madfoxjay

For guys who either are a CFI or who were a CFI, how much did you guys fly? Also, were you in a big city or small? I am trying to see what I could expect if I wanted to be a CFI and how do you get max time instructing.

LAfrequentflyer

Give your local ATP training center a call. You'll get all the ME / SE time you need for the airlines...

-LAFF

Pilotpip

About 20 hours per month when I started at the flight school I just left. 80 hours per month after I was there for a while. This is in the midwest. With our ice/snowstorm earlier this month and the holidays I doubt that I would have logged 20 hours If I were still there.

The new flight school I'm at I'll probably get around 40, but the pay is good and I enjoy doing this. I'll start thinking about moving on after I have 135 minimums.

I know of people that flew 100 hours per month or more. They had no lives and worked about 90 hours per week. 80 hours, ground schools and brief time with students was enough for me, ended up being 12 to 14 hour days on a regular basis especially if you have night flights. If you want to get in and get out I guess being miserable for a few months is the key to logging time quick.

Speedbird172

I'm instructing at a smaller 141 collegiate program. It's pretty slow time building compared to some places (I racked up a bit over 100 hours this semester), and the winter weather doesn't help sometimes. But the QOL is great; base pay, good benefits/vaca/etc. Plus free upgrading to II and MEI. A number of CFIs have been getting hired lately, seem to average about 2 years of doin the CFI thing.

ToiletDuck

I started at 80hrs a month and currently kick about 120hrs. I can actually tell you exactly when I felt this job start to bring me down and that was 3 weeks ago. Since then I've dropped 5 flights a day for 4. I'm in a small town on the mexican border. I'm the only CFI within 70nm. I'm part 61. Part 141 is for the birds. If I lost this job tomorrow I'd have a new one by monday because of this place. My boss owns a merlin, an air ambulance has been asking me for the past 3 months to accept their job so they could keep their C-421 here. And another company located further south wants me. The key is I took a risk coming here and it paid off. I meet and greet every single pilot and crew that comes in here with a smile. Yesterday I was talking to a guy for about 2hrs, random BS the whole time he was waiting in the FBO, I thought he was the pilot for someone. Turns out he owned the very nice Gulfstream sitting on the ramp. We then went out and climbed in the plane and had a few drinks, non-alcoholic fyi. We talked about what my ambitions ect were. He said if things didn't work out to give him a ring and he'd get me flight time in the GII. You don't find things like that at airports where there are a few dozen other CFI's.

However if you'd like to hit the ground running and running hard take a look at Pueblo Colorado. The airforce is moving all of IFS(initial flight screening) there. They will pay $24.75 per hour of flight and ground. You'll put in some days and working with the AF is enough to make you want to yank your hair out. But you'll learn a ton, have nothing but intelligent and motivated students, and make a decent living.

Hope this helps,
Duck