I am currently very interested in sport instructing and wanted some details about the whole instruction situation. I hold a private ticket with more than enough hours to be qualified for sport CFI and I wondered what hurdles I need to jump through to be on my way to instructing in a plane of my own.
Thanks.
Becoming a Sport CFI
Moderator: drseti
Becoming a Sport CFI
Grant
Well, insurance is probably going to be the toughest, and by toughest I mean $$$, and next toughest being acquiring students to cover the premiums. I assume if I had enough time to get out to fly-ins and other aviation get-togethers and hand out flyers and such, then there is a chance that you could get somewhere. Now being from Dayton, you'd think that there'd be all kinds of people wanting to get off the ground given reputation that it has of an aviation city, but with the economy choking, not sure what might happen. By talking to those who have done it in the past, they say that getting insurance wouldn't be too difficult, just be ready to pay, thus requiring the airplane to fly at least 10 hours a month to break even as far as the insurance goes. Thats insurance with my personal instructing experience which is none.
Grant
That's certainly the case. I'm in the process of setting up a new LSA flight school at Lock Haven PA (see the AvSport of Lock Haven website, http://AvSport.org). The quote I received for 1M smooth liability, $100k hull, is $7550/yr! That's with 37 years of teaching experience, >3500 hours PIC, comml/ifr/cfi/cfii. I hesitate to guess what the charges would be for a low-time instructor.gdr1982 wrote:Well, insurance is probably going to be the toughest, and by toughest I mean $$$
Having done a spreadsheet forecasting fixed and variable costs, reasonable revenues, and depreciation reserve, I find that I need to instruct 240 hours a year to make this venture work. That's not out of the question; 6 hours a week for 40 good VFR flying weeks a year will do it. Still, there's always the unexpected... Remember the axiom about how to make a million dollars in aviation: start with two million!
Safe skies,
Paul
The opinions posted are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
SportPilotExaminer.US
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
SportPilotExaminer.US
Just to bring everybody up to date: I ended up insuring through the EAA's agent, and got a substantially better rate. Commercial policy for rental and instruction, liability 1M single limit / 100k per passenger, hull coverage $85k with 1k deductible - ran me $5103/yr. Still expensive, but tolerable.drseti wrote: The quote I received for 1M smooth liability, $100k hull, is $7550/yr!
The opinions posted are those of one CFI, and do not necessarily represent the FAA or its lawyers.
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
SportPilotExaminer.US
Prof H Paul Shuch
PhD CFII DPE LSRM-A/GL/WS/PPC iRMT
AvSport LLC, KLHV
[email protected]
AvSport.org
facebook.com/SportFlying
SportPilotExaminer.US
- Paul Hamilton
- Posts: 329
- Joined: Mon May 21, 2007 2:42 pm
- Location: Reno/Tahoe Nevada
Note that there is a specific topic in the "Ask the Examiner" area "how to become a sport pilot instructor" that covers all the basics of getting your sport pilot CFI certificate.
Paul is a Sport Pilot CFI/DPE and the expert for ASA who writes the books and produces the DVD's for all pilots flying light sport aircraft.
See www.SportAviationCenter.com www.Sport-Pilot-Training.com and www.BeASportPilot.com to Paul's websites
See www.SportAviationCenter.com www.Sport-Pilot-Training.com and www.BeASportPilot.com to Paul's websites