TEACH FOR A LIVING IMAGINE A CAREER where you could set your own hours, work completely for yourself, create lifelong friendships, and get paid to fly. It seems impossible, but for professional flight instructors it's the norm. While most pilots consider flight instruction a necessary evil on the way to bigger and better things, modern professional flight instructors have shown it is a job fully worthy of being its own career. California-based Max Trescott has made instructing into a career, and he couldn't be happier. A former sales and marketing professional for a tech firm, Trescott now instructs primarily locally in the Cirrus SR22 and SF50 Vision Jet. Since starting to instruct full-time, Trescott has written books on advanced avionics such as the Garmin G1000. It's part of his successful strategy of specializing in a specific area. "Very early on I decided to specialize in glass cockpits," he said. "Specialization has worked extremely well for me." About three years ago he became a Cirrus Standardized Instructor Pilot, or CSIP. You would think going from any airplane to only one would limit your market, but for Trescott it turned out to be a great decision. "I instantly got much busier and had to raise my rates."
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