r/CFILounge

CFII with 750 hours. Have my MEL (but no MEI) and work at a school that gets me about 60-80 hours a month. I’m under contract though so I can’t leave until early October. Currently saving money to pay off a small loan.

I think a lot about what else I could be doing. For some reason, it feels like I’m not doing enough, and I don’t want to get blindsided later on by realizing I could’ve been doing “xyz”.

I’ve bookmarked some operators I want to apply to when my contract ends, I have airline apps and I’ve put in & update apps for some companies, I’m friendly with the other CFIIs at my school and I keep in touch with old CFI’s I trained with who are now at the airlines, and I shoot the shit with some other people at the airport. Once my loan is paid off I want to see about getting more multi time (I’m at 17, I want to get to 25 for the R-ATP). But I still wonder, what else could I be doing? What are you guys doing while you build hours?

Hello all, I am scheduled to take my CFII checkride soon. Just curious if anyone has an opinion on the Sporty’s CFII course or know if there is another course that will better prepare me for the checkride?

Looking for a gut check from other CFIs and anyone who’s navigated this market.

Quick background: recently separated Army vet, CFI/CFII plus glider ratings, around 800 hours, got my ratings through ATP and have actual paid CFI experience in another state. Separated thinking I’d get picked up somewhere fairly quickly. That has not been the case.

There’s a local flight school where the owner told me that if I rent his aircraft and get checked out in them, he “might” consider me as a candidate for a CFI position. No commitment, no timeline, just the possibility. Meanwhile, the same school runs a pilot development pipeline where they train students from zero, push them through their CFII, and hire from within. So the people ahead of me in line are the ones who paid the school for their entire training, and I’m being told my outside ratings and prior instructing experience somehow make me less of a fit.

I get that schools like hiring their own grads because they know the syllabus and the culture. I also get that no one owes me a job and guarantees don’t exist in this industry. But this arrangement feels uncomfortably close to “pay us rental fees and maybe we’ll think about it.” The owner is also not an easy person to have a direct conversation with, so getting a straight answer on actual hiring odds hasn’t worked.

So my questions:

**1.**	Has anyone actually converted a “rent from us and get checked out” situation into a real CFI job, or is this a well known way for schools to fill the rental schedule?  
**2.**	Is there a way to pin the owner down without burning the bridge? Something like asking what specifically would move me from “maybe” to an offer?  
**3.**	In this market, is spending rental money on a maybe ever worth it, or should that money go toward multi time or applications elsewhere?

Not trying to trash the school. Just tired of vague maybes after doing everything right on paper. Appreciate any perspective, especially from people who hire CFIs.

For any of you CFI dads/moms out there… what’s a good practice concerning logging any flight training your kids do at an early age? Not looking for my kid to have 500 hours of dual received by the time they are 16, but the thought occurred to me: my daughter has recently taken an interest in actually controlling the aircraft when we fly. Logging any actual flight training time would be more of a sentimental thing I think, but wondering what others out there are doing?

I have a commercial license. The company my mom works for is looking for areal pictures of their new building that’s under construction. I tell my mom to tell them I would take pictures of it for them for “cheap” would this be holding out or word of mouth? If it is holding out could I do this legally for free instead?

Anybody have any advice on the best way to go freelance as a new cfi-i? I live in the Phoenix area and its highly competitive right now with no schools hiring at the moment.

Im hoping to do some freelance work to supplement income, build hours, and get dual experience. Any tips, suggestions, or even some connections would be greatly appreciated!

Hello Everybody,

I have a student with a check ride coming up in July. He is a half owner of a plane in a partnership, but the plane is rented out in a flight school to students, requiring the 100 Hr, which it currently has.

Since the 100Hr expires soon, can he still take the checkride without a current 100 hr if nobody rents the plane from the 100hr expiration until his checkride date.

Would this look Sus to a DPE?

I'm fresh FAA CPL ME and 26 year old female, Us citizen.

Is it worth to spend 85k usd for type rating and line training to fly Dash8 Q400 and A320 in a third world foreign country where my family lives? It requires a 6 years commitment with them so I'll be 3 years slower than cfi route to us regionals. End goal is us airlines.

Or should I spend $40k usd to get my cfi, mei, cfii in an academy that hires instructors and grind my way to airlines in 3 years? I could use the rest 45k to build time instead or support myself if cfi pay isn't great.

Which one would be a better choice? The guaranteed airline job in foreign country or the cfi path in an academy that usually hires its instructors?

Do you think the 90k usd is worth it if I get to fly the dash8 and possibly A320 and also be 3-4 years slower than cfi route costing me seniority and uncertainty when I come back ? Pay here is $1600 for dash8 FO and $3000 for 737 FO. Cost of living is $700usd monthly maximum. Which one would u pick?

I am a CFI applicant creating lesson plans and I want to gather/incorporate the best memory aids/tips/tricks/explanations of any and all ground school knowledge. Please share the unique ways you were taught any subject/topic/maneuver!

Or any videos/free content that you found helpful.

Has anyone had any luck providing/advertising virtual instruction or checkride prep? I'm currently waiting on a class date with an airline but it's taking a little longer than I expected, and I'd like to be able to contribute to the household again, haha. I have over 2 years of experience, I'm a gold seal, and was a check instructor for over a year.

I've advertised some on FB but getting mostly negative or jackass responses :/

As a CFII I want to get more actual time. My ppl students need 3 hours of instrument time. If it is an IFR day, but otherwise safe to fly would there be an issue filing an IFR flight plan, handing them the controls at a safe altitude, then we fly the approach together? Not necessarily them flying the approach but I would give them headings, altitudes, power settings etc.

Obviously before we did this we would do simulated IFR to cover the basics and unusual attitudes as we could not do those things on an IFR flight plan.

I am of 2 opinions

1. The actual IMC experience is much more valuable to them than simulated

2. Flying in a straight line most of the time isn’t as valuable as 3 hours of just focusing on fundamentals and IFR flying basics

Obviously the student would need to be proficient enough that we don’t get a deviation, but that is what I am there for

Hey all. New CFII here who is currently living with my parents.

Crunched the numbers and it looks like if I want to get my multi-engine rating and MEI, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford to build a decent emergency fund and move out before I go to the airlines (estimating it will take 2-2.5ish years, I’m currently at 340 hrs).

I know things are pretty sh*t for pilots in general right now. Just want to see how other CFIs are doing financially, what your emergency funds look like (if any), and how many others are living at home. How many of ya’ll who are not living with family are making enough to live, save, and invest on top of it all?

Thanks 🙏

Hi, I am planning a lesson involving the use of a yaw string for a student in a C172. Are there materials of string to avoid for fear of scratching the windshield?

CFI earned 6/2025 First pilot job as skydiving pilot obtained 3/2026 CFII earned 5/2026 First real CFI job at an actual flight school 6/2026

The full story is much longer but to sum it up I quit my full time stable job, live in my car in the airport parking lot to afford the loss of that job that I replaced with a jump pilot job that I moved 1800 miles to get. Walked into a flight school with close to 600 hours and now Im working at a 141 program that I never applied to, never called, never emailed. Just showed up resume in hand and shot the shit with the chief pilot.

If you want it, don’t give up. Work full time to afford to spilt time then when you have the right hours (complex, HP, XC, night, different aircraft) be willing to move somewhere new and go after it. If its not happening where you are at, go to it.

edit: I’m not a kid, grown man in his 30s who had a decent paying career prior and own place. Gave a lot up, pinch pennies, but I’m flying. I know not everyone can go after it same way if have certain responsibilities. Just wanted to motivate others not to give up

Posted previously about long term student (55 hours dual since the early 90s).

Student is resistant to instruction and I can’t seem to make any critiques without the student responding with some variety of the following expressions:

-you’re the first instructor who’s ever said that
-I’ve never heard of that
-I can’t find any example of that instruction from tower in the literature
-are you sure that’s right

Basically very anti-authority. He wants to solo, and his flying skills are probably close to successfully soloing, but I don’t want to sign him off because of his attitude. It’s very frustrating.

How can I get through to him that he needs to be receptive to instruction and have an open mind or else this is not going to progress beyond burning money on dual instruction. For context, I am a new CFI with about 30 hours dual and no sign offs of any kind yet. Thanks team.

CFII with AGI single engine only ~400 hours

Failed Instrument at a 141 with self examining authority

Failed CFII

1. Should I get multi then apply for all of them? (Piedmont requires it) or Just apply for what I can and forget about Piedmont (I really don’t have the money for multi right now).
2. Am I screwed for failing both instrument checkrides considering all airline flying is instrument?
3. Are my explanations reasonable? (See below)

Explanations for failures below

Initial instrument fail was because I bugged 200 rather than 020 for the climb out instructions on the missed resulting in a turn in the wrong direction. What I learned was to always write down both the heading and the turn direction for climb out, and double check heading bugs not set and forget.

CFII fail was due to altitude deviations, I was omitting the altimeter from my scan and let the altitude creep up repeatedly. What ultimately failed me though was we had a GPS failure resulting in a discontinuance I elected to still do the ILS but I was distracted, this led to me descending below the DPE assigned altitude on ILS intercept, I was looking at the approach plate altitudes, got task saturated as we were discussing the GPS issue and descended below his assigned altitude.

A common theme with both of these fails was a large gap between training and the checkride. For IFR this was 2 months due to the school temporarily losing 141 certification (chief pilot left). For CFII this was 4 months due to the DPE (he kept rescheduling me).

I did not have the money to fly as much as I should have during those gaps and misjudged how much IFR flying skills deteriorated. I have gone years without flying and been fine, but this highlights the importance of IFR currency, and why the regulations for it are so much stricter. So I need to take IFR currency more seriously as well.

Got my CFI/CFII in April 2025 and really got nowhere with a getting a job. Visited almost all flight schools in the area and no luck(been a few months since I did that probably going to go out in the next few days and try again). Also tried getting on as a skydiving jump pilot(no luck). Really haven’t done a big phone call/resume blast since April/May. Also thinking about building 50 multi hours out of pocket to make me hire able for aerial survey

Is hiring still nonexistent/ am I crazy for wanting to build that multi time

Hey fellow aviators and CFIs,

I’m an independent CFI with about 300 hours of dual given, and I just ran into a situation I haven’t dealt with before.

A prospective student came by my hangar recently and wants to start flight training. The challenge is that he is not a native English speaker, and he also has a very significant stutter. I want to be clear that I’m not trying to be disrespectful or dismissive toward him at all. He seems motivated, and I can only imagine how difficult that must be to deal with.

My concern is strictly from a training and safety standpoint. I train out of one of the busier Class D airports in Arizona, and I’m worried about his ability to communicate clearly and efficiently on the radios. When he asked me about pricing, it took around 45 seconds to get the question out, and I had to piece together what I could understand.

I want to handle this as respectfully and carefully as possible while still being honest about the communication requirements involved in flight training and operating in controlled airspace.

For CFIs who have dealt with similar situations, how did you approach it? Would you start with a ground lesson, radio practice, or maybe suggest an evaluation flight first? At what point, if any, is it appropriate to tell a prospective student that communication may be a limiting factor?

I’d appreciate any advice on how to handle this professionally, respectfully, and safely.

Looking to get my cfii preferably next month in July or August, looking for any recommendations of good (meaning fair) DPE’s. Looking in Southern California and willing to go out to Nevada/Arizona. TYIA