Not changing careers, but considering a part time career..

[JungianJugular]

Hey everyone,

I'm looking for some advice from our experienced aviators here.

I am currently working full time as an elementary school teacher in Canada. At first I was considering the career change to aviation, but a lot of research and questions to other pilots has changed my goals. I posted on here a while back about family life and I think I've got a clear picture of what things are like for career pilots. It's not my cup of tea.

I've started my PPL training and coming to the end of it now (flight test soon). I love flying small planes and would like to leverage my assets as an educator with the world of flight instructing.

My background includes: 30/m, getting married next year, no kids.

Here are a couple of questions that I have:

• Is it possible to be a part time flight instructor during evenings and weekends?
• Do flight schools hire such instructors?
• What is the average pay like for an instructor?
• Am I crazy for wanting to spend a lot of $$ just to do something part time for the rest of my life?
• Do you know of people who work full time jobs and instruct part time?
• Any other advice/suggestions/thoughts on this?

Cheers!

- JJ

 

[Tommay85]

As a part-timer, yes, it's realistic to work at those times. That's only enough time for 1 or 2 students though.

As far as I know, part time isn't uncommon.

As a free-lance instructor, I charged 50 an hour. That was in North Dakota though and it involved a bit of driving. It was a fair price if not a little on the cheap side. At a flight school, it's a WIDE range. I've heard of as low as 10 to as high as 30 per hour personally.

Depends, flight instructing is serious and hard work for little pay. It's not as fun as bombing around in your own plane, on your terms, where you want to go.

My instructor, when I was getting my PPL, was a diesel mechanic full time.

Think long and hard because it's going to be a LONG time before you get a return on investment, if any. Monetarily speaking of course. There are plenty of intangibles as well. I can't relate to changing careers, or much else for that matter related to this. I'm still too young and dumb to have the big picture in my head.