I was curious at what pay would be like building hours as a flight instructor, and the average salary was around 20-40k as expected. But when I narrowed it down to Flight Instructors in Florida/Miami it shot up to 70k plus, I was really surprised and was wondering what factors contribute to this, or maybe if these Instructors have their own schools I am just stumped. I do know Florida has a great reputation as a place to fly but would like more insight
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Alex,
I’m curious myself as that seems very high. Perhaps this instructors are independent and own their own planes or as you said schools? FL is very busy but again that def seems on the high side.
Adam
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Alex,
$70k as an instructor seems to good to be true, I would do some serious research before committing to that course of action.
Chris
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I just google flight instructor salary in Florida and Miami come up at $95,071 
(i live in west palm beach, FL) this is really sounds too good to be true.
But very interesting tho 
Alex and Emmanuel,
Are these estimates based on equivalent piston engine CFI jobs like ATP? I
bet they’re not…
Tory
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Yes this is typically what I’m seeing and I feel the same, there has to be some kind of catch. I would love to stay in Florida
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Where I’m finding the salaries, They dont offer a decent filtering to know the specifics of these jobs. But I’m trying to get to the bottom of it
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Like I said, I would double check with local flight schools. I would not make any decisions simply off of Google.
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I gotta say. Last Saturday (July 1st) I went flying again. That time with ATP (the one hour discovery flight) and i did ask the pilot i was flying with how much on average instructors make at this location? (Fort Lauderdale) he didn’t really answer my question but he did say " you’ll be very busy at this location "
That Monday after my flight, i received a call from ATP and they asked me how was everything and if i had any questions. So i did ask them how much on average flight instructors make a year?
He didn’t answer my question specifically about the Fort Lauderdale location but he did say expect to make between $30k and $40k.
Alex,
Many of these high paying jobs are problem for positions teaching jet airplanes at Flight Safety. Needless to say, it would be some time before you would qualify for that.
Chris
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The flight instructor salaries should be nearly the same at every location. The company no more wants Flight Instructors sitting around than you want to be sitting.
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I was able to dig alittle deeper and found some good charts, Instructors with 0-5 years do make the infamous 20k-40k, I forgot the 5-10 year salary ( Was hardly a jump) , but the 10 years plus of experience instructors do appear to be in be in the 70+ range
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Alex,
As Chris said, if you’re in the 10yr plus range and instructing, you’re probably at Flight Safety or CAE doing jet type ratings. That’s a career unto itself.
Adam
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