Jared
Posts: 21
Joined: 12/18/2001
From: It changes, MS,
Status: offline
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I'm a full scale instructor in addition to a model instructor. I would gladly provide all of my time for free, real airplanes and small ones included. There are many of my personal friends who qualify for the "CFI discount" depending on other favors etc. But, there are good reasons to charge. Here are a few ideas from my point of view:
1. It cost me a whole bunch to get my FAA Flight instructor certificate; somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000. That is quite a few props! I am much more likely to want to charge $20 per hour to fly real airplanes. CFI's have to go through training, while model instructors just have to have the guts to say "sure, I'll do it!" Due to this situation, there are far more model instructors than there are full scale ones, and basic economics dictate the price. When I was at school where there were plenty of instructors, I was getting $14 per hour, while in my current large metro area, I'm getting $20. In the right place I could easily get $50-$30, just because there aren't any instructors around. Since model instructors are easy to come by, this demand issue is negligible.
2. Real airplane flying and instructing involves very serious risks and liability; the risk of riding around isn't all that large, since most trainers are easy to fly and reliable. They also have dual controls, and I am qualified to fly the airplane if the student freezes up or some such. However, if the wing falls off, dual controls don't have anything to do with it. The very serious risk in flight instruction is the liability; when I sign off a pilot for solo flight, I certify that I have given him the training to do so safely. If he decides to jaunt off to cuba for lunch, who do you think the FAA is going to call? If he decides that he wants to fly his airplane into something expensive, and he gets sued, I probably will be too. I am not going to take that risk without some type of incentive, such as pay and flight time. (as a certificated flight instructor I get to log the flight time that I spend instructing towards my own total time) If these risks were not involved, I would probably fly for free; however, they are inherent to aviation and probably will never go away. Note that these risks are negligible with models; thus I don't charge for buddy box time.
3. When I commence full scale flight training, it isn't because my student and I just happened to be hanging around the airport together. We make appointments and keep them unless canceled due to weather or maintenance, that kind of stuff. If a student leaves me hanging at the airport, I charge him a no-show fee equal to what he would have paid me for the flight. While some people may be willing to live with this kind of arrangement for models, it sure cuts down on the fun factor. I like airplanes and all, but I don't just sit around at the full scale airport; i have to drive out there, and that costs gas, and it also costs the time that I could have spent working at another job making $. On the other hand, I fly models in my spare time, and I do just hang around at the model field. This is another reason that I charge for full scale time and not for model time.
4. Model flying can be hard at first, but let's be serious; flying a real airplane takes much more skill and knowledge, and mistakes aren't easily forgiven with CA and monokote. The skills that it takes to fly a model are associated with only the first few hours of training in a real airplane. It helps a bunch if a student can fly with the same instructor (or at least one who has the same training techniques) to promote continuity. This makes for more logistical problems that lead to desire for pay. It takes a multitute of training, preparation, and studying on my part to be able to teach someone to fly, whereas models are relatively simple.
To answer your question, If you want to charge for your model instruction time, go ahead. I think it is pretty pitiful though, unless you are flying your own airplane and burning your own fuel. Maybe I should send you a bill for this post  But, you do have a skill that is exclusive to a small group, so if you really insist I guess you can charge away. You can sort of compare it to full scale instruction, but not really. I don't really think you can use that excuse to rationalize it, because there are some big differences. Did anyone charge you when you learned to fly? just curious...
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Paying for Flight insrucrtion - 
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Paying for Flight instruction - 
Paying for Flight instruction - 