CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to fly?

Jacob Wall

Jacob Wall

Well-Known Member
Howdy,

How often as CFI's do you tell a student that you would rather not fly with them anymore?

Today, I was sadly one of those students. Today would of been my last flight before getting my complex endorsement with a new instructor I'd been flying with recently when today he misinterpreted what time to meet at the airport as 9am, although the reservation system, my voicemail, and conversation over the phone said 10am, and when I arrived early at 9:30 he went off telling me that everything I do irritates him, and that he no longer want to fly with me. Seriously, after dropping all this money on getting my endorsement ONE flight away he did this. Last night, he called me at 10 and made me do all these quizzes to verify I understood what I was doing which took me until 1am, granted I started at like 11:30pm, to then make me rearrange my whole day for a flight and then once I drive all the way to the airport tells me he will not fly with me again and wouldn't be kind enough to fly with me one more time to just get the endorsement.

Yes, I understand I can get a new instructor but the fact is that I spent all this time with him demonstrating to HIM that I know what I am doing and now I must do that all over again(although this time around it'll be much faster) with a new instructor and spend more money.

/upset
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Wow. I think someone might be having other problems than you. If you did this habitually and never studied on your own I could see were he would be a little peeved but if it was this one time this is over the top.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Cessnaflyer said:
Wow. I think someone might be having other problems than you. If you did this habitually and never studied on your own I could see were he would be a little peeved but if it was this one time this is over the top.
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It's not that I don't study, I study. I started my complex endorsement at the end of October, flying as much as wx permits. I've taken a few trips with another pilot in our flying club which through that I accrued 23 hours but I can't log any of it, but I've got to learn a lot about the a/c from that. I expected to have my endorsement by today, actually a lot earlier as I was supposed to have it two weeks ago but he canceled that flight. I'm skydiving on Sunday(possibly not due to bad wx now) so I put myself on the schedule about 1.5 weeks ago with the notes "feel free to standby, must get checkout completed" and I got a raging VM from him on Monday saying "DO NOT TAKE THAT FLIGHT!!! YOU ARE ILLEGAL!!! DON'T YOU DARE" and I called him back immediately after saying that 1) it's been on the schedule for a while, 2) he was aware of that trip, 3) I should have it completed by Thursday as this had to do with insurance reqs not the inability for me to fly a complex a/c(although he has said I've completed it all but he refuses to endorse me oddly irregardless of the MM reqs that insurance reqs)
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

This guys seems like a spaz! Does he work for a school or is he independent?
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Jacob Wall said:
It's not that I don't study, I study.
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Even if you don't study much it's still a win win. I know it's not your case but if it takes a student 2 or 3 times as long to get a particular rating there is no harm done. The student needs to build hours and the CFI wants to build time and/or make money. Anyways, back on topic, it sounds like your instructor has a bad attitude.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

It sucks that you were put into this situation; however this is a blessing in disguise for you. Find another flight instructor that works well with you and don't look back.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Wow I'm sorry to hear this happend to you! From a CFI stand point, nothing made me more mad then when a student showed up late habitually. But this sounds like a huge overreaction. It's also easy to fix, you just start charging the student when they are late.

I have only told one student I would not fly with them anymore. It was after a year of showing up about half the time, not following checklists, not paying attention to ATC, and (the last straw) telling me about all the recreational drugs they do. I had to tell them that I would never be comfortable signing them off to solo and this was a waste of both our time and their money.

I hope you can finish up your endorsement without to much extra work.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

The thing is the CFI has no reason to build time, he's an older gentleman who does instructing to keep him busy. I picked him due to his massive amount of hours instructing, I guess I made a bad choice. I spoke to another CFI today and he said I should be able to do the whole checkout with him in 3 hours to sufficiently demonstrate my knowledge if I'm as proficient as I think I am.

flyboywbl said:
Wow I'm sorry to hear this happend to you! From a CFI stand point, nothing made me more mad then when a student showed up late habitually. But this sounds like a huge overreaction. It's also easy to fix, you just start charging the student when they are late.

I have only told one student I would not fly with them anymore. It was after a year of showing up about half the time, not following checklists, not paying attention to ATC, and (the last straw) telling me about all the recreational drugs they do. I had to tell them that I would never be comfortable signing them off to solo and this was a waste of both our time and their money.

I hope you can finish up your endorsement without to much extra work.
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That had to of been an awkward situation when he was talking about his recreational drug use.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

I don't know either of you, but it sounds like your personalities didn't mesh well.

I refused to fly with one student during my CFI days. It came down to I didnt like his attitude, and being I had somewhere around 11 students, I didnt need his business. I made the simple decision to stick him with someone else. It happens, move on and complete it.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

He could have handled it better, for sure. You shouldn't have left me. :)
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Crockrocket94 said:
I don't know either of you, but it sounds like your personalities didn't mesh well.

I refused to fly with one student during my CFI days. It came down to I didnt like his attitude, and being I had somewhere around 11 students, I didnt need his business. I made the simple decision to stick him with someone else. It happens, move on and complete it.
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In the end, you are right. Our personalities didn't mesh but I guess what I'm most upset about is the fact he made me drive to the airport, for my last flight, to tell me this and when I asked if he would mind just flying this last flight with me he responded with "I'd rather not." and I respected that. Had this of been in the early stages I wouldn't be so upset.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Try speaking to the school's owner or manager about the situation. They might be able to help you out financially.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

mojo6911 said:
Try speaking to the school's owner or manager about the situation. They might be able to help you out financially.
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It's a flight club, the way I justify it is it's closer to the 250TT I'll need for my commercial. That way I don't feel I wasted my money for nothing.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Oh OK, I didn't catch that. Good luck with the next guy. Usually, if I have a problem with a student, I try to tell them early so it doesn't brew into a problem like this. More hours doesn't always mean better. Sometimes personalities clash.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

Jacob Wall said:
I've taken a few trips with another pilot in our flying club which through that I accrued 23 hours but I can't log any of it, but I've got to learn a lot about the a/c from that.
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Why would you think that? Were you the sole manipulator of the controls for any of those 23 hours? Do you have an Airplane Single Engine Land Certificate? While you can't ACT as PIC, you very well may LOG PIC for any time that you had the controls. Common misconception.

Get a new CFI. For what it is worth, I've found most CFIs that do complex endorsements have their own non-standard way of doing everything, which I try to forget as soon as possible.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

drunkenbeagle said:
Why would you think that? Were you the sole manipulator of the controls for any of those 23 hours? Do you have an Airplane Single Engine Land Certificate? While you can't ACT as PIC, you very well may LOG PIC for any time that you had the controls. Common misconception.

Get a new CFI. For what it is worth, I've found most CFIs that do complex endorsements have their own non-standard way of doing everything, which I try to forget as soon as possible.
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My CFI at the time, the one in question, said I couldn't log it so I trusted him.

So even w/o a complex endorsement even in a complex a/c I can log PIC so long as I'm the sole manipulator of the controls? I just want to confirm this. :)
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

drunkenbeagle said:
Why would you think that? Were you the sole manipulator of the controls for any of those 23 hours? Do you have an Airplane Single Engine Land Certificate? While you can't ACT as PIC, you very well may LOG PIC for any time that you had the controls. Common misconception.

Get a new CFI. For what it is worth, I've found most CFIs that do complex endorsements have their own non-standard way of doing everything, which I try to forget as soon as possible.
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If it was a High Performance aircraft can he? I am pretty sure he can't.
 
Re: CFI's - Have you ever told a student you don't want to f

If you are the sole manipulator of the controls, and you have a PPL for that "catagory and class" you can LOG flight time without the endorsments.

You can not ACT as PIC without endorsements.
 
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