1500 hours of flight time feels daunting and quite honestly, unreachable when you start time building. For most, you start officially counting down once you get your flight instructor certificates and start instructing, right around 250 hours. For me, I started instructing at 274 hours. I remember it like it was yesterday, passing my CFI-A checkride, printed certificate in hand, fresh off the printer with the DPE's verification and signed by me validating that I was finally a Certified Flight Instructor.
Before we dig into the meat and potatoes of this post, let me also make it known that 1500 hours of flight time does not make me know it all as a pilot like some lead to believe. It's actually quite the contrary, I now realize just how much I do not know which I believe makes me a better aviator.
Anyways, why I feel like that is for another blog post! This one deals with the grind aspect of achieving 1500 hours.
So there I was at 274 hours of total flight time feeling like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders, and while I did celebrate that achievement I started to understand what I had just accomplished. Now, a whole new "weight" came down on me, the feeling and understanding that you are now responsible for training others and making them into safe and proficient pilots.
I've read arguments about flight instructors that are strictly building hours for the airlines or the next thing. I've also read arguments that there needs to be more dedicated flight instructors in the industry. Personally, I wanted to give to my students what I lacked at times during my training. I didn't want flight instruction to become tedious, or dare I say it, boring. I want my students to know that someone cares about their progression, someone is willing to take the time to invest in them and help make them safe and proficient pilots. I have also always kept my options open. I did apply to less than a handful of jobs during the 1,500 hour journey, but my commitment to my students has not and will not change. Needless to say, along your own personal journey there will be days where you believe the grass is greener on the other side while other and most days, you will absolutely love instructing and training other pilots.
During my training time I didn't fully understand the concept of the Hobbs and tach time. I knew that it kept time on the aircraft and was also utilized for billing, but for whatever reason I didn't fully grasp it until becoming an instructor. Some flight schools believe as soon as you walk in their door you are being charged, others believe there is a balance between billing and the time the student is there. Thankfully, my experience has been the latter, a much more balanced approach to billing and common sense approaches.
Why do I mention hobbs and tach time? The FAA limits a flight instructors time in the air per day to 8 hours of flight training. When I first started instructing, my goal was to fly 6 days a week and get as close as possible to those 8 hours everyday. What I didn't realize was the amount of things that surround those 8 hour days. When you learn of the regulation limiting the time we can flight instruct, you think that there is no possible way you could ever or would want to limit your time in the air, but man was I wrong.
For the first 3 months of instructing I did just that, I worked 6 days a week and flew as much as possible. My commute to work was only 7 minutes and I was full throttle. What could go wrong? I'll tell you what. FLYING. Yes, it's true. Flying started to feel like a job, not something I'm passionate about and loved. I had a huge issue on my hands. My 6 days a week schedule was set with my students, all I was doing was work, eat, sleep and fly. But I was burning myself out, and quickly. Thankfully, I noticed it, I changed my schedule to 5 days a week, and that was all the difference.
No one also prepares you for the multiple 12-16 hour days you will have. No, you're not flying or doing ground for all of those hours, but things outside of the plane still have to take place. Briefing before and after, securing the aircraft, paperwork, answering student questions and concerns, talking to new potential customers, time in between lessons, this list could continue going on. And then, you're only paid for the billable hours. So a 12 hour day you might only be paid for 5 of those hours. This is a very unforgiving aspect of our flight training industry but it's part of the process as well. Is it ideal? No. But is it reality for most flight training schools? Yes.
I'm not telling you this and asking for your pity, anything but! I'm telling you this because it's a grind and it's going to take everything you got. And even then, we are very blessed to live in a time where once you hit your 1500 hours, there are a lot of opportunities for you to pursue and you'll probably get something sooner rather than later. Just a decade ago you'd hit those 1500 hours and there was absolutely no prospect for you to get hired somewhere. I've talked to instructors who have given 2,000 or 3,000 hours of dual given before getting hired! By the way, there is nothing wrong with this, it's just where we were as an industry a short time ago.
My first 800 hours of instructing I was part of a larger flight school in the DFW area. I always told myself once I hit 1,000 hours that I'd reevaluate where I was and what I was doing. At that time I was feeling a bit mundane and wanting a new horizon. There was absolutely nothing wrong with where I was at, I loved the school and still wish for it's absolute success, but from talking with my mentor and with encouragement from my wife, I decided to start instructing independently. The entrepreneur inside me wanted more of a challenge and I wanted to get the last 500 hours through my own efforts. And it has been such a wonderful decision that I don't deserve but I thank God for allowing me the opportunity to run a business. There are hard days, there are great days, and there are days in between, but I wouldn't change it.
A typical day of a independent flight instructor begins in the morning, first lesson. Then potentially flying to another airport and conducting another lesson, then flying back to the airport base. You have a little time in between to grab lunch and chill out at the airport, then have an afternoon ground lesson and then one last flight lesson welcoming the early evening after. Once you're done you fuel that airplane up, place her back in the hangar, clean her up and tuck her in for the night. You go home, sleep, wake up, and do it all over again.
So, if you're considering becoming a flight instructor I can't recommend it enough. It will make you a way better pilot. And if you're already one and going through the grind my best advice to you is to take it one lesson at a time, one flight at a time, be professional, do your best, and most importantly, have fun!
Blue skies and safe flying my friends!
-Jeff