President's Perspective: The CFI $$$$ Dilemma

Late this winter, after I spoke at an annual aviation event in Washington State, a flight instructor asked me what AOPA was doing about flight instructor pay. His was referring to the almost poverty-level wage paid to most CFIs. The question allowed me to acknowledge the inequity in pay scales between flight instructors and other types of instructors, and to represent student pilots, who benefit from a ?system? that helps to hold down the cost of learning to fly. If students can better understand the uniqueness of our aviation training system, perhaps fewer will drop out and more will appreciate how they benefit in this environment.

Flight instructing is not a highly paid profession. For many, if not most, it?s a way of building time to qualify for that golden gateway?the airline or corporate pilot interview. Thus, for all but a few, it?s a stepping-stone job, not a career in itself. The CFI, of course, must make a living?absent the legendary rich uncle. Many CFIs also hold other jobs. Flight school managers try to hold on to good instructors, which leaves them trying to balance fair compensation against how much they can reasonably charge the student pilot.

Among instructors in somewhat comparable fields there?s wide variation in compensation. The average charge for flight instruction is $20 to $25 an hour, with less than half of that going to the CFI. On the other hand, ski schools charge $80 to $110 an hour for private instruction. Professional tennis coaches charge from $30 to $100 per hour. Instructors at such institutions as the Maryland School of Sailing and Seamanship, training candidates for their U.S. Coast Guard?s Captain?s license, receive $125 to $180 per day.

While most instructors in these various fields are considered staff employees, they are usually paid by the hour, with no minimum guarantee. And their employment rarely includes health and other benefits. The flight instructor is set apart by the requirement that he be tested and certified by the federal government. In most other fields of skill training, there are no tests or government licenses.

Clearly, aviation is unique and can take advantage of the fact that airlines require a high number of logged flight hours before they will consider an applicant. It?s a Catch-22 for the CFI who needs to instruct in order to gain those hours as quickly as possible.

This posed few problems in the early 1990s when airlines were not hiring and few people were learning to fly. But the latter half of this decade has seen an upswing in flight training and robust airline and corporate hiring. Flight instructors are now in high demand, and flight schools are having trouble maintaining an adequate base of CFIs.

Last year two of my neighbors began flight training. They were typical of today?s middle-age students?wanting a new challenge with the time and money to afford flight training. Shortly after solo, their beloved flight instructor obtained a job flying charters. For him it meant earning valuable multiengine time so essential to obtaining that sought-after commuter airline position. Both students stopped showing up on the flight school schedule. Why, I asked, did they give up when they had begun with such enthusiasm? Each felt that the personal relationship they had built with the individual was now gone. After all, this is the person who took the bold step out of the cockpit and saw them through the first solo. Could they face starting another relationship with a stranger?

Students should try to understand the instructor?s situation and be prepared for change. And, my hope is that instructors will take the trouble to prepare their students for eventual weaning. Several flight schools today are insuring that my neighbors? situation doesn?t repeat itself by taking a group instructor approach to training. These schools arrange the curriculum and schedule to minimize the reliance on a single CFI.

While economic pressures cause frequent changes in instructor ranks, students might reflect that they benefit in lower flight instruction costs. And they might also find some advantage in experiencing the varied approaches of different instructors. Educators agree that studying a topic from different angles is more effective than receiving a single viewpoint.

Instructor compensation is a many-sided problem for both the CFI and the flight school management. It?s important to see the relationship between the flight school, instructor, and student in balance. Every party to the enterprise needs to understand the motivations, needs, and limitations of the others. It?s a marvelous collaboration that is continually opening up the skies to people who long to be there. Let?s make it work as smoothly as possible.