"C J Campbell" wrote in message ...

I strongly believe that flight instructors are their own worst enemies.

I would tend to agree there, but probably for different reasons
than you think...

Most
flight instructors have college educations, since the airlines want their
pilots to be college graduates. Then they spend two or more years and tens
of thousands of dollars getting their ratings, just so they can get a job
that pays less than a burger flipper.

You do realize that I could rewrite this paragraph to read "most
physicians" or "most scientists" (except it would be hundreds of thous
on medical school instead of tens)?

All you're saying here is that becoming a pilot for the major airlines
(the goal of most CFIs) is like many other professions: after one's formal
education is complete, a lengthy apprenticeship of long hours and poor
pay is required before one qualifies to compete for a professional position.

Airline pilots have traditionally been compensated at the level of
successful specialist physicians, without the malpractice premiums and
long hours in the OR or office which the latter require. It's a very
plummy goal.

If young CFIs perceive it as worthwhile to put up with a couple years
of crap pay and crap hours for that kind of payoff rather than spending
life as an elementary school teacher earning ave. $40K a year for 30
years, that's their choice.

It's not slavery, murder, theft, or force. It's choice.

Frankly, being a full-time CFI seems to me analogous to a sales
position where the employee is paid on commission, but expected to
attend the showroom for fixed hours, field telephone questions from
potential buyers, and attend sales meetings all for minimal or no pay.

Just like a successful salesman, a CFI who markets himself well
and aggressively spends more time flying, earns more, and builds
more hours more quickly while spending less time sitting around the
FBO where he might be asked to mop a floor or fuel a plane.

No wonder people are not beating down
our doors asking for training as flight instructors!

Well, someone must be beating down some doors somewhere, because
if there were a true flight instructor shortage wouldn't you expect
working conditions and flight instructor pay to improve?

Until then, I am afraid that flight instructors will be either be people who
are retired and who can afford it, like me, or those who simply live lives
of quiet desperation.

The people who are leading lives of quiet desperation, CJ, are the
single moms who are working 60 hrs a week at WalMart and McDonalds
because they lack qualification for other jobs, and barely scraping
by while praying that the car doesn't break down and no one gets
sick or ruins his shoes. Loads of responsibility, little choice,
and little prospect of change in the future.

Most CFIs I've met are from reasonably well-to-do families. They
bitch about their hours and their pay, but meanwhile they started
out with clothes and a car and are either living at home or had
help putting down a deposit on their apartment. They know very well
that if they want to earn more money, they could get a job at a bank
or as a waiter or customer service rep or the like tomorrow. Most
don't market themselves either; they sit, and wait for their employer
to draw students in the door. And when the student does come in the
door, they might not exert themselves with enthusiasm to 'sell' flight
training to the student. They might not make follow-up phone calls;
they might not follow-up disappearing students to see why they've
stopped training.

Please note that I'm not trying to argue that CFIs never get a bum
deal from their employer, because many of them do. No question.
Nor am I saying it's fair, or that it's right.

But again: it's not theft, it's not murder, it's not force, it's
not even "quiet desperation", it's a *means to a desireable end*
that they have chosen to pursue.

Cheers,
Sydney