Ten Days

Yesterday marked my 10^th straight day with at least one lesson.

I thought I had Sunday off but I got a call in the morning from a guy who wanted to go fly some approaches so I headed out to the airport and rattled around in a 172, just like I do every other day.

The next five days are booked as well, so if the weather cooperates that'll make for one day off out of 15.

Today, I have nothing scheduled so I have to figure out what to do with myself.

In what can only be described as a bout of mental illness I thought about going flying.

I checked the schedule to see if the 182RG was open so I could go fly it. I need to fly the thing pretty soon to stay current in it and I need to log some approaches to stay instrument current so I figured today would be a good day to find a safety pilot and knock out those two tasks.

Thankfully, I think, the airplane was scheduled so I guess there will be no flying for me today after all and I can tackle some home-improvement projects.

Another instructor and I were joking last week about how we were “Living the Life.”

From the outside, being a full-time flight instructor can look like a pretty sweet gig. For the most part it is.

I'm fortunate to be this busy and I appreciate it. I get to go flying pretty much every day and I get to spend time with people I really enjoy being around.

Flying 10-days in a row is a dream for a lot of pilots who might only get to fly 10-days in a year. Getting paid to do it sounds even sweeter.

The reality is a bit different. There are hours spent in freezing hangars, hours spent in traffic getting to and from the airport, hours spent doing paperwork, hours spent preparing for lessons and hours spent sitting around not making any money.

For all that I make about what I could make flipping burgers at McDonalds.

Sure, I work fewer hours than I'd need to at a burger joint and I don't smell like fries when I get home, but at the end of the week the pay is about the same. Unless of course there's bad weather or an airplane breaks, in which case the burger jockey is making more.

Add to that the notion that my license is on the line every time I set foot near an airplane and I'm just an engine-failure or bad landing away from getting hurt or worse and flipping burgers seems like a saner choice.

There are a scant few full-time instructors who can really make a decent living at it. Even if you teach 1,000 hours a year it's tough when the going rate for flight instruction hovers around $40 an hour. If you're experienced and specialized you can probably charge $50 or even $60 an hour in this market, but then there's no way you'll get 1,000 hours of business in a year.

Teach through a flight school? Forget it. One school offers $15 an hour and another $20. Since they're charging the student $48 an hour for my time that shows the degree to which they value their own flight instructors. Thanks but no thanks.

But even with all that, it's still a great job. I knew what to expect going in and I did it anyway.

I mean, I got to fly 10-days in a row. And I get to fly the next five days in a row. How cool is that?