Frustrated Student Pilot About to Quit

Oops. Replied to wrong post. Let us try it again:

It is neither normal nor acceptable for a CFI to be 1 or 2 hours late. He
may be trying to dump you as a student.

You show exceptional perseverence for someone thinking about quitting.
Hanging around for an extra hour or two for your CFI, continuing to fly in
ratty aircraft, continuing your lessons even though progress has slowed,
etc. Eighteen hours to solo is not unusual, but I would expect you to be
closer now. I would also expect you to have your medical certificate by now.
This shows a either a definite lack of guidance from your instructor, or a
failure on your part to follow that guidance. There is more to being an
instructor than being patient and knowledgeable. The instructor has to be
able to teach, too, and I don't see much teaching going on here.

Learning to fly in winter is a pain. Many of my students also complain about
the frequent cancellations for fog and icing, but there is little we can do
about it short of moving to San Diego. (I might just do that myself.) Still,
look at it this way. When spring rolls around and the weather clears up you
will be all ready to finish off those last cross country flights and enjoy
your certificat all summer.

GA is financially distressed, but that does not mean that we cannot afford
to maintain aircraft. Having your engine fail to start does not indicate to
me that you have a maintenance problem. That is largely a winter thing, a
function of low batteries and improper preflight. It can get cold enough
that the starter will not engage even though there is enough battery power
to turn the starter. A maintenance problem would be if the airplane sits
broken for weeks on end, or if the airplane has something major wrong with
it that never seems to get fixed.

My advice would be to make the sacrifice in time and effort to learn to fly
somewhere else. At least take a vacation and get some instruction someplace
else that has new airplanes and professional staff. Have them evaluate where
you are and find out whether it is worth trying to finish up there.

I have been getting letters from several places that have no flight
instructors asking me if I would be interested in relocating there. I am
happy at PAVCO, but I am beginning to get a real sense that there is a
genuine shortage of qualified and experienced instructors.

As a CFI myself I consider #1 to be unacceptable. He is demonstrating
that your time is not important to him. I would hardly say he is the
norm. There are many of us that treat this as a profession (even
though we have "real" jobs too). As a profession you must be
professional.


(Litwin) wrote in message . com...
I am a student pilot with 18 hours of flight time, and have been told
that I am very close to soloing. However, I have reached the point
that I am about to give it up, and not because, I cannot fly the
pattern, do landings, steep turns, etc., or even costs or medical.
This is why:

1. I have a competent, patient, and otherwise very good CFI. However,
he can never be on time, and as a busy professional, and despite many
discussions, I cannot live with this. Not 10 or 20 min late, but 1 to
2 hours late, and frequent. He is the only CFI at this airport.
Unfortunately, the next closest airport with flight instruction is 65
miles from here, so my choices are non-existent, unless I want to
spend many hours on the road. Besides, untimely and tardy CFIs are a
common disease in GA so I hear.

2. GA seems economically distressed. The aviation company that
employs him has junk equipment, 2 days in a row now two different
planes would not start. And never mind the lack of money to plow snow
or remove compacted ice on the runway. I just don't want to spend my
money in what looks to me to be a distressed industry that may not
even have a bottom line in some sectors.

3. Living in the Great Lakes area, just how practical is all of this,
with 5 to 6 months of crappy weather being typical. It is perpetual
IFR, lots of icing, and when the plane will start, crosswind 2x or
more the POH limitations, and headwinds that leave driving a car
faster. Even scheduling 2 to 3 times a week, maybe only 50% of my
lessons could go forward, and even those sometimes were marginal
conditions. I am disappointed that this is not more practical.

I learned many things, made better progress than I had envisioned, and
really enjoyed the few timely, good days that were available, and
really enjoyed the reading and learning. I had wanted to get my
private pilot certif. For business and pleasure purposes. The best of
luck to those of you who have better circumstances, I am really sorry
to have to give it up.