Thanks and a tip o’ the headset to Greg Brown for this little interlude. Greg’s July Flight Training column, coming to you in magazine format sometime in late May/early June, focuses on a new private pilot who bought his own Cessna 150 to complete his training. At the end of the column, the pilot tells Greg that he traded a pickup truck to his flight instructor in exchange for instrument training.
When I read that, I thought of all the crap, er, stuff, in my home. If I could convert those goods to flight instruction I could probably get all the way to ATP, if not CFI. The comic books alone might get me a multiengine rating. (They’re my husband’s, lovingly packed in Mylar, and once upon a time he told me with a straight face that these would be like a pension. We were so young and dumb.)
I put out the question to my Twitter followers: “Pilots, have you ever bartered or exchanged goods/services for flight instruction? CFIs?” and got a few responses. Casey (@casey_a1) said he has given flight instruction in exchange for guitar lessons. Len (@ThePilotReport) said he trades flight instruction for use of owners’ aircraft and other cool toys, like boats and jet skis.
For a flight instructor tied to a Part 61 or 141 school, trade/barter likely isn’t an option. But with an independent CFI, it might very well be. What about you? Have you ever traded goods/services for flight instruction? Tell me in the comments section.—Jill Tallman
Tags: CFIs, flight instruction, student pilots
As an independent CFI, I sometimes trade dual time for customer’s aircraft time if the client’s plane has more capability than mine
I once traded 2 hrs of acro insruction in my Decathlon for a S&W 357 pistol.
Yes, lots of times. Currently have a student who has a lawn service business. Gardening for flight instruction and airplane time.
Yes, I have traded services to improve my flight instruction business. I traded with a marketing company owner to develop a corporate identity and design a website (teachu2fly.com) for me. This person wanted to transition to G1000 avionics so I gave him training in my Redbird TD. We continue to fly together trading development of brochures and other marketing materials for instruction. I also traded flight instruction with the website programmer. This trade resulted in a private pilot certificate for the programmer in April of this year. That student bought a share of a Piper Archer and is starting on an instrument rating. I have also traded instrument flight instruction for the use of a different owner’s airplane. As a small business I am always on the lookaout for ways to reduce the amount of cash I have to spend to get what I need for my business. I also trade instrument approaches with other instructors in my simulator as a way to stay current.
Yes, I traded dual instrument instruction for use of our C182. It worked out well for both of us. I got some really quality instruction and my CFII got the use of a very nice 182. All parties satisfied.
When I was 16, working on my pilot’s license for the first time, (now I’m 31, working on it for the second time!) I used to do yard work for aircraft time and flight instruction. It was a good deal, but it turned out that the required yard work was finite. I ran out of chores before soloing.