The road to become a certified flight instructor is a

long and fun road to go down. This career is great for

anyone that loves to fly and easy work days. By looking at
level of education needed; skills required; salary; benefits;
job outlook and availability; my joy in flight; and the
connection between my career and my interests. I find
myself doing this in the future.
The history of flight is not that long. the first people to fly
where the Wright brothers in 1903. The first aerial battle
took place in WWI where planes were slow and two
winged. These planes were known as biplanes. After the
First World War planes didnt change much. In WWII the
world saw a massive change in planes. They went from
biplanes to monoplanes (single winged planes) to jets in
less than six years. Now we use planes for everything,
from travel, pleasure, all the way to transporting goods
across the world. And ever since planes have been in the
sky, there have been people training others to fly.
The level of education needed to become a CFI (certified
flight instructor) one wouldn't need much. no you do not
need to go to college to be a flight instructor. But it does
look good on a resume. Clark (a CFI) also said that most
of the general class that you would take in high school is
more than enough to become a CFI. Clark also told me if
one is looking for a college to go to is West Minister,
UVU, and Utah State are the colleges in Utah that offer
flight programs.

The qualifications needed to become a CFI are very time

consuming. First one must get a private license which will
take 50 hours in the air some classes and a test. After that
one must get their commercial license that will take about
250 hours of light time. One must train in the model of the
plane that they will teach in. During all your flight time
you must take classes on flight and tests. The tests are 60
questions long and are done by the FAA (Federal Aviation
Association). Someone must also have a drivers license
and be over the age of 18.
The average CFI will not make a lot of money. ) Fresh
of the school bench an instructor usually make from $12 to
$20 an hour. Most flight schools dont have a base pay
so everything is commission based; if you fly you get
paid, if not you get nothing. On average a flight
instructor working full time make from $800 to $2500 a
month.
Someone will not get paid according to how long they are
at the airport nor is there a set pay. You will be payed how
long someone is teaching. In a classroom, pre and post
flight checks, and in the air. One will also be paid a
portion of what your students pay them (Flight training
blog). The amount you will be paid will change from
month to month. The graph from Indeed.com shows that
there is a busy and slow season. Clark also told me that
there is a busy and slow season. And he sees the most
people in the spring.

The benefits to this job are few. You will get health care
like every job now. The biggest benefit to being a CFI is
that one will get to fly almost for free. Their students will
pay for the gas and a little bit of the maintenance of the
plane. When a student starts to take longer flights they get
to fly to different airports with them. Lastly you will get
payed to fly.
The only real problem with this job is not being able to
find a job. I've talked to several people that I have met
(before this paper was assigned). They have all said the
same thing, the baby boom generation will be retiring at
age of 65 and that will be making a massive job opening.
Most pilots that are CFIs now will move on to a better
paying job related to flight. Then that will leave a massive
opening for CFIs. Clark told me when I took a flight with
him, that an airline in china will need up to 500,000 pilots
in the next five years alone. Right now it is a little difficult
to find a job. Clark also mentioned that it is surprisingly
difficult to find a job as a CFI. Bountiful Flight is
currently hiring. However overall it is difficult to find a
job. And it is difficult to find a job that pays well.
However normally the school that trains you is willing to
hire you right after.
This career is ideal for me because I love to fly. I love the
feeling in my stomach when I go into a turn or the negative
and positive G forces. As a kid I always dreamed of being
able to fly with the birds. I have always been fascinated on

how planes fly, how they perform, what they were or are
used for. I always loved prop planes (propeller planes). I
love looking at planes used in WWII, the last prop planes
to see massive battles in the sky before the jet age. Being a
CFI will let me fly prop planes and live my childhood
dream.
As I said, I know I would love this job. Through my
research on how planes work and some of the physics
behind the mechanics of a plane. I know a lot about planes
what some of the technical terms of flight. How to use
instruments on a plane. I know how to make the plane fly
in a straight line without holding the controls (which is
somewhat hard). I would be payed to do something that I
currently enjoy and like to look at.
After looking in to being a CFI and what it takes to be one.
I have found that I would greatly enjoy being one. I could
see myself being a jumbo jet pilot because of the lack of
control over one. I dont mind the small pay, or the long
training hours. I do see myself doing this a full time career
in the future

Work cited
"Are We Facing a Global Shortage of Flight
Instructors?" International Association of Flight .
Training Professionals. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Feb.
2014.

<http://www.iaftp.org/2011/07/arewe-facing-a-global-shortage-of-flight-instructors/>.
"Aviation Salaries." Aviation Salaries. N.p., n.d. Web. 28
Jan.
2014.<http:www.aviationcareerguid
e.com/aviation_salaries.asp>.
"Cfi Salary." Job Search. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
<http://www.indeed.com/salary/Cfi.html>.
"Flight Instructor Pay Flight Training." Flight Training.
N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Jan. 2014.
<http://blog.aopa.org/fli
ghttraining/?p=504>.
Jason Clark, email, 21 January 2014