CFI training cost?

Hey, all. For purposes of ballparking my budget next year, I'm wondering
what it costs Joe Average Pilot, CP-ASEL-IA to get his CFI these days.

Any new CFIs care to discuss? Thanks!

-Chris
PP-ASEL-IA, completing Commercial in August.

If you work on your Commercial from the right seat, it will probably save
you some money on your CFI. If you can do most of the flying in a
inexpensive fixed gear and then do the required maneuvers in a complex, that
also may save you money. But, most of the CFI work will be
ground/desk/classroom/lesson plan and teaching work, not flying. Much of
this work will be done by yourself or practicing on willing victims, empty
chairs, stuffed animals and or blow up dolls, so this will not be expensive.
People used to see and hear me taking to myself all the time. Most of my
expense was incurred in building my CFI library, buying teaching supplies,
and practice teaching to my CFI, which I fully expected and happily paid him
to do. I borrowed other CFIs to run my techniques by them over a beverage
or dinner. Once I was up to speed I took the FOI, AGI, and IGI and started
to help teach ground school. Then I developed from scratch my own
Instrument ground school program and syllabus. This was invaluable.

In short, you won't spend as much on airplane rental as you do for your
commercial, but you'll spend more on books, supplies, and ground
instruction.

Ballpark? hmm $1500-$2000? just a guess.

Jim

Jim Burns wrote:
Ballpark? hmm $1500-$2000? just a guess.

Probably more than that. I spent $1200 just on the ground instuction
for the CFII add on rating.

-Robert

Jim Burns wrote:
Much of this work will be done by yourself or practicing on willing
victims, empty chairs, stuffed animals and or blow up dolls, so this
will not be expensive.

Jim,

I don't know what kind of airport you fly out of, but the guys at the FBO
always give me funny looks when I go out on the ramp with a blow-up doll.

Seriously, though, being a CFI is all about teaching, and almost
nothing about flying. Learn how to explain things carefully and
correctly. Learn to pay attention to your student to figure out if
they're getting what you're saying, and if not, try another approach.

In the airplane, learn to shut up and sit on your hands most of the
time. The hardest part about flight instruction is figuring out where
the dividing line is between the just plain ugly and the truly
dangerous. You want to let your students get up to that line, but not
cross it.

Also, learn to know when they've had enough. There reaches a point
where the student's brain is full for the day and they're just going
through the motions without any real learning going on. That's the
time to say, "let's head back", and maybe even take the helm for a
while to give them a breather.

Hmm.... Principle of Effect? Learning is strengthened when accompanied by a
pleasant or satisfying feeling?? nah... that works backwards also...

Principle of Intensity... vivid, dramatic or exciting experience?

lol

Jim

On 07/14/06 13:59, Jim Burns wrote:
If you work on your Commercial from the right seat, it will probably save
you some money on your CFI. If you can do most of the flying in a
inexpensive fixed gear and then do the required maneuvers in a complex, that
also may save you money. But, most of the CFI work will be
ground/desk/classroom/lesson plan and teaching work, not flying. Much of
this work will be done by yourself or practicing on willing victims, empty
chairs, stuffed animals and or blow up dolls, so this will not be expensive.

.... Unless you're caught with the blow-up doll, in which case you may
have some 'splainin to do ;-)

--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

Ouch. I did my II right after I did my AMEL checkride. After teaching two
back to back instrument ground schools, I was up on my instrument game
pretty good and the ground instruction wasn't much, a few hours of "teach me
this" and a few hours of flying/teaching approaches. Granted, I'd also just
finished flying around doing single engine instrument approaches for the
past 3 days. My checkride was totally "what are you going to do when/if and
why?"

But you're probably correct, especially if there is a significant gap
between the Commercial and the CFI with no experience in the right seat. I
just checked Sheble's site: $4215 and 8 days to complete.

Jim




"Robert M. Gary" wrote in message
ups.com...

Jim Burns wrote:
Ballpark? hmm $1500-$2000? just a guess.

Probably more than that. I spent $1200 just on the ground instuction
for the CFII add on rating.

-Robert

Hey, don't tell me that you never heard of the guy here in Wisconsin that
cushioned his crash with a Cheesehead hat! Just think if he would have had
a blow up doll with him! Nooo problem!
Jim

"Mark Hansen" wrote in message
...
On 07/14/06 13:59, Jim Burns wrote:
If you work on your Commercial from the right seat, it will probably
save
you some money on your CFI. If you can do most of the flying in a
inexpensive fixed gear and then do the required maneuvers in a complex,
that
also may save you money. But, most of the CFI work will be
ground/desk/classroom/lesson plan and teaching work, not flying. Much
of
this work will be done by yourself or practicing on willing victims,
empty
chairs, stuffed animals and or blow up dolls, so this will not be
expensive.

... Unless you're caught with the blow-up doll, in which case you may
have some 'splainin to do ;-)

--
Mark Hansen, PP-ASEL, Instrument Airplane
Cal Aggie Flying Farmers
Sacramento, CA

gatt wrote:
Hey, all. For purposes of ballparking my budget next year, I'm wondering
what it costs Joe Average Pilot, CP-ASEL-IA to get his CFI these days.

Any new CFIs care to discuss? Thanks!

-Chris
PP-ASEL-IA, completing Commercial in August.




Depends. If you already have a commercial, it's not THAT expensive. I
paid around $1200 for ground instruction and flight time. Then again, I
did my commercial in the right seat, which saved a lot of time learning
maneuvers. In other words, I didn't need to learn how to fly, I just
needed to learn how to teach. I suspect my CFI undercharged me on
ground instruction, because he learned a lot from me about the
maintenance side of things and our lessons were usually fairly long.

Course, this was five years ago. Not sure how prices would compare now.

"Jim Burns" wrote in message
...

Ballpark? hmm $1500-$2000? just a guess.

Excellent! That's well inside the ballpark! (Fortunately, I've got
enough non-aviation instruction experience that I shouldn't have to get over
those sorts of basic jitters.)

-c