CFIs Needed

[Philip]

any new news by chance?
anyone get a call?

[flygirl813126]

Can a resume get sent if not avaialble til the summer? Have to wait for the school year to end, but am interested.

[flyn_ace_99]

Wow, sounds like a good job. I'm very interested in it for the future. How will the students be towards female instructors? I have heard that many chinese students have a hard time taking instruction from a female instructor due to thier culture. How has that worked with other schools that have done this type of program?

[flyguy]

For those who will be available in the future, wait until you are ready to start before you apply, because otherwise your resume might just get thrown into a pile and forgotten. I'll walk in your resume when you are ready and it'll be fresh in the asst chief's mind.

For those that have already sent in resumes, I was told to tell you to expect a call sometime in mid December as that is when we will begin hiring for the next wave of students. There are a total of ten that have applied from JC, a handfull of others that other instructors recommended, and there will probably be a hanfull of Sierra grads (including myself) in that pool, so maybe half of you will at least be interviewed that round. The rest will have a very good shot at the next round two months later.

We have one female instructor already so obviously they don't have any isues hiring them. If you will be living on campus we just need to make sure your restroom mate is also female. Currently our one female instructor gets a restroom to herself, so there's a room saved for the next gal we hire. If the Chineese have a problem they will just have to live with it. We are an equal opportunity employer.

[Philip]

thanks for the update and all the help!

[Philip]

got an email on this today

My name is Carlos M. Lemesch. I'm the _____ for Sierra Academy of Aeronautics, Castle Airport located in Atwater, CA.

We are going to be conducting interviews and tests for the position of Flight/Ground Instructor for airline contract training between January 4 th and January 6th.

We are looking to hire around 12 flight instructors and 5 ground instructors. The contract is for a period of 10 month once you become a full time flight instructor.

The salary is $18/hr (flight instructor) and $15/hr (Ground Instructors). You are going to have around 100-120 hours (flight Instructors) and 80-100 hours (ground Instructors) of productivity per month.

A few of the benefits that are offered in this location are the free housing (saving you around $400-$500/month of rent), and free meals (breakfast, lunch, dinner saving you around $300/month of groceries).

You are going to have an entrance test: passing score of 85% is required to advance to the next stage. 50 points of the test are taken from the ATP written test and the other 50 points are based on general knowledge (Aerodynamics, Weather, FARs, PTSs, etc.)
After the test you can expect an interview.

If everything goes well you'll be called for an orientation and a flight exam.

If you pass all the phases successfully you will become part of the team for the airline contract training.

If you are interested please reply to one of the following e.mails.:


In the subject line please write your full name and add "Contract Training." And we will send you back and interview date and time. Please also attach your most current Resume.

Housing and meals will be provided for up to 2 nights for the interview and test.

Sincerely,

I dunno if I can make it. Short notice for getting the time off and making my way.

[jtrain609]

Got the same e-mail. I could make it happen but I don't think it's really worth it. I have not studied at all for the ATP written and the chances of making it happen between now and the 4th is small.

Anybody going?

[flyguy]

Wow, he told me he was going to send out an emil today, but I didn't know he was expecting you guys to fly yourselves out here on such short notice. i was thinking more along the lines of a phone interview as the first stage of the hiring process. But do your best I guess. If you are unable to make it out this time, we will be needing more instructors in a couple months so maybe you could email Carlos and arrange for an interview at a later time for a later program.

BTW he is an extreemely busy man, so don't take it personally if he dosn't get back to you right away.

Good Luck everyone.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by flyguy

i was thinking more along the lines of a phone interview as the first stage of the hiring process.

this is what I was thinking also, it's like he doesn't realize that we're all over the country and have to airline in. personally wed-tr-fri schedules are difficult for me to get off work anyway, and my ****ty job doesn't give me enough vacation to burn on something like this.
Anyway, it's a lot of money to spend on a gamble, I'm pretty rusty and couldn't get enough studying in anyway.

[GreenDayPilot]

Got the same email today. I appreciate the walk-in, fly guy, but I'm pretty settled in with this job I got going in SoCal.... thanks anyway and good luck to those who go for the interview.

[jtrain609]

flyguy,


I also VERY much appreciate the walk in, but I've also secured a job. I'm going to e-mail Carlos and ask him if I could do an interview a little bit down the road maybe as this is a pretty good deal, but questions off the ATP written for 300 hour flight instructors? Dunno man, that's a bit overkill for me.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by John Herreshoff

flyguy,


I also VERY much appreciate the walk in, but I've also secured a job. I'm going to e-mail Carlos and ask him if I could do an interview a little bit down the road maybe as this is a pretty good deal, but questions off the ATP written for 300 hour flight instructors? Dunno man, that's a bit overkill for me.

I appreciate the effort too, I imagine it took a bit of time putting up with all of us.
the written doesn't surprise me, the UND CFI written was un-freaking-believable. In fact, I'll take ATP questions over what I had to do for an interview there.

[jtrain609]

You're a dispatcher though, right? So you've probably had some experience with those questions. I majored in philosophy in college and I have not started looking at the ATP written quite yet. So those questions might as well be in greek to me. I know Part 61 and Part 91 answers, but that's it.

[Philip]

Originally Posted by John Herreshoff

You're a dispatcher though, right? So you've probably had some experience with those questions. I majored in philosophy in college and I have not started looking at the ATP written quite yet. So those questions might as well be in greek to me. I know Part 61 and Part 91 answers, but that's it.

Yes, but in 135 land I don't have to deal with much of it. Nor do I need a dispatchers ticket (not that the guys at work with dispatcher tickets seem to know much.) The majority of my job focuses on scheduling, dealing with bitching crews, coordinating crap, setting things up, and selling.
I haven't ACTIVELY flown since I graduated in dec '02, no money.

I guess I'll agree that asking questions beyond the scope of what you're teaching is probably a little unreasonable, ask me sometime what the interview is like at UND

[subpilot]

I have the advantage of being in Fresno so I don't have to arrange airfare and take several days off. $18/hr sure beats my current $10/hr. Here's hoping.

[Nick]

Mr. Lemesch seems to have his act together and I wish I could fly out there to interview or tour or even attempt the test. I wish I had my II and MEI now and not in two weeks. I am looking forward to the next wave of hiring here if there is one.

[adreamer]

flyguy

Thanks for your effort to walk - in my resume also. I have received the same email. Like many others, I have found something else for now. I would send an email regarding the future interview. If I see you in person, I would buy you a drink. Thanks a lot


adreamer

[subpilot]

I replied back to the email the very same day and still have not heard back with an interview day or time. I hope they are not expecting me to open up my schedule from Wed-Fri or drop everything when they email me back with the interview time 24hrs in advance.

[subpilot]

BTW,
What is the outlook for this school being at full capacity from day one?
What size is the current training fleet?
How many students can a CFI expect to have from the start of their employment?

I like the pay scale and I also look forward at the chance of flying diamond twin stars, but diamond only recently began delivering these planes and $18/hr does not mean much if I only have one or two students for the first two-four months.

[flyguy]

We are currently have 12 instructors, 43 students, 11 airplanes, and we are going at it full time. Representitives from Air China are very impressed with the operation and will be sending more students. We have prospects of a few other airlines wanting to send students also. We may also be re-opening the Stockton campus to accomidate one or two of them, but that's a bit further down the road, and hopefully we'll all have moved on by the time they get that going.

Unless you are hired as a team leader or ground school instructor you will get 4 students and will have those same four students throughout the whole program (unless changes need to be made for whatever reason). You will be training full time from day one (assuming TSA and weather cooperate, which is currently what is slowing us down a bit) As Carlos said in the email, you can expect 120 hours per month of activity (ground or flight instruction) so in 10 months you should grab at least 800 hours TT, 150-200 ME, and can expect $2000-$2500 per month on top of free room and board. You will be extreemely busy. Even with the above mentioned delays, we are on the verge of burnout.

I was told to stop handing in resumes for the time being however as we do have quite a few. But given the short notice he gave you all, I'm afraid we'll still be short a few instructors so he may start taking them again. The next hiring will be for a program beginning in July. If you don't get hired this time around and are still looking for work then, you might be able to interview then. Hopefully things will have settled down a bit by and they will have worked out something better for the hiring process.

Good luck to everyone. Sorry this hasn't turned out quite as nicely as we'd hoped.

Eric

[subpilot]

Just got the inventation to interview on Thursday. I can't find my ATP test prep book to save my life right now, oh well.
Thanks for everything Flyguy and see you Thursday.

[flyguy]

Cool,

I'll be teaching ground school until 12:15 but I'm free any time after that if you want to say hello.

[subpilot]

Are you a ground school instructor, or do CFI's also teach ground school.

[flyguy]

I am a ground instuctor and hopefully soon to be CFI. Right now none of the CFIs are teaching ground school but they can if the need arises.

[TheFlyingTurkey]

Originally Posted by CAVOK

This may be the exact same contract that I was instructing under when I was an instructor. However, my flight school has gotten greedy and since I left has been losing these contracts.

If Sierra has the contracts we used to have, it will be a great opportunity for instructors wishing to build time quick. My first day instructing the contracted students I was handed 4 Air China guys (on top of my 10! domestic students) and it was off and running...flew about 7 hours a day when the weather was nice....if it got crappy, we "visualized" on the white board for the entire 14 hr duty day. You will fly bunches.

The tough parts:
1) HORRIBLE ENGLISH!! It is tough to explain pitch angle and such for straight and level flight on the first lesson when you first must explain what a HORIZON is! And what you mean when you say sky, ground, angle, pitch, elevator, up, down, yes, no....etc.. Doing it while they are nervous, and talking through a crackling intercom over an engine at 2500rpm makes it even worse

2) The Chinese students will say "yes sir" to everything...whether they understand you or not. Making the question, "do you understand?" irrelavent. You have to make them show you.

3) Our students had never driven a car in China, so the normal hand-eye coordination most students have is not there. Does make it easy to teach taxiing. (no pre-programed muscle memory on how to turn a vehicle)

4) Finishing quickly was a matter of pride within their class. So sometimes they didn't want to learn the finer points. Tough to get them to listen sometimes.

5) Some of the toughest instructing you will ever do!!

But it is flying...a lot. So it is worth it. These students already have degrees in Engineering and Physics and stuff, so they are smart...and motivated. Just not the most prone to flying, the term "duck out of water" comes to mind.

Just the other day I recieved an email from a former student. He just finished his A320 training and is now observing for a year until he takes the right seat. Pretty cool to know that I planted the basics in him...now he is flying a 320.

You will be frustrated...but keep it fun and pray you get a student with decent english skills.

I have to agree with CAVOK on this. When I was an instructor at Pan Am I was a brand new CFI with 3 Chinese as my first students. WOW what a challenge! It was of course the English problem that was the main issue. A couple of the students had such a hard time learning English they were sent back to China (in total discrace because of their culture). I took them through Private, Instrument then Commercial Multi and I built up a boat load of time, and more importantly experience.
Then we got a contract with Korean Airlines and I got three South Korean students. WOW what a difference! These guys knew English pretty well, and that made all the difference in the world. Instructing actually became easy for me. And the $30K a year salary with weekends off was icing on the cake.
Now I make less money and work more. What the hell did I do?