Instructing through college

TechFlyer · July 25th, 2006, 22:48

Hey everyone, I'm transferring to another college which has left me with 5 months to kill. It's looking like I'm going to use this time to do ATP's 90 day program and then instruct part-time while I finish my degree. Are there any instructors out there who go to college full time as well? I'm curious to see how well this plan works out. I've been in college for a couple years now and I've had no problems but I'm curious how it may be if I instruct on the side. I'm not really sure what type of time commitment is required to instruct so I'm curious what others think. Thanks!

Andrew_VT · July 25th, 2006, 23:38

wow my limited aviation career story can actually be benificial to someone. Oh and i just turned 21 today so I'm a little tipsy right now, ended the night early cause i have an appt for another 2nd class medical tomarrow morning so bear with me. I went to college for a year, 2 different schools, the first one in another country (hint: awesome beer!) then the second one a cheap state college within driving distance...both for business administration. While doing homework i realized how much i hate deadlines and the 9 to 5 thing (to structured, could see my whole life pass before me boring as hell and ending up an old guy staring at the clock like in that movie "About Schmit").

I already had my PPL and wanted to make a career of it, but the training wasent working with college, the two kinds of studying didnt mix well for me, i couldnt be stressed about even more stuff! So realizing i wasent getting anywhere i took a semister off, packed some clothes into a pop-up camper i borrowed from my uncle, found a campground and part 61 flight school with good rates in orlando, and drove down towing a puke green rectangle behind my '96 accord.

Seeing part 121 kids walk around in queer ass little uniforms with 2 stripes on them almost activates my gag reflex so deciding on a part 61 operation was easy for me. Anyway i did UVSC's online courses for this semister so i wouldnt get behind and was able to pull off 20 credits in one semister for wicked cheap. 12 credits i actually took the classes for (spent 4, 8 hour days with the laptop on the couch in front of the TV...real hard semister for andrew:-)

Another anyway, training in FL in the winter is much more productive than VT and i since i took the spring semister off I had all summer to get started as a CFI, but one school started again it wasent a problem. I live at home now, live 10 min from the airport and 50 min from college. I strongly recommend against living on campus if you want to multi-task your life....it dosent work, i tried it. Live somewhere completely seperate from school, schedual your classes together in the evenings (or mornings if your a morning person) and you can spend more time at the airport than at school, much more time.

I took a full 16 credits last semister and took just evening classes mon-thurs with a sat morning class too. Therefore i was available to my students mon-thurs 9am-3:30 (i dont like waking up before 8 if i dont have to) and fri-sun except sat. morning...not exsactly a big deal. Besides, if i didnt have instructing to keep me out of the college rut...I'd have gone crazy by now.

So there you go...I just broke one of my cardinal rules (dont drink and type) I'll probably regret it in the morning. Oh and I got my CFI 4/05 with like 310hours and now i have over 950, coulda done better at a real flight school but at my podunk little FBO I'm the only CFI in town(major networking opertunities) and i can live at home.
Andrew

TechFlyer · July 30th, 2006, 02:11

Happy belated birhtday. It sounds like you've got a pretty sweet setup right now. Hopefully it will work out that well for me. How many hours a month do you log on average while going through school? You must do alright to have 950 hours already.

DE727UPS · July 30th, 2006, 02:19

"Seeing part 121 kids walk around in queer ass little uniforms with 2 stripes on them almost activates my gag reflex so deciding on a part 61 operation was easy for me"

You're my hero.

Andrew_VT · July 30th, 2006, 13:36

"How many hours a month do you log on average while going through school?"

It varies, i think i hit my low in Feb. with only like 20. I live in a rural area so interest seems to come in waves, and i do way to many intro flights (that $49 dollar legal airride crap). I've had more students than i can count or even remember (which is embarrasing sometimes when people come up to you and you have no idea who they are), but ive also had a serious "core" of students that ive done most of my flying with, from private thru instrument. Being the only CFI somewhere kinda makes you married to you cellphone, cause you're the "it" guy for students past present and future. I like it, but only cause i live so close to the airport. Otherwise i would want a job where i could have more definitively schedualed hours and fly more hours when im at work. Except on long cross countries I almost never get half as much flight time as the time I'm at the airport. i.e. If i have a pre-solo lesson (1.0 flight time) at 4pm, I hardly ever leave the airport for home before 6pm even if i try. As far as workload, only a few times have i canceled or defered lessons because of schoolwork, and its easy to do. Just say you have a big paper due and everyone is understanding. During the last few weeks of every semister just tell people ahead of time you arn't going to be able to fly as much.

Andrew

July 25th, 2006, 22:48	#1
TechFlyer Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 345	Instructing through college Hey everyone, I'm transferring to another college which has left me with 5 months to kill. It's looking like I'm going to use this time to do ATP's 90 day program and then instruct part-time while I finish my degree. Are there any instructors out there who go to college full time as well? I'm curious to see how well this plan works out. I've been in college for a couple years now and I've had no problems but I'm curious how it may be if I instruct on the side. I'm not really sure what type of time commitment is required to instruct so I'm curious what others think. Thanks!

July 25th, 2006, 23:38	#2
Andrew_VT Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Vermont Posts: 617	Re: Instructing through college wow my limited aviation career story can actually be benificial to someone. Oh and i just turned 21 today so I'm a little tipsy right now, ended the night early cause i have an appt for another 2nd class medical tomarrow morning so bear with me. I went to college for a year, 2 different schools, the first one in another country (hint: awesome beer!) then the second one a cheap state college within driving distance...both for business administration. While doing homework i realized how much i hate deadlines and the 9 to 5 thing (to structured, could see my whole life pass before me boring as hell and ending up an old guy staring at the clock like in that movie "About Schmit"). I already had my PPL and wanted to make a career of it, but the training wasent working with college, the two kinds of studying didnt mix well for me, i couldnt be stressed about even more stuff! So realizing i wasent getting anywhere i took a semister off, packed some clothes into a pop-up camper i borrowed from my uncle, found a campground and part 61 flight school with good rates in orlando, and drove down towing a puke green rectangle behind my '96 accord. Seeing part 121 kids walk around in queer ass little uniforms with 2 stripes on them almost activates my gag reflex so deciding on a part 61 operation was easy for me. Anyway i did UVSC's online courses for this semister so i wouldnt get behind and was able to pull off 20 credits in one semister for wicked cheap. 12 credits i actually took the classes for (spent 4, 8 hour days with the laptop on the couch in front of the TV...real hard semister for andrew:-) Another anyway, training in FL in the winter is much more productive than VT and i since i took the spring semister off I had all summer to get started as a CFI, but one school started again it wasent a problem. I live at home now, live 10 min from the airport and 50 min from college. I strongly recommend against living on campus if you want to multi-task your life....it dosent work, i tried it. Live somewhere completely seperate from school, schedual your classes together in the evenings (or mornings if your a morning person) and you can spend more time at the airport than at school, much more time. I took a full 16 credits last semister and took just evening classes mon-thurs with a sat morning class too. Therefore i was available to my students mon-thurs 9am-3:30 (i dont like waking up before 8 if i dont have to) and fri-sun except sat. morning...not exsactly a big deal. Besides, if i didnt have instructing to keep me out of the college rut...I'd have gone crazy by now. So there you go...I just broke one of my cardinal rules (dont drink and type) I'll probably regret it in the morning. Oh and I got my CFI 4/05 with like 310hours and now i have over 950, coulda done better at a real flight school but at my podunk little FBO I'm the only CFI in town(major networking opertunities) and i can live at home. Andrew

July 30th, 2006, 02:11	#3
TechFlyer Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Pittsburgh Posts: 345	Re: Instructing through college Happy belated birhtday. It sounds like you've got a pretty sweet setup right now. Hopefully it will work out that well for me. How many hours a month do you log on average while going through school? You must do alright to have 950 hours already.

July 30th, 2006, 02:19	#4
DE727UPS Old Skool Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Spokane, WA Posts: 6,546	Re: Instructing through college "Seeing part 121 kids walk around in queer ass little uniforms with 2 stripes on them almost activates my gag reflex so deciding on a part 61 operation was easy for me" You're my hero.

July 30th, 2006, 13:36	#5
Andrew_VT Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Vermont Posts: 617	Re: Instructing through college "How many hours a month do you log on average while going through school?" It varies, i think i hit my low in Feb. with only like 20. I live in a rural area so interest seems to come in waves, and i do way to many intro flights (that $49 dollar legal airride crap). I've had more students than i can count or even remember (which is embarrasing sometimes when people come up to you and you have no idea who they are), but ive also had a serious "core" of students that ive done most of my flying with, from private thru instrument. Being the only CFI somewhere kinda makes you married to you cellphone, cause you're the "it" guy for students past present and future. I like it, but only cause i live so close to the airport. Otherwise i would want a job where i could have more definitively schedualed hours and fly more hours when im at work. Except on long cross countries I almost never get half as much flight time as the time I'm at the airport. i.e. If i have a pre-solo lesson (1.0 flight time) at 4pm, I hardly ever leave the airport for home before 6pm even if i try. As far as workload, only a few times have i canceled or defered lessons because of schoolwork, and its easy to do. Just say you have a big paper due and everyone is understanding. During the last few weeks of every semister just tell people ahead of time you arn't going to be able to fly as much. Andrew

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