Jim Macklin wrote:
I'll add one more think, the instructor/student relationship is very
personal. Instructors have plan and if a student flies with another
instructor who does not follow the principle instructors plan, it is a
problem. Often the INSTRUCTOR has a series of step by step lesson plans,
concentrating on mastering airwork, turns of all kinds, ground reference
maneuvers, airspeed control and is not ready for "landings" yet.
The student is happy because they are flying and working hard and learning
the basics. But if the instructor is ill and another instructor subs a
problem arises.
#2 instructor may just say to the student, "You've got 8 hours, so let's
stay in the pattern and practice take-offs and landings."

So far your student has been doing the take-off and the landing at the end
of the flight, after being briefed and warmed up with slow flight, glides
and stalls.But after an hour of concentrated TO&L, confused and fixated on
the traffic pattern.
When the INSTRUCTOR comes back, the student doesn't want to practice the
mundane airwork, those crosswind landings are a challenge and fun. The fact
that the skill to really learn don't yet exist means the student feels
overwhelmed. But it is hard to go back to those rectangular patterns,
glides and turns, slow flight and pitch control exercises. So it is
important that your instructors coordinate your lessons. It is valuable to
fly with more than one instructor as you progress in your training.

But you and your instructor are not married nor welded at the hip, if a
problem develops you can change and move on.


This is true and can indeed be a problem. The way we handled this was
that any instructor subbing for another one was charged with dealing
with this situation in a prescribed manner;
that being to review the student's log book and become familiar with the
last thing covered, then do the dual session based on where the OTHER
instructor was on the learning curve at that that time with THAT student
In other words, the subbing CFI did just that...sub for the other
instructor, gearing the time spent to where the subbing CFI felt the
OTHER instructor would be going with that lesson.
Our CFI's were told to use tact when in this situation. Any devience
from what the prime instructor had told the student was handled
carefully with the well being of the student in mind at all times.
Instructors who entered into "do it my way" or "my way is the right way"
contests with students didn't last long around me and the we did things.
Our instructors would take something a student was doing wrong in these
situations and guide the student through a correction if required in
technique without ever mentioning they were approaching the issue a bit
differently than another instructor on the staff.
This of course meant that we had all our CFI's in "tune" with the way we
did things so everybody got along, was totally competent, and most
importantly on the same page all the time .
--
Dudley Henriques