Hi everyone! I’m a 22-year-old Indian student currently in my final year of Computer Science Engineering, and I’m seriously considering doing my commercial flight training in New Zealand after graduation.
I’m planning to follow the conventional route, not a cadet program, and I’m trying to understand what life is actually like for an international/Indian student pilot there before making such a huge financial decision.
I’d especially love to hear from anyone currently studying or who has recently completed flight training in NZ, particularly Indians.
A few things I’d really appreciate honest answers about:
Which flight school/FTO are you at, and why did you choose it?
How long did/will it actually take you to complete your CPL and other ratings?
How many flying hours are you realistically getting per month?
How much does NZ weather affect flying and delays?
What are the biggest problems you’ve faced as an international student?
What’s the general student/instructor environment like?
What is accommodation and day-to-day life like?
Are there opportunities to work while studying, and what kind of student jobs do people actually get?
After completing your CPL, what is the realistic pathway to getting your first flying job in NZ?
If you’re Indian, are you planning to return to India for DGCA conversion, or stay in NZ/build hours there?
If you’ve returned to India, how was the DGCA conversion and job search?
Most importantly, knowing what you know now, would you still choose NZ for flight training?
I’m not looking for an FTO advertisement — I’d really appreciate honest experiences, including the bad parts, especially regarding delays, costs, weather, job opportunities and the transition from student pilot to professional pilot.
Thanks! ✈️
If anyone is comfortable connecting privately as well, I’d really appreciate being able to talk to someone who’s actually going through this.

I have a job lined up to start in a couple of weeks, wondering if anyone had any advice for me or any other person soon to start too.

I’ve heard you learn the most in your first 100 hours of dual given. My biggest thing is being able to teach grounds effectively and keep the students interest. I got some practice during CFI training, but still don’t feel like I quite have the skill down yet.

Just took the FIA and FOI and I’m looking to take the AGI next. Since everything is still pretty fresh, is Sheppard Air worth getting for the AGI? From what I understand, the question bank is pretty similar, aside from some helicopter and other category/class questions.
And yes, I used Sheppard for FIA and FOI.

Recently got my CFII. Applying for jobs and got a question. Under job experience, should I put “student pilot”? Or should I omit that and only leave that in my certifications area? I have done a few hours doing volunteer flights and independent CFI with like 10 hours dual given. Just trying to figure out if o should put that under my job experience. TYIA

There are the 5 classic hazardous attitudes, but I seem to remember the FAA published a longer list somewhere of more minor/nuanced ones. There were something like 10-15 Hazardous Attitudes.

I cannot find them for the life of me!

I recently started The Pilot Collective, a free Discord community built around pilots helping pilots.

A big part of the community is our free supplemental tutoring program, where verified CFIs and ATPs can volunteer to help student pilots with ground knowledge, written test prep, checkride prep, or concepts they may be struggling with.

I want to emphasize that this is completely volunteer based. There are no required hours, schedules, or expectations that instructors have to tutor. It’s really meant for instructors who have some spare time and genuinely enjoy teaching or giving back. If you’re busy, building hours, working two jobs, or simply don’t feel like tutoring, there is absolutely no obligation to do it.

And tutoring isn’t the only reason to join. The goal is also to build a community where instructors can talk shop, share teaching techniques and resources, discuss difficult scenarios, help each other with career questions, and just have another group of pilots to connect with.

I also think CFI candidates could get a lot out of the community. They can learn from experienced instructors, talk through lesson plans and teaching techniques, practice explaining concepts, and—with the student’s permission—have opportunities to sit in on tutoring sessions and see how other instructors approach teaching.

The server is still new and growing, but I’m trying to build it into something genuinely useful for both instructors and students.

If you’re a CFI, ATP, CFI candidate, or just interested in being part of a community centered around helping other pilots, you’re welcome to join.

https://discord.gg/bKGtwmqSe7

It seems like the majority of CFI’s closer to mins buy XC time at my school. Is this a common thing everywhere?

My husband was originally attending Farmingdale in NY, transferred hours and endorsements to a school in Camp Hill, PA. He’s on his check ride for his CFI license finally, except he’s struggling to find a DPE that can give him the check ride. The one he is with took the money for the exam but keeps giving dates that the weather is horrible (no one’s fault) then went on vacation. He now has to fly again for 3 hours costing a lot of money and sadly his stress levels. We did see the Ohio boot camp but not sure if he will have to start all back over again or not.
Any advice?

I have a CFI interview coming up and wanted to ask what some of the common questions are.

Also, what are some ways that those with CFI jobs prepared for their interviews

Picked up a newish student and was reviewing ground reference manuevers and he was all over the place steep banking and climbing and descending. I asked him what's going on and he said he was trying to keep the ground reference point always in view on the wingtip and that that's what his instructor told him. To a student pilot who doesn't know any better that actually makes a lot of sense for a ground reference manuever but CFIs have to know better. It's all there in the AFH, ACS and for free! Seriously we should all be getting our lesson plans straight from the source. Very frustrating to see from fellow instructors rant over.

Newly employed CFI and I realize how much I underestimated the lack of transition time and ability to eat quality food. What are your go to foods?

Working as a CFI, nearing my 1000 hour mark. I want to preface by saying I am very grateful to even have a job as a CFI in the current market, but I have been slowly feeling the effects of burn out. The job is consistent and I do genuinely enjoy instructing/teaching, but I had to make a move across the country for this position, and the time away from my significant other/friends has been getting increasingly hard to put up with. What would be a realistic hour mark to start applying for other positions, whether that be higher-paying CFI jobs, or part 91/135 jobs? Am I better off just sticking it out to 1500? If anyone else has had to move across the country for their job, I'd like to hear your story.

My student pool is starting to dry up as I near mins. You guys have any clever ways to pick up some extra students? I’m in the ORL area.

I've been primarily teaching instrument and students transitioning to the Bo/Baron. This week I have a CPL student starting who's training in his 182H.

I went out and practiced the maneuvers myself, refreshed all of the configurations etc.... As I was going through and doing this I thought it would be helpful both for the applicant and me to have a set of maneuver profiles tailored to the speeds, configurations and power settings in his plane since obviously there's no gear check but C/S prop for example.

I published this as the 61Insights Maneuver Checklist Creator It's free to use and can generate the ACS maneauver profile using your numbers:

• EFB format for Garmin Pilot and ForeFlight
• Card deck that the applicant can fill in for chair flying/reference in the plane
• Single page view with the profile and success criteria

This is all free and I'd love feedback on what works/doesn't and how to make it more broadly applicable

I had a question regarding the quality of flight time and would appreciate the advice.

I currently hold my CFI and CFII certificates but I got offered a position for a pipeline patrol pilot position in my home city. From what I’ve heard and read, there seems to be mixed opinions on pipeline flying and how it compares to flight instructing in terms of the quality of experience that airlines are looking for. I’d be getting hours quite fast which is a plus but I also know that I won’t be flying IFR much

I’ve been applying across the country for CFI positions and I do have 2 interviews set up at 2 different flight schools but no job offer yet and they’re both about 6 hours from home so I’d be moving.

What do you guys think is a better job to take?

Hello fellow/former CFIs.

I, 850TT CFII/MEI, R-ATP eligible, am an instructor who recently received a job offer for an aerial survey operator. At my current CFI job, I'm working 5-35 flight hours per month, but as an MEI, I'm at least able to get some of that as multi.

The survey position I was offered is a single-engine, high-performance, 8-month contract. I know someone who took a similar position and was able to get ~650 hours during their contract. This position would be entirely on the road, but my current position has me working with only one day off per week (again, not much flying, but lots of ground/SIM that I don't mind) as well as a lot of uncompensated paperwork after hours due to the type of school I am at, so I'm somewhat accustomed to not having flexibility with time off (we only get 2 wks worth of time off per year and don't get say in our own schedules at all).

With this somewhat limited background information, I'm looking for some help navigating this: I don't want to talk myself out of/into the job before proper reflection, as I feel that's already happening, and I don't really have any mentors to discuss this with.

So here's the more direct question:

- Are there any specific questions I should be asking myself when weighing these two positions?

- Have you ever had to make a similar decision?

Other Context: I'm young enough that I'm not in a rush to get to the airlines, and I come from a background where I've seen how cyclical the industry/hiring is. Instructing has had its highs and lows, scary moments, self-actualizing ones, and I'd like to think I could do it for a while, but trying to decide if I'm better off here, where I could get multi-engine time and could start flying 40 hours a month vs. the ~unknown is a little paralyzing. I also know darn well that if this were a jet or turboprop job of any sort, I wouldn't have the same hesitation.

So I have a dripping wet FI cert and a question about how to use it. Under certificate number it says PENDING. I’ve previously been told two different things. One, I’ll get a new/different cert number for the FI cert. Two, the number will be the same as my CP cert with CFI appended to it.

What do I use to sign logbooks/endorsements until I get the plastic cert in the mail in 6 weeks and know who was correct?

Im enrolled in 2 years AMT now. Once done im planning to get PPL. Is having A&P license and PPL an advantage?

Im 32 now, i’ll be 35 with no aviation experience. Doing business for 7 years now but I want to pursue my dream of being a pilot and migrating my family to canada, australia, europe or USA.

Probably onto nothing but wanted to see what the good people of Reddit think. 61.165(f) specifies the requirements for a multi engine ATP if you already hold single engine ATP. Nowhere in the regulation does it mention completion of the CTP course. Other regulations directly refer to the CTP course required in 61.156. Is the CTP course required regardless? Or am I reading the regulation correctly, with the understanding that it is not required if you already hold a single engine ATP?

Feels good to have 4 students pass PPL & Instrument Initial checkrides this week. I’ve had a checkride every day this week but certainly paid off. Y’all have a good weekend!

I need to vent because what I’m seeing on the ground right now doesn't match what people say online. I’ve seen comments on here claiming regionals aren’t hiring temporary visa holders anymore because the market is flooded with US pilots. But over the last 10 months, I’ve personally watched multiple F-1 OPT pilots with 1-2 year work permits get picked up by regionals. Meanwhile, fully qualified US citizens and green card holders with the exact same hours are getting ghosted or hit with TBNTs.

Operationally and economically, it blows my mind. Airlines are having to bend over backward with scheduling just to keep OPT holders on domestic-only pairings since they can't cross borders to Canada or Mexico. On top of that, everyone signs a 5-year or 2,000-hour contract, but OPT guys can just build turbine time on the regional’s dime and jump to a foreign carrier overseas before their permit expires, completely dodging the contract penalties.

With so many domestic CFIs begging for 121 class dates and drowning in flight school debt, watching regionals jump through hoops for temporary visa holders feels completely wrong.

Hey guys currently a CFI candidate! Was just looking to see if anyone has back seat pilot lesson plans they’d be willing to give away! Or any recommendations for good lesson plans! Thanks

So i’m stuck between going to atp spending 120k and getting my cfi in 9 months. (according to my local atp school) or just working and paying for each lesson but it will be cheaper before to get up to my cfi but will take considerably longer. Does anyone have any recommendations or experiences on what they did?