Why does the time-builder CFI always get a bad rap?
Hey, everyone, Jason Schappert here of MZeroA.com.
And, you are listening to, it's no secret now,
my favorite of the four podcasts,
the CFI Podcast, the Certificated Flight Instructor Podcast.
Did you know that?
You're not a Certified Flight Instructor, you are a Certificated Flight Instructor.
Fascinating, right?
Just a little change like that does it.
Hey, hope you all are doing absolutely outstanding.
Great to be back with you all.
Some of you all know, if you're watching,
if you're a member of the ground school
or watching Inflight Coffee or anything like that,
we're not doing so well health-wise there for a little bit,
but doing much, much better.
Magda and I both came down with the old COVID, but we're better.
I am back.
I would say today is probably the first day--
Today would be day 18 of it, honestly.
I'd say I'm 100% finally today.
So, that's good.
Magda's probably just the tiniest bit behind me on that one.
She got it a day or two after I did, thanks to me.
But, back to it.
Already went flying, everything else by myself, don't worry.
And, life is good as such.
Hey, I want to share with you briefly,
and I just shared it,
I think it'd be fun for you to go back and hopefully listen to all four podcasts,
the Private Pilot Podcast,
the Instrument Pilot Podcast,
the Commercial Pilot Podcast,
and, of course, you're listening to CFI Podcast.
But, on last week's Commercial Pilot Podcast,
so you go the Commercial Pilot Podcast,
it would be October of 2021 if you want to go back and find
if you listen to this way, way in the future
and this is a like time capsule.
The episode is called "My First Jobs in Aviation."
And, in there, I share a lot about this--
Actually, I opened up with this idea
which inspired this episode of the time-builder.
I don't like the phrase, "time-builder."
I think it denotes somebody who's there for one thing.
I'm here to build time.
I don't really care about the paycheck.
I don't really care about the students.
I don't really care about the school.
I don't really care about the airplanes.
I really just care when is Delta going to call me?
When is United going to call?
That, unfortunately,
is the reputation or the stereotype that we create in our head
when someone has the audacity to say "I'm a time-builder."
In fact, I don't know if many people--
Maybe, I'm out of touch, but I don't think people--
Do people really call themselves a time-builder?
I'm a time-builder CFI.
I don't think so.
It's very possible I am out of touch, though.
Sometimes, I do live in a bit of a bubble.
But, I can't see somebody saying that.
Now, I can see, and see it all the time,
people saying, "My CFI is just a time-builder."
People talk about their CFIs being a time-builder.
But, I've never known a CFI to call themselves a time-builder.
But, anyways,
time-builders have this stereotype that I just explained to you.
And, I frankly don't like it.
So, I'm wondering, do we need a change of vernacular?
What I proposed in the Commercial Pilot Podcast is,
can we call them experience-builders instead?
Maybe, just that change in the verbiage would help
because time-builders have a bad rap.
Maybe, if we call them experience-builders,
like, yes, as a CFI, you are building experience.
But, you're also creating moments.
You're creating experiences for your learners as well, for your students.
"Learners" is the new word to use, right?
You're creating these great experiences while you're building experience.
And, yeah, you're getting paid a little bit,
but you're building the reputation of the school,
you're building your own reputation,
while you're also, yes, building your time or your experience.
Here's the question I have for you.
Can someone--
And, you know what?
You may go on to become a CFI to build time.
I think that's great.
The last episode I was just sharing was all about
low-time odd commercial pilot jobs, like 250-hour commercial jobs.
They're odd.
And, there's a few of them out there.
And, there's a few more I probably didn't even list that you can think of.
But, it's just keeping you in the aviation environment getting paid.
But, what I encourage people to do in that episode was go become a CFI,
get paid a little bit, build the time.
Because I believe
you can be time-building.
How can you be time-building
and still deliver the most value for your learner?
You can be waiting for the Delta phone call
to put you in that.
You're in a hiring pool, just waiting for indoc
and waiting for training.
That's 100% acceptable,
as long as you're honest with your learners and say,
"Hey, just so you know, I'm thinking I'm only going to be here
three or six more months before indoc at Delta,
assuming the economy stays good,
they keep hiring the way they're doing, and everything else.
That's what I'm thinking."
If you're honest with your learners and they know that so it's not a surprise,
because who's ever been surprised by a CFI?
Like, "Hey, next week, I'm actually heading out.
You're flying with Phil your next lesson, not me.
I'm out.
It's our last lesson together."
Like, "Oh, I've gotten a text message break up, too."
The CFI is like, "I'm out.
Sorry, I moved you to schedule to fly with Phil."
"Great, I don't even know Phil.
But, thanks."
That's where the time-builders get the bad rap, isn't it?
How can you be a time-builder, an experience-builder,
and still deliver value to your learners?
Well, you can do it by being upfront with them and saying,
"Listen, I've got 1,000 hours.
I need 1,500, and then I'm going to start applying for jobs, just so you know.
So, I think I'll be able to finish up your private pilot.
And, I'm going to do my best to make sure that happens."
That's the level of deliverability.
I shared-- and, again, I keep going back to this Commercial Pilot Podcast.
You're going to have to listen to it now.
I left a cliffhanger in there, not that much not that exciting,
but where I shared I actually slept in the hangar for a few months.
And, I slept in the hangar for a few months
because I had one student left to finish up,
awesome, awesome gentleman,
one student to finish up his private pilot certificate.
He was very, very close.
We were wrapping up cross-countries and solo cross-countries.
Ended up taking still with weather and everything else.
I think I lived in the hangar, I don't know,
two, three months, I can't remember how long.
My lease was up.
They only did annual leases.
I knew I didn't need to do that.
I was moving back to Ocala.
I was living in Jacksonville at the time.
And, I bought an air mattress and slept in a 10 by 10 room in a hangar.
It had a window AC unit
and had a bathroom and a shower in it and laundry,
but it was the laundry for shop rags.
So, I ruined a lot of shirts.
But, the air mattress deflated each night.
But, I wasn't going to leave that student.
I wasn't going to leave that learner.
I promised him I would finish up his certificate.
And, I did.
And, I'm not saying you need to sleep in a hangar.
You don't need to be that crazy with it.
But, you need to be open and honest, and committed.
If you tell a learner,
"I will see you through to the private pilot checkride,"
you better be a gentleman or a lady of your word.
Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.
And, boy, if you follow that philosophy,
you will go far in life, not just in aviation,
but in business, relationships, and everything.
You'll go very, very far in life.
And, I don't mean to get off-topic and start acting like a life coach
because I'm certainly not, and nor am I trying to be such.
But, the question is, how can you be a time-builder,
an experience-builder, and still deliver value?
While you're waiting for that Delta phone call,
you can still be all-in for your learner.
You can still be all-in for the flight school you're flying with.
I run into CFIs all the time that the flight school is just
a part of the system, a cog in the wheel, whatever that may be.
And, they don't respect the airplanes,
respect the dress code, respect the company policies.
It's just, "I'm just here to instruct.
I'm here to get my paycheck.
I'm here to log my time and move on till somebody calls me."
That is no--
You are an employee of that place.
You wouldn't go to any other job and act like that, you would lose your job.
A lot of flight schools are just in this position right now where it's,
listen, these people aren't going to stick around.
It goes both ways.
Let me just take a step back even further.
Flight schools can take better care of their CFIs.
Too many flight schools have the mindset of,
"These CFIs are going to only be here about a year, maybe, two years tops."
Why do I need to invest in them?
Why do I need to invest in Polo golf shirts for them,
and training for them, and all this other stuff?
They're going to be gone in two years?
Why bother investing in them?
Gosh, this has turned into a business podcast, and I apologize,
but when you, the flight school owner,
or maybe, you'll be a chief CFI, so this will benefit you,
but when you don't care for your CFIs,
your CFIs are not going to care with your students.
One thing we do, it's a little crazy here at MZeroA.com,
is we believe we take care of our team members first.
If I take care of the MZeroA team
and love on them,
they're going to be in a great mindset, in a great position to, then, go out
and love on our actual students, our actual learners.
And, it's thousands a day.
20,000 a day is what watches and consumes MZeroA content every single day.
It's ridiculous.
It's amazing.
It's a blessing.
It's all these things.
But, if our team was grumpy
and I was just this dictator-like boss and everything else,
it would reflect all the way down the company to then grumpy students.
And, that's what's happening in flight schools.
The flight schools are not investing in the CFIs.
The CFIs are not investing in the students.
And, the students go and give you a bad three-star review on Google.
And, that's the vicious cycle that's happening right now.
If you have a good CFI helping with your CFI
or you had a good CFI in the past, you know it.
And, I hope you are still hanging on that person
or hung on to them as long as you could.
Now, you can learn from the bad CFIs, too.
But, boy, having a good CFI is so powerful.
I'm always amazed when I hear the story,
"I had the same CFI private through my commercial."
You're the 1% of 1%.
Most people have three or four CFIs per certificate or per rating.
How can you avoid being that CFI?
Could you be so bold as to when you know,
hey, you've actually got a class date at Delta or United, or whatever it is.
Congratulations, that' awesome.
You've got a class date that's three months out.
This is going to sound crazy.
And, it's going to take some humility on your part and your pocketbook's part
because it's going to hurt a little bit, but it's the right thing to do.
You might want to give the flight school heads-up and go, "Hey, listen.
I got my indoc date.
I got my class date.
It's in three months.
I'm going to finish out my students the best of my ability.
And, I'll make sure we hustle them along.
I won't make any bad decisions.
If weather is bad or maintenance is bad, I'm not going to push it by any means.
But, I'm going to do my best.
I'll make myself available.
I normally take off weekends.
I'm going to work weekends now just to make myself more available
to my learners.
But, please, don't give me any new learners.
I'm good for a flight review.
I'm good for an IPC.
But, don't give me any brand-new students or even brand-new instruments.
Just don't give me anybody from zero for a certificate of rating
because I'm not going to be able to finish them in three months,
and that's not fair to them."
Wow, if you walk into
it with that level of humility,
it takes guts.
But, aviation is so small.
You can make or break your reputation in minutes in aviation.
Think about it.
If you look at the FAA Airmen Database,
there are only 600,000 pilots in the database.
How many of those are active?
Maybe, half.
So, 300,000 people.
Aviation is small.
Especially, if you're in a small community,
there's a good chance you say someone's name
and they know that person.
You're building your reputation now.
And, you never know who you're teaching to fly, by the way.
That person you're teaching to fly, you may run in the airlines.
That's awesome.
The person you're teaching to fly might be the president of ALPA one day,
the Air Line Pilots Association, the big union there;
or might be the president of AOPA,
or a C-suite or VP at United or at Delta one day.
And, they're going to remember you.
And, you better remember them.
And, hopefully, you are good to them,
because aviation is so full-circle with that sort of stuff.
MZeroA Nation, I really got on a tangent today.
I didn't even follow my notes very well.
Time-builder CFI, they get a bad rap.
Can we call them an experienced-builder?
And, the question you need to think about
is how can you build time
and still deliver the most value to your learner?
I have no problem with you being a CFI to build time
and make a little bit of money.
Nothing wrong with it.
Just love on your learners.
Heck, love on the flight school.
Love on the airplanes.
Treat it as if it was all yours.
It's your business.
It's your airplanes.
It's your hangar door.
So, shut it nice.
Lock the doors.
Turn the master switch off.
Treat it right.
It'll come back to benefit you.
Karma has a very, very funny way of taking care of you.
And, I'm a living proof of that.
I'd imagine you wouldn't have gotten this far in aviation
if you weren't living proof of that as well.
MZeroA Nation, you are a blessing to us.
If there's anything, seriously, anything at all,
we can do to better serve you,
please, please, please, don't hesitate to reach out.
Have a blessed, amazing, outstanding rest of your day.
And most importantly, remember,
that a good pilot is always learning.
Have a great day, everybody. We'll see you.