TheresaPilot
Well-Known Member
Ok, so yesterday I had the worst flight I've had, thus far, being an instructor (and it's been over a year and a half).
I was called around 10:30 in the morning and asked, "Would you like to fly with so-and-so's student today at 1? He is booked and I see you're open." So I said that I would do it. Well, I get to the airport and he shows up around 1, and just kinda has this "Holier Than Thou" attitude towards me from the get-go, so I don't overly try to be his friend in the flight, I simply try to be his instructor.
Cutting to the chace, we are climbing from the airport on an Easterly heading and up to 3,500' to do some maneuvering. First on the list is the VR-IR of basic flight attitudes. So he levels off, really nicely actually, and I complimented him on it, and went about teaching him what it looks like to maintain striaght and level visually and then by reference to the instruments. After that, I said "Let's go ahead and get a little further from the airport before we start any turns" and almost immediately after I say that, he starts to turn! I figured to myself 'Um, ok, maybe he heard me wrong' and began to teach him what a turn looks like visually and by reference to the instruments, blah blah blah, and he stopped us on a heading of 190. I put the heading bug on 180 and told him to turn me left to 180 so we can start some slow flight, since everything else went well with the basic attitudes. I also explain how to use the section lines to fly on cardinal headings by flying paralell to them, and he continues to turn past south, all the way around to north.
At this point, I say to him, "You just want to do turns?" And he grunted a "yes" response so I said, "You know, you're not going to learn anything new unless you listen to me and try new things in the airplane, slow flight is next on the lesson plan, so we should start on that" (which we discussed prior to the flight). So since he just wanted to do his turns and completely not listen to a word I say, I just sat in the right seat thinking, 'as soon as he is done with his turns, he'll stop on a heading of south, and let me know he is ready for slow flight' and after 4 or 5 minutes of his little 5-10 degree bank turns, he said "I'm ready to go back to the airport" so we went back, and I was trying to talk him through a landing, but he was blatetnly not listening to a word I said so I was finally able to get him to get us on the ground and we taxiied onto the ramp and shut down.
After the shutdown, he said nothing, helped me push the plane back, and then left. Went into the airport, slammed his rented headset down on the counter, breaking it (I was able to fix it), and walked out, not saying a word.
Now, he never acted like this before to his instructor, but this was only his third flight. Do you think maybe, since he is a surgeon, that he has a big ego and has some sort of issues listening to a woman, in an authoritative position that is younger than him? I immediately told my Chief CFI what had happened, and he said he would talk to his instructor, and come up with a plan of action. Well, the guy emailed the owner of the company today with "his side" of what happened. My Chief CFI read me the email. It was a complete lie, was not what had happened at all, and it really gets under my skin that someone would act like this towards me.
I have a larger grasp on these things having 850 hours as compared to his 3, you would think he would listen to me, and not diliberately disobey what I had to say.
Has anyone had any issue like this? I realize that 90% of the people on here are guys, so I doubt y'all would be able to relate... But any sort of input? Sorry this was so long.
I was called around 10:30 in the morning and asked, "Would you like to fly with so-and-so's student today at 1? He is booked and I see you're open." So I said that I would do it. Well, I get to the airport and he shows up around 1, and just kinda has this "Holier Than Thou" attitude towards me from the get-go, so I don't overly try to be his friend in the flight, I simply try to be his instructor.
Cutting to the chace, we are climbing from the airport on an Easterly heading and up to 3,500' to do some maneuvering. First on the list is the VR-IR of basic flight attitudes. So he levels off, really nicely actually, and I complimented him on it, and went about teaching him what it looks like to maintain striaght and level visually and then by reference to the instruments. After that, I said "Let's go ahead and get a little further from the airport before we start any turns" and almost immediately after I say that, he starts to turn! I figured to myself 'Um, ok, maybe he heard me wrong' and began to teach him what a turn looks like visually and by reference to the instruments, blah blah blah, and he stopped us on a heading of 190. I put the heading bug on 180 and told him to turn me left to 180 so we can start some slow flight, since everything else went well with the basic attitudes. I also explain how to use the section lines to fly on cardinal headings by flying paralell to them, and he continues to turn past south, all the way around to north.
At this point, I say to him, "You just want to do turns?" And he grunted a "yes" response so I said, "You know, you're not going to learn anything new unless you listen to me and try new things in the airplane, slow flight is next on the lesson plan, so we should start on that" (which we discussed prior to the flight). So since he just wanted to do his turns and completely not listen to a word I say, I just sat in the right seat thinking, 'as soon as he is done with his turns, he'll stop on a heading of south, and let me know he is ready for slow flight' and after 4 or 5 minutes of his little 5-10 degree bank turns, he said "I'm ready to go back to the airport" so we went back, and I was trying to talk him through a landing, but he was blatetnly not listening to a word I said so I was finally able to get him to get us on the ground and we taxiied onto the ramp and shut down.
After the shutdown, he said nothing, helped me push the plane back, and then left. Went into the airport, slammed his rented headset down on the counter, breaking it (I was able to fix it), and walked out, not saying a word.
Now, he never acted like this before to his instructor, but this was only his third flight. Do you think maybe, since he is a surgeon, that he has a big ego and has some sort of issues listening to a woman, in an authoritative position that is younger than him? I immediately told my Chief CFI what had happened, and he said he would talk to his instructor, and come up with a plan of action. Well, the guy emailed the owner of the company today with "his side" of what happened. My Chief CFI read me the email. It was a complete lie, was not what had happened at all, and it really gets under my skin that someone would act like this towards me.
I have a larger grasp on these things having 850 hours as compared to his 3, you would think he would listen to me, and not diliberately disobey what I had to say.
Has anyone had any issue like this? I realize that 90% of the people on here are guys, so I doubt y'all would be able to relate... But any sort of input? Sorry this was so long.