400A
New Member
Having been an SOF for many years at UND as well as an instructor I can say with almost 100% confidence that all of this ADM skills are not the fault of the instructor(s). Sure there are some instructors who are on cruise control mode that don't care, that is an individual thing, not a UND thing, you can't weed out all the idiots.
I had to cancel students launches MULTIPLE times a month while an SOF for things ranging from, smelling of booze, LIFR at their destination (VFR flight), WX conditions below SOP limits for their "class" of certificate, etc etc. You cannot teach common sense and basic decision making skills as made obvious by somone using ATC to fly around thunderstorms in a non radar equipped aircraft. Add to the fact the two guys last year who crashed in CKN, I would be on a hair trigger as well as an SOF.
From my time as a student at UND until I left I watched an almost complete 180 degree change in how students came into the program and what kind of attitude they had. "My generation" took responsibility for our training, studied, had questions, wanted to pushed to our limits. The "current generation" is only interested in completing the lesson in exactly 1.0 and that lesson had better be complete or I will go crying to mommy and daddy because my steep turns were only off by 200 feet.
Nobody takes accountability anymore, everything is someone elses fault, as TXaviator points out, it is UNDs fault for sending people out who aren't ready to make decisions, WRONG! That is the individuals fault for not realising they lack the ability to make decisions. Passing a checkride on a day that has no wind, not a cloud in the sky and you get to whine about not having to use the Bendix GPS so you get a 430 equipped airplane is not decision making.
I know it is hard to believe, but with 20 some odd years of life experience and maybe 300 hours of flight time you are not smarter than the collective at UND. Every annoying SOP that everyone thinks is some kind of UND bubble is written because some moron of a pilot thought it a good idea to do XYZ and probably got away with it for a while until someone either got hurt or metal was bent (case on point, the idiot who lied about where he was going, landed on a grass strip and cartwheeled the airplane).
You have to get out there and get experience, push your limits, but that doesn't mean as soon as you get your IFR ticket you blast off into 200 and 1/2 weather just because you can. But, since this current generation of "kids" thinks the world is owed to them on a platter and that everything they do should be awarded with a gold star that point is lost.
Don't get me wrong, there are many areas UND could be better in, the problem is for that to happen you need students who have an ounce of grey matter between their ears to start with, since that won't happen anytime soon, you have to play to the median of the lowest denominator.
I had to cancel students launches MULTIPLE times a month while an SOF for things ranging from, smelling of booze, LIFR at their destination (VFR flight), WX conditions below SOP limits for their "class" of certificate, etc etc. You cannot teach common sense and basic decision making skills as made obvious by somone using ATC to fly around thunderstorms in a non radar equipped aircraft. Add to the fact the two guys last year who crashed in CKN, I would be on a hair trigger as well as an SOF.
From my time as a student at UND until I left I watched an almost complete 180 degree change in how students came into the program and what kind of attitude they had. "My generation" took responsibility for our training, studied, had questions, wanted to pushed to our limits. The "current generation" is only interested in completing the lesson in exactly 1.0 and that lesson had better be complete or I will go crying to mommy and daddy because my steep turns were only off by 200 feet.
Nobody takes accountability anymore, everything is someone elses fault, as TXaviator points out, it is UNDs fault for sending people out who aren't ready to make decisions, WRONG! That is the individuals fault for not realising they lack the ability to make decisions. Passing a checkride on a day that has no wind, not a cloud in the sky and you get to whine about not having to use the Bendix GPS so you get a 430 equipped airplane is not decision making.
I know it is hard to believe, but with 20 some odd years of life experience and maybe 300 hours of flight time you are not smarter than the collective at UND. Every annoying SOP that everyone thinks is some kind of UND bubble is written because some moron of a pilot thought it a good idea to do XYZ and probably got away with it for a while until someone either got hurt or metal was bent (case on point, the idiot who lied about where he was going, landed on a grass strip and cartwheeled the airplane).
You have to get out there and get experience, push your limits, but that doesn't mean as soon as you get your IFR ticket you blast off into 200 and 1/2 weather just because you can. But, since this current generation of "kids" thinks the world is owed to them on a platter and that everything they do should be awarded with a gold star that point is lost.
Don't get me wrong, there are many areas UND could be better in, the problem is for that to happen you need students who have an ounce of grey matter between their ears to start with, since that won't happen anytime soon, you have to play to the median of the lowest denominator.