Instructor Fees V Instructor Pay

[Northern Highflyer]

Like many I would like to be a full time instructor, but the poor pay means I would have to only do it part time while keeping another job going.

During my research I know of a club that charges students £27 per hour for the instructor. The instructor however only gets paid £17 per hour. The instructors are self employed so there aren't the usual overheads associated with PAYE. I also assume that the solo hire rate for an aircraft is such that the aircraft still returns a profit for the club. To then take a further £10 per hour seems a bit unfair to me. Even allowing for any admin fees, surely £20 or even £25 per hour should go to the instructor, especially as they are self employed, or am I missing something?

Is this normal practice within the UK ? Can anyone post figures for other clubs ? (no need to name them)

£20 - £25 per hour would make it a viable full-time option, but not at £17. I might even be tempted to make a career out of it.

[SkyCamMK]

there's a banner ad at the bottom of this page offering £25-£32k for a jaa ppl instructor.send in a cv or call.it's not badly paid everywhere!

[TheOddOne]

I also assume that the solo hire rate for an aircraft is such that the aircraft still returns a profit for the club.

That's not always a safe assumption to make.

There's a general rule-of-thumb that says that the total cost of employing someone is around twice their gross pay, thus if you're paid £25 per hour then you should be charged out at £50 ph, without any profit or other overhead element.

There are FI(R) jobs in the London area that pay £14400 pa plus £25 per hour once you've flown 20 hours in a month. Thus, in a month where you fly 40 hours, you'll earn £1200 basic plus £500 = £1700 per month gross. Assume the weather's bad (as we had earlier in the year) then the school's still got to find the £1200 per month. This has to come out of the 'profit' when flying resumes when the weather picks up. In addition, the school has to pay rent, rates, light and heat for the premises for briefings to take place, instructor accommodation etc.

I know of one school that charges £50 ph for the instruction and pays the the instructor £25. Seems about right to me.

Even when the wx seems OK, details often have to be cancelled due x-winds out of limits for early circuit students. This happened on a couple of days this week. Wages still have to be paid, however.

Some schools refuse to have self-employed instructors, insisting everyone be on PAYE, because they know that SE breaks the HMRC rules for full-time staff.

TheOddOne

[Northern Highflyer]

There are FI(R) jobs in the London area that pay £14400 pa plus £25 per hour once you've flown 20 hours in a month. Thus, in a month where you fly 40 hours, you'll earn £1200 basic plus £500 = £1700 per month gross. Assume the weather's bad (as we had earlier in the year) then the school's still got to find the £1200 per month. This has to come out of the 'profit' when flying resumes when the weather picks up.

I accept all the above, however in this case there is no retainer involved. Don't fly don't get paid.

In addition, the school has to pay rent, rates, light and heat for the premises for briefings to take place, instructor accommodation etc.

That's why I asked if I was missing something. Based on that premise, if students dropped off dramatically due to the economic climate, and only qualified pilots went flying (very unlikely) then the club would not be able to cover it's overheads. Hence my assumption that solo hire rates must cover some of these costs. Is it a wise business decision to rely heavily on the instruction fees if that is in fact the case ? Surely to spread the overheads more evenly would be a better way forward.

Of course, this is all hypothesis.

[BristolScout]

I suggest you research all the numbers involved and do the maths. You'll find it's virtually impossible for an FTO to make a sensible operating profit within the weather and institutional constraints extant in the UK. Operating aircraft under C of A conditions is very expensive and, at the other side of the balance sheet, there is an upper limit to what can reasonably be charged to the customer - this is higher in the affluent south-east, but then so are the costs - before it becomes too expensive and trade dries up. Bottom line is that there's very little left in the kitty to pay wages after all the other expenses, so instructor money is never going to be good unless you do the commercial stuff.

This has been a constant theme amongst instructors since I started in the seventies and the situation never changes.