My first solo - and the worst flight of my life

You shouldn't even be asking this question.

mike

"Monarch Student" wrote in message
...

So should I get a new instructor?

"Monarch Student" wrote in message

Snip
Any advice would be appreciated. I'm beginning to hate flying, which
is sad because I began learning thinking it would be fun.

After the first yelling at, I would have simply said: "You're fired!" and
landed the aircraft. I would then have paid for the time in the a/c,
however, at the solo rate. You should not have to pay someone to treat you
like that. You are paying them. They are working for you.
Get another instructor. Hell, I'd probably even get a whole new school if
you can.
Oz/Crash Lander

Monarch Student wrote:
I left this morning for my first supervised solo. My flight
instructor is a new guy, about 25 who's never taught students before a
month ago. But he seems to know his stuff, so I've put up with him
for this long.

Until today.

We take off from Addison to McKinney TX airport, arrive at McKinney
and begin pattern work. Apparently my pattern wasn't tight enough so
my instructor who I guess is having a bad morning starts yelling at
the top of his lungs, "90 KEEP IT AT ****ING 90 ON DOWNWIND!!". I
look down at the airspeed, which is at 87. He slaps my hand away from
the throttle, and mashes it in. The nose comes up and he hammers the
yoke with his hands so the plane pitches down suddenly. "Watch your
altitude", he says.

We come in for a landing, on a regular runway with no displaced
threshold. He's yelling to keep it at 70 and pitches the yoke down.
We're headed directly for the grass in front of the runway. I ask if
we can land about fifty feet farther in because at this angle we'll be
right on the grass/lights. McKinney is over 6k long, so we have room.
And it's 2 days before Thanksgiving so hardly any traffic is present.

He says no (seemed like a reasonable request), yells, yells more and
my landing which is now low because of our airspeed and him not
allowing me to slightly power it to make it farther in, sucks. We
stop on the runway, and next pattern he simulates an engine failure. I
pitch for about 70, and get, "SIXTY-EIGHT. WHAT'S YOUR ****ING BEST
GLIDE? SIXTY-EIGHT!!". There's no way to make it to the runway, at
all even with 68. I get yelled at for being too far away, but the
tower asked us to be because of incoming traffic.

Jake smashes in the throttle and yells "GO AROUND!", forcing the yoke
forward because the nose pitched up (thanks to him hammering the
throttle in) then yelling at me for that.

At this point, I'm ready just to go home. But I consider it wasted
money, and probably better to let him scream for 10 more minutes and
I'll probably get to solo.

Sure enough, after two more landings I solo. "DON'T RUN ME OVER WHEN
YOU ****ING COME BACK", he says.

90 downwind, tight pattern, smooth landings. The McKinney tower guy
even told my instructor after he got back in that my pattern and
landings looked great, but I forgot to announce my callsign once, I
didn't center line all the landings, etc etc all announced on the
tower frequency. Thanks McKinney ATC guy! *sigh*

We return to Monarch Air, he says tie up the plane and hurry up.
Coming into the "office", there's 4 instructors standing there, all
not talking, avoiding eye contact and Jake in a chair looking down
with his hand outstretched for the key. No good solo (which is was),
congrats, nadda from anyone. And thus I left, no happy Thanksgiving,
see ya when I get back, almost like Jake just wanted me to get the
hell out of his face.

So should I get a new instructor? Mine seems like a miserable human
being. If I was a bad student, maybe I could understand. But the
senior instructor that's flown with me on progress flights called me
"significantly better than average".

If this was a one-time event, then I'd be inclined to chalk it up to a
bad day. If this is just the highest escalation in a series of such
behavior, then I'd find another instructor. Learning to fly should be fun.

My primary instructor was an old-time instructor who didn't believe in
head phones so he yelled all the time! But I knew that he wasn't mad,
it was just his style. He'd occasionally get frustrated, but once back
on the ground he was completely back to normal, debriefing the lesson
and talking about the next one. Always positive and looking forward.

Matt

Robert M. Gary wrote:

Were you paraphrasing or was your instructor actualy using the F word?
That is usually a sign of a CFI who isn't in control of the situation.
A good CFI shows little emotion in the cockpit. We also know how to
only sweat on the right side (the student should never see you sweat).
I've not been in a situation with a student where I've lost my cool,
I can't imagine what that situation would be. If you're not happy with
a student's airspeed control you just tell them. No reason to get upset
about it. As the CFI you get to fly tomorrow either way, the student
may not

I tried to land me and my instructor in a corn field along side the
runway early in my training (pre-solo). I was cross controlled for a
cross wind and all of the sudden my partially trained brain decided that
wasn't right and I cranked in aileron in concert with the rudder I was
holding and off toward the corn field we went. Once about 75 feet off
the center line and maybe 30 feet about the corn, Dick said "get the
throttle in" (he actually said it twice, a little louder the second
time!), which I did and he slipped us back over the runway and landed.
He couldn't get to the throttle has in the little C150 he always had is
left arm behind the pilot's seat.

He laughed about it the rest of the day and told everyone I was the
first student who had tried to kill him that day. I figured if trying
to kill a man didn't get him angry, then he was a pretty good instructor!


Matt

Monarch Student wrote:

We return to Monarch Air, he says tie up the plane and hurry up.
Coming into the "office", there's 4 instructors standing there, all
not talking, avoiding eye contact and Jake in a chair looking down
with his hand outstretched for the key. No good solo (which is was),
congrats, nadda from anyone. And thus I left, no happy Thanksgiving,
see ya when I get back, almost like Jake just wanted me to get the
hell out of his face.

That others were on egg shells around him sounds bad. Find another
instructor or FBO. Then look forward to a flight like this:

http://tinyurl.com/y78c8s

Ron Lee

"Monarch Student" wrote in message
...
I left this morning for my first supervised solo. My flight
instructor is a new guy, about 25 who's never taught students before a
month ago. But he seems to know his stuff, so I've put up with him
for this long.

Until today.

We take off from Addison to McKinney TX airport, arrive at McKinney
and begin pattern work. Apparently my pattern wasn't tight enough so
my instructor who I guess is having a bad morning starts yelling at
the top of his lungs, "90 KEEP IT AT ****ING 90 ON DOWNWIND!!". I

That's enough, I don't need to hear more. Very simple: switch instructors.
He/she works for you, do not accept this behavior from your employee. Since
you said there are at least 4 other instructors in the FBO, go talk to them
(interview a replacement). You'll get a better instructor (for sure) and
you'll get the benefit of another CFI's experience. You will lose very
little of your investment as the records of your training are verified in
both your logbook and the FBO files. Do it.

Have fun getting your PVT,
John Severyn
@KLVK

Monarch Student wrote:

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm beginning to hate flying, which
is sad because I began learning thinking it would be fun.

Someday you will be PIC of the aircraft. Today you are PIC in charge
of your flying education. Take control.

Fire this guy. He needs it, as it will probably be the only way he
will learn the lesson HE needs to learn. Getting fired by a student is
a pretty clear rebuke, and if his behavior was described acurately he
needs it.

You will not be the first person to ditch an instructor. Sometimes you
just don't get along; sometimes the instructor shouldn't be in the
airplane (such as in this case probably).

I fired an instructor once, and the situation was not as bad as yours.
I stayed with the same school, got a new instructor (who had flown for
the Czechoslovakian Air Force) who had a much more professional
attitude, and thereafter got my certificate.

There are no downsides to getting rid of an instructor of the type you
describe. Get back to enjoying flying. This is not marine boot camp.

Monarch Student wrote:
So should I get a new instructor?

At your instructor might say - "**** yes!"

;-)

Dudley Henriques wrote:
Well, first of all, congratulations for not killing yourself under a first
solo condition I would consider possibly one of the worst I've ever seen in
print.



You know, Dudley, when I read his story my first thought was we were being
trolled (again). There's been a lot of that here lately.




--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote:

Dudley Henriques wrote:
Well, first of all, congratulations for not killing yourself under a
first solo condition I would consider possibly one of the worst I've
ever seen in print.

You know, Dudley, when I read his story my first thought was we were
being trolled (again). There's been a lot of that here lately.

I had the same thought - almost too outrageous to believe it really happened as described.

If it did, I agree with everyone else - he should run, not walk, to a new instructor or flight school if
necessary.

Mike