Re: CFI Charges
Posted: Thu Sep 13, 2012 2:28 pm
This is a brave new world. CFI's need professional liability insurance these days, even if one only freelances on occasion.
Consider what risks are taken.... A young college student with a bright future as an IT professional, or doctor, or lawyer, or musician.... can easily be represented as having a future career worth dozens of millions of dollars. And that is the consideration any decent attorney (pun intended) will ask a jury to make.
If I were a juror watching parents and a young wife crying in a courtroom because their loved one took off in the face of wx which their attorney easily describes as never having been taught by that CFI....who only thought he needed to teach stick-and-rudder and new regs on a bi-annual flight review.... and who had no documentation himself on his own recency-of-experience and meteorology training....yet held out a CFI shingle....
I don't know how a CFI can justify the risk for less than $50/hr and remain current/qualified himself, and also pay professional premiums. This is no different than what we expect from mx shops, and we've already had that discussion.
Would you go to a dentist who had no insurance? Would you expect that dentist to attend qualified recurrent training in his profession? Would you expect him to use YOUR pliers? (I.E., expect a CFI to assume the liability to teach you in YOUR uninsured airplane?)
I'm only saying...
Meanwhile, I'm also reminded of Arnold Schwartznegger's story. He immigrated to America and along with a newfound Italian friend, he started trying to make a living by performing bricklaying work in the Los Angeles area.
It was hard, dirty, long-days of work.... but he had trouble getting work as a freelance bricklayer. He had to compete with all the professional re-modellers in the area as well as the other immigrant workers who seemed to abound in southern California.
He dropped his prices from $12/hr. to $10/hr.....and when that didn't work, he ran ads in the paper for bricklayer-work performed at $8/hr. Still no jobs.
One day at the grocery, he bumped into a marketing expert who listened to his story while in the checkout line. The advertising guy told him how to turn his life around.... Run an ad in the paper for "European Custom Bricklaying for $25 per hour!"
He was flooded with work requests throughout Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Now you know the rest of the story.
(I charge $50/hr for CFI, and $700/day plus expenses for professional pilot services.....even though I love the work. Plenty of work.)
Consider what risks are taken.... A young college student with a bright future as an IT professional, or doctor, or lawyer, or musician.... can easily be represented as having a future career worth dozens of millions of dollars. And that is the consideration any decent attorney (pun intended) will ask a jury to make.
If I were a juror watching parents and a young wife crying in a courtroom because their loved one took off in the face of wx which their attorney easily describes as never having been taught by that CFI....who only thought he needed to teach stick-and-rudder and new regs on a bi-annual flight review.... and who had no documentation himself on his own recency-of-experience and meteorology training....yet held out a CFI shingle....
I don't know how a CFI can justify the risk for less than $50/hr and remain current/qualified himself, and also pay professional premiums. This is no different than what we expect from mx shops, and we've already had that discussion.
Would you go to a dentist who had no insurance? Would you expect that dentist to attend qualified recurrent training in his profession? Would you expect him to use YOUR pliers? (I.E., expect a CFI to assume the liability to teach you in YOUR uninsured airplane?)
I'm only saying...
Meanwhile, I'm also reminded of Arnold Schwartznegger's story. He immigrated to America and along with a newfound Italian friend, he started trying to make a living by performing bricklaying work in the Los Angeles area.
It was hard, dirty, long-days of work.... but he had trouble getting work as a freelance bricklayer. He had to compete with all the professional re-modellers in the area as well as the other immigrant workers who seemed to abound in southern California.
He dropped his prices from $12/hr. to $10/hr.....and when that didn't work, he ran ads in the paper for bricklayer-work performed at $8/hr. Still no jobs.
One day at the grocery, he bumped into a marketing expert who listened to his story while in the checkout line. The advertising guy told him how to turn his life around.... Run an ad in the paper for "European Custom Bricklaying for $25 per hour!"
He was flooded with work requests throughout Beverly Hills and Hollywood.
Now you know the rest of the story.
(I charge $50/hr for CFI, and $700/day plus expenses for professional pilot services.....even though I love the work. Plenty of work.)
