said 50 an hour was too much for instruction!

[Mavmb]

Yeah, 50 dollars is what most flight schools in Phoenix charge for instruction. (Of course, those flight schools take 50 and pay their instructors 10) I don't know about other instructors, but for me flight instructing is not a way to "build hours." I take it very seriously; I have a lot of experience doing it now, and I work very hard for my students. So I politely informed that guy if money is what he is worried about he can go into a flight school, tell the instructors there that he has a plane, and he would find plenty of instructors that will work for ten dollars an hour, or even work for free. Then later on, if that CFI hasn't declared bankruptcy he can work for free for someone or some company with a KingAir too to build more time near the end of his instructing days. Maybe he can do one of the PFT programs and even pay some company for multi, or jet time. Sure, supply and demand; it's a free country, you can do what ever you want, but I will never call a pilot that takes that route a professional. In fact, I don't even consider that person much of a pilot.

[BrettInLJ]

Here is a listing of instructors at my old club in San Diego and what they charge. Typical is between $25-$35 with a couple at $50 for specialized instruction (tail wheel & high performance) by high-time CFI's:

http://www.plusone.org/cfilist.php

I am currently being charged $28/hour in the LA area for commercial instruction by a contract CFI.

[kellwolf]

I agree with everyone else. Charge the going rate of the flight schools in the area. If I tried to charge $50 for instruction in the DFW area, I'd probably be laughed at. Now, I know a couple of instructors that are WORTH $50 an hour because of their experience, but I'm not one of them. If I had 8000 hours of dual in aircraft, then I'd probably up my price, too. But, like KLB said, there are a LOT of flight schools in DFW, and $25-40 is about average for instruction. It was about the same back in Orlando for the same reason, competition. I'm betting Air Orlando has lost a lot of students b/c they upped their instruction prices. The instructors there are top notch (or were when I was there), but I don't feel that that warrants a three tiered price system. Oh, and last I heard, the instructors did NOT see a raise when they raised the instruction rate.....

[project7]

Heck, the bossman here just raised his rate from $75 to $100/hr. It's $50 for the me and the other instructors.

[Doug Taylor]

I still think it largely depends on marketing.

I knew a freelance CFI back in the bay area that heavily advertised in medical and local legal journals for professional flight instruction for "Busy Professionals" and he was charging $75.

He was pretty busy too, but considering I was a time builder and wanted the stability of having a busy student load at a flight school.

If you want to charge $50, charge $50. Besides, if a $10 to $15 premium over the average CFI rate is going to break his wallet, chances are, he's going to go catatonic when tower instructs him to 'Go Around!" when he's working on his multi-engine.

[kellwolf]

If they even GET to Multi-engine training. Keep in mind that not everyone wants to do this as a career, especially those lawyers, doctors and research scientists. I've got a student that is the latter. He just wants to get his PPL to fly for fun, and he only flies on Sat mornings. His wife and daughter both have horses, so I'm thinking he might not be hurting in the $$ dept (he's doing his PPL in the 172SP instead of the older models). Maybe I just found my ride to Vegas.

[Doug Taylor]

Oh I agree.

Of all of the domestic students that I taught while a CFI, I'd say that only, perhaps, half of them were career-oriented if even that many.

[kellwolf]

And speaking of Doug's flight instruction days, you wouldn't happen to remember any useful Korean words like "Let go of the controls, we're going to die" would you? I might need them just in case....

[Doug Taylor]

Are you trying to get me beat up when I go out for bulgogi?