Choosing the CFI Route

While flight instructing is not for everyone, there are major advantages while on the journey to becoming a professional pilot.

Sam Weigel

Friday, May 05, 2023 at 04:23 PM ET

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While flight instructing is not for everyone, there are major advantages while on the journey to becoming a professional pilot. [File Photo: Adobe Stock]

Key Takeaways:

Flight instructing is presented as an underappreciated and practical pathway for new professional pilots to build flight hours, often surpassing other entry-level alternatives in immediate availability and accessibility.
Key advantages include its universal presence across the country, quick hiring opportunities, and job portability, which ensures a continuous work history and flight time progression.
Contrary to common negative perceptions, the author argues that instructing can be an incredibly rewarding and varied experience, fostering teaching skills and dispelling notions of boredom.
Ultimately, the article recommends all aspiring pilots obtain their CFI certificate due to the significant learning benefits and potential future utility, regardless of their immediate career path.

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In my previous installment of V1 Rotate, I noted some of the reasons that a fledgling professional pilot might choose not to flight instruct, and listed a number of alternate means of time-building. Most of those alternative jobs, however, have their own downsides in terms of pay, safety, being VFR-only, only being available in certain areas, or being tough to break into.

I noted that the well-connected candidate with geographic flexibility is likely to have the most choice in how they get to 1,000 hours and beyond. The unspoken implication, which I most certainly did not intend, is that awkward homebodies might have to resign themselves to flight instructing after all.