-ok so at what point do you call it failing out instead of kicking out? i know plenty of people at *normal* state schools who sure as fu.ck got KICKED OUT for failing/poor academics.
failing out and kicked out are two different things. The aerospace department has a GPA policy and flight course completion policy, if those are not met, you are out.
-obviously some people lack the discipline to study/learn/practice. whats your point? and i dunno, id still be reluctant to say it takes ZERO talent. some people cant even manage a car, id be terrified to get in an airplane with them.
It takes zero talent to fly an airplane, discipline and common sense are all that are needed, simpley put, get over yourself.
-i dont see where anyone mentioned anything about joyriding on school time... but if flying is no fun for you, then wow, that must suck to have it as a job. flying SHOULD be enjoyable to you if one plans to make a career out of it. i have tons of fun while accomplishing the training objectives or lesson for the day.
flying is an absolute blast for me, I love every minute of it. There is a time and place for fun and work, lessons should be educational, they don't have to be fun. If something needs to be fun to you, for you to accomplish it, the you are definately in the wrong career field
-failure of stage checks is not a measure of ability????? then pray tell, what the hell IS a measure!?!? if you cannot measure skill/competency by enumerated demonstrations of those skills....how the hell else do you do it? by having them promise they can do it when youre not around to watch??
I could kill you in 5 minutes in the WARR sim, easy. Does that mean you are a bad pilot, nope, just inexperienced. Failing stage checks, multiple times implies a deeper problem. The instructor is not doing his/her job by repeatedly sending this student up for their very first check, unprepared. If I throw a book at you and say "read this, you have a test on it tomorrow" and you fail, that is my fault, I didn't teach you anything. Again, do not kid yourself, just because you have passed all your stage checks on the first run, means absolutely nothing, it means that day at that moment your performed to standards. It in no way proves you can do that consistantly.
-i agree that failure on a student's behalf does share responsibility between the teacher and the learner, but come on lets be serious. after five attempts and numerous reviews with the instructor.... i think it is safe to say that the student is not keeping their commitment to studying the material (or they just dont have the innate abilities required. i can practice all i want but ill never be a basketball star.)
You can be anything you want, all it takes is dedication. Most likely this student is not properly motivated and doesn't fully understand what they are trying to learn, and the instructor is not "teaching" but simply along for the ride. Might be time for a break, new instructor or a combination of both.
-there is a fine line between questioning authority and anti-authority. if you go through life blindly accepting things that are told to you, you have learned nothing. in most cases, sure, after due thought and proper thinking one will arrive at the same conclusions as those who came before you (and made the rules) but on the other hand, if no one ever thought there was a better way of doing things, we would still be using 64k of memory on our computers, right? after all, we were told that would be more than enough for any user.....blind acceptance and blind disobedience are two equally crappy schools of thought, in my view.
There is fine line, but do you honestly think, that DS, AP, Dana S, et al, do not know what they are doing? You honestly think you know better than they do? Give me an example of what you think could be done better at UND, and how have you presented that to the policy makers? You have what, at most 3 years of flying experience under your belt, most, if not all, in the training enviroment? What base of experience to draw upon to challenge inplace rules, other than they present a perceived inconvenience to you at a certain point in time? You sound like the typicall teenager out of high school with this mantra of blind acceptance and blind disobedience. It is not your job or responsibility to change rules, it is your job to promote safety, and following the rules does just that. If you have an example of a rule that compromises safety, by all means shout it out nice and loud, Dana will listen. But if your gripe is because you can not go on a solo cross country to DVL when the forecast is calling for 3000' ceilings at night, those are the rules, they are their for your safety, respect them, be a professional and abide by them.