"Platoon" instructing versus dedicated...

Noel wrote (in another thread, which I will not hijack):


"Instead I'll take on ~2 students at a time and focus on
*making pilots* out of them, before taking on any more."

Noel, thanks for bringing this up. I've been thinking about this, too.

Our club uses the "platoon" system. That is just as you described in your
club. Instructors sign up, students sign up. Students fly with whoever
might be there that day. Students can also "self select" to a certain
extent by signing up on weeks when their preferred instructor is
instructing. And a certain amount of "overtime" instructing happens,
particularly as students approach checkrides, etc. (by this I mean that
students and instructors tend to "pair up" a bit leading right up to the
checkride. CFIs will come out on their "non-duty" days to help a student
finish up, but this is all done rather informally between the CFI and the
student).

I am one of the CFIs who participates in this system. I have mixed
feelings about it. I've previously trained in commercial glider
operations and commercial power schools. In most cases, I was assigned a
specific instructor throughout most or all of my training in these other
venues.

I think most people would agree that, with unlimited resources, the best
glider training would consist of: 1) Student and instructor assigned to
each other based on comprehensive psychological analysis of both student
and instructor, 2) fly one to two sorties every day, 3) stage checks by
highly experienced instructor/examiner at prescribed intervals in the
training, 4) multimedia ground school integrated tightly with the flight
lessons, 5) full-motion simulators to augment the in-glider training.

But the reality of most glider clubs (and I'm in a 100+ member club that
has great facilities, good year-round weather, owns its own 5000'+
airport, hangar, etc.--in short, about as good as it gets in the "club"
world) is that instructors are part-time volunteers. They have families,
"real" jobs, and most enjoy flying their own ships from time to time. We
operate mostly on weekends, too, which limits us to about 8 flying days a
month (give or take).

All of this leads to the following question. We know that the platoon
system is not ideal. But the ideal system is simply not feasible for most
(any?) clubs. So, under the constraints of a club environment, is it
better for students to train every couple of weeks with a single
instructor or train every week (or maybe even twice a week) but with
different instructors?

For the record, we've had good results with our platoon system. We
regularly "graduate" students (8 or so, I believe, last year) who have a
very good pass rate on their practical exams, many of whom go on to
cross-country or at least become regular participants in the sport in some
capacity.

We're getting the job done. But at our CFI meetings, the topic of "is
there a better way?" regularly comes up. Interested in the opinion of
this learned group...

--Stefan


--
Stefan Murry