If the goal is to make a standalone living, there's no significant means to make a lucrative living with that kind of work (add formation, acro, etc). It's relegated to a side hustle/hobby money. I go as far as to say the same for primary civilian flight training, which has a much higher market. In my latest post mil job research, sim jobs that don't even require a medical have better hours and pay better for instructors, and I can hold a class 1 mind you. It's pitiful as I love flight instructing, but I value my time more than market rate for piston flight instruction.
If you're thinking of instructing in your own plane, prepare for the sticker shock of your new insurance policy.
That's what my CFI told me - "I like flying with you. You never make the same mistake twice, you always come up with a new way to kill me".Students will come up with ways to screw up that you would NEVER dream of.
I think it narrows it down A LOT. I am only aware of one flight school in our state that offers tailwheel instruction. There is an independent CFI nearby who is a light sport instructor. My former flight school did offer tailwheel endorsements in a Stearman, but that was pretty expensive.
Keeping the card current is trivial, but the skills are another matter.
No, I'm saying that as a hobby pilot, getting my CFI opened up so many doors to then be a hobby CFI, which was always my intent. Then that hobby CFI-ing led to lots of opportunities for flying new and interesting airplanes as an independent, but still hobby CFI. Which led to lots of opportunities for hobby contract piloting. I stayed at this hobby-level of CFI and piloting for about a decade, and was perfectly happy with that as the end result. Then my current position came available, I got hired, and piloting is now my day job (and CFI-ing is STILL a hobby).
I was paid $30/hour at the local flight school for ground and air instruction. I was part time but had dental insurance paid by the company. Students paid $60/hour, and the company kept half.
Do you have an instrument rating? It’s required to be a CFI, except LS.
Good instructors are scarce these days, but good instructors are not 500 hour pilots.
It still bites. $4K/year for dual only in a Luscombe for my last bird. You've got to fly quite a bit to pay off the insurance.FYI if you are doing dual only instructing in a tailwheel aircraft, the insurance bite may be less than you think.
Solo adds a couple of zeros to the price.
I'm in that specific market... with 7K total time, over 800 dual given in tailwheel and it's not as big as you might think. I get maybe 2 calls a week but they don't all convert to clients.
As long as the person getting the flight review is legal to be pic there is no requirement to even have a tail wheel endorsement to give a flight review in a taildragger. All you need is to be a cfi.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting that a 250-hour pilot with a wet flight instructor certificate and even wetter tailwheel endorsement should get into the rear seat of a warbird (or the right seat of a throw-over Staggerwing or even the front of a J-3) without proper training and familiarity with the ways the particular plane will try to kill you. But if you want to fly fun planes, I think your chances are a lot higher if you are a tailwheel qualified CFI (with very dry ink on both documents).
I'm a CFI with the tailwheel endorsement and seaplane rating before I became an instructor. Most of my tailwheel time is in a J-3 on skis (and some on floats) and I would not dream of offering instruction in a tailwheel airplane or a seaplane.
