Good/Bad Instructors

jhugz

jhugz

Well-Known Member
I'm tired of hearing in threads that I don't want to instruct, I won't be a good teacher, it will be a disservice to my student. Random news flash, very few of us in this profession want to be career instructors. However this is probably one of the best (not the only) path to pad that logbook to the next step. In my opinion everyone should have to do 1000 hours of dual given, it's just another skill that makes you a well rounded aviator.

Also just because you don't want to instruct, doesn't mean you'll be a bad instructor. This argument is getting annoying too. I really disliked instructing, however I knew it was a means to a end. Even though I really didn't enjoy what I was doing, I still worked very hard at it, and was a successful instructor. I'm not trying to say it was all low's, there was a lot of highs and it was very rewarding work.

I guess the point I'm trying to make with this is anyone can be a successful instructor and get paid to fly airplanes at very low hours. Stop trying to come up with every justification you can to not CFI, and just suck it up for a year or two. Trust me, you'll look back, and you'll appreciate those couple years banging it out in the right seat of a cessna/piper.

/randomrant
 
But, I don't want to instruct and I won't be good at it. Plus, many people have BO and that is obnoxious. Also, they do stupid things and that is also obnoxious. You're obnoxious. Your mom and I were just talking about this today after our "lunch".
 
When I was first working on my CFI I tried to hide behind that excuse. But the real truth was I just being too lazy to get my butt in gear and learn what I needed to know. Now I'm instructing and really enjoying it. I just soloed my third student today and it was such a satisfying experience. I definitely don't wanna instruct as a career, in fact I'm already looking for the next great adventure/opportunity. I'm just enjoying getting paid to hop in a plane with somebody as opposed to me paying to fly.
 
WacoFan said:
But, I don't want to instruct and I won't be good at it. Plus, many people have BO and that is obnoxious. Also, they do stupid things and that is also obnoxious. You're obnoxious. Your mom and I were just talking about this today after our "lunch".
Click to expand...

How old is Maggie now?
 
For me I wasn't against instructing, but I didn't realize how much I'd enjoy it. I started doing it when I had 300 hours and stopped 3 years later when I had 2500 hours. I kept doing it because I made good money and I had fun. Then my resume got overloaded with single engine time, and it was time to move on. Since then my career goals have changed, and I'm glad I learned to just roll with the punches and see where aviation takes me.
 
I didnt want to become an instructor. I hated the thought of it. But knew I had to do it for the hours if I ever wanted to go anywhere.

Now 5000 hours later, 2500 hours dual given, Its the best thing I ever done. I still love teaching, learned a ton, very rewarding, found out that you dont need any special teaching skills to teach, just a desire to learn and a passion to show others.

Also I dont know how I would have passed my 135 single pilot, IFR checkrides had I not taught instrument students. I dont know how people do it who never really taught it.
 
Bahh, I've read all the recent threads from people not wanting to teach, and I keep thinking, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."

I say, fine, do whatever you want. You've just had ten people tell you numerous reasons why teaching is the best path to success, without a single person arguing against teaching, but you are still determined not to teach. Cool. Have fun doing it your way.

I suppose this is why they say common sense isn't so common.
 
I like dealing with people - like teaching things. I like airplanes. I like the idea of my own place - a Champ - and teaching people to fly. The idea appeals to me. Here's the thing though - I am horrified by it. The idea that maybe you messed up and a student crashes while soloing is a horrifying thought to me. How do you get over that?
 
WacoFan said:
I like dealing with people - like teaching things. I like airplanes. I like the idea of my own place - a Champ - and teaching people to fly. The idea appeals to me. Here's the thing though - I am horrified by it. The idea that maybe you messed up and a student crashes while soloing is a horrifying thought to me. How do you get over that?
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A few things.

Teach from a syllabus, so as to not forget anything important, and hold your clients to clearly defined, objective standards. You have to be willing to hold them to standards no matter how nice they are, how hard they've been working, or whatever time/money pressure they're under.

Utilize other instructors to periodically fly with your clients and evaluate their progress from an outside perspective.

Understand you can't control the world and sometimes mistakes happen. You can't let it paralyze you with fear. It's like anything in life...if you do the best job you possibly can and something bad still happens, you can sleep with a clear conscience.

I've had two former clients crash. Thankfully neither of them involved injuries, although both involved significant damage to the airplane.

They were both licensed pilots who owned their own airplanes. One did his private pilot training with me, then did a "quickie" tailwheel course, which I had cautioned him not to rush, and crashed a tailwheel plane in a strong crosswind. Another pilot had done his private pilot training elsewhere, then come to me for his instrument training. He was mediocre at crosswind landings. Personally, I would not have signed him off for his private pilot checkride had he been making those types of landings during primary training if I had been his instructor.

I gave him advice on landings and cautioned him of the consequences of his poor form. Sure enough, while on a business trip without me, he had a porpoise/prop strike on landing in gusty winds.

I wondered for a while if I should have been more insistent on him improving his landings with me, but it was such a gray area. There is a fine line between being an overbearing, overcontrolling instructor, and really putting your foot down when a client is doing something unsafe. Ultimately a decided I had done what I reasonably could and don't feel guilty about anything.
 
I didn't want to instruct.

But then the sweet bitch slap of reality struck me and I realized that the market value of a 300-hour ERAU grad was, well, if I show up for work on time and put in overtime when asked, I could move up to short order cook in six months, maybe a year.

Best decision I made in my career was getting over my aversion and attitude that I was too good for it and diving in.

Still some of the most rewarding flying of my career.
 
I love instructing. I'm learning skills that so far have made me a much better pilot. Plus my situational awareness and ADM skills have increased. I've flown with some good instructors and a couple of horrible instructors. I knew right then and there to not follow the bad examples.
 
I'm trying to get to a point where I can instruct part time now and look to do it more when I retire. I didn't think you could get many students flying late afternoons, evenings and weekends, but I see one of our club instructors making quite a good business of it.
 
jskibo said:
I didn't think you could get many students flying late afternoons, evenings and weekends, but I see one of our club instructors making quite a good business of it.
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Indeed. I've found a good instructor can stay as busy as they want, literally regardless of the hours they keep.

I've never, under any circumstances, taught on Saturdays, and only flew occasionally on Sundays after I was established. I still billed out 60-100 hours/month.

Many of the more well-off clients actually preferred training during weekdays because it was "office hours." They treated training like a business commitment and reserved their weekends for family/home time.

Even the recreational flyers found a way to come in before or after work, between college classes, and so on. If they like you as an instructor, they'll figure out a way to line up their schedule with yours.
 
We seem to have a built in student base as GE pays the hourly workers $2500 toward their PPL. Keeps the stock of student up.
 
But it's not the only way, and to sit there and say the way I did is the way everyone should because it's best is fallacious. You don't even have experience doing the many things a low time pilot can do to build hours.
At 2500 hours I still don't have my CFI, and I bet I can fly my airplane on one engine to mins just as well as you can. I can recognize and recover from a stall just as well, and a whole bunch of other things. Probably better than some since I have actually flown my airplane for all those hours.

I probably will never get it until I'm of retirement age or I see value in it between then and now.
If someone doesn't want to instruct, and can find a job then that's a valid path. If they can't, then to be honest, they don't want it enough and should go instruct.
 
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