By Randall Brink 

So you have just got that shiny new instructor rating. Congratulations, you are now a Grade 3 instructor and are eager to impart a wealth of skill and knowledge to budding new students.

If you are lucky enough, the flight school where you achieved the initial rating may offer you a job. The catch is, most of the time, you will start out as a contract instructor with a flying school at an hourly rate. Although there is a demand for instructors, the fact is most flying schools are looking for experienced instructors with a grade 2 rating.

So what do you do to get your first job as an instructor? My advice comes from nine hard but rewarding years of instructing at various schools. I have just about seen all there is when it comes to obtaining and holding a position within a flight school as an instructor.

Fresh Grade 3’s end up struggling to make a living for the first six months and spend most of their time sweeping hangars, answering phones and jumping at the first person who walks in the door who wants to learn to fly. You won’t be paid to do all those jobs and you only get paid for the flying time that you actually do. Soon you start to think that instructing does not pay a wage that is enough to live on. Once you have given the pre flight briefing, taxied out, done the lesson and debriefed, you have spent two and a half hours work for one hour of pay.

I hear you thinking, “this is not for me”. Well, you’re wrong.

The industry needs career instructors. Many commercial pilots just see instructing as an hour-building exercise. If you have chosen instructing for that reason you should get out now. Your heart has to be in instructing. That is the only way you will become a good instructor and climb the ladder to a more senior status and achieve a reasonably good income. If we have more senior instructors the industry standards can only get better and flying can be safer.

Most grade 3’s I have met, feel like they are banging their heads against a wall and not being paid enough. They feel overworked and try to eek out a living in what they might think is an underpaid profession. If they can just survive long enough to build enough hours and get that airline job they think they will be set with a cushy lifestyle and good pay.

The frustration is in knowing you are working for next to nothing. Unfortunately most Grade 3’s have to serve an ‘apprenticeship’ of doing the ugly work before achieving a reasonable amount of flying work. The fact is that your boss is watching you to see how hard you are prepared to work to keep your job. Once they see that, the sky is the limit, so to speak, for you.

The truth is that your head is stopping you from making a buck not your job.
Your head is the biggest deceiver: your potential is untapped but only you can release it. So don’t blame anyone or anything. Become a business person, think like a business and market your product…YOU.

So how do you do it?

You have to sell yourself to the flight school owner. Can you bring along something that makes you a ‘must have’ to the company (i.e. students)? I will talk about finding students later but there are a few extra points worth a mention.

Always say yes to anything the boss asks you to do. I’m not telling you to become a ‘yes’ man, so don’t start making the coffee yet. If you are at the school and ready to work you will be given work. It may be slow at first but I can assure you that within three months you will be busier than a one armed wallpaper hanger! If you say no or are not available, you won’t get the work.

So keep busy. Be prepared to do the dirty jobs such as vacuuming, washing planes etc. Make the business shine so to speak. People who walk in the door get an impression of the school within the first five minutes. The boss will see that you are willing to work and the work will come more frequently. It’s in your interests to do the dirty work. Call it ‘self promotion’.

• Go through all the student files. Many students may not have flown for some time or their instructor has left the school and the student has not come back. This is because they want to fly with their old instructors or they have achieved a PPL. If you ring these students to say hi and see how they are going, you might just get the student to come back and fly with you. Sell yourself to the person on the phone and get them to do a night rating etc.
• Exude professionalism all the time, in the way you talk, walk, dress and conduct your self. Dress like a professional. No shirts hanging out, unpolished shoes, messy hair or generally dishevelled look.

There is nothing worse than walking in the door of a flight school and seeing instructors sitting around reading magazines and doing nothing. A big part of an instructor’s job is to attract business. If you can recruit students, along with doing a professional job of instructing, you will be an invaluable asset to the flight school even with limited experience. So stay out in the reception area and be visible.

As I said before there are many ways of attracting new clients:

• Meet and greet everyone with a smile, including smiling on the phone. Offer helpful advice to all new customers who enquire about flying.
• Flyers- create a flyer and hand it out to local businesses near you. Attach your contact number so you get the call and the business.
• Most new business can be found outside of flight schools. Professionals such as doctors, lawyers may find it viable to have a pilot’s license. It can get them to country clients quicker. If they travel to the country they want to save time, why not get there quickly by flying themselves. Besides, it may just be a tax deduction for them too! Get out into the central business areas with your flyers and drum up business.
• Schools- many high schools are now looking at, or have in place, aviation courses of study. Often they don’t have pilots to fly the kids. Find out by ringing local high schools and tell them what you do. Primary schools are often looking for interesting and exciting excursions for the kids. Ring schools and offer a free talk on becoming a pilot and offer your services for the flights.
• At parties, barbecues, anywhere, you can talk to others about what you do. Normally it’s hard to keep a pilot quiet about what they do. So try to introduce the topic of flying into the conversation. Wear a t-shirt, badge, pin, hat or something that might trigger a conversation with someone who has been thinking about aviation or learning to fly. They will inevitably start the conversation out of curiosity and you might just get a joy flight or a new student.
• Visit adventure seeking venues such as skydiving or bungee jumping and give them your flyer.
• Ask doctors, shops, coffee houses, restaurants to put up your flyer in their premises.
• Network with friends and family and get them to ask if any one they know would like to have a joy flight as a gift.
• Hold ‘Learn to Fly’ seminars on a regular basis. They must be regular as numbers that attend do vary considerably. A seminar every three to six months is good. Get the boss to advertise it in the local paper.
• Make yourself available for teaching ground theory. It’s a great way to keep the dollars coming in during the wet months.
• Rusty pilot seminars and specialised short courses attract the pilot who is less than frequent with getting into the air. Run them at a reasonable cost and you will attract customers.
• Solicit media coverage - many local papers are interested in a good story about a student who has challenged the odds to become a pilot.

Some other good points to take note of:

• Don’t portray flying as a ‘cost’ in conversation. It’s an investment. Break it down into ‘small change’ so they can see it is affordable. Many people think flying costs the earth.
• Get business cards made up with your name and your own logo design. Don’t use the company cards as the prospective client might ring the school and not get to talk to you personally to arrange a flight.
• Don’t chew gum. Fresh breath is a must though. After all, you are in a closed cockpit.
• Get organised in how you teach. Start to build an organised group of briefing notes that make briefings easy to do.

Most of the instructors at the school I work at are following this advice and are very busy, hence they are pulling a sizable pay packet each month. Therefore it is in your best interests to think of yourself as the business even though you are employed by a flight school. If you think this way you will have a greater appreciation for what the flight school has to go through to make a buck. You are part of the business, so work it. If the school is busy you will be busy and the money will roll in.

Next time: How to keep your students and managing student nerves on test day.