Why I decided to time-build vs instruct

“After completing my commercial rating I began to crunch the numbers on the cost to do CFI, CFII, and MEI as well as  time spent to build up from 250 hours to 1500 hours. I quickly realized it would take me another 1.5 - 2 years of instructing to reach my 1500 hours in order to obtain my ATP and another $25,000 in training cost to get my instructor ratings.

Doing this meant I would lose years of seniority and hundreds of thousands of dollars in pay over the course of my career.

When comparing the starting pay at a regional airline or a fractional company along with the extra 2 years of pay I would gain during my pilot career I quickly realized that my time and money would be better spent building time flying IFR in the system rather than teaching students stalls and steep turns all day long. Delays from PPL students due to weather, money and student cancellations made the journey long and treacherous for a lot of instructors at my flight school. These instructors were only building 40-80 hours a month while earning next to nothing being an instructor. While I do believe instructing is a great path to the earn your ATP and gain experience I knew after comparing time building vs instructing there was a clear winner in my mind.  

I decided to go all in on time-building and I purchased 1250 hours which I completed in 5 months. I opted for 12 hour blocks to build as much time as I could in the shortest amount of time. This gave me the opportunity to become extremely proficient shooting approaches, obtaining clearances, complying with departure procedures, all while flying IFR and operating in a crew environment. I was able to gain stick and rudder skills far beyond my instructor friends who were not doing much hand flying at all.

Fast forward to the end of my 5 months time building I applied to my #1 company of choice and they were wildly impressed in the interview about what I had accomplished to earn my 1500 hours. It made me stand out from the thousands of others who chose to instruct. I’m grateful to say I was hired on at this company and I am on track to earn over 150k in my first year as a pilot and upgrade years ahead of my peers who chose different routes to attain their ATP time. I was able to get to my goal quicker than my instructor who had roughly 800 hours more than me when they first started teaching me how to obtain my private pilot license.”

“Time building fast tracked my career and my financial future. I would recommend it to anyone who is willing to put in the work. You’ve already made a significant investment in yourself getting licensed. Finish what you started, your time-building investment accelerates your trajectory and the cost is significantly out paced by the additional earnings you will realize over your career.”

- Nate Costa

San Diego, California