My first solo - and the worst flight of my life

"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote in message
...
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.

Could be Mort.
What I usually do with posts like this one is answer it anyway, handling it
seriously initially. If its legit, the OP gets a useful answer. If its a
troll, the answer simply uses the OP as a bounce to inform the rest of the
group on how to handle such a situation (from my point of view anyway
:-).
In other words, for the purpose of useful signal transfer, its a win/ win
situation for the first response.
Dudley Henriques

wrote in message
ups.com...

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.

IMO, this post says it all perfectly....

Run, do not walk away from this guy. Report his behavior to his employer
and take your money elsewhere, pronto.

Oh, and congrats on the solo. Under the circumstances, you done good.

Jay Beckman
PP-ASEL
Chandler, AZ

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 19:34:35 -0600, Monarch Student
wrote:

So should I get a new instructor?

In my personal experience, there is are advantages to having several
different instructors. You get to see other points of view, varying
instructing styles, and a wider range of experience when you have more
CFI names in your logbook. As time goes by and you accumulate ratings,
flight reviews, etc., you'll end up having flown with lots of
different people. You'll learn more from several different people than
you would from just one person, unless that person is really
exceptional.

How much of a hit would I take changing instructors this far in?

Well, since no one else seemed to have mentioned it, congrats. You've
reached a significant milestone. This would be an excellent time to
switch.

Is it too much to ask, to be allowed a few feet into the runway if I'm
more comfortable with it?

Well he's right there. We aim for perfection, but we usually have to
accept something less. If we aim for merely good enough, we'll end up
with something even worse. Follow that path far enough and you can
imagine the result. There's nothing wrong with holding a high
standard, though there must surely be a more gracious way of doing it.
Ultimately, the objective is to get you to hold yourself to a high
standard.

At times it'll feel like you can't do anything right and you may feel
like quitting, but eventually it all comes together. After that, the
challenge is to keep yourself at that edge. If it were easy, everyone
would be doing it.

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

Then you've answered your own question and you're just looking for
validation.

There's already a problem getting students to start, it's unfortunate
that an instructor is seeming to be trying to drive students away. My
guess is that he's building hours until he can move on to the airlines
or something similar. I've had a several instructors doing that over
the years, though none ever acted this way. In this case, it appears
that he hates the job because it isn't what he really wants to be
doing, but he needs the hours. That dissatisfaction makes a bad
teacher and maybe a bad pilot. Move on. You don't have to put up with
this. There are better instructors. Maybe one of those old guys who
have already been to the airlines and are now instructing for the love
of it. But don't expect them to give you an easy time. They'll have
high standards too.

RK Henry

"Dudley Henriques" wrote:
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote in message
...
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.

Could be Mort.

Keep in mind that the OP mentioned the name of a real flight school:

"We return to Monarch Air...." and the handle he chose, "Monarch
Student," suggests to me, at least, that the story is real. I think it
unlikely that a troll would have mentioned or implied any real flight
school name that could be checked out.

Also, there is at least one Monarch Air flight school based out of
Dallas Texas:

http://www.monarchair.com/

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.

Amen and amen! I don't know how old the OP is or if he's doing his flight
training for fun or for a career, but either way you've GOT to enjoy it or
it's pure misery.

I think I'm extremely lucky in haveing a CFI that started out our first
lesson with "You don't NEED your license, so if this stops being fun, why do
it?". From that point on, I've taken that to heart. Makes my learning much
easier and more enjoyable. If what the OP said about his instructor is dead
on, I don't think I would have had the confidence in myself to solo after
that.

Now for the good part....Congrats on the solo!!!!!!!

jf

"Matt Whiting" wrote in message
...
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


By the time I got my private I had been with 3 primary instructors and flew
with a couple others on and off, they were ALL very cool, friendly, helpful
and I never felt like I was imposing on them. I had my first primary tell me
once on a slow, attitude high climb out, "If you lower the nose a little bit
we probably won't crash", point taken. For the instructor at Monarch to do
what he did he should get beat down.

---------------------------------------------------------
DW

Since the senior instructor seems to have a good opinion of you,
perhaps you should sit down with him/her, explain the situation --
that your current CFI does not understand your mode of learning,
and that you'd like another CFI.

If that doesn't work, is there another school anywhere close?

Learning to fly is frustrating at times, but at no time should
it be harassment or make you unhappy.

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
....snip...

How about this for a radical idea. Talk to the instructor.

Perhaps something like "Hey Joe, you know the lesson the other day how
you were pretty agitated, was there some reason for that, because I
didn't think my flying was anywhere near the screaming-near-death
stage."

Voting with your feet is fine, but remember, this is a two way street,
students learn from instructors but instructors learn from students
too. If your instructor walked out on you, you'd like the respect of
them talking to you first about why, so give your instructor the same
respect.

Monarch,

So should I get a new instructor?


If your account is even remotely close to true, these are the steps you
should absolutely take:

1. Go to the flight school manager and tell him everything that
happened.
2. Make that the very last time you ever set foot in their premises,
ever. If a school allows guys like these to happen, there are
alternatives, especially at Addison.
3. Find another flight school AND another instructor. Now!

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

wrote:
Voting with your feet is fine, but remember, this is a two way street,
students learn from instructors but instructors learn from students
too. If your instructor walked out on you, you'd like the respect of
them talking to you first about why, so give your instructor the same
respect.


Do you suppose that if the student does walk, the instructor will think back to
the flight and still be wondering why he left? He knows what he did. When the
student hits the trail, he'll learn the consequences of what he did.

It's been my experience that most of the screamers are afraid. Maybe they need
to find a line of work that doesn't frighten them quite so much.

My very first instructor was someone I promptly renamed "Colonel Goddammit". I
only flew with him that one time... until I took my checkride. Then I had to
fly with him again as he was the DE. And later, he became my chief pilot when I
started flying Part 135. In his case, he yelled because nothing ****ed him off
worse than bad flying. He was famous for his reamings... pilots getting out of
the cockpit looking like they'd been riding a motorcycle sideways.... sunburned
on just one side of their face, etc. G Honest to God, I once heard him
reaming somebody's ass over the sound of the idling engine while I was standing
out on the tarmac. And he didn't care who's ass he got on.... he'd jump on
other retired USAF colonels as quick as anybody else if their technique offended
them. I ended up learning a lot from that man.

But not as a primary student. Oh, and I hit him once with an IFR hood when I
started flying for him Part 135. That time, I was the one who was ****ed. G



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com