Epic Aviation anyone?

[#1FMS]

Anyone have any info on pay, hrs/month, quality of fleet, etc. at Epic?

Thanks.

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by #1FMS

Anyone have any info on pay, hrs/month, quality of fleet, etc. at Epic?

Thanks.

are you speaking of epic aviation in FL (flight school?)

[#1FMS]

Yep, at New Smyrna.

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by #1FMS

Yep, at New Smyrna.

cfi pay is $40/hr last i heard, contract work. a buddy was working 100 hours/month there. good planes, I believe they are a CPC and have newer aircraft.

[Toonces]

RUN AWAY. Run as far away as you can. They have an above average to above average fleet. Their pay last time I knew was a progressive scale system. It starts @ $15 per hour for CFI's and goes up to $19 for MEI's. Sounds great so far right? Here is where they start to suck..... They have a fleet consisting of a 152, 172, 172 w/g1000, 172RG, 182 w/g1000, two Duchesses and a 172 with a Theilart diesel conversion. They are going to require you pay for standardization flights in every single aircraft type. However if you get checked out in the glass 182, you don't have to get checked out in the glass 172. They just raised their intructional rates to $55. You will be paying this rate for your standardization flights. Figure on well over $1000 just to get checked out in all their airplanes.

Epic seldom gives you any students. You have to ##### yourself out like a used car salesman. On any given day they have about 5 to 10 instructors milling around the FBO trolling for work. IT SUCKS. To make matters worse they hire new instructors all the time even when there are 50 guys with no students. They strangely on hire instructors willing to bring their students from another school to Epic. After those students finish up, the new instructor usually joins everyone else on the sofa in the back of the FBO. The busiest I ever was there I flew about 40 hours one month. I spent half of my paycheck in gas getting to and from "work".

Management is also a friggin joke there. They change Chiefs there as often as
Amelda Marcos changes shoes. God help you if you have a student that needs to fly the 172 RG. They only have one and its broken half the time and booked up all the time. Hope thats enough info for ya. Go apply somewhere else.

[Toonces]

Originally Posted by wheelsup

cfi pay is $40/hr last i heard, contract work. a buddy was working 100 hours/month there. good planes, I believe they are a CPC and have newer aircraft.

It used to be $30 an hour. They only did that for less than a year. There are a few guys there that work alot. They are never new instructors. Usually the guys that are actually busy find their own students or get some handed to them from guys that are leaving. If you are a new CFI stay far far away. Like Daytona far.

[wheelsup]

i wondered how they were making any money off their cfi's

the thing that turned me off from them was the pay for checkouts. that's rediculous. they're using CFI's as a money making venture...

as far as getting your own students, that's pretty much standard fare for most FBO's. It's partly what made up my mind about going to an academy to instruct. unfortunately, I was sorta forced into the decision but it worked out well.

[#1FMS]

Originally Posted by Toonces

RUN AWAY. Run as far away as you can. They have an above average to above average fleet. Their pay last time I knew was a progressive scale system. It starts @ $15 per hour for CFI's and goes up to $19 for MEI's. Sounds great so far right? Here is where they start to suck..... They have a fleet consisting of a 152, 172, 172 w/g1000, 172RG, 182 w/g1000, two Duchesses and a 172 with a Theilart diesel conversion. They are going to require you pay for standardization flights in every single aircraft type. However if you get checked out in the glass 182, you don't have to get checked out in the glass 172. They just raised their intructional rates to $55. You will be paying this rate for your standardization flights. Figure on well over $1000 just to get checked out in all their airplanes.

Epic seldom gives you any students. You have to ##### yourself out like a used car salesman. On any given day they have about 5 to 10 instructors milling around the FBO trolling for work. IT SUCKS. To make matters worse they hire new instructors all the time even when there are 50 guys with no students. They strangely on hire instructors willing to bring their students from another school to Epic. After those students finish up, the new instructor usually joins everyone else on the sofa in the back of the FBO. The busiest I ever was there I flew about 40 hours one month. I spent half of my paycheck in gas getting to and from "work".

Management is also a friggin joke there. They change Chiefs there as often as
Amelda Marcos changes shoes. God help you if you have a student that needs to fly the 172 RG. They only have one and its broken half the time and booked up all the time. Hope thats enough info for ya. Go apply somewhere else.

Funny, this is almost exactly how I feel about where I teach now. I've been telling my wife and others how I feel like a used car salesman...All of us race to the phones, pounce on customers as soon as they get through the door...and the chief continues to hire!!! I was hoping to find a busier school where I didn't have to spend 40-50hrs/wk for 4hrs of flying at $13/hr. But hey, I guess we're living the dream.

[Toonces]

I used to think my instructor had the coolest job in the world. I think I figured out why he drove such a huge piece of #####.

[wheelsup]

Originally Posted by #1FMS

Funny, this is almost exactly how I feel about where I teach now. I've been telling my wife and others how I feel like a used car salesman...All of us race to the phones, pounce on customers as soon as they get through the door...and the chief continues to hire!!! I was hoping to find a busier school where I didn't have to spend 40-50hrs/wk for 4hrs of flying at $13/hr. But hey, I guess we're living the dream.

do yourself a favor and go to an academy or 'career' type school and instruct. you'll end up with more dedicated students, and fly more. *some* people have better luck part 61, I had a REALLY FUN time at the 61 schools I was at and had some AWESOME students, but they didn't fly a lot and almost all were privates. I know where you are coming from, and my life was better having made the move. I really liked where I was at though, it was a great school.

It's not for everyone, I like it better, some don't like it as much, but it sounds like you guys are similar to me.

there are a few schools out there that hire just enough CFI's to allow their instructors to actually make an OK living by flying. I was at one of those schools. It was nice. I never had to try and talk someone into a discovery flight again or answer phone calls for free. If the students didn't show up, per contract with the school they were charged for the aircraft AND INSTRUCTOR TIME. I got an instant 50% pay raise, cheap medical plan, non rev benefits, and flew 2x the amount and billed 3x the amount I was doing prior at the other 61 schools I worked at. I also taught quite a bit more instrument students and multi students.

[Pilot Hopeful]

In my experience, the Skyhawk SP fleet has been top-quality and well-maintained. As noted previously, the complex aircraft (172RG and Duchess) have presented some maintenance challenges that make regular scheduling interesting.

[EDUC8-or]

I worked there back in the $30 days. I was very busy and never had to sit around waiting for students. I had been working in the area for a while at several other flight schools and had a decent reputation. From a student's perspective, it's a good school with a great fleet. The CPC system sucks, though.

You won't get spoon fed there, that's for sure. You might also witness people trying to steal students and doing some sketchy stuff, but I've seen that everywhere I've instructed.

[Toonces]

Originally Posted by Pilot Hopeful

In my experience, the Skyhawk SP fleet has been top-quality and well-maintained. As noted previously, the complex aircraft (172RG and Duchess) have presented some maintenance challenges that make regular scheduling interesting.

I think #1FMS was more interested in what kind of place it was to work. I suspect Pilot Hopefull is one of Epics' minions. Nobody said they are a bad school to train at,although it's not the best bang for your buck if you ask me.

EDUC8-or I remember when you were there. You were won of the better instructors. I am glad you did well for yourself there. You deserved it. However a brand new instructor or a new one to the area with no reputation or gaggle of students to bring there with him will have a difficult time building a client base there. You are going to build more hours faster and sit around less at other schools that actually give you students. If you wanna play used car salesman go to Epic and work.

[EDUC8-or]

Originally Posted by Toonces

EDUC8-or I remember when you were there. You were won of the better instructors. I am glad you did well for yourself there. You deserved it. However a brand new instructor or a new one to the area with no reputation or gaggle of students to bring there with him will have a difficult time building a client base there. You are going to build more hours faster and sit around less at other schools that actually give you students. If you wanna play used car salesman go to Epic and work.

It can be difficult to start just about everywhere, but I'll agree Epic is more difficult than most places because there are probably about 2 or 3 instructors to 1 student. Plus that's a competitive area to find students because there are so many CFI's in the area.