My first solo - and the worst flight of my life

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.

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

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

Get a new instructor.

Three of us shared the same instructor until we each were private
pilots but there were sessions when each of us was not comfortable
with him. Later, we learned that he hated our profession...engineering
and therefore was not pleased to fly with us.

After getting the private, I had to do transition training in tailwheel
planes and so a new to me instructor was assigned.

Like night and day!! Incredible how quickly he picked up on things and
how readily they were corrected.

Flying with and being instructed by him was a real pleasure so the
benefit to all of us was that I went on with him through a Commercial
license.

The only regret was that I or we three had not changed instructors
after the first "realization" hours with the first one.


Best of luck and you will!! enjoy the ride with other instructors.

Neal

If this is typical practice, then without a doubt your flight
instructor is unprofessional and violating the FAA's guidelines on the
fundamentals of instruction (FOI) Never, ever, ever pay $50/hour for
someone to treat you like crap.

Find a new instructor, preferably one who enjoys instructing. You are
a client, he is providing a service and under no circumstances should
you be reduced to anything less.

Incidentally, "slamming" the throttle, or any other aircraft control is
a bad idea, and on more than one occasion results in broken cables,
linkages, and can even be the straw that breaks an engine, not
something you want to have happen with 20 hours in your book.

Check our website, there is plenty of information on CFI's, jobs, and
the basics of VFR instruction.

www.pilotweb.org

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

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

;-)

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

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.

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

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)