Oregon/Washington area

O

Oldschool Pilot

Well-Known Member
I'm looking to relocate to the area for family reasons and I already have a few good leads but I was curious if anyone has an update on the Wings Aloft flight school at Seattle Boeing Field? I've heard before that's not really a desirable place to go as a CFI but those comments were from 2+ years ago and Im wondering if that changed. About me I am just shy of 1200TT with about 240 MEL but I lack the instrument time to meet part 135 mins. Kind of looking for anything suitable.
 
I can't speak specifically for wings aloft, only they were not hiring when I was looking for instructing jobs around Washington about 6 months ago. I interviewed at Galvin and they were very interested in hiring, but when they told me about how many flight hours I could expect ~300 a year, I also wasn't too crazy about the super ritzy feel of the place, but either way I told them that wasn't enough and left. Not sure if this has any bearing on wings aloft though. There are several flight schools I am pretty sure are hiring in the area- Avian flight center in Bremerton, Regal Aviation at Paine field in Everett, I think that there might be some hiring at Renton, either at Acuwings or Rainer flight service, but I'm not too sure.
 
Wait.. you live in the northwest and don't have 135 intrument mins? You know you can count 25 hours in the sim towards it to right? 75 total (50 in flight).
 
Oldschool Pilot said:
Hear of anyone who actually worked for them? How is the pay?
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Although I am not a flight instructor there, I am a flight student at Hillsboro Aviation out of Troutdale Airport. I believe the pay is 16/hr, winters make it hard to build hours for the CFI's, especially those without their CFII. However, the summer is very productive and with a HUGE China program there you will not have to find your own students. They also have a flight program with the local community college that is covered for military veterans, that is another good source of students with a decent amount of funding that will guarantee you hours. If you have any other questions PM me, I can relay you to a few instructors there that may have more information for ya.
 
JDean, student there too(close to CFI) but on the HIO campus^^ small world. initial pay is 17$ as far as i remember from talking to some of the CFIs there. but you can go for pay raises rather quick. have to ask a friend for details.
The thing even with the CFII you are very dependent on the weather(mostly temperature), otherwise it's as JDean said, in the Summer you get tons of time and will have to watch for your hour limits. usualy CFIs have about 4-5 students and the School encourages the "new" instructors to get additional ratings like CFII or MEI rather quick so the students don't have to change instructor. only downside is 42 aircraft split to two campus against about 60 CFI and around 150 students at a time(not including R/W).
In the winter you end up canceling a lot, or get to the airport on a clear morning only to deice your plane and find that the time is not sufficient anymore to do the lesson if you, or your student, did not get to the airport at least an hour before your flightblock.
The school has a good international reputation so there are lots of different nationalities running around e.g. brazilians, taiwanese but also from the european continent.
 
Stay away from North Bend, OR and Kalamath Falls! Or at least any company that works from both places! Horrible place to work! Not worth it.
 
Thanks for all the info, I hope to find something soon and relocate this spring ideally between Portland and anywhere all the way to the Canadian border.
 
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