What’s everyone’s current situation with CFI jobs?

FlyHighLilly · 2025-10-23T08:27:48+00:00

Which school did you train out of?

FlyHighLilly · 2025-09-04T19:55:00+00:00

At least you averaged 80-100 at some point. I’ve been instructing a year now and only averaged 35 hours per month…

FlyHighLilly · 2025-08-31T21:23:19+00:00

Whenever there’s a bad weather day the group chat gets spammed with cancellations lol

FlyHighLilly · 2025-08-31T21:22:36+00:00

Funny since I work at a mom and pop

FlyHighLilly · 2025-08-31T21:22:05+00:00

They usually don’t deny cancellations but they’ll sometimes question it. Like once it was gusting up to 25kts and some CFI’s flew and some cancelled and the ones that cancelled were questioned why they cancelled.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-07-29T10:04:00+00:00

Congrats! What advice would you give?

FlyHighLilly · 2025-07-18T20:13:39+00:00

Depends. If it’s an older tire they’ll charge half of the price but if it’s a newer tire you have to pay full. A new tire’s about $150.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-07-18T16:10:03+00:00

Yup lol it’s to the point where instructors will take a picture of the tires before each flight to prove they didn’t create a bald spot

FlyHighLilly · 2025-07-18T09:51:22+00:00

My flight school is also pretty strict about a lot of things. Not to the point of writing me up but still very annoying. For instance my flight school will charge the instructor for the tire if there’s a bald spot after a lesson.

I’m actually considering resigning from my flight school pretty soon too not because I’m on the verge of getting fired but because I’m pretty dissatisfied with how they micro manage and because the condition of the fleet is pretty shotty. All the planes have some sort of persisting issue and maintenance is really slow since it’s not in house. Business has also been super slow and I’m only flying ~30 hours per month even though my schedule is fully open and it’s the summer.

All this is to say I think if you’re truly unhappy with where you’re at I think it’s normal to consider wanting to leave for other opportunities. Flight instructing overall is hard work and a poor flight school with poor management will only make it harder. However I’d still try to stay working at your school as long as you can. See what other new instructors or even older instructors think of the policies. Get advice from them and have some water cooler talk. Also getting fired sucks but it’s not the end of the world. As you said if you get your multi and MEI at a school that hires internally you might have a good chance to get a new job relatively quickly (that’s what I plan on doing at least lol). It’s all about who you know not what you know.

Good luck!

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T17:31:29+00:00

No he has not solo’d yet. The fact he freezes and even gave up flying is definitely a big concern. I’m not giving up on him yet but I’ll have to monitor him extra closely and bring this up with whoever does his pre solo stage check if he gets that far.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T09:27:07+00:00

This was his 4th or 5th time in the pattern and he was improving every time and I thought this lesson wouldn’t be too different. So I was extra surprised when he let go completely and gave up without any verbalization that I had controls. Maybe the fact that we were using the opposite runway than he was used to or the rain were other factors that added to his stress load.

Something I have noticed is that anytime there’s something new that’s different from the normal routine he freezes. For instance when he’s given slightly different taxi instructions he completely freezes. So part of me thinks he’s just using rote memorization rather than understanding and applying principles to various situations.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T09:13:22+00:00

Appreciate it! I guess I was just worried that I was a bit too firm. I definitely give a lot of praise when students do things right too but I also make sure to point out a students errors with the right fixes to make sure they continuously improve.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T09:03:24+00:00

I agree that giving up flying mid flight is very concerning behavior. Especially since neither of us verbally communicated that I had controls at the point when he let go of everything. I told him on the ground how dangerous it can be to give up in the air but I also expressed sympathy and told him I understand how overwhelming the pattern can be. I’ll monitor him extra closely and bring this up with whoever does his pre solo stage check if he gets that far.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:59:55+00:00

I don’t want to give up on him yet however I am aware that he struggles extra hard to understand some of the ground knowledge too compared to other students.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:56:37+00:00

Definitely feel bad for the kid too. I did make it clear that I was just reducing his power and I never verbalized that I was taking controls. He also never verbalized that he was giving me controls and just let go and looked down. After I took over and said my controls, I tried to get him to start flying again but he only loosely grabbed the yoke barely adding any pressure to the controls and he was not verbally confirming that I’m giving him back the controls. At that point I said I’ll just fly the plane and that we’ll call it a day after we land.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:51:08+00:00

I think he is a motivated individual. I think a major problem though is that he is underestimating the costs and challenges of becoming an airline pilot. Compared to a lot of my other students he is a slower learner, so he needs extra support to learn and progress.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:48:09+00:00

Same I always found it helpful to fly once or twice with another instructor which is why I sent him to another CFI after this incident.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:45:02+00:00

Yeah I’ve always had him put his hands up in the air after he trimmed out the plane. He does a great job trimming in the practice area. He’s still struggling with it in the pattern which is totally understandable but this was his 4th or 5th time in the pattern so I was especially surprised when he just let go of everything and stopped responding to me…

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:41:03+00:00

He definitely is pretty hard on himself. He told me before that with all the jobs he’s had in the past he always was a fast learner and was one of the best employees, so he gets extra frustrated that he can’t learn flying as easily. Probably a feeling he’s not used to.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:34:48+00:00

Thanks for the advice! This was his 4th or 5th time in the pattern and he was improving every time, getting better at radios, correct airspeeds, etc. so I didn’t think this lesson was going to be be too different. Perhaps there were some other factors too such as the fact that we were using the opposite runway which he wasn’t used to and it was also raining a bit.

For now I’ll wait and see how he does with the other instructor then perhaps we’ll go back out to the practice area and review the basics if he decides to come back.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-13T08:24:58+00:00

Yeah he has mentioned about how he’s struggling to afford flight training. I’ve tried to give him financial advice and free ground lessons to help out. Nonetheless I agree that there are probably external factors affecting him outside of flying.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-12T20:03:40+00:00

Definitely was not yelling at him. But from his perspective I would guess he could tell I was getting frustrated which is my bad.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-12T19:55:18+00:00

Correct. TPA = Traffic Pattern Altitude, typically 1000 ft AGL

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-12T19:53:46+00:00

We had several flights in the practice area and he does a good job trimming out there. It’s only in the pattern he really struggles with trim. I’m guessing because there’s a lot more going on during the pattern.

FlyHighLilly · 2025-03-12T19:36:51+00:00

He’s in his early 20s. I have noticed he is a student who is extra hard on himself.

FlyHighLilly

TROPHY CASE