How hard would it be to freelance instruct as a career or start a flight school?

Posted by Happy-Wrongdoer2438@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 4 comments

I have been a CFI for about a year now and find I really quite enjoy it. I've worked both 141 and 61 and I love the 61 environment, but my only issue is that I don't make enough money to make it a career for 30 years. I have 3 checkride failures and the markets no good right now anyway so it got me thinking, how hard would it be to buy or find a plane to instruct out of and just freelance or run my own school full time? If any school owners are here I'd love to hear what it's like!

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ltcterry@reddit

That’s two widely divergent options. Freelance is pretty easy if you have access to airplanes. Some airports may not want you skulking around under the radar as an independent flight instructor w/o a business license.

Doing something w/ your own airplane(s) is probably a complex money loser.

There’s always truth in good humor - “how do you retire with a small fortune in aviation? Start with a large one!” Ha ha.

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anaqvi786@reddit

I did something quasi-similar. Connected with an airplane owner to start a school up.

You can be profitable and make money if you run the operation well. That means separating your instruction services as your own entity, and the aircraft rental as its own thing if they’re owned separately.

You can also market your services via Google My Business, which will show you as a listing when people look up flight schools in your area. Build out a decent website and be approachable by phone, and over a few months you can get a steady list of clients that you’re instructing.

Keep in mind however much you invest will determine how much you get, and after a certain point there’s diminishing returns.

Ultimately the rules of scale will help your school grow into a career earning operation, or it could mean thin margins and it being worth more to go to the 121 world. We’re at the point in the hiring cycle now where there’s captains at the regional level, and a bunch of FOs. Airlines that forced upgrades aren’t forcing them anymore (unsure about Envoy but I’m talking about SkyWest, and presumably other regionals that did force them). Later this year when the majors start hiring much quicker, we’ll see more regional vacancies as FOs upgrade to Captain, and we’ll be back at an FO shortage again. This is par for the course that we saw 4 years ago. And I can guarantee you, you’ll have a class at a regional within 12-18 months as things recover if the COVID timeline is something to go off of.

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bhalter80@reddit

I did this too and have as much business as I can handle while keeping my day job

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rFlyingTower@reddit

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