Don't understand what I'm trying to say?...not the first time ever. Don't bother trying to chew my head off if you still don't understand because I will only do it once.
I should have included that the biggest fear among students and power on stalls is getting into a spin. We would then have a whole other can of worms that has been discussed many times on this forum of "should spins be conducted in training". However, I am trying to say that it is
NOT easy for the student to evaluate an instructor by doing some quick reading. How do students evaluate instructors on something that they know nothing about? Teachers are evaluated by other teachers not by their damn students. Do CFIs get evaluated by other CFIs ever in flight or in ground school? Go figure. They take some life time internet thingy that renews their CFI. I would be very impressed to see a chief flight instructor siting in the back of a 172 evaluating a CFI while he is teaching a student. From my experience I have never heard of it. Ha, but what are we really? If I was in charge of a flight school and a chief instructor, that is what I would be doing besides stage checks. I would NOT be out to get rid of all the "bad CFIs" so to speak but only to improve there teaching skills just like in the general school system. Keep them up to par. Instead we are thrown this FOI test and a check ride and there you have it. You are now only evaluated by your student and now you have a free ride to the "just paying your dues".
I do? Why?...oh, just because of your tone in the pass used directly at me.
my browser froze up when I clicked on it...that is why too. It doesn't like this one, I guess.
Sidious, is the one doing the evaluation there to help you if you are having any problems with a student? Has he/she been there while you teach this student? Tell him/her you need help with this student and would like for them to sit down in the room or back seat as you teach. Have them tell you what other methods to try or to point out which ones worked or didn't work. It will show them that you are doing the best that you can and willing to do whatever it takes to get the student through. I am shocked if they play along with the students emotions and base the evaluation on time alone. We need to tighten up on both sides of the fence and let the peanuts fall until they get it.
For what it's worth.
I'm going to take a stab at this incoherent rambling, I don't know why
1. Students only fear that which they have either had a bad experience with; or that which they have been taught to fear by their instructor. Either way the instructor is the reason. Power on stalls? are you kidding? If a student is taught properly the first time they are about the easiest, non-event maneuver required by the PTS. A spin? If that is an issue the student was never taught flight coordination on lesson one like they should have been. If they are really terrified of a spin to the point that they cannot perform required maneuvers then its time to go spin them, thats just what a real instructor does. If they realize that a spin is recoverable and are more comfortable with it, great; if not, this profession was not for them anyway.
2.Researching the PTS, the FAR, and what a student should expect of an instructor is not difficult at all. I fired my first instructor when I realized that he was deliberately skipping requirements to pad his logbook. I had a total of 17 hours at the time and had zero previous aviation experience. If a student is incapable of such simple research about the profession they are pursuing then sorry, they need to find a different profession. Oh and you want a website? try
www.jetcareers.com, it has saved me thousands of dollars, and some bad choices by providing good info.
3. If a flight school does not monitor their instructors then they are asking for trouble. I have personally been responsible for the firing of three terrible instructors through the stage check process. When I am taxiing out with their student who has a checkride scheduled in a week and I ask them to start with a soft field takeoff and they ask me "What is that?" I know we have a problem instructor. As to chief pilots sitting in back evaluating, hell, I have had that dozens of times, I have been the guy in back doing the evaluation even.
By the same token I have also been responsible for inviting several students to leave, again through the stage check process.
4. I am all about getting rid of bad CFIs. If they are just there for milking a student and collecting a paycheck, daydreaming about that barbie jet and the chick magnet uniform; there are a dozen guys waiting to take thier place that will do the job properly, and not be a liability to everyone around them. If they are struggling and having difficulty but are willing to improve and be taught then they are not a bad CFI; just a poorly trained one.
5. I learned a lot from the Fundamentals of Instruction test and the Aviation Instructors Handbook. If people would stop and actually learn a few things from that instead of just hitting the Gliem for 2 hours before taking the test we would have a much better instructional corps across the board.
The 4 levels of learning are not:
1. Rote Memorization
2. Rote Memorization
3. Rote Memorization
4. Rote Memorization
6. Are you calling the CFI checkride a joke? I can't tell. Mine was hell and I thought I failed at several points. But in that the examiner taught me a lot. Many of the things I learned are carried into every student lesson.
7. Paying dues? Do you understand what that means? It is not some purgatory that must be passed through to get to that shiny low paying jet. It is a process by which one comes to understand their own strengths and weaknesses, which they should be striving to improve upon. A process which weeds out those that are not fit for this business for whatever reason. A process which builds experience that can be built upon in future employment. A process in which one must sink or swim. It is a continual process that does not stop when one moves to another job.
