how much do CFI’s get paid?

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Familiar_Register_70@reddit

Try paying 440hr for rental and 75 for ground and getting paid 15 for ground and 20 for flight time.

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not5150@reddit

I knew one CFI who worked at In and Out. According to him, it effectively paid more per hour and the free food was a godsend for his budget.

It's funny, but sad at the same time.

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Kandranos@reddit

I did the math when I was CFIing. Chic Fil A 100% paid more.

For the CFIs in here struggling, look into blood plasma donation. I use to pull an extra 200-400$ a month doing that.

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I read that plasma donation was dangerous due to adverse effects at altitude is this true? It’s not illegal but maybe looked down upon by the FAA is the correct term. I used to not donate due to IMSAFE especially if I had a flight coming up being that I don’t know what it would do to me at altitude. Should I just donate and not worry about it?

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Kandranos@reddit

I donated more times than I can remember and had no issues flying the day after, but you do whats comfortable for you.

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Mintydreshness@reddit

You’re not wrong but this is so sad to read

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BarnackBro1914@reddit

It is sad, but not unusual; a lot of career fields have a "dues paying" phase.

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DBond2062@reddit

Try any field that tops out where airline pilots do. Medical school will cost twice as much, take four to eight times longer, and then you get four years of getting paid less than your student loan payments.

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LazyPasse@reddit

r/residency has entered the chat

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gnowbot@reddit

I think the best CFI job combo is evening bartender.

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jdankks@reddit

2nd this but late nights and early flights don’t mix well, I CFI Monday-Friday 8-6 and bartend Friday- Saturday 8pm-3am. Sleep schedule is destroyed but bartending keeps me above water….. just barely.

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caca6969999@reddit

Technically won’t you be grounded for 48 hours after that? Killing 2 days worth of salary?

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Kandranos@reddit

Plasma donating is not blood donating. Plasma requires a 4 hour recovery period.

https://www.faa.gov/ame_guide/app_process/exam_tech/item48/amd/bd

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caca6969999@reddit

Right, thanks for clarifying

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slendermanboxedwine@reddit

35K a year and that was doing pretty good

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run264fun@reddit

I know schools that charge $120/ hour for the CFI, but they take $95.

I’ve also heard of schools taking very little and the CFI gets the lions share of the fee.

Mine is half.

A lot of times I’ll just do ground sessions on the side me have them just Venmo me

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jdankks@reddit

Friend got fired for this be careful

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Hungry-Impression-17@reddit

I get paid $40/hour but I often spend 12 hours at the airport to make 4 hours of pay, get no shows, cancellations, plenty of weather cancellations… and only get paid the Hobbs time for the airplane, so if I spent 20 min briefing, pre flighting and debriefing it is unpaid.

In doing my 1099 taxes with the miles I drive there and back, I basically just am able to pay the government their fee for living in America lol.

I have a second job an also DoorDash to fill in.

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OkWorking3566@reddit

When I did my private ground at a part 61 I tried to meet my instructor outside that school directly so that I can pay him full amount directly to him, because I knew the school charged me 50 but probably paid him 20 🤦🏽‍♂️

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Affectionate_Aspect4@reddit

I know a CFI who is charging $120hr for instruction and $300hr to rent his 150.

He's a regional FO, and claims he does quite well. The 61 just down the street is 170 wet for a 172, and 60 for instruction. No idea how the independent is surviving.

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Affectionate_Aspect4@reddit

My wife's a nurse full time and pulled in almost 160k last year, I now slightly know how it feels to be a rich kid but I'm 30.

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Severe_Elderberry769@reddit

Man it surprises me how tough some guys have it. I get 50 an hour, over a hundred hours a month of flight time alone. I’m chilling.

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Pullinchocks@reddit

57 and hour. dc area

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whatdoestheregsay@reddit

Wait y’all get paid? /s

The CFI’s at my 141 get $19-23 an hour depending on if they’re an MEI/Check Airman/etc.

Some state schools with flight programs near us pay $25 an hour, but usually have a lower volume of students than the school I’m at.

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bdanza@reddit

They get paid?

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RoseAngel-16@reddit

My program charges $65/hr for a CFI, I get $42 of that per hour. I’m not complaining about the rate by any means, but being at “work” 7am-8pm and only being able to bill out 4.2hrs is exhausting

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TheVillianOfValley@reddit

How are you billing?

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RoseAngel-16@reddit

I’m only able to bill flight time and max 0.5hrs ground. Lots of unpaid work CFI’s are expected to do like washing planes, moving planes/stacking hangars, and coordinating maintenance. I’m also in an area with bad spring/winter weather. 4.2hrs was an exaggeration but most days it’s less, max hours I’ve EVER billed out was a little over 6

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TheVillianOfValley@reddit

That’s fucked. I’d never treat my Instructors like that.

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CheesyWilderness@reddit

Minimum wage when you look at hours worked

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DBond2062@reddit

CFI is not a career, it is a step along the way

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Verliererkolben@reddit

For real, maybe not “hours worked” but definitely time at work!

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Turbo_Normalized@reddit

Time at work is hours worked, unless you're literally just hanging out there for fun.

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Verliererkolben@reddit

Oh I’m not arguing that. I just mean you only got paid while with a student, so there were about 15 minutes between blocks that you weren’t getting paid. And then if you had a block off (1.5hrs) you were in limbo.

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Turbo_Normalized@reddit

Which is bullshit that young, inexperienced CFIs have come to accept as normal that isn't normal in other industries.

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homeinthesky@reddit

If they’re lucky.

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320sim@reddit

I’m betting he gets $30-35

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Bluevette1437@reddit

pretty sure my 141 college pays their CFI-Is like $25 per. I nearly make that delivering pizzas on weekends...

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Yellowtelephone1@reddit

The one school I was aware of paid minimum wage… which is $7.25

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Bluevette1437@reddit

What the actual fuck

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Yellowtelephone1@reddit

I made more in high school clearing tables. And I spent zero dollars on being qualified.

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IchBinKagy@reddit

My 141 college pays 17 to start, up to 22 once you have enough students

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Touch-Quirky@reddit

Ha. Classic und

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flying_penguin104@reddit

My 141 Uni paid low twenties. Went across the field to a 61 after getting my CFI and made over double the 141 wage.

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Verliererkolben@reddit

That’s what I made in the end, but man it was so inconsistent in the north east. I waited tables to pay the bills and have health insurance.

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iamkolya@reddit

Schools will generally pay instructors 50% or even less of what they charge. A local school in my area charges $65 for the instructor and the instructor starts at $18. It’s pretty rough, I wish schools understood that taking care of their instructors with half decent pay would help retain them.

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Strange_Parsley_5730@reddit

Yes, CFIs do not get paid a lot and yes they work hard in challenging situations. Folks complaining about getting paid $XX a hour when the flight school charges $XX a hour, do you know how much it is for overhead? There is maintenance, 100hr inspections, annual inspections, engine replacement, hanger rental, office space rental, etc etc. Schools run on very thin margins and I bet a lot would go away if they paid more since flight training is already very expensive. Most non 141 schools would disappear.

Most CFIs also complain then leave for another job, and another gets hired. The cycle continues and never gets fixed since so few people make instruction their career.

Just a different perspective.

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natbornk@reddit

I can appreciate the perspective. However, fundamentally, if a business can’t pay their skilled, specialized employees a livable (much less competitive) wage, there’s something fundamentally wrong with that business model.

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Strange_Parsley_5730@reddit

Definitely agree. I just finished reading Dale Arenson’s book and being a CFI was the same 40 years ago. However, it costs a lot more to get to CFI now and most other professional flying jobs require more hours. Don’t know how to fix it sadly.

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nlbair22@reddit

I make 45 at my school. I also work another job at an FBO too. Both together get me quite a few hours and enough to pay the bills for now lol. Embrace the suck for now I guess

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The__Stig_@reddit

The school where I am currently a student is a bit of an anomaly. It’s a 141 government subsidized program, so it pays starting full time CFI’s something on the order of 60 grand a year, and the pay only goes up from there. Also it’s salaried, not by the hour, so doesn’t matter how much you fly. Man I envy my instructors. They have it CUSHYYYY

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thefouthblindmouse@reddit

My flight instructors: Target employee, boat captain on the Chicago River, church pastor, and firefighter.

My day job is as a nurse.

It is going to be rare to find a CFI who does not have a second job.

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PlasticDiscussion590@reddit

The problem with most cfi’s financial situation is they are awful at billing.

I ran a flight school and found the average billed session for my instructors (about 10 on staff at any time) over the period of 2 years was 1.3 hours. The average scheduled time was something like 2.2 hours. Mostly 2 hour blocks with a few cross countries to bring the average up.

I paid most instructors $40/hr, this was about 6 years ago so we were at the high end of average.

So if they worked an 8 hour day they would work with 4 students. Yet they would bill 5.2 hours.

So when they should be making $320/day they were actually making $208.

I changed the billing structure to a flat rate, if the student scheduled 2 hours they were billed 2 hours. If the fuel truck was late or the weather turned, or whatever else happened, the instructor was expected to make those 2 hours valuable to the students education.

$320 a day isn’t going to make anyone rich, but missing out on 1/3 of billable hours will make someone poor.

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TheVillianOfValley@reddit

Every minute a CFI dedicates to a student should be billed to the student, before, during and after the flight. Help your student preflight the plane, get the engine started sooner, and have more time to fly OR more time for a quality debrief after the flight. If your student arrives at noon and leaves at two, and you were engaged with them the entire time, bill the two hours. Anything less is robbing the school and robbing yourself.

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ZealousidealSpend397@reddit

This is how I billed. A few people didn’t like that, I was fine with that. Student was given my undivided attention that entire time. If they wanted to get their early and pre flight without me, amazing, we fly more for the same 2 hours. You want me to spend 20 minutes showing you how to do W&B for the 9th time, okay we’re still billing this.

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bronzerabbitartifact@reddit

What’s typically the hours a cfi works?

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ItsReallyLebron@reddit

If a school is saying CFI cost is $70/hr how much actually goes to them? Im curious. Never knew how it worked

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natbornk@reddit

Likely less than half. Not true in all cases.

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Icy_Huckleberry_8049@reddit

Depends on the school that they're teaching at, every school pays differently.

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Time_Present_7591@reddit

Well, I got paid $17 an hour at 141. Worked my ass off for 22k a year.

The hours paid off, and so did the hard work. Very rewarding but not a lot of money in it! Times should be better now! Get in, fly your butt off, and get out.

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natbornk@reddit

times should be better now

Sorry to say, indeed times aren’t really any better.

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Apprehensive-Gift-36@reddit

I think it depends on the neighborhood. Most of the country I see $20 to 25 an hour. I live near SF Bay area. Average flight school here pays $50 to 75 an hour. CFi’s at San Carlos, Palo Alto, Hayward, and Oakland are getting $100 to 175 an hour based on experience (a CSIP Cirrius instructor makes more).

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OpheliaWitchQueen@reddit

In San Jose I got $22 an hour so...

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brxceDW@reddit

I make $30/hr at a school and charge $60/hr when I instruct independently on the side (not very often unfortunately. I also do odd jobs for people (digitizing logbooks, helping out the mechanics, etc.) to get some extra dough. Yearly income is something like $30k.

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AtrophiedTraining@reddit

A potential student tried to bargain me down from my 60$ independent rate to 25$ because 'that's what flight schools are paying'.

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gromm93@reddit

helping out the mechanics

It's funny, because I tried to get work at my school doing that, and they turned me down flat.

Probably because there's so many fresh MX apprentices around here, they could pick one of them to sweep the hangar floor.

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brxceDW@reddit

Yeah I got pretty lucky in that aspect. We don't get a lot of new apprentices walking through the door and the mechanics are swamped as is so they take all the help they can get.

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YugeWaterBottle@reddit

Airplane rental margins are very slim. Flight schools pay for their overhead by charging extra for labor.

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AJohnnyTruant@reddit

This shit always pissed me off so much when I was a CFI. My first CFI job was at a puppy mill. They’d charge students $50/hr and pay us $15. We didn’t get any medical benefits or retirement contributions. Nothing to justify it. Some instructors were ok educational visas and couldn’t get paid at all. Still charged their students $50/hr. I eventually stopped billing them for ground instruction and we would do briefings out at lunch or something.

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shadowalker125@reddit

My school charges students $110/hr and pays the instructors $25/hr. It’s demoralized.

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AtrophiedTraining@reddit

That's pretty epic

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PhotoBeginning@reddit

Just to add some perspective after owning a 1961 172 since 2020. The dry cost to fly my plane was about $50/hr. The wet cost about $75-85 depending on the fuel that week. The difference in insurance might wash out for a school when including bulk programs across multiple hulls. Assuming (depending on the school I might be reaching) they are providing adequate maintenance, that’s not a very high margin. I also didn’t have really any other overhead expenses to think about. Tie down rental, 100hr inspections, and insurance are fixed costs and only dilute the more a plane flies per month.

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shadowalker125@reddit

No no, that doesn’t include plane. The plane, for a 172, is another $180/hr on top of the $110 for instructor.

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PhotoBeginning@reddit

Wow… yeah that’s wild.

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AsleepExplanation160@reddit

and here I thought $28-40 while charging $88-95 was bad

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SnooLentils612@reddit

Charge real rates for the rental, don't screw the instructors?

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draggingmytail@reddit

Fuck.

This makes me proud of my club. All our CFI’s are “independent contractors” and my $50/hr goes straight into my CFI’s pocket.

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YugeWaterBottle@reddit

Flying club overhead is paid for with monthly dues. Flight schools are a for profit business. Flying clubs are not.

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draggingmytail@reddit

I’m well aware of that. And it’s one of the many reasons I’m never leaving my club.

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YugeWaterBottle@reddit

Totally. But saying "I'm proud of my flying club because they operate like a flying club" is a weird flex.

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draggingmytail@reddit

Op was taking about how much CFI’s get paid, not “how much are CFI’s working at pilot mills getting paid” 🤷🏻‍♂️

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YugeWaterBottle@reddit

OP is clearly at a flight school
The comment to which you replied specifically referenced flight schools

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run264fun@reddit

As much as it pisses me off, my school has given me 1,000h of student flight time compared to my 100h or so on the side.

Out of the 100h of instruction on the side, most of that is time building with friends. So maybe 40h of organic CFI-ing on my own.

I bit the bullet until I hit ATP mins, now I’m free to move on when I please.

Lastly, I’m very grateful my school picked me up. We turn down CFIs weekly.

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cptnpiccard@reddit

I'm in a similar spot. Recently hired, pay is marginal, I could make more working any entry-level job. But I will never spend a cent of my own money building time. There's value in that. Also, I am myself learning when I teach to students. There is also value in that. People look at their bank account and forget that your flight logbook is also a measure of your future career and income.

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Av8Surf@reddit

How can the flight schools justify taking more than half it the instructors pay? ATP only pays 22 hour.

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johnisom@reddit

My CFI makes $40/hr thru the school, $50/hr independent. School charges $60/hr

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Oregon-Pilot@reddit

2018-2019, Willamette Valley Oregon

Part 141 Community College Instructor (W2): $22/hr

Part 61 Flight School 1099 CFI at different airport: $40/hr

Part 61 Independent CFI at yet another airport: $50/hr

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Wingnut150@reddit

Back when I taught full time it was about 30 to 35 per hour.

We found a trick to keep from starving was head to our favorite Mexican place and order a beer, the chips and salsa were free

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Bowzy228@reddit

Damn! That sounds awful.

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braided--asshair@reddit

My first two months at an airline I made my entire years pay as a CFI

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Ok_Method_2790@reddit

good grief i can’t believe some of these prices, my cfi get $50 an hour and he’s doing pretty good for himself, but hours vary per instructor i know that makes a difference

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CryptographerRare793@reddit

I work as an independent and what I do is definitely the exception. I charge students comparably to schools, but it is my own business. I'm lucky because I am in a market and a situation where I am able to make a living off of instructing. Before this, I was working at a school where the school took roughly 2/3 of the instruction fee, and I had to have another job to make ends meet. For most instructors, this is an increasing reality. The market is saturated with low-time CFIs.

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Raine007678@reddit

this is actually why I put together a breakdown of where the money actually goes in flight training — most students have no idea their CFI is seeing maybe half of what they pay. the economics of this industry are wild at every level

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Bowzy228@reddit

Barely enough to afford food. Now that I think about it, I regret going the CFI route but at the same time I’m happy I have the rating for my resume. I’ve never used it and probably never will.

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mateenxxx@reddit

Most people do it cause it really is the only feasible route these days lol

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Bowzy228@reddit

“These days”?😂 I wouldn’t say that. Why do you think I haven’t used mine? You have a better shot at a pipeline or survey gig than a CFI one these days.

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Thhe_Shakes@reddit

Standard instructors are usually making 20-40 an hour, specialty instructors (tailwheel, seaplane, etc) are often pulling more like 40-60

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PhillyPilot@reddit

Not enough

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Ctack13@reddit

For reference I’m a check pilot at a part 141 and make $25 per hour

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Captain_Driz@reddit

Whatever you would make at McDonald’s you can half it and that’s CFI pay.

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facepuke01@reddit

School charges 60/hr for me and I keep 50 of it.

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BrunchBunny@reddit

30k

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Murky-Resident-3082@reddit

Coupla bucks

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dbldwn02@reddit

Not much different for the trades. Electrician helpers getting paid $20/hour for a couple years. Just the price of admission for the opportunity at bigger money.

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NotMiddleAgedMike@reddit

I get $26/hour for contact time and $15/hour for admin time. Base is 20, max is 37 for hourly CFIs.

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schrodingerpoodle@reddit

Pretty sure being a cfi is not about the pay. It’s about the benefits. The benefits of not having to pay out of pocket for flight hours. So if you add in the cost of flight hours they would otherwise have to pay for it would go much more. And quality of hours is also a thing. You learn more while teaching. Vs just cruising around in areas you are comfortable at. Of course you can always challenge yourself by picking harder routes etc, but most don’t.

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Icy-Bar-9712@reddit

Yeah, the absolute cheapest I can timebuild is 65$ an hour and that plane is sketchy. The more reliable airframe I'm worried less about is 85$ split. The one I don't have reservations about is 130.

Add 20-25$ an hour to that for direct pay and "value per hour" is pretty killer.

CFI is 100% a rite of passage job, which sucks as its difficult to attract and retain great instructors (as an institution). Non zero chance I would stay in flight instruction if I could get paid a cushy living wage.

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skunimatrix@reddit

I'm flying with a CFI right now because insurance wants me to have 10 hours with a CFI before carrying passengers since all my flight hours are in Cessnas and I bought a Cherokee. Also going to work on my CPL to lower the insurance on my next plane. But when I got my PPL it was all old guys that had been in the military or airlines for decades doing the flight instruction thing at the end of their careers...and as an excuse to keep the 152 or 172 around. Granted I grew up where half my neighbors worked for McDonnell and the other half TWA.

To me it's strange being in the cockpit with a CFI half my age at the start of their careers.

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Jestia76@reddit

I make $30/hr. It's normal to be doing multiple things early career however, I work one other fulltime job and go to school full time. It's alot of hours/work, but keeps bills paid, and anything that helps keep you debt free will be worth it in the long run

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Ornery_Ads@reddit

Do you get paid for all hours at the airport or just hours paid by students or ???
Approximately how many hours are you paid for each week, and how many hours are you occupied to get those?

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Jestia76@reddit

Just hours paid by students, grounds/sims/flights all paid the same as far as my pay is concerned. I average around 45 hours a week paid, with probably 60 hours a week on-site total.

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japanfrog@reddit

My old school cost about $300 an hour for a 172 (instructor + rental). My instructor once told me he made $30 an hour before taxes. The instruction rate was about $100. While he was booked throughout the day, there was always 30-60mins between lessons, so it actually forced him to start lessons at 6am up till 10pm to make ends meet. HCOL area. Was brutal.

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LADR_Official@reddit

jack shit

$25/hr nominally but that's just time the hobbs is running + max of .4 ground instruction on it

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fungus909@reddit

He’s working 2 hours for every hour he’s paid too. So 15ish an hour when you break it down probably.

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Fizzo21@reddit

My 3 years as a CFI. I barely crossed 20k a year. Worked all the side jobs. Uber, Lyft, Amazon flex, DoorDash, even the post office as a mail carrier. I would have made more money working at McDonalds.

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pappu_thomas@reddit

Im thinking of getting my PPL. I want to get it the fastest way possible. I am a fast learner. I am in houston. How should I do it? Give me ideas. Thank You.

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horrorofthedivine@reddit

I literally live in my parents basement

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InJailForCrimes@reddit

My school pays very fairly but we're in a aprt of the US that is unflyable for about 5 months out of the year.

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Bluzzard@reddit

My school charged $90 and pays CFI’s $30. Criminal.

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Nearby_Context_1998@reddit

Can vary a lot but estimates on aviprep show up to $4k monthly if you’re smart about it

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Double-Reflection838@reddit

Not a CFI, but the flight school I used billed the aircraft rental separate from the CFI fees. CFI's make $45/hour. So, if you hustle, and the weather is good, you can do pretty well.....

A lot of my CFI's that I had drove BMW's.

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Human-Iron9265@reddit

Eh…BMW makes a lot of different models. Many can be had for pretty cheap…especially lower end 3 and 5 series models. Same with Audi and Mercedes, there are more “commuter” car models the Germans make nowadays. Hell, one Mercedes, can’t remember the model is dubbed “the nail tech benz” or something like that lol.

Source: CFI who has owned a couple BMWs haha!

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saml01@reddit

I know one that sells feet pics on only fans

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MangledX@reddit

I make 40 an hour. Not every flight school is out there trying to rip their instructors off.

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laxtrin@reddit

I made $23 an hour, but worked like 12+ hours a day and got paid for maybe 6-8 of those hours

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DatabaseGangsta@reddit

$65 per hour of PPL instruction…but I only have a a few students. Two of them fly once or twice a month. The other might fly once or sometimes twice per week. $70/hr for IFR instruction - I have new 1 student, who’s doing 1 ground & 1 flight per month to prep for a retest (failed at another flight school) $75/hr for Commercial instruction - no students I’m independently contracted with my local flight school - they don’t get any of my pay.

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flyinboxes@reddit

I made $15 and hour. That was 15 years ago though

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itsyerboiTRESH@reddit

i pay my instructors at my club 60/hr via paypal so they make 60/hr lmao

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Diligent_Digiridoo@reddit

5 years ago at a 141 school I made $25/hr from the $60/hr we charged the students

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Skyhawk467@reddit

35 an hour for me

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dynamic_fluid@reddit

When I was a CFI, if I only had one flight, it just paid for my gas to drive to/from the airport.

Ended up not even collecting a paycheck and just putting the money on account to help pay for my multi and CFII.

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Dangerous-Jicama2108@reddit

$25 an hour. About 20k yearly. I also deliver food and work at a bar part time

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EscapeStunning4486@reddit

How many hours are you at the airport weekly?

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SomethingVeryStupid@reddit

When i worked for a school i made $22/hr on the Hobbs and $18/hr for ground lessons. Overall my biweekly paycheck would fluctuate between $600 and $1000. This would be understandable until you factor in that you don't get paid for the time you are waiting on students or hanging around the school to make it look populated alongside needing to pay for my own materials (understandable) and my own insurance (this part confused me) it was very hard to survive off of. No pay raise in the 5 years I worked for them yet students saw an increase in billing. I cannot see charging someone $75 for my time and only being compensated 18-22 for that same hour now i charge 50 and I keep 50 without wasting time not being paid.

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Virian@reddit

I pay my independent CFI $50 per hour (Venmo). The CFI I used for instrument charged $60 per hour (Venmo)

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mfsp2025@reddit

I get taxed more as a regional airline captain now than I made my first year as a CFI. Maybe even my second.

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Mr-cacahead@reddit

I was working 6 to 7 days a week and I was one of the most successful and highest paid CFI’s at my school one year I made almost 27K. Not too shabby huh?

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EliteEthos@reddit

You guys get paid?

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NevadaCFI@reddit

If you are independent, experienced, and well-qualified, you can earn a living. If you have 300 hours and are trying to get to the airlines, it is much harder.

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Sad-Improvement-2031@reddit

I made a salary as a CFI, but they stopped doing that shortly after I left.

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iketunes00@reddit

$31.50/hr. Sometimes my actual pay is reduced to less than $16/hr accounting for time I can’t reasonably spend anywhere but at the airport. But it’s also time that I’m not getting paid for while I’m waiting between students’ blocks, cancelations, or having to stay to ramp a student back in after a solo cross-country.

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SSMDive@reddit

About three fitty.

But CFI's are unfortunately considered compensated with flight time and this is really common with low time pilot jobs (LTP). So if the plane rents for 150 and he gets paid 25/hr then he is basically making 175/hr.. I'm just glad the IRS does not see it this way. The real crime is them having to be there during the day when they don't have a flight. This is wrong and actually as a contractor the company is not supposed to be able to dictate work methods, uniforms, or hours worked.

I have done banner towing, and skydiving pilot. Banners I made about 20/hr when flying and 11/hr when helping with ground (building banners, setting up and recovering). So when I had a flight at 3PM, I would often show up at 1PM and help out for an hour or so, fly my two hour flight and then help out an hour or so.

Skydiving I make 20 dollars per flight, each flight takes about 20 minutes. So I make about 60/hr but only flight hours and nothing for fueling, pre and post flight. I might be at the DZ all day and fly as little as one load, making 20 bucks for several hours there.

So as a DZ pilot, I make less than a CFI. But at the DZ I am flying a turbine. So the 208 its about 900/hr in "free" aircraft time and the Twin Otter something like 1200/hr.

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Slippery_when_RA@reddit

$42-54,000 before overtime at my old place. It was also salaried which helped a ton in the winter

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Pilot-Imperialis@reddit

30$ hr as a triple rated CFI. Often work at least 2 hours a day, if not more, for free.

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400Volts@reddit

$30 per clock hour or hobbs hour?

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Pilot-Imperialis@reddit

Hobbs

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TheMarineLayer@reddit

At the school I worked at I was paid $35/hr for the $70/hr I was charging. I was ok with not making 100% of the instructor fee because I didn't have to source the plane, pay insurance on it, and find students on top of that.

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YOUNGKIKKO@reddit

I went to an interview for a 135 job with 6 other CFIs and we all had part time jobs on the side…

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scootty83@reddit

I was a helicopter CFII from 2016-2018. I started out at $20 an hour and ended up at $28 an hour by the time I was done.

Mind you this would be only when actually instructing. I was required to be at the flight school Monday through Friday for at least 8 hours a day, even if I didn’t have a student booked. So some days I’d only have a couple hours of pay—it was brutal.

We also had a 1 hour unpaid mandatory meeting every Wednesday. I checked with the DoL if the employer could actually do that, but because flight instructors fall under exempt status, they didn’t have to pay us for the meeting.

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Skyhawk_26@reddit

The CFI's at the school i have been flying out of make $75 per hour and the school doesn't take a penny of it.

Aircraft rental is $190 wet. With current fuel prices, hard to complain about it.

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Zealousideal_Ad_821@reddit

My school students are billed for $50, CFIs are paid $25

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Grand_Raccoon0923@reddit

Four chickens and a gallon of shine.

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Scary_Revolution3998@reddit

Made about 18-30k a year as a CFI. Didn’t get paid for much ground and didn’t have the weather to stay busy. Also wasn’t willing to over-teach my students just to get time in the air. I worked 2-3 jobs at a time

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GravitationalConstnt@reddit

$25 per hour, though no of someone who taught out of a flying club and the owners let him set his own price so he was making $85 an hour.

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Working_Football1586@reddit

Made 27 an hour only on billable hours and the only way I could make enough money to feel ok was to work 170 hours of billable time in a month it was all day everyday and teaching the ground school at night.

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Biker1124@reddit

My CFI makes $35 per hour but after rent and everything he’s got nothing left. His first few months as a CFI, his parents subsidized his rent because he only had 3 students.

I get charged $95 per hour for reference.

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MrAflac9916@reddit

Not enough.

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zarmril@reddit

$17.00/hr starting at a known 141 university.

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extremefuzz777@reddit

I wish I made what some of these guys say they do when I was a CFI. We started at $11/h, raise to $15 when we reached 100 hours, and only went up to $18 if you became a check airman.

In any case, no CFIs do not get paid much. They only put up with it to build hours towards a better job.

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Several-Village5814@reddit

30k a year, roughly

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Styk33@reddit

Not sure I would say three other jobs, more like one with two part time jobs. Amazon itself is most likely part time.

You have to pay the business for all of the overhead costs they have. The employee probably gets half of it.

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#justiceforCFI’s

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