Quote:
Originally Posted by matt152  Life as a CFI?
Nasty, brutish, and short.
Actually, it's not bad if, like everything, you enjoy what you're doing.
I wouldn't do it for the money. And I would not switch from a decent career if I had a wife and family. But it is rewarding to see a student you trained become a private pilot or add an instrument rating. |
That's only if you're an average, run of the mill, dime-a-dozen type of CFI, like everybody is when they're first starting out. If you have nothing to offer outside of "I can teach private pilots real good," then you won't be able to command much in terms of pay or schedule.
If you have a niche, that's the way to have a good life. You have to become *the* guy to go to for Cirrus training, or glass panels, or tailwheel, or aerobatics, or instrument training, or long cross countries, or whatever. Authoring books, doing seminars, etc. are also good ways to become respected and have a true career in teaching.
When you look at all the big names in flight training, they all specialize. John and Martha King, Rod Machado, Rich Stowell, Greg Brown, Max Trescott, Greg Koontz, etc...they all offer very specialized instruction in at least one niche market of some kind.
That being said, Matt's right about not leaving a good career with a wife and family to provide for in order to become a CFI. There are CFIs who have figured out a way to be very successful as CFIs, so it's definitely possible, but I wouldn't count on it as a surefire way to be rich. Like anything in aviation, instructing can be an unstable, fickle area at times.
I would recommend working through your ratings with as little debt as possible, then working part time as a CFI to build some experience at being a good teacher, and *then* if you're fairly confident you could cut out a niche for yourself, jump in full time and try to make it happen.