Switching "careers" from primarily "CFI" to primarily "pilot"

RussR

RussR

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Russ
I was offered a flying job today. I'd like to take it, BUT at least for now it will be in addition to my day, office job. This would be a good job for career progression and future opportunities.

What I'm really conflicted about is that it would realistically mean I wouldn't have time to really do much instruction anymore. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, but I have been primarily a CFI, with "piloting" a distant second place, for almost 10 years now since becoming a CFI.

I have gradually built up my clientele until now it is completely self-supporting without me doing any real advertising or anything like that. Word-of-mouth is sufficient. I have a lease on a Seminole that I have used for multiengine training, and the rest of my clientele is aircraft owners. I have clients that own airplanes from Cherokees up to cabin-class piston twins and a couple of single-engine turbines.

If I take this flying job, I will need to scale back my instructing significantly, possibly to the point where I won't have time to really do much of it. Or I'd have to be really "selective".

And that's what really bothers me. Working with owners has been extremely rewarding. I count most of them as friends. Several of them have said over the years that they don't want to fly with anyone but me. And that feels great, of course. But if I can't fly with them, I feel like I'm letting them down!

I just wanted to hear others' stories about making a similar transition. I think this situation is quite a bit different than if I was an instructor at a flight school. Maybe it's not, but my ongoing client relationships feel more "personal" than it ever did at a flight school.

But man, do I really have a problem saying "no". It really does feed the ego when people ask for you by name.
 
Yes, job offers have a way of feeding the ego. I recently had an offer which stroked the ego and seemed like a good opportunity. A few days I turned the job down because I determined the demands of the job were more than I was willing to give and I really didn’t need a new job.

You are in a good position. If what looks like a dream becomes a nightmare you can go back to what you were doing. I would do a through investigation into all the aspects of the new job before saying yes.
 
With instructing and piloting, can you let the office job go? Or make arrangements to work part time? Money is a legitimate reason to say no to that.
 
Teaching is awesome. Actually getting out there and using those skills getting stuff done day in and out is really awesome too. Then one day you can come back to teaching and be even better at it than you are now.

It ultimately comes down to you. What gets you off more. Flying or teaching? For me it was a no brainer to move on to flying more and teaching less.
 
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The teaching part will always be there. This flying job may not. I had a dilemma but ultimately made the choice to continue to flight instruct because I thought it would be better for my flying career. I understand the personal part and you not wanting to let people down. In the end, do what’s best for you and what you think could be better for you in the future.
 
Hmmm…i enjoyed flying the line and challenging operational missions but the most intrinsically rewarding tour I had was in the RTU teaching new guys how to max perform the weapons system.

The question I think I would ask you is where does the reward in instructing come from? Is it teaching? Is it running a successful business? Is it variety of platforms you get to fly?

I think your answer is somewhere in there. I’ll do my current day job as long as it takes to get to the point I can transition back to instructing full time and, like you, it won’t be primary instruction, it’ll be advanced.

ETA: while client accolades are nice, don’t let that be a deciding factor; one day you will be gone…what are they going to do then, give up flying?
 
Personally I prefer being a line pilot over instructing. I’ve been offered instructing at my current employer a couple of times in the past. While there’d be a slight bump in pay and a more stable sleep cycle, I’d be on the road a lot and teaching the same material over and over again. Just didn’t appeal to me.

Only you can prioritize what your QOL goals are. Me personally, my priorities are 1) maximizing time at home and 2) avoiding “ground hog day” at work. Two is kinda hard to avoid though. To some extent, most aviation jobs end up being same thing different day.
 
You would be an idiot to turn down the flying job. Dump your students.
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Aww, c'mon. Someone had to say it! :p

(only partly joking)
 
I’d say dump your students and the pilot job offer and become a social media influencer. Flying is way too much work.
 
Well, it depends… mostly on what your flying job will be..??
 
Mostly depends on what type of flying you want to do. I can tell you flying a level straight line for 2 hours on autopilot was not the flying for me.
 
You did not state your long term goal. Without that info it’s impossible to answer your question. If it’s to be a professional pilot you need to take the flying job yesterday.
 
I went from mostly providing instruction for advanced certificates/ratings and doing a little maintenance to mostly providing maintenance and doing some professional flying a few years ago. I really miss some aspects of instructing on a daily basis, but certainly not all of them. In my case, jumping ship on instructing has afforded me more flying and learning opportunities than I would have had otherwise, even if my flight hours aren’t going up as fast as they were when I was instructing.

The decision to switch gears wasn’t the easiest to make. I felt like I was abandoning some of my students and fellow instructors, whom I also call friends. Many of those guys still call me periodically, looking for recurrent instruction. The FBO I was instructing for has been kind enough to allow me to continue to instruct in their aircraft to help these friends out when they call. It also helps me get out of the shop a bit and remember the enjoyable aspects of instructing.
 
What I tell my mentees when the ask about changing jobs is - don’t let your job get in the way of your career.
 
RussR said:
I count most of them as friends. Several of them have said over the years that they don't want to fly with anyone but me. And that feels great, of course. But if I can't fly with them, I feel like I'm letting them down!
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If they're really friends, they will understand and will continue to be friends. If they don't, they weren't really friends in the first place.
 
Thanks all. I appreciate the comments and personal stories.

Clip4 said:
Yes, job offers have a way of feeding the ego.
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Man, if that isn't right. Somebody saying "I want to pay you" is really hard to say "no" to.

bflynn said:
With instructing and piloting, can you let the office job go? Or make arrangements to work part time? Money is a legitimate reason to say no to that.
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I cannot. Well, I "could", but it would not be a smart move money-wise. More in my next post filling in some details.

Tarheelpilot said:
Teaching is awesome. Actually getting out there and using those skills getting stuff done day in and out is really awesome too. Then one day you can come back to teaching and be even better at it than you are now.

It ultimately comes down to you. What gets you off more. Flying or teaching? For me it was a no brainer to move on to flying more and teaching less.
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That's the thing - I like both. I'll fill in some more details in my next post.

Jeff767 said:
You did not state your long term goal. Without that info it’s impossible to answer your question. If it’s to be a professional pilot you need to take the flying job yesterday.
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Good point. My goal is to go full-time professional pilot in September of 2023.

mondtster said:
I went from mostly providing instruction for advanced certificates/ratings and doing a little maintenance to mostly providing maintenance and doing some professional flying a few years ago. I really miss some aspects of instructing on a daily basis, but certainly not all of them. In my case, jumping ship on instructing has afforded me more flying and learning opportunities than I would have had otherwise, even if my flight hours aren’t going up as fast as they were when I was instructing.
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That's the kind of feedback I was looking for, thank you.
 
A little more personal detail to help fill in some blanks that I now see were missing.

I can't quit my day job for at least another 21 months. Well, I could, but it's a government job and certain pension benefits kick in at that point. I already gave up a military pension by getting out after 11 years, and although that was the right decision at the time, I don't want to do that again.

So, in 21 months I hope to be flying full-time professionally. This has been my goal for the last few years. Up until that point, I am doing everything I can to get more experience in larger and faster equipment.

But my problem with career advancement up to this point has admittedly been my day job. I like my day job, but it's not flying, and there are only so many hours in the day. Although I have good times (3600 hours) and good breadth of experience across different aircraft models, I don't have a real way to get into pro-level equipment, mainly turbines. Few people are going to hire someone and put them through training, type-rating or otherwise when they can't commit to full time.

I totally realize I want to have my cake and eat it too.

And as for instructing, I would also like to get into providing more specialized, insurance-approved training. But to really do that I'd have to have expertise and lots of experience in one model of aircraft - which I just don't have right now, and it's hard to get in those types of airplanes.

But this thread isn't really about whether to take this specific job or not. I really just wanted to hear about the transition others have made away from instructing and into just piloting.
 
This nice thing about independent instruction is you control your schedule. This works especially well when working around an office or any kind of employment
Saw some reference to an office job for the OP, not sure if that is the case or if he is a full time CFI.

Either way going from "I have Thursday afternoon open" to "we need you here Thursday afternoon" can be a big shift in how you work, or even how feasible the flying job may be for you, and/or perhaps how much you enjoy it.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
 
brcase said:
This nice thing about independent instruction is you control your schedule. This works especially well when working around an office or any kind of employment
Saw some reference to an office job for the OP, not sure if that is the case or if he is a full time CFI.

Either way going from "I have Thursday afternoon open" to "we need you here Thursday afternoon" can be a big shift in how you work, or even how feasible the flying job may be for you, and/or perhaps how much you enjoy it.

Brian
CFIIG/ASEL
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That is definitely true. My schedule is (mostly) my own right now. There are a couple of clients who I fly when they need to, but yes, in the instructing world nobody "needs" to fly tomorrow if I can't do it.
 
RussR said:
A little more personal detail to help fill in some blanks that I now see were missing.

I can't quit my day job for at least another 21 months. Well, I could, but it's a government job and certain pension benefits kick in at that point. I already gave up a military pension by getting out after 11 years, and although that was the right decision at the time, I don't want to do that again.

So, in 21 months I hope to be flying full-time professionally. This has been my goal for the last few years. Up until that point, I am doing everything I can to get more experience in larger and faster equipment.

But my problem with career advancement up to this point has admittedly been my day job. I like my day job, but it's not flying, and there are only so many hours in the day. Although I have good times (3600 hours) and good breadth of experience across different aircraft models, I don't have a real way to get into pro-level equipment, mainly turbines. Few people are going to hire someone and put them through training, type-rating or otherwise when they can't commit to full time.

I totally realize I want to have my cake and eat it too.

And as for instructing, I would also like to get into providing more specialized, insurance-approved training. But to really do that I'd have to have expertise and lots of experience in one model of aircraft - which I just don't have right now, and it's hard to get in those types of airplanes.

But this thread isn't really about whether to take this specific job or not. I really just wanted to hear about the transition others have made away from instructing and into just piloting.
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You and I are in almost the exact same position with the exception having the ability to retire with a pension in a couple of years. I also have a day job that pays my bills and I was providing instruction in my spare time. Now I am filling that time with my maintenance and professional flying activities. The professional flying I do is mainly for a guy who is very understanding of both of our situations and does what he can to try and schedule trips around my primary job's work schedule. Sometimes it just doesn't work and I have to take some time off work to fly but it has worked well for several years now.

The biggest problem I have in my flying career is my location. There is very little corporate or charter flying that goes on where I'm at and commuting for an airline job probably wouldn't work very well. Because of the lack of professional flying in this area I have gotten very little turbine time and have never flown anything bigger than a King Air. But my house is paid for and I like where I live, plus I have a lot of obscure and interesting aircraft to fly whenever I want, so I'm not real motivated to go chasing any big iron real soon. My current situation is probably as good as it will realistically get around here.

On a positive note, I seem to have cultivated a decent relationship with the local avionics shop and have gotten a number of referrals for advanced avionics training from them. That helps scratch the instructing itch for me as well.
 
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