CFIs Needed

[mtsu_av8er]

Originally Posted by aloft

If you figure 100 hrs flight instruction and 100 hrs ground instruction per month, you're looking at $43,200/year before taxes. Add the value of room and board (which will likely have to be valued as income for tax purposes), and that's a $50-60k CFI job. Not even Lloyd is doing that well!

You're absolutely right, aloft! I spent last night going over the fine points of this place - doesn't seem too bad!!!

[adreamer]

send you my resume

[flyguy]

Originally Posted by aloft

More than likely, they are former "bachelor airmens quarters", single occupancy, with you and your next door neighbor sharing a bathroom and shower connecting your two rooms. The facilities are probably somewhat spartan, but it's hard to knock "free".

If you figure 100 hrs flight instruction and 100 hrs ground instruction per month, you're looking at $43,200/year before taxes. Add the value of room and board (which will likely have to be valued as income for tax purposes), and that's a $50-60k CFI job. Not even Lloyd is doing that well!

You hit the nail on the head with the quarters. That's exactly it. Share a shower and a toilet with the guy in the next room, but you get a sink to yourself. They are larger and nicer than my college dorms, but some instructors were saying their dorms were better in college, so I'd guess its about the same as an average college dorm.

I do think you are a little optomistic about the amount of instruction you'd be doing. 100 hours hours of flight instruction might happen ocasionally, but 80 to 90 is more realistic, and you probably won't do more than about 50 hours of ground unless you are are teaching groundschool (in which case you'll have fewer students). Our chief estimates you'll bank about $2500 per month. Add in free room and board and its more like 35-40K, which is still not bad for a CFI though.

[aloft]

My guesstimate was based on .5 pre- and .5 post-flight instruction/brief/debrief, which would presumably be more on some flights and less on others. Even so, it's still a good deal and a good opportunity to save some cash for the poverty of 1st yr regional FO pay.

I am serious about my concern over flying with stinky dudes...one wing of the dorms I lived in in college was devoted to graduate students--most of whom were Chinese--and that wing absolutely reeked. There are apparently no health reasons to shower more than once a week, so many cultures only shower once a week. Not sure I can handle sitting in an airplane with that sort of stench every day, hopefully hygiene can be incorporated into their CRM training or something!

[subpilot]

Going for my CFI tomorrow with the FAA and I am currently in Fresno. This looks very interesting if everything being said is accurate. I would love to get my hands on a Twin Star.

[Sandog]

Originally Posted by flyguy

They are charging China Air and Shanghai airlines lots of money.

We'll need 12 instructors right away to start in December-January. That is guarenteed. If you want to talk projected, between the two airlines we'll have over 200 students and will need over 50 instructors, and according to the chief, Air China just asked us if we could handle 800 students. Its safe to say we'll be continually hiring instructors for a while, and starting new classes every few months.

Flyguy
I would love to come up and fly as an instructor but cant start until Feb. 06.
Question
How many planes will you have for 200-800 students and 50 instructors.

[subpilot]

resume sent.

Thanks

[flyguy]

Originally Posted by Sandog

How many planes will you have for 200-800 students and 50 instructors.

I'm not sure, but it'll be quite a few.

[Philip]

sent my resume too, I can start whenever.
Just need a couple days to pack and tie things up here and drive out.

[Grabo172]

I think I'll pack up and mov... oh wait, I'm still stuck here in Charleston in the Navy!!! Darn stupid Nav... grrrr

In all seriousness, this sounds like a good opportunity for the willing and able. That's a very livable salary!

Good luck to all that are applying!

Sounds like all of JC will be out there!!!

[Philip]

we can have next years meeting in the cafeteria!

[Screaming_Emu]

Originally Posted by Philip

we can have next years meeting in the cafeteria!

does the cafeteria have free booze?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by Screaming_Emu

does the cafeteria have free booze?

BYOB?
doesn't matter to me anyway. Hate the crap.

BTW if anyone gets a call they should post it here
that way I'll know if I suck and they don't want me, or if they're just not calling anyone for awhile.

[subpilot]

Should I also be sending my resume directly to Sierra Academy? I trust that you are hooking us up and I appreciate this but I just want to cover all the bases.

[flyguy]

If you send it to Sierra Academy most likely it will go to the main campus, and whoever gets it may or may not realize you are aplying for the castle program and it will most likely get thrown out because the main campus is not hiring from outside Sierra. There's really no way of contacting the castle campus because as of yesterday we didn't even have phones installed. I don't think we have a mailing adress yet either. If you send me a resume I'll get it to the asst chif who is in charge of hiring. If you already sent it to me as of yesterday morning it has been directly handed to the asst. Chief already. If you sent it after yesterday morning I'll get it in some time next week. He was excited to see the resumes and you all should be expecting calls some time over the next few weeks.

[SkiHigh2002]

Resume sent... hope I hear something.

Chris

[GreenDayPilot]

just of out curiosity... how many resume's did you hand in all together??.... and how many positions are available?

[flyguy]

I recieved seven that I handed in yesterday and one more today. We'll need 12 instructors for the first wave of Shanghai students comming in the next couple months (December-January, all depens on TSA). Sierra trained instructors get first shot but we already took just about everyone who is ready so you guys are the majority of the pool. If you don't get called this time around, we'll be hiring another 6 instructors per month until we get about 50. If we get enough capacity to handle all the sudents Air China wants to send us, we'll need over 200 instructors. If you don't get a call in the next few weeks let me know and i'll make some inquiries, and make sure your resume didn't get tossed into a pile and forgotten.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by flyguy

I recieved seven that I handed in yesterday and one more today. We'll need 12 instructors for the first wave of Shanghai students comming in the next couple months (December-January, all depens on TSA). Sierra trained instructors get first shot but we already took just about everyone who is ready so you guys are the majority of the pool. If you don't get called this time around, we'll be hiring another 6 instructors per month until we get about 50. If we get enough capacity to handle all the sudents Air China wants to send us, we'll need over 200 instructors. If you don't get a call in the next few weeks let me know and i'll make some inquiries, and make sure your resume didn't get tossed into a pile and forgotten.

Here's to hoping!

[moxiepilot]

listen to CAVOK!

Spartan School did this same thing and I can't tell you how many problems it caused. Check it out before you jump in - some headaches are not worth it.

Isn;t there a thread on all of the things the international student pilots did which placed the training CFI's in joepardy of loosing their certs? You would not believe the stories!

[flyguy]

Originally Posted by moxiepilot

listen to CAVOK!

Did you read Cavok's post? According to Cavok it is a good deal, it will just be a challenge.

Care to elaborate on what was causing the CFIs to potentially lose their certs?

BTW Sierra has been doing international airline contracts for over 40 years. We just haven't ever done anything on this magnitude.

[CAVOK]

When I was instructing a few guys had some problems with their students. I just took a lot of time with mine and made sure they had a firm grasp on what they needed to do when they were going solo.
One example when I was the "solo monitor" for the day:
I got a call from Flight Service saying that Oklahoma City Approach was on the phone and they were in radio contact with a 152 circling over Tinker AFB (not good). From the broken english they thought he was lost but were confident they could vector him to the airport he was looking for (which happened to be an uncontrolled field 35 miles EAST of there!!). They wanted to know what I wanted them to do. After they got him on the ground we went to pick him up. Not really any harm done, other than the conference the Chief and I had to have with his instrutor.
It was just dis-heartening to call for a WX brief the next morning and when I gave the briefer my name, he said "oh, we have you listed for involvement in a deviation yesterday...lost chinese student over Tinker...don't worry sir, it isn't the first time."
Luckily I wasn't his instructor .
The next month another student actually LANDED at Tinker without a clearance because he was lost. The Air Force detained him for a day and a half, and took the airplane for three days. His instructor got in trouble.

Like I said, it will be a huge challenge from an instructing standpoint. But if the aircraft are safe, cirriculum paced appropriately, and the school and instructors approach the contract with the proper attitude it will be a good experience for all.
If the contracts are structured the same, there will be a time frame for each class of students. This will lend itself easily to trying to rush them through...DON'T! Progress the your students as quickly as they can learn it (which is SLOW), and you shouldn't have any problem. The Asian aviation market is exploding and they need the pilots. Good luck!

Oh..also, for those of you who get the opportunity to instruct these "ducks out of water" Choose their solo XC's wisely. I imagine sending them out and about in the airspace in that part of the world could cause some damage if they aren't ready for it. Not much airspace to worry about in Oklahoma, but still they managed to find ways to get in trouble .

[moxiepilot]

Originally Posted by flyguy

Did you read Cavok's post? According to Cavok it is a good deal, it will just be a challenge.

Care to elaborate on what was causing the CFIs to potentially lose their certs?

BTW Sierra has been doing international airline contracts for over 40 years. We just haven't ever done anything on this magnitude.

Well, I guess I focused on the bulleted points numbered 1 through 5 which point out the difficulties of training international folks. Remember, the East is not the west; much of what CAVOK says is true - they will say yes, sir even if they have nno freaking idea what youre talking about. They seemed to do whatever they want to without regard to understanding how their choices affect others (see the circling over tinker and other one landing there). These are bad things.

I'm sure Sierra is great with international contracts. Are they mostly European contracts? Does Sierra have any experience with lets say Korea, Japan or India? If you do, great. Disregard any caution I might lay out there.

However, I'd suggest doing a search with the key words "Spartan" & "Chinese"

[Philip]

Sounds good to me. Thanks for the info cavok!
Still waiting anxiously

[project7]

I sent you a resume too.

I could definatley see there being a big language barrier problem, considering that chinese isn't even remotely related to english. Thats got to be tough for the chinese students to learn english and use it to learn all of this flyin' stuff.