CFI pay / rates for flight and ground instruction

7 Answers

1. 
   

   
   

   John D. Collins on Feb 06, 2011

   Undoubtedly, you have heard of the joke: “How do you make a small fortune in the aviation business? Answer – start with a large fortune.”  In other words, establishing and operating a flight school is a labor of love and rarely involves profit.  Airplanes and simulators are very expensive, especially if they are purchased new. As a consequence, the market won’t allow you to charge sufficient for the use of the aircraft to make a return on the investment. 
    
   It is for this reason, most flight schools will not own their own aircraft, but will use a leaseback arrangement where the owner takes all the financial risk and the flight school gets a handling fee for each flight, for example the owner gets 75% and the flight school gets 25% of the revenue. The leaseback owner has ulterior motives for this arrangement, usually there are tax incentives and the income partly offsets the cost of ownership.  If I were starting a flight school today, besides getting a mental exam, I would use Diamond aircraft DA20 and DA40 for training. They have an excellent safety record and you can become a dealer and sell the aircraft to owners willing to lease them back to your flight school.
    
   Instructional rates vary dependent on the local market.  Often, instructors are young and use instruction as a means to build time to qualify for an aviation job.  This tends to depress the prevailing instructor rates and many instructors don’t charge for ground time.  A lot of what happens in this regard has to do with the policy of the flight school.  The flight school sets the rates and determines how the time is determined.  Some charge by the Hobbs, others charge a lower rate for ground time, or still others don’t charge for ground time.  I prefer to charge a single rate for scheduled time, or in lieu of that, watch time, regardless how it is split between flight and ground time.  Ground time can be some of the best value for a student as training in the cockpit is a poor environment and no substitute for proper ground training. The airplane is used for demonstration and practise and meeting experience requirements. Rates between $30 and $60 per hour are common.  You have to determine the rate for your market and you have to determine the split with the instructor.
    
   You have to decide under what part of the FAR regulations you intend to operate,  61 or 141.  There are no significant advantages for training private pilots under 141, but with advanced training there are significant advantages along with costs. A part 141 school certificate is likely required for offering training under the GI bill.  To operate a part 141 school, you need, an approved manual, a chief flight instructor that meets the experience requirements, will need to keep impeccable records, and will be under constant FAA surveillance.
    
   All instructors are required to determine if training can be given to US and Non US citizens, this is a post 9/11 requirement. Non US citizens must be pre approved by the TSA before training can begin and US citizens must provide the required proof of citizenship.
    
   Lastly, if you are to make a financial go of it, you will have to make money on each transaction, that includes instruction time, rental time, pilot supplies, gas if you have a franchise, maintenance if you hire a mechanic, ground school, etc.
    
   Good luck in your endeavor. 

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2. 
   

   
   

   skyboyCFI on Feb 06, 2011

   I can add that most foreign group student will not train at a school unless its a part 141. I’ve seen many part 141 schools that rarely use their part 141 for graduating students and force them through part 91 because a part 141 school can loose their certificate if their failure rate gets too high.

   Diamond are cool aircraft, good for training, but are expensive as heck. I would stick with the common system for nearly every school in the country. A fleet a decent used cessna’s a couple complex, a couple low wing maybe, but importantly, something modern with glass (g1000) so students can learn the future of aviation.

   Stay out of the fuel business if you can. There is no profit in it. The costs to maintain service of fuel can be outrageous and the profit margin is small.

   I see above a recommended rate range of $30-$60. I think that is below average. Instructor rates I have seen are almost always over $55/hr. That is in places in the entire west coast, Arizona and Florida, which I frequent. I have seen allot of schools charging $65/hr, even in the bad economy. Sadly they only pay their instructors $15-$20 a “flight hour” but work them 8 hours a day regardless how many hours they fly, if they fly at all. Hopefully the department of labor will someday change that.

   Subsidize your school with part135 charter services, maintenance services, etc. These combined services can make a hard to profit business like a simple school only business, a profit chance business. With maintenance you can save a fortune on maintaining your own aircraft.

   Note that it can also be a headache maintaining a chief pilot for a part 141 school and part 135 operation. Take this into consideration. Some schools employee a retired pilot that is not likely to ever leave.

   My overall advice, just don’t do it. It’ll make you crazy.

   My neighbor owns a school and has for years and he’s just whipped.

   Another option if you’re determined to do it is to buy a school already running. You might find the owner eager to sell and finally make a profit on their years of hard work.

   +1 Votes 2 Votes  1 Votes

3. 
   

   
   

   James MacGregor CFI on Feb 06, 2011

   My 2 cents, the aircraft don’t make the school, heck most non aviation people thing my Stinson is new because she has nice paint and is waxed lol

   Go get a few Carbed 172N models maybe a 150/2 and a LSA (if you want in that market). Find good instructors!! Their are allot of people who are looking for work and allot of great I CFIs who are underpaid.

   Pay your instructors well (bill em’ out at 50ish as that’s a good average) and don’t be too greedy.

   First get your part 61 stuff going THEN think about the Indians. I would recommend offering a part time private ground course to your local community college. This will bring in potential flight line students and make a bridge with the college for later.

   Make up lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations yourself and keep refining them. Be sure to have structure and do prog checks on your students regardless of part 141 or 61.

   +2 Votes 3 Votes  1 Votes

4. 
   

   
   

   Kent Shook on Feb 06, 2011

   John’s answer is excellent. I would add: What do you want the business to be? Your location will make a huge difference as to what you can do here. If you’re at Podunk Muni, you’re not likely to be able to do very well with gas (too much cheap self-serve out there), Part 135 (not enough passengers/freight to haul), or even the flight school itself (not enough potential students).
    
   However, if you’re in a somewhat more populated area, each of these can begin to make financial sense. If people come to your airport for a reason OTHER than the cheap gas, then you can make a profit on the gas. If there’s enough pax and potential students, 135 and the flight school can start to make sense.
    
   Now – I’m guessing you’ve never owned an aircraft before if you graduated from ERAU and never flew again. Prepare for a wake-up call: Airplanes don’t cost as much as they cost to rent because the FBO is making a huge profit, airplanes just simply cost that much. For example, a late 70’s Archer will *cost* you on the order of $100-$110 per hour to operate, assuming a fuel cost of $4.50/gal. The single biggest component of that is maintenance. That number also does not take into account ANY fixed costs (insurance, hangar/tiedown, etc.) One rule of thumb is that if the plane flies a decent amount, you’ll spend three times the cost of fuel. The more you fly, the lower that’ll be.
    
   The best way to reduce your costs: Like I said, the biggest variable cost you’ll have is maintenance, and the biggest component of maintenance is labor. If you become an A&P, or you get a large enough fleet that it makes sense to have a full-time A&P working for you, you’ll probably save on the order of $20/hr on the operating costs.
    
   As for the aircraft – I *love* the DA40, but the DA20 is too small for me (I’m 6’4″). Anyone 6 feet or more will have trouble fitting in the DA20. The DA40 still makes a good primary trainer and has excellent flight characteristics, and most of them have the glass panel that the foreign ab initio students are going to want. The only other choice, IMO, is the Cessna 172. It’s easy enough and forgiving enough to learn on, but it’s not so easy as to allow bad habits to develop (with the exception that the steerable nosewheel can lead to some complacency in terms of flying the aircraft even when the wheels are on the ground).
    
   Once you get it going, then you’ll need to consider complex and multi-engine airplanes to finish off the commercial students… But that’s a ways off. 
    
   Good luck!

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5. 
   

   
   

   skyboyCFI on Feb 06, 2011

   Jame’s, answer is better.

   -3 Votes 0 Votes  3 Votes

6. 
   

   
   

   skyboyCFI on Feb 07, 2011

   Oops, I can’t spell.

   James’s answer is best.

   My favorite part is where James advises you to pay your instructors well. :-P. I agree.

   -3 Votes 0 Votes  3 Votes

7. 
   

   
   

   Mike Matthews on Dec 29, 2020

   I have a question about what local municipalities and cites can charge in excess of what the FAA requires to be and work as an instructor. A flight school at the airport is working with a local municipality to do just that. The maintenance facility on the field has several airplanes that they rent out and myself and several others instruct students who have rented those planes. The municipality is trying to impose a $500.00 a yr fee at the insistence of the existing flight school on us for the privilege of instructing at that airport. Something seems fishy about the concept to me. The owner of the flight school is not a pilot. Has no experience running a flight school and seems only to want to make money by driving out in any way possible any other entity that might, in his estimation, be competing with his school. I’ve been instructing for over 20yrs and I’ve never heard of anything like this. The aforementioned flight school seems to want to be the only entity offering planes and instruction on the field. It is creating quite a storm on the field. My question is: have you ever heard of this kind of arrangement and is it legal or enforceable?

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