Meanwhile, I had drifted off course quite a bit and found myself trying to play catchup. Instructor drops a hint, "Hey were you going to call Austin approach or what?" Me, "Why? We're VFR and going to San Marcos?" "Where are we?" Perplexed, I take a bearing from Centex VOR and DME. "####...uh about to enter Austin's airspace." "Bingo."

In retrospect, I am still confident that despite my lack of concern for airspace I would have passed the checkride had instructor 1 signed me off at 40 hours, but I learned a heck of a lot of things (not the least of which being a heightened emphasis on situational awareness) just by going up with another instructor who had a different perspective, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Also, after instructor 1 moved and I knew I'd have to switch airplanes, I ended up finding a job at a flight school that gave me an incredible deal...work the desk 18 hours a week and fly for the price of fuel, and instructor for $25. This allowed me to sit in on a lot of groundschool on everything from PPL, commercial, instrument, and multiengine stuff for free. Basically, I learned a ton and became a much better pilot for very cheap thanks to what appeared to be the monumental pain in the ass of my first instructor moving.

I'm not saying it will turn out that way for your other students, but you might send them my way if they start to question the value of switching instructors.

Best of luck
 
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