Flying for Fun and for Money

I haven’t written much in my blog about this, but I’ve had something in the works for a while now and wanted to make sure it would happen before I said too much publicly about it.

I’ve arranged to start working for a local flight school and aircraft sales business, beginning December 19. The flight school operates two aircraft. One is a 2001 Cessna 172 with a conventional panel, while the other is a 2005 Cessna 172SP with a Garmin G1000 glass panel. I’ve been studying the G1000 system with the help of John and Martha King for the past couple weeks and it doesn’t look too tricky.

I’ll go for a check flight within a few days to shoot some approaches using the G1000 avionics and acclimate myself to how everything is layed out. Hopefully I don’t fall dangerously far behind. I have to make my students believe I’m at least somewhat competent the first time I fly with them! There’s a high demand for flight training in this area right now, so I already have several students lined up to start training with me next week. I better be prepared for my first day.

In addition to all this, the owner of the flight school talked to me today about being sent up to Duluth, Minnesota next month in order to complete the Cirrus Standardized Instructor Program (CSIP) training. There is a brand new Cirrus SR-22 based at our airport and both the owners want to get their instrument ratings in it, so I might be the man to train them.

After completion of the CSIP course I would be authorized by Cirrus Designs, as well as recognized by insurance underwriters, to provide training to new owners of the Cirrus SR-20/SR-22 aircraft. In case you aren’t familiar with the SR-20/22 line, they are those slick new machines that cruise high and fast, and are known for their ballistic parachute recovery system safety feature–have an engine failure at night over the mountains? Just pop the chute and you’ll be ok.

I’m especially excited about the potential for being a CSIP instructor, as I’d be the only CSIP instructor for at least 150 miles in any direction. As far as I know, I’d be the closest instructor for the Omaha and Kansas City markets, so I’m sure many Cirrus owners would come here for initial, recurrent, and additional training.

To spread icing on the cake, we’ve also talked about selling Cirrus aircraft here. If that turns in to reality, I’d be involved with demo flights and marketing, which would be a ton of fun.

The only downside to all of this is that I have to turn down AOPA with their internship opportunities next summer. I hate to turn AOPA down, but if I go through the CSIP program I would need to stick around here for the summer and flight instruct. The CSIP program isn’t cheap, and if the flight school invests in me they want me to stay in the area for at least a year–which is a very reasonable request.

So hopefully all of this works out. Aviation is a notoriously fickle industry. It’s possible for these opportunities to fall apart as quickly as they appeared. I never believe I have a job until my first day of work and I never believe anyone is getting a plane until I see it parked on the ramp. That’s just the way things work. But for now, the future looks quite bright. Teaching in new, glass cockpit aircraft, and getting paid well to do it, all while selling aircraft on the side? I can see myself getting used to this lifestyle.

All of this makes me wonder though, have I reached the top yet? This is pretty much the best a guy can ask for, at least in the instructing world. But then I think about instructing in, and selling King Airs, PC-12s, Citations, and the like. It makes me realize I’m only taking gateway drugs at this point. At least I’m enjoying my ride to the top!

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 13th, 2007 at 7:00 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.