My first solo - and the worst flight of my life

" Now, if the OP talks to the chief instructor and isn't happy with the
reply,
find another outfit. One advantage I see is that staying with the same
outfit reduces the chances of having to start all over.
Agree. The chief instructor need to know about unhappy customers and bad
instructors. If he doesn't do something, that's the time to run.

Rod

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:

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

I see where you're coming from, but remember those defense mechanisms
we were taught during CFI training? I am 100% certain the OP is
displaying a defense mechanism by exaggerating the situation here.

I know, because I had an instructor back in the day who was pretty
horrible. I talked to people about what I should do, and in almost all
of those cases, I exaggerated the situation a little to make my point
seem more obvious. I would say, "THEN HE SCREAMED AT ME AT THE TOP OF
HIS LUNGS BECAUSE I WAS ONE FOOT ABOVE MY ALTITUDE"; when in actuality,
he would just alert me in an annoyingly-rude manner for being slightly
more than 100 feet above my altitude.

Regardless, just by the fact that the OP feels the need to ask the
question, says to me he should get a new instructor whether he is
exaggerating or not.

Also, I am glad no one caught on to the remark in the OP where he
explains that the CFI in question is 25 years old. This newsgroup likes
to go off on anti-white-haired CFI tirades often, and I'm glad to not
see it here. Bad instructors come in all ages and hair colors.

As a matter of fact the worst instructor I ever had was this 55 year
old guy who was even ex-airlines. He had that attitude that since he
has been around for so long that he could do anything he wanted. _HE_
understood how to do holds (since he had been doing them for decades),
but _I_ wasn't so sharp on them. He just couldn't understand what was
so hard about holds because they just came so easy to him. I could go
on all day about this guy, but I'll stop there.

"Monarch Student" wrote in message
...
Thank you for all your helpful replies. I made up the name of the
flight school and instructor, to keep it anonymous and not to get
anyone in trouble. I will have a talk with him, and get the situation
resolved.

The time to talk to the instructor is far passed. He crossed the line; many of
them. He needs to be gone from that flight school, or you do.

Talk to whoever is in charge, and get it worked out with them.
--
Jim in NC

"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATcox.net wrote

I would have fired him on the spot and told him to land the damn airplane
himself.

Exactly.
--
Jim in NC

Congrats on your first solo. I agree with everyone else 100%, time to
find a new instructor. Someone had also previously mentioned that a
good instructor will show no emotions while in the plane. I wouldn't
take that comment to heart, I mean you're looking for a human being,
not a robot, no?

Monarch Student wrote:
Thank you for all your helpful replies. I made up the name of the
flight school and instructor, to keep it anonymous and not to get
anyone in trouble. I will have a talk with him, and get the situation
resolved.

Thanks again for everyone's comments.

So it's just a very unfortunate coincidence that the name you made up
happens to be a real flight school at McKinney and Addison?

--
Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ

SNIP rest of story

I would have fired him on the spot and told him to land the damn airplane
himself.

I was thinking about what I'd do - I'd probably yell back to him "YOUR
PLANE", take my headphones off, unplug them, pack away my stuff in the
flight bag, and wait for him to get the plane back to the FBO. Then
fire him and tell whoever is running the flight school that I'll be
taking my business elsewhere. But that's just me.

--
Guy

I really had planned to just lurk on this one, especially since I think that
both Peter Duniho and Dudley have it nailed, which is no surprise, and
'buttman' made an excellent point as well. There was also some interesting
points made regarding flight school organization and proceedures...

After carefully re-reading the original post, I am also really wondering
whether 'Jake' had some misgivings about the OP's readiness for solo; but
was under pressure to "get it done."

The truth be told, I should not have soloed at the time that I did, even
though I was very good and very smooth in most aspects of flying--but not
quite all. My crosswind correction was VERY substandard, which made the
successfull completion nearly as much good luck as good management...

Therefore, I agree with the rest: Change Instructors. I can only add that
the OP should also try to become much more of a perfectionist!

Peter


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".

How much of a hit would I take changing instructors this far in? Does
asking for a new one (preferrably with some experience) label me as a
problem student with the school?

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

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

BTW,,................

CONGRATULATIONS on your first solo.

Now go cut up your shirt!!!


Karl
ATP CFI

"Monarch Student" wrote in message
...
So should I get a new instructor?

Run, don't walk. Remember, you are more than just a student, you are a
customer. Have a quiet talk with the head instructor and get a new instructor.

By the way, my students can tell when I am thinking about soloing them. That is
when I get quiet and never-never touch the controls. I may be making little
notes for discussion on the ground, but my student will be making the decisions
aloft and I am just the safety pilot.

If you can't do that much with me in the plane, why would you be ready to solo?

Vaughn (CFIG)