Career Flight Instructors Are Hard to Find But Worth the Search

Age and experience does not matter, only that the CFI has the heart and soul of a teacher.

Meg Godlewski

Friday, March 28, 2025 at 08:00 AM ET

Verified

Edited By:

Ryan Ewing

Greg Brown is the author of 'The Savvy Flight Instructor,' a book that has been helping aspiring CFIs for decades. [Courtesy: Richard Jackson]

Key Takeaways:

Unlike many who use flight instruction to build hours for other careers, "career CFIs" view it as a passionate vocation, dedicating themselves to teaching and empowering students with comprehensive flying skills and good judgment.
Experienced career CFIs provide invaluable leadership and mentorship within flight schools, especially in cultures with high instructor turnover, by focusing on developing deep understanding and safe decision-making beyond just passing check rides.
These professional instructors often specialize, invest in continuous development (e.g., Master CFI designations), employ scenario-based training, and prioritize producing competent, safe pilots, often charging more for their specialized expertise.

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I received a call from a recruiter for a regional airline who had stumbled across my CFI résumé someplace. As I have well over 1,500 hours, he wanted to know if I would like to fly for it. “No, thank you,” I replied. There was an awkward pause. He seemed puzzled, repeating the question slower as if I had not heard him the first time. He asked why I was working as a flight instructor if I wasn’t trying to build hours for the airlines.

While it is true that most people become CFIs as a means to quickly build their hours for other jobs, there are some of us for whom flight instruction is a passion and vocation—and not a steppingstone. The age of the person and even their experience level does not matter. What does matter is that the CFI has the heart and soul of a teacher.