Career Change - Full-time CFI: Average Flight Hours per year?

If you were a few years younger, you might have considered the
military. However, maximum age for USAF pilot training is 30 years
old at time of entry, and the application process would take about a
year, and they don't give out waivers for cases like yours.

That's also assuming you have a 4-year degree (officers need college
degrees). In fact, to fly for most majors, having a degree is a major
factor (not part of minimum quals, but highly desirable--as in 95% of
new hires at the majors have college degrees),

"T" Tung
USAF, UAL, Boeing

On 12 Jan 2004 14:05:26 -0800, (Peter
Gibbons) wrote:

Background: I'm currently 30 years old with my IFR and about 190 hrs
TT. Currently working as a systems administrator/programmer, but
weighing my options are if I were to try to make a career out of
aviation. Yeah - crazy, right? Try sitting in front of a monitor for
8 hours a day in a cubicle in a building with no windows! It makes
mowing lawns sound like a good career move...

Anyway, spending a year or two as a CFI seems like the common thing
most folks do in order to build time. From poking around in the
newsgroups, it seems as though if a new CFI were pulling in around
$20k for full-time instructing, he would be considered a rich man! I
could have survived on $20k about 5 years ago, but with a wife and a
baby on the way, that's just not going to cut it.

If I could build up enough hours to get hired on somewhere making
$25k-$30k, that wouldn't be as unrealistic financially, and I could
pad it a bit with some contract work here-and-there.

So rather than chuck my current job right away, I figured I'd do a
little comparison and see how realistic I was being. How many hours
could I build up per year (and how much that would cost) if I stayed
at my current job and flew on the weekends versus how many hours I
would get (and how much money I would lose) if I instructed full-time.

So, all of that to tell you the origin of what I am asking:
Generally, how many hours can a full-time CFI expect to fly in a year?

"\"T\" Tung" wrote in message . ..
If you were a few years younger, you might have considered the
military. However, maximum age for USAF pilot training is 30 years
old at time of entry, and the application process would take about a
year, and they don't give out waivers for cases like yours.

That's also assuming you have a 4-year degree (officers need college
degrees). In fact, to fly for most majors, having a degree is a major
factor (not part of minimum quals, but highly desirable--as in 95% of
new hires at the majors have college degrees),

"T" Tung
USAF, UAL, Boeing


Funny you mention that, "T". I did try the Air Force... been trying
for the past 4 years in fact. Good scores, work experience, strong
letters, passed FC1 - just never got selected.

My IFR instructor, about a year younger than me, with similar scores,
got picked up in 2002 and is now training in T-38's, but he was one of
the lucky ones.

The number of guys they're picking up these days is pathetic. Last
year's selection average was roughly 15-20% (averaging probably 100
applicants per board) every six weeks. But this fiscal year, they've
cut back to I believe only 2 or 3 Rated boards per year.

Moral of the story - if you want a shot at a pilot position in the Air
Force, go to the Academy or ROTC. OTS gets the leftovers, and these
days, there isn't much left to go around...

Another option which I'm not sure you may have been aware of is to
apply directly to the AF Reserve or Air Guard. It is more competitive
in some ways, but sometimes even thatcan be deceiving. In my Reserve
unit (flying KC-135s), we don't really get that many applicants, and
the selection rate is therefore a bit higher...(maybe 30%).
The age limit is still the same though.

"T" Tung

"\"T\" Tung" wrote in message . ..
Another option which I'm not sure you may have been aware of is to
apply directly to the AF Reserve or Air Guard. It is more competitive
in some ways, but sometimes even thatcan be deceiving. In my Reserve
unit (flying KC-135s), we don't really get that many applicants, and
the selection rate is therefore a bit higher...(maybe 30%).
The age limit is still the same though.

"T" Tung

I briefly checked into the Guard, but since they are usually
recruiting for a UPT slot as far as 2-3 years in the future, usually
they won't take anyone past 27-28 years old. And even then,
preference is usually given to folks already members of the unit.