burnout

[roundout]

a question for those of us who are or were instructing to as a full-time CFI: how many hours of flight instruction did you dole out before starting to get burned out? anybody brave enough to fight through the problem and keep instructing, or is it easier to start firing off resumes in hope of making the next step? any input appreciated.

[desertdog71]

Originally Posted by roundout

a question for those of us who are or were instructing to as a full-time CFI: how many hours of flight instruction did you dole out before starting to get burned out? anybody brave enough to fight through the problem and keep instructing, or is it easier to start firing off resumes in hope of making the next step? any input appreciated.

Most of the CFI's I have met are Burnouts.

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by roundout

a question for those of us who are or were instructing to as a full-time CFI: how many hours of flight instruction did you dole out before starting to get burned out? anybody brave enough to fight through the problem and keep instructing, or is it easier to start firing off resumes in hope of making the next step? any input appreciated.

I was getting burned out CFI'ing because I had a bunch of privates and nothing else. I ended up at another school teaching in slightly bigger planes teaching private-multi, much better.

If you're getting 'burned out', it's probably because you're doing the same thing over and over again...

P.S. I had 1500 dual given when I left cfi'ing

[airhog]

I am coming up on 700 hours of dual given and I am still going strong. I have been instructing now for almost three years, and I am enjoying every minute of it.

[WAFlyBoy]

I think the key to long-term success is changing it up a little. Like Wheelsup said, if you're doing the same thing over and over, you'll get tired of it before too long.

Example: I am instructing at a flight academy teaching foreign students. All of my students started at the same time, so you can imagine how "burnt out" I was after two weeks of landing practice. Try spending 60 consecutive hours in the traffic pattern.

I found that doing something else on the side helps. I fly skydivers on the weekends, which is a lot of fun. I tend to come back to my instructing job with a clean slate and ready for new challenges every Monday.

With almost 1000TT and 550 dual given, do I feel ready to move on? Sure I do... but I also realize that I could learn a few more things before I sit in the front seat of an airplane travelling at 75% the speed of sound.

[MSNFlyer]

With almost 700 dual given in the last 6 months I am finding myself just a bit singed at the edges but still loving it.

Variety is definitely the key--if you can go out and do something different (even just going up by yourself and actually FLYING the airplane instead of just sitting in the right seat watching) it really helps. I am working on my MEI so that keeps it fresh for me--I love still being a student and being outside my comfort zone a little in the twin.

[nosehair]

Mixing it up is the way to go. Most instructors make the same mistake their instructor made - goin' round and round the patern over and over or just doing the PTS maneuvers with little or no imagination of making up scenarios or doing stuff in the airplane flying handbook that we are supposed to be teaching anyway.

Slips, cross-control stalls, forced landings on take off with runway remaining, and on the climbout with enough airspeed/altitude to make a turn-around to the runway, an infinite variety of stalls with different speeds, power settings, flap settings, straight, turning, chandelles, lazy-8's, power-off accuracy,...now there's one guaranteed to hose down the burn-out. Get into an accuracy contest with your student....

[kellwolf]

Mixing it up helps. Do like Matt (damn, we've got two Matts in this thread), WAFlyBoy suggested and mix it up. I had close to 700 dual given when I moved on. I never really got burned out even though I was flying damn near every day. I mixed it up the best I could. I'd have a PPL in the morning, and sim session somewhere else during the day and an MEI student here and there. I was one of the lucky ones since I had about twice as many commercial students as PPLs.

BTW, Wheelsup. I know you had at least one student for ME sim stuff before you moved on to that academy type place.

[ryanmickG]

I have just about 2000 hours of dual given, and belive me thier are many days i would rather be mowing my lawn then sitting in an airplane wathcing students blow right through a localizer i just spent 10 minutes vectoring them for.

matt and steve give good advice, i have nothing to add

[Foxcow]

Once I got over 300-400 dual, I was starting to burn. I had to change it up to keep my sanity. I was able to get commercial-multi and instrument students with a few primaries.

[jrh]

I started to burn out after about 500 hours of instruction given. I had been teaching mostly primary students in C-152s at a Class D airport on the west coast.

Thanks to some non-aviation circumstances in my life, I'm now teaching primary students in a C-150 at a private grass strip on the east coast. It's the same type of plane, same type of students, but entirely different environment. It's great.

So my point is, even an apparently lateral move for you in the instructing world might be enough to keep things exciting. Just do the same thing in a different place.