Professional CFI: The Sky is the Limit!

When it comes to pilot careers, common airport wisdom says, ?The only real professional pilot is an airline captain.? So over the years those pilots who aspire to other aviation careers have often found the need to keep their goals to themselves, or worse yet, get laughed out of them altogether.

You know who I?m talking about ? those poor souls at the airport who inadvertently blurt out something like, ?You know, I really like this flight instructing stuff ? might be cool to do it professionally!?

Once word gets around about an oddball like that, other pilots quickly straighten him or her out. ?What, are you nuts? There?s no money in flight instructing.? Or, ?You gotta be kidding, this is a no-future, burn-out job. You wanna turn out like Hackman [the chief flight instructor] in a few years??

Before long our would-be flight training professional learns to keep the old trap shut because, clearly, the idea of becoming a flight training professional doesn?t come across as being the least bit cool. I hate to think how many potentially terrific pro CFIs aviation loses this way.

But the days are gone when the phrases ?flight training? and ?professional careers? don?t belong together in the same conversation. In fact, flight training types may well turn out to be the aviators most in demand.

How do I figure that? Flight training is on a roll that promises to continue well into the future, and with it comes new promise for pilots interested in professional instructing careers. Training may very well be the hottest professional opportunity in aviation today. Let?s look at why.

First, given the current hiring boom there?s demand for more and more pilots. It should be obvious that aviation will need more instructors to educate them.

At the same time, aircraft and flight operations are becoming ever-more complex. In the old days pilots could make do with a simple instructor checkout, but today?s regulatory and insurance environments require extensive training for pilots who fly sophisticated, modern aircraft. The FAA?s recent ?one level of safety? initiative, for example, led to new regulations that require operators of smaller regional airliners to meet the same exhaustive training standards as the major airlines.

Pilot education isn?t limited to just flying the plane anymore, either. Today?s glass cockpits and flight management systems (FMS) require specific training dedicated to them. Then there?s the continually-growing emphasis on CRM (crew resource management) training for multi-pilot crews. The latest development is aircraft-upset training in advanced aircraft ? how to recover from unusual attitudes in transport category airplanes. Keep in mind we?re not just talking more extensive training for airline pilots, but training for pilots in corporate and even private aircraft operations.

The point is that the amount of training pilots must receive is expanding exponentially at the same time pilot hiring reaches record rates. The demand for training professionals is going through the roof, and for career instructors this means opportunity knocking.

Already not enough quality instructors are available to fill the void, and the result is that professional flight training positions are opening up nationwide. With demand increasing and supply decreasing, pay and benefits for professional flight training positions are rapidly beginning to improve ? and that trend is just getting off the ground.

For those who are skeptical, remember that not every CFI position has the potential to be permanent and professional, but an increasing number indeed do. If in doubt, check out the growing number of flight training positions advertised in places like the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) home page (www.nafinet.org) and ?Trade-A-Plane,? not to mention the solicitations from flight schools that have begun showing up in CFI mailboxes lately.

What are some of these great CFI career opportunities we?re talking about?

The odds are good that the flight school where you work or train is already hurting for line instructors. That?s an immediate problem for the school because it limits how many students the school can enroll in training courses, and it probably will lead to professional opportunities down the line. But for now most flight schools will continue scrambling to fill line CFI positions from the ranks of upward-bound aspiring future airline pilots, mainly because that?s the least risky and expensive way to do it.

But a deepening problem for flight schools, and hence a bigger opportunity for you, is that the experienced instructors who are legally required for certain key training positions are becoming much, much tougher to find ? and retain.

For example, federal regulations require CFI applicants to be trained and recommended for their practical tests by an instructor who has held a CFI certificate for at least two years. If no one instructs more than 6 to 12 months, how many of those ?super CFIs? will be around in another year? If you are (or plan to be) a long-term flight instructor, that?s opportunity!

We seem to be in a period of flight school consolidation, with many formerly small FBOs gearing up with larger programs to train more students. At the same time, already-large flight schools are growing even larger. Someone has to manage each of these programs. The FAA requires a chief flight instructor, who meets stringent experience qualifications, to be designated for every Part-141 approved flight program, and even Part-61 schools require quality instructors to manage their growing programs.

With aspiring airline pilots passing so quickly through the CFI ranks, few stick around long enough to qualify for these essential roles, which is why more and more chief flight instructor and flight training manager positions remain unfilled. Opportunity knocking!

Anywhere flight training occurs is fertile ground for today?s aspiring professional. Interested in advancing the science of aviation education? Now?s the time to think about what your part could be in making it happen. University flight programs are already hurting big time for experienced instructors at all levels. Traditionally, many universities have not paid their line instructors the big bucks, but that situation will improve as the instructor supply dwindles. And, hey, we?re talking professional positions here ? start working on that masters degree and apply for a faculty position.

Then there are the airlines. Sure, experienced line pilots usually serve as check airmen in the aircraft, but who teaches at the training center? While airline instructors come from a variety of backgrounds, a great many are flight instructors, like you and me, who have been hired directly into airline training departments. If you have good flight instructing experience and some classroom teaching under your belt, the airlines might very well be an option to investigate, both for classroom teaching and simulator instruction opportunities.

Common perks of airline training positions include good pay, excellent health, vacation, and retirement benefits, an aircraft type rating or two, flight and jump-seat privileges, discount travel on other airlines, and sometimes, for those who are interested, potential to eventually transfer from the training department to a line pilot position.

The growing demand for simulator instructors includes not only the major and commuter airlines, but also corporate training environments. The days of training pilots in sophisticated aircraft are long gone. Today, pilots learn the ropes in flight simulators, and the proliferation of companies offering sim training has been nothing short of amazing. Aviation magazines are filled with ads for simulator instructors with prestigious companies like FlightSafety International, SimCom, SimuFlite Training International, and others. As with the airlines, these positions often pay well and have outstanding benefits.

Impressive as aviation growth in our own country has become, it pales by comparison with potential elsewhere in the world. Despite the Far East financial crisis, for example, in the coming years the growth of commercial aviation there is expected to outstrip all other parts of the world.

But most countries where growth is projected to be greatest have little or no indigenous pilot population, nor programs to train them. As a result, contract pilot training for foreign countries and carriers, performed both here and abroad, offers tremendous growth and career potential for those who are interested.

Last, but not least, is the opportunity to start your own flight training business. With the resumption of large-scale aircraft manufacturing, and the advent of new industry programs for recruiting students, we in flight training face new opportunities for growth. Many current flight school operators are jumping on the bandwagon with programs, products, and services targeted to take advantage of the boom. But plenty of untapped opportunities undoubtedly remain for those who apply innovation in their training and marketing methods.

So is the phrase ?flight instructing careers? an oxymoron? No way! Broadly interpreted, flight training offers today?s professional aviators one of the biggest aviation career opportunities ever. Remember that airport CFI who secretly harbors flight training career aspirations? That poor maligned flight instructor is no dummy. In fact, he may be the smartest of all.

If you?re one of those special pilots who loves instructing enough to make a career out of it, the market for your services is growing daily. Don?t let yourself get talked out of it! When it comes to flight training careers in today?s aviation industry environment, the sky truly is the limit.