My class 4 ride

[CrashnBurn]

Yesterday I did what must have been the easiest initial class 4 ride ever. I was a bit apprehensive, since I was told the guy I was scheduled with was reasonable, but they switched me to someone else when I got to Transport.

Well she couldn't have been nicer. The scenario she gave me was, student with 18 hours, 4 hours solo circuits, and on the previous flight we had done upper air work which went well. Then she left to get coffee while I figured out what lesson to teach. Since it was windy, it was a total no brainer. I got to teach illusions due to drift! Yep, that was my ride. LOL.. I couldn't believe it. The easiest lesson of all, in my opinion. I considered maybe precautionaries or forced but why the heck would I do something harder if I don't have to? Conditions were perfect for illusions.

So she did a soft field takeoff and we went over to York airfield and did the illusions lesson there, after which she had me demo a precautionary. Also a no brainer. Then the flying proficiency part: power off stall (!) and a commercial steep turn, and back to the airport where she had me do a soft field landing. Wind was straight down the runway at about 18 knots. Piece of cake. After that she gave me a couple of minutes to organize the debrief.

I was impressed how she made the whole experience a low-pressure situation. Kinda of made me feel a little better when she screwed up the circuit joining at York for a second too. No she wasn't playing dumb student. Reminds you that even the TC inspectors are human.

She did comment on how she thought the class 1's have become extremely anal about what Transport is going to require for the ride. I have something like 500 now useless slides filling 2 three-inch binders. That's like $700 worth of material I will probably never use again. Would have been great to be able to just bring my laptop and use a PC projector and save the money. She did say that there were 1 or 2 inspectors there in the past that would nitpick people for not having every last line of the "essential background knowledge" in your lesson. But she also said she would rather that people teach the essence of what students need to know. Like, illusions due to drift can make you kill yourself, so don't get sucked in. Makes sense to me.

Anyhow, it was a great experience with a very nice, practical and friendly inspector. Now to really learn how to teach people to fly.

Would you like to supersize that?

[Right Seat Captain]

Now to really learn how to teach people to fly.

You got it, and now you also really learn about flying yourself too.

Congratulations on passing your ride! The renewals and upgrades are even better. They often turn into lessons from the inspectors (if they're good) and you come out of the flight test having learnt something new.

[flyincanuck]

I was a bit apprehensive, since I was told the guy I was scheduled with was reasonable, but they switched me to someone else when I got to Transport.

Well she couldn't have been nicer.

Aha! I've never met her but I've heard her on the radio several times...and man does she ever sound happy! Would like to put a face to that voice some day Just out of curiosity is she as young as she sounds?

Congrats on the rating

[hazatude]

Flyincanuck tryin' to mack on the TC chick!

[CrashnBurn]

Aha! I've never met her but I've heard her on the radio several times...and man does she ever sound happy! Would like to put a face to that voice some day Just out of curiosity is she as young as she sounds?

Congrats on the rating

Thanks dude. I'm a horrible judge of age so I have no idea how old she is. Probably not as young as she sounds. Great person though.

[Miss Mae]

Congrats CrashnBurn! Welcome to the world of instructing!

[Dyck Hertz]

Congrats CrashnBurn! Welcome to the world of instructing!

dat is right crash'n'burn! now starts the real ride...the real emotional up and down rollercoaster ride(mu ha ha!!! )

...oh by the way congrats man

[Pugster]

Congrats!

Just remember a couple of things when starting to instruct:

1.) The money will get better eventually

2.) Lichens boiled off of rocks will provide you enough nutrition to survive


And goddamn it, try to enjoy yourself while you're instructing - students pick up on that and you'll soon be a far more requested instructor than the bitter class 2 that supervises you !

Best O' Luck in the job hunt.

Pugster

[Dyck Hertz]

Congrats!

Just remember... The money will get better eventually

dat's right cuz u start off with zeroh income

[hz2p]

.

[5x5]

Congrats Crashnburn!

Don't be too hasty thinking the prepared material is wasted. Perhaps you've already been told, but my Class 1 gave me some really good advice. She advised me to keep those exercise notes and lesson plans and use them more or less verbatim for the first few students. Having just passed your test you're as up to date on all the exercises as you will be until you take a few students all the way through. Have confidence that you prepared good stuff as now you're on the job and focusing on specific students and situations, you may not look at some of these exercises for quite a span of time.

Avoid the urge to "wing it" so that you'll look more knowledgeable since you aren't referring to notes. Accept that you aren't more knowledgeable yet and stick with all that good work you put a lot of sweat into. It's easy to get confused (and even worse confuse your student) by making stuff up on the fly.

Maybe keep notes of the areas where things are little sticky or seem like they could be clearer, but don't actually change anything until you've been through it a few times.

And always remember, you may not have lots of experience to offer, but you do have the required knowledge and if you bring with it enthusiasm and energetic preparation, you'll succeed.

Again, Congatulations.

[Luscombe]

Don't be too hard on your class 1. I am one myself, and I went through some easy rides and some that would make you rather go through root canal without novocaine. Transport Inspectors are all over the board on their own interpretation of what is expected on a ride. Some are from the school of reality and base their ride on that (sounds like the ride you were lucky enough to have for your initial class 4). Others believe it should be like the Spanish Inquisition, and act accordingly. Your Class 1 was just preparing you for both possible scenerios. You could even be booked with a "Santa Claus" of an inspector, only to find out the morning of your ride that your booking is with some inspector who takes great delight in torturing new instructors.

You should consider yourself quite fortunate that you had the former rather than the latter for your first ride.

[Cat Driver]

" only to find out the morning of your ride that your booking is with some inspector who takes great delight in torturing new instructors. "

Isn´t it sad that that kind of parasite is allowed to continue to torture people?

We have one in the Pacific Region who is a true moronic bully, I am still waiting for my chance to put that fuc.er out of business ...all I need is the right time and the right place and he will get his in spades...

So if any of you TC types from the Pacific Region are reading this you remind J. D. that we have an appointment and he is going to get his just reward.....that he can count on..the prick.

Cat

[Luscombe]

I know, each region seems to have their fair share of "Spanish Inquisitors" on staff. There's no need for that kind of crap. It's funny how you could take "Bozo the Clown" and have him ace his ride with Inspector X, and have ". Yager" fail with Inspector Y. It all seems to be way too subjective.

When I was booked for my initial class 4 ride (more years ago than I care to admit), I was originally scheduled to do it with one of those "Spanish Inquisitors" unbeknown to me. I phoned Transport and made an appointment with an inspector, and being the naive fledgling I was I ASSUMED that they were supposed to be impartial and fair. When my Class 1 found out who I was booked with, he freaked. About a minute later, he was on the phone doing whatever he could to book me with another inspector. It's a good thing I talked about it with him because I didn't know any better at the time. The inspector he rescheduled me with was a just and fair man. I passed but not without me walking out with a good debrief and suggestions for improvement (as all your rides should be).

After instructing for a few years and going back to TC for ride after ride, upgrades etc... I got to learn that what my Class 1 had done was extremely justified. This TC inspector was (to put it politely) a prick. Some fellow instructors would go to him (because his schedule was usually empty for some reason) and fail as a result of some ridiculous reason or another. Granted, some were legitimate failures however they were the exception rather than the rule. Complaints have been lobbied, however they seem to fall of deaf ears. As a result, his schedule continues to be wide open and he seems to spend his time organizing Instructor Refresher Seminars, Safety Briefings and the like. Hmm, maybe our complaints didn't fall on deaf ears after all.

I hope you manage to "clip the wings" of the TC inspector in the Pacific region. These guys only succeed in frustrating the new instructors and having them pack it in when they probably could become very good, dedicated and consciencious instructors.

[CrashnBurn]

You should consider yourself quite fortunate that you had the former rather than the latter for your first ride.

Thanks for all the advice, everyone. I didn't mean to be hard on my class 1. He's a great guy, I had a lot of fun doing the rating, and dude can fly. I'll keep the material and use it. I'm starting teaching cadets next week. Should be... interesting .

[Cat Driver]

Luscombe :

Your comments are correct and are needed for people to think about why these inspectors are allowed to corrupt the system.

Unfortunately there is very little that you as a working instructor can do, should you lodge a complaint with his superior you will be in danger of being the one that is punished...so for Christ sake don't any of you instructors out there make the mistake of lodging a formal complaint...

...I on the other hand am in a position where I can hopefully bring pressure to bear on some of these rogue inspectors by having the background knowledge on how their system works and what actions to take to maybe get something done to remove these people from positions of power over people who want only to earn a living.

But the truth is to get any positive action to reign in these rouges you must do it outside of the structure of TC Civil Aviation.

In extreem cases it may be more efficient to have the person taken care of by using their own methods, do it outside the rule of law, if they can ignore the rule of law so can some of us.

I am in the final stages of my attempt to force changes in a legal manner within the regulator, it is very difficult and complex, however someone must step foward and force changes within their management structure.

I started my effort because of the manner in which TC's management handled the issue of my attempt to secure an FTU-OC...( Remember I owned a FTU-OC both fixed wing and rotary wing in the past. ) I have hundreds of pages of documentation and genuine TC internal policy documents that are marked "PROTECTED" shread when read.

I sincerely believe I have enough to shake TC CA to its roots, starting with the office of the DGCA, who is ultimately the root cause of the cancer that is allowed to grow within the system...Remember it is our system and they are sworn to protect the rule of law and insure we are dealt with fairly.

Cat