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Sorry for posting in "Lessons Learned", I wanted to remain anonymous because the person I'm talking about might be on the boards here.
I am a CFI. I have a good friend who wants to get his commercial certificate. He has an airplane that we can use. He's asked me to train him for it, and I have no problem with doing so, in fact I look forward to it.
We haven't started yet. But the issue of "pay" came up and I wasn't sure what to say.
On the one hand, he's a good friend and we have fun together. We've flown together in the past and will likely do so in the future. I enjoy flying with him - if we weren't pilots, we'd probably be hanging out together anyway. So if I don't charge him anything, no big deal to me.
On the other hand, there is some work involved as a CFI - lesson plans and prep, of course the time commitment, pre-and-post-flight briefings, etc. It's time I'd be away from my family. And a common refrain here (and one that I believe in) is that CFIs shouldn't give their services away for free, it cheapens the profession and belittles the amount of work it takes to get to that point.
If it was a "let's fly to lunch and by the way, can we do a BFR at the same time", I probably wouldn't even be asking. Maybe he could buy lunch or something. But since we're talking about more extended training, checkride prep and signoff and all, it's more work for the CFI.
My wife has a friend who is a hairdresser. When my wife goes there, her friend always tries to not charge my wife, but my wife always insists on paying, since after all, it's her friend's profession, and also she realizes she's taking away a spot from a paying customer anyway.
What do you CFIs do when giving training to friends? Does it matter if it's a shorter amount of training (like a BFR, IPC, or even "let's work on crosswind landings") versus training for a new certificate?
Charge your normal rate? A discounted amount? Not charge at all?
In my specific case, I don't need the money, but on the flip side, he has no problem with paying my normal rate.
I am a CFI. I have a good friend who wants to get his commercial certificate. He has an airplane that we can use. He's asked me to train him for it, and I have no problem with doing so, in fact I look forward to it.
We haven't started yet. But the issue of "pay" came up and I wasn't sure what to say.
On the one hand, he's a good friend and we have fun together. We've flown together in the past and will likely do so in the future. I enjoy flying with him - if we weren't pilots, we'd probably be hanging out together anyway. So if I don't charge him anything, no big deal to me.
On the other hand, there is some work involved as a CFI - lesson plans and prep, of course the time commitment, pre-and-post-flight briefings, etc. It's time I'd be away from my family. And a common refrain here (and one that I believe in) is that CFIs shouldn't give their services away for free, it cheapens the profession and belittles the amount of work it takes to get to that point.
If it was a "let's fly to lunch and by the way, can we do a BFR at the same time", I probably wouldn't even be asking. Maybe he could buy lunch or something. But since we're talking about more extended training, checkride prep and signoff and all, it's more work for the CFI.
My wife has a friend who is a hairdresser. When my wife goes there, her friend always tries to not charge my wife, but my wife always insists on paying, since after all, it's her friend's profession, and also she realizes she's taking away a spot from a paying customer anyway.
What do you CFIs do when giving training to friends? Does it matter if it's a shorter amount of training (like a BFR, IPC, or even "let's work on crosswind landings") versus training for a new certificate?
Charge your normal rate? A discounted amount? Not charge at all?
In my specific case, I don't need the money, but on the flip side, he has no problem with paying my normal rate.