Flight Instructors

[tmcgill]

I am relatively new to the aviation industry. I have just begun my private pilot flight training which I am doing just for recreation and am not intending to pursue a commercial career. When I first walked into what would soon become my flight school I was suprised to see how young many of the flight instructors were. However these instructors seem to be very knowledgeable and well trained and from what I understand is that many people do this job to build hours and then move on to a large airline. However it seems as though it would be the retired airline pilots who would be flight instructors since they have had a career of experience and knowledge. I am still learning how this industry works so please excuse my lack of understanding but its something that seemed suprising to me.

[767]

Yes I agree with your statement that flight instructors want to build hours and move on with their career. Also, the retired airline pilots are good instructors too. However, there are good junior instructors out there that want to move on with their careers, but who also love to teach. The problem is, it is hard to distinguish whos good and whos not. One tip I will give is that you should talk to different students at the flight school, and ask them about the instructors. It is also good idea to talk to different instructors and find out as much as you can about them. The instructor flight test record can also indicate what kind of instructor they really are (some may disagree). Take your time to select the instructor that suites you the best. If your with the wrong instructor, your rate of learning will be slow. Good luck.

[E-Flyer]

Do yourself a favour, spend the extra 3 dollars / hr and get a class 1 instructor. However, just like anything, this won't necessarily mean you will get the best instruction. There are some class three's that would make excellent class 1's as well.

But typically class 1's are good


Good luck !

[alexdenham]

True, the class of the instructor does not dictate the quality of instruction. Furthermore, there are far too many factors that affect the quality of instruction provided to say that age alone dictates whether an instructor is good or not. Of course it would be nice to fly with someone who has many years of experience but there just aren't enough retired airline pilots who still want to instruct to meet demand. What often happens is that junior instructors develop thier skills under the close supervision of someone who fits that mould.

One advantage of flying with a younger instructor can be the recency of thier initial training. They are often fresh out of thier own training and so remember the lessons very well and are able to model thier own instruction upon thier training. (Of course this is only a good thing if thier training was done properly)

The most important factor that I have noticed and that many people have pointed out is the level of care that instructors show. If the instructor doesn't seem to care, they probably don't and this may show up in the level of training your recieve. If an instructor truly cares about his or her student then I believe the result will be a much higher level of training. Its seems obvious, but as a new student it can sometimes be hard to know what expect and hard to tell what good or bad instruction looks like. This is just a start.

[Hedley]

Ask your prospective instructor how many hours his last
10 students took to PPL. If they're all over 100, keep
looking.

[eddyb123]

Congrats on getting started. I trained in London ont. at a school where all insturctors were former students just a year or so before. As I trained I watched them all rotate from student to instructor and on to the military or commercial jobs. I had three primary instructors each with there own level of enthusiasm and ability. What I really noticed was it wasn't them as much as it was me who made my training shorter or longer. If you study the flight training manual and are perpared for every lesson{ understand exactly what your going to do} you'll get through the training asap. I found the term instructor misleading they are really FLIGHT CRITICS. It's all about you remembering proceduers and numbers. Make lists use acronyms for emergency proceduers etc. The instructor will tell you when you are correct and when your wrong but it's up to you from now on to do the right thing. They will just tell their boss that you don't get it if it takes a very long time for you to get anywhere. Just my opinion.

[PAJ]

tmcgill. I was in the same position you are now a few years back. One other thing that you should consider is the availability of your future instructor and will his/her schedule match yours. It is difficult juggling work, ground school, life etc and not being able to schedule instruction at times convenient for you will make it even harder to succeed. Question their ability/desire to fly with you during evenings/weekends or whenever it is that will work for you. Also, ask how many other students they have. You will have to strike the balance between getting the most popular and available one. Above all ... enjoy and be safe.

PAJ

[E-Flyer]

Ask your prospective instructor how many hours his last
10 students took to PPL. If they're all over 100, keep
looking.

It's easy to lie because at this stage the prospective student probably knows nothing about verifying the instructor's answer

[MichaelP]

Always remember flight training is a partnership.
It's you and your instructor and you both work together to achieve the goal of learning.

How long does it take?, and how much does it cost?

These questions are largely unanswerable.

I used to say that it takes as long as it takes to learn to fly and we never stop learning.
Along this path of learning we have occasions when licences or ratings are obtained.

We learn to fly on the ground, and not in the air.
Flying is merely seeing what our ground learning means, it is not effective training when flogging around the sky while being briefed and trying to understand concepts!

Transport Canada were interested in how many hours this school took to train a PPL... From start to finish it was well below the national average, thank goodness.
But we did have many students from other schools getting up there in hours before they came here.

If there is any criticism of instructors then there's even more onus on the student to read his/her text books, fly a model aeroplane in the hand, and develop the imagination that will compensate.
'Questioning a student the other day who was doing forced landings in that dangerous way... I asked him how it was written up in his FTM. He did not know!
Do not take a flying lesson without reading about it, learning it, and even practicing it at home!

[E-Flyer]

I wish I was 14 right now, having sea land air 40 km away, so that I could start my training.

If I was given the opportunity to redo my training, it would have been with you Mike.

I really believe in your ideology of flight training. Great post !

[Shiny Side Up]

Ask your prospective instructor how many hours his last
10 students took to PPL. If they're all over 100, keep
looking.

A better idea would be to talk with those particular students. Try to find students who have similar circumstances of your own as well, and find whom they have favored as an instructor.