AVSC 4700 Assignment

1. Aviation Careers
Private Flight Instruction Compared to
Commercial Piloting

2. Flight Instruction – Self-
Employment
• Teaching next generation of pilots
• Working with small groups or one-on-one
• Opportunity for entrepreneurship
• Independent working conditions
• Lower pay, but higher freedom and personal
responsibility
• Work is more suited to people who don’t like to be told
what to do

3. Required Training
• Private pilot’s license
• Instrument rating
• 250 hours flight time
• Commercial pilot’s license
• Flight instructor certification (and associated schooling)

4. Salary
• Starting salary around $20/hr, or $40,000/year assuming
full time work (not a guarantee)
• Median flight instructor salary is $94,000/year
• Salary dependent upon number of hours one is available
to work
• Yearly periods of downturn affect salary, periods affected
by weather / geographical area of operation

5. Domiciles / Schedule
• Best to work near large metropolitan areas in order to
have access to highest number of students
• Agricultural communities grant access to agriculture-
related flight needs
• Schedule restricted to 8 flying hours / day
• Weather restricts flying ability
• Living outside of snowy regions improves number of
workable hours and days each year

6. Time Off / Benefits / Perks
• One of the biggest benefits is working for oneself
• Take time off based upon what times of the year offer
fewer students
• Benefits are determined by what one can provide for
oneself
• Perks are both tangible and intangible, the latter
stemming from the freedom that one gains from deciding
one’s own schedule

7. Transitioning to
Administration
• One can build a private flight instruction practice into a
small business, thereby transitioning out of the cockpit
and into the office
• Maintain small group of flight instructors as a small flight
school collective
• Work fewer hours flying, oversee business end of flight
instruction operation
• Set instruction rates based upon quality of flight
instructors, keeping portion of proceeds from working
under the umbrella of the operation

8. Career Path / Retirement
• Career path is what one makes of it
• Choose a good area of operation
• Be flexible
• Harder work creates stronger foundation at the beginning,
pays off tremendously in the long-run
• Start off working for another flight instruction operation
to get flight hours up, then strike out to form independent
operation
• Retirement based upon one’s own savings and
responsibility

9. Commercial Flying
• Piloting or co-piloting aircraft
• Transporting people or goods
• More stable working environment
• Room for growth
• Benefits
• More stable / predictable working schedule
• Requires diligence and perseverance
• Better for those who need stability over freedom

10. Required Training
• Ground school courses
• Commercial pilot’s license
• Instrument rating
• 250 hours flight time
• Better if one comes from a military flight background
• Experience
• Discipline
• Flight hours

11. Salary
• Surprisingly low starting salary at around $20,000 / year
depending upon organization
• Starting salary ranges up very high, based upon
experience level
• Starting salary up to $80,000 / year
• Salary increases based upon prestige of position /
seniority

12. Domiciles / Schedule
• Ideal domicile based upon nature of work
• Work for international airline can open doors to living
internationally, so long as one lives near a major airport
that works with one’s schedule
• Ideal to live near airline’s hub of operation
• Schedule based upon type of work
• Longer hours than if working independently
• Weeks on / weeks off

13. Time Off / Benefits / Perks
• Time off generally comes after long periods of time on, as
work weeks are not typical 40hr weeks
• Benefits of working for a larger airline / airfreight
operation include medical, dental, vision, retirement
benefits associated with more stable work for larger
companies
• Perks include stability of working for larger company,
free flight to destinations for self and family

14. Working One’s Way Up
• The biggest perk of working within a large organization is
access to its infrastructure of different positions
• Transition from flight to other jobs, like administration, or
using one’s flight experience as a resume item when applying
for control tower jobs (more aviation industry experience is
better than less, even if it is not directly applicable)
• Different levels of prestige associated with different flying jobs
• Seniority leads to greater pay and higher prestige (so long as
one doesn’t screw it up)

15. Career Path / Retirement
• Career path relies upon character and diligence
• Work hard and work well with others
• There will be setbacks / be realistic
• Being laid off means going back to the beginning at one’s next
airline
• The longer one has been with an airline, the more insulated
one is from layoffs
• Mandatory retirement from flight at 65 – earlier if necessitated
by physical condition
• Retirement investment matching at better places of
employment