"gatt" wrote in message
...
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| "C J Campbell" wrote in message
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| Most flight schools pay their CFIs between $15 and $20 an instructional
| hour. Most CFIs probably make less than minimum wage.
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| I guess this begs the question, how in hell do they pay their bills?
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| How long do they have to do that in order to start making decent money?
|

There are really three kinds of CFIs. Some treat flight instruction as a
retirement job, more of a full-time hobby than anything else. Others are
young people working their way toward an airline job. And there are those
for whom flight instruction offers its own career path.

The retirement guys are able to support themselves through some other income
source. The young CFIs hope to just survive long enough to get a job that
pays decently. The most interesting CFIs are those for whom flight
instruction is a career in itself. It is possible to do fairly well as a
CFI, as John and Martha King have more than amply demonstrated. While most
of us will probably not reach the level of the Kngs, it is reasonable for a
CFI to make upwards of $70,000 a year.

The career CFIs acquire unusual specialties and ratings. Many of them charge
$80 an hour or more for instruction. Additionally, they may own their own
aircraft, including aerobatic or seaplanes which they give instruction in.
If you want to fly a Caravan on floats, you will pay $100 an hour or more
for a decent CFI that meets all the insurance requirements.

Aviation pays poorly, though, no matter what career path you choose. The
average college graduate is now earning in excess of $55,000 right out of
school. The pilot pays $50,000 or more for an additional year or two of
training, then gets a job as a CFI earning $12,000. It will be ten years or
more before he starts earning as much as his peers did when they graduated.
The pilot's salary never catches up, either. By the time he is a senior
airline captain earning $200,000 a year, his peers are either earning more
than that or they have been getting an equivalent salary for much longer. If
you really want to earn a decent living in aviation, you are better off
becoming an airline executive than a pilot.