Info about DCA from an employee

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great minds think alike
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if I was the same person, would it matter? I think the purpose of his post was to educate the public from an inside source. And for those of you who would like to stay on topic, id love to entertain you too.

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Sure it matters... You may make good points, but you lose credibility when you try to pull the wool over people's eyes.

I'm not saying you did submit both of the posts, but they sure do look similar.

Mike, any input?

G
 
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I'm not saying you did submit both of the posts, but they sure do look similar.

Mike, any input?

G

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The Goon Squad is checking into it......
 
Well this is interesting isnt it everyone. Well, to everyone out there, I assure you that I am my own man. I will do whatever I can to prove this, but since there is no way I can, there is nothing out there but my word. I guess time will tell you that both I, and luv2av8, are in fact, two seperate people. But on to bigger and better things. Still working the exact numbers for those interested in that part of my post but I figured I would add to the story telling about DCA. I remember a guy who worked at DCA, who was suspended for something that he didnt even do. When he was waiting on an aircraft one day, the person prior to him was late by more than 30 min. So when the person finally returned, he confronted the individual and meet the following reply
"Its my airplane and Ill keep it out as long as I want"
The flight instructor then simply stated "well, you could have called at least." This is when the other guy decided that he was going to fist fight the flight instructor and proceeded to drag the flight instructor outside to fight. The instructor did nothing wrong, witnesses were present for the ordeal, and yet, DCA management decided to not only suspend the instructor, but also put a report in his HR file. By the way, the "other guy" was a JAA DPE that the academy used.
Now for the part that shows how unbelievably consistant management is. There was a new instructor that took one of the aircraft on the hurricane evacuations, and we had all of our aircraft at minimal IFR enroute seperation. Just prior to reaching his next VOR, he asked if he was cleared direct to the next VOR, he was told, undoubtedly due to congestion, no. Therefore, when he reached the VOR the instructor entered a hold and caused a loss of seperation with the aircraft behind him. Then less than two weeks later, he took off from the wrong runway at a busy airport, and forced a 767 that had been released to abort its takeoff. And heres what happened to him. He got no diciplanary action taken against him, got nominated for instructor of the month, and then was moved to another base, where, as far as I know, he still works today.
 
Well phil, I signed that contract for the same reason everyone else does. Hell half the instructors there dont even read it. We are eager to see the 100k we spent make a means to an end and are blinded by our debt. On another not, youre right, I am unfortunately bitter, but it costs money to make money, and if I could afford to take a month from my $400-900/month pay, yeah thats what im paid, then I would. But the reality of the matter is that once your in, its very hard to get out without some other source of finances. As for my 2 anecdotes, I wont defend the 100hr infraction after pondering it a bit, but the man who was fired for the check pilot deal. That is certainly the right place for it to occur. As a student I would love to have known my instructor had my back, and that he was teaching me right! Oh, he told me the reason HR gave him for firing him was because the FAA came by and didnt like his VFP folder...VFP isnt even an FAA approved curriculum and they dont look at those folders. Another couple individuals fired for doing ground instruction during PCATD lessons in the commercial group! 10 hours of microsoft flight sim in commercial? Staring at a computer screen while on a XC? How instructional...I think it would be great to teach then something usefull during that time.

Its my oppinion that the school is getting top heavy and really needs to start draining the white shirts. I think the students went from mid 400's to high 200's in a matter of months...howabout that.

Im happy to see you can remain so happy where you are Phil, but you are an astute individual and I refuse to believe that you dont see the moral of everyone swirling down the drain. I dont know why all of you group leaders need to try to advertise for the academy
 
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When he was waiting on an aircraft one day, the person prior to him was late by more than 30 min. So when the person finally returned, he confronted the individual and meet the following reply
"Its my airplane and Ill keep it out as long as I want"
The flight instructor then simply stated "well, you could have called at least." This is when the other guy decided that he was going to fist fight the flight instructor and proceeded to drag the flight instructor outside to fight. The instructor did nothing wrong, witnesses were present for the ordeal, and yet, DCA management decided to not only suspend the instructor, but also put a report in his HR file. By the way, the "other guy" was a JAA DPE that the academy used.

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Cool...another DPE who's ass I'd love to kick.....especially with an attitude like that!

Give him a MikeD special ass-kicking, free of charge.

If these stories are true, then DCA is more of a clown act than I thought.
 
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Well phil, I signed that contract for the same reason everyone else does. Hell half the instructors there dont even read it. We are eager to see the 100k we spent make a means to an end and are blinded by our debt. On another not, youre right, I am unfortunately bitter, but it costs money to make money, and if I could afford to take a month from my $400-900/month pay, yeah thats what im paid, then I would. But the reality of the matter is that once your in, its very hard to get out without some other source of finances. As for my 2 anecdotes, I wont defend the 100hr infraction after pondering it a bit, but the man who was fired for the check pilot deal. That is certainly the right place for it to occur. As a student I would love to have known my instructor had my back, and that he was teaching me right! Oh, he told me the reason HR gave him for firing him was because the FAA came by and didnt like his VFP folder...VFP isnt even an FAA approved curriculum and they dont look at those folders. Another couple individuals fired for doing ground instruction during PCATD lessons in the commercial group! 10 hours of microsoft flight sim in commercial? Staring at a computer screen while on a XC? How instructional...I think it would be great to teach then something usefull during that time.

Its my oppinion that the school is getting top heavy and really needs to start draining the white shirts. I think the students went from mid 400's to high 200's in a matter of months...howabout that.

Im happy to see you can remain so happy where you are Phil, but you are an astute individual and I refuse to believe that you dont see the moral of everyone swirling down the drain. I dont know why all of you group leaders need to try to advertise for the academy

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Who be Phil? You talkin' to me?

G
 
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Now for the part that shows how unbelievably consistant management is. There was a new instructor that took one of the aircraft on the hurricane evacuations, and we had all of our aircraft at minimal IFR enroute seperation. Just prior to reaching his next VOR, he asked if he was cleared direct to the next VOR, he was told, undoubtedly due to congestion, no. Therefore, when he reached the VOR the instructor entered a hold and caused a loss of seperation with the aircraft behind him. Then less than two weeks later, he took off from the wrong runway at a busy airport, and forced a 767 that had been released to abort its takeoff. And heres what happened to him. He got no diciplanary action taken against him, got nominated for instructor of the month, and then was moved to another base, where, as far as I know, he still works today.

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Please get your story straight. The VOR holding thing was found to be equal blame for the instructor and ATC, and to be honest, that day was absolutely crazy on ATC with hundreds of aircraft trying to get out of here... As for the taking off the wrong way, yep, it was a bit stupid, but if you tell the whole story, again, incomplete instructions from ground/tower added to to the confusion and this was found to not to be completely his fault either. There WAS some diciplinary aciton taken, including having this instructor do a lengthy presentation to a large number of instructors.

He was nominated for instructor of the month, and very much deserved it. He did an otherwise excellent job and just got put into a couple bad situations. He did not "get moved" to another base, but rather asked to move to the other base because his significant other is in that city. He does still work there and is doing quite well.

If you are going to gripe about this place, at least get your facts straight.
 
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Now for the part that shows how unbelievably consistant management is. There was a new instructor that took one of the aircraft on the hurricane evacuations, and we had all of our aircraft at minimal IFR enroute seperation. Just prior to reaching his next VOR, he asked if he was cleared direct to the next VOR, he was told, undoubtedly due to congestion, no. Therefore, when he reached the VOR the instructor entered a hold and caused a loss of seperation with the aircraft behind him. Then less than two weeks later, he took off from the wrong runway at a busy airport, and forced a 767 that had been released to abort its takeoff. And heres what happened to him. He got no diciplanary action taken against him, got nominated for instructor of the month, and then was moved to another base, where, as far as I know, he still works today.

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Please get your story straight. The VOR holding thing was found to be equal blame for the instructor and ATC, and to be honest, that day was absolutely crazy on ATC with hundreds of aircraft trying to get out of here... As for the taking off the wrong way, yep, it was a bit stupid, but if you tell the whole story, again, incomplete instructions from ground/tower added to to the confusion and this was found to not to be completely his fault either. There WAS some diciplinary aciton taken, including having this instructor do a lengthy presentation to a large number of instructors.

He was nominated for instructor of the month, and very much deserved it. He did an otherwise excellent job and just got put into a couple bad situations. He did not "get moved" to another base, but rather asked to move to the other base because his significant other is in that city. He does still work there and is doing quite well.

If you are going to gripe about this place, at least get your facts straight.

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Ummm.....why do an evac IFR? Why not just VFR and avoid the separation problem altogether? And be able to mass launch more efficiently?
 
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Well phil, I signed that contract for the same reason everyone else does. Hell half the instructors there dont even read it. We are eager to see the 100k we spent make a means to an end and are blinded by our debt. On another not, youre right, I am unfortunately bitter, but it costs money to make money, and if I could afford to take a month from my $400-900/month pay, yeah thats what im paid, then I would. But the reality of the matter is that once your in, its very hard to get out without some other source of finances. As for my 2 anecdotes, I wont defend the 100hr infraction after pondering it a bit, but the man who was fired for the check pilot deal. That is certainly the right place for it to occur. As a student I would love to have known my instructor had my back, and that he was teaching me right! Oh, he told me the reason HR gave him for firing him was because the FAA came by and didnt like his VFP folder...VFP isnt even an FAA approved curriculum and they dont look at those folders. Another couple individuals fired for doing ground instruction during PCATD lessons in the commercial group! 10 hours of microsoft flight sim in commercial? Staring at a computer screen while on a XC? How instructional...I think it would be great to teach then something usefull during that time.

Its my oppinion that the school is getting top heavy and really needs to start draining the white shirts. I think the students went from mid 400's to high 200's in a matter of months...howabout that.

Im happy to see you can remain so happy where you are Phil, but you are an astute individual and I refuse to believe that you dont see the moral of everyone swirling down the drain. I dont know why all of you group leaders need to try to advertise for the academy

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Oh where to start, first off Philosopher, he was talking to me, my name is Phil. I won't argue all of your points, because lots of them are pretty valid. I do see some morale problems, but it isn't everyone here. As to "advertising for the academy" I have never done that. If you check into many of my past posts I have spoken nothing but the truth. If that truth sheds the occasional good light on DCA then so be it. I have criticized this place as well, but overall I have been one of the lone "defenders of DCA island" and will continue to be so.
 
I actually did fly one of the 152's out VFR. We left under, ahem, marginal VFR. By the time the rest of the aircraft got off the ground there was no choice but to go IFR. Lots of guys were in actual for a couple hours on the way up to Georgia that day. Trust me, if we could have all gone VFR I am sure we would have.
 
I wasnt refering to you philosopher. And dude! There was no mistake on ATC's part. I was on the same freq on that trip and heard it all. It was complete confusion on the instructor. As for the wrong runway, he assumed he should take off the same runway as the plane in front of him which was the opposite runway he was cleared for t/o. And he had to talk about what happened in front of his group...shux, that must have been horrible.

L82av8 I am assuming you arent bashin the instructor but rather the action of the academy in comparison to much more menial infractions by other instructors, and if thats the case I agree, but it works the same for students. Have you noticed that most of the stage pilots there are under qualified or just poor instructors? I could flood you with tidbits about them!...As you may tell, I have a bit of a grudge on them too.

whats the avg wait in the inst group now? 8-9 months to move on?
 
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Oh where to start, first off Philosopher, he was talking to me, my name is Phil.

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Cool. Just making sure I wasn't missing something.

G
 
I only came on to tell it how it is. And I would love for anyone who wishes to attend the academy to post their questions on this forum. I cant vouch for everything l82av8 says because they arent my stories, but everything I have said is honest truth. Please just ask
 
Sorry I didnt put ALL the facts about the case so here they are:


I did not hear the transmissions myself, as I was many, many aircraft ahead. But I got all this info from the instructor involved. NO, I am not bashing the instructor, yes, what he did in both instances was rather stupid, but we all do make mistakes. I simply am trying to show the lack of consistancy with the managment at DCA. He had been given the clearance of "Cleared direct xxxVOR by orlando approach control. Upon reaching xxxVOR, he did not think that he could go any further, so he entered a hold. He was the only person in 70ot planes given this same clearance to make this mistake. Now for the runway incident. He was not given a runway to taxi to, so he assumed(problem #1 especially at an unfamiliar/busy field). Then upon reaching the runway they thought they were going to take off from lets say 9 for instance, they were gived a heading of 270 (or something in that area) in all my experience at least, I have never been given such a turn after departure, and even if tower did, Im sure they would say something about it. He then taxied on the runway, and back taxied"to gain more distance". So when tower saw him turn the way they expected he released the 767. Now, then he saw the instructor do a 180 on the runway and take off the other way.
So there are the facts. My true point was not to make anyone look bad so I took some stuff out. My point was to show that in one instance where there are plenty of witnesses to say that an instructor did nothing wrong, hes suspended. But when, and even as you admit wannabe2, at least some blame in two very bad instances lies on the instructor, next to no action is taken.
 
hehe, why fly IFR? Because 70 percent of dca pilots cant fly VFR. They had to rely on IFR plans the whole way, despite on my way up I had only 3 coulds I flew in which could have been easily avoided. VFR flying is a poor skill here. In fact one individual got lost 4 miles away from the airport. Another landed at the wrong airport thinking the ocean was a lake, and quite a few got lost on a 20 mile hop to repostion a/c during our evacuation. Yes a VFR departure and flight would have cut much of the cluster f@#! from that flight
 
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hehe, why fly IFR? Because 70 percent of dca pilots cant fly VFR. They had to rely on IFR plans the whole way, despite on my way up I had only 3 coulds I flew in which could have been easily avoided. VFR flying is a poor skill here. In fact one individual got lost 4 miles away from the airport. Another landed at the wrong airport thinking the ocean was a lake, and quite a few got lost on a 20 mile hop to repostion a/c during our evacuation. Yes a VFR departure and flight would have cut much of the cluster f@#! from that flight

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What????
Highly doubtful, considering that every cross country done outside of the instrument group has to be done VFR. If you, or the crowd you run with can't fly VFR maybe you should get a little remidial training, but that is definately the first I've heard of it.

If it's who I'm thinking of, the guy who got fired for whatever "minor" reason you claim diserved it. I hate to wish any misfortune on anyone but that guy was the biggest tool/jerk at the place. I've never seen someone who is more disrespectful and full of himself on a regular basis than that guy. I think that guy is going to struggle in any job where he has to interact with society on a regular basis.

And the people that got hired at RAA, how many decided to "sell out" and pay $25,000 for a type rating that they don't even need.

Sorry if you did not say all this or if it was the other guy that joined the forums at the same time with the really similar name, but if your going to gripe about something do use all the facts because many of us here know what you are talking about and it detracts alot from your credibility when we know that you left out about half of the story.
 
Well hello again. I was at DCA when the hurricane evacuation incident occured and would just like to back up our friend the schizo. The instructor who held over whatever VOR it was, was completely and absolutely at fault. ATC had no fault whatsoever in this matter. Here is what happened: While departing out of Sanford, the instructor was given his departure clearance and cleared all the way to his destination airport. This was his clearance limit. After he departed and had been flying ATC then cleared him direct to ___VOR, this was not a new clearance limit, just reducing controller workload so ATC did not have to keep giving vectors, he was simply told to navigate on his own to the VOR. He mistakingly and erroneously thought for whatever reason that he now could proceed only to the VOR, he did not think about the fact that he had already been cleared all the way to his destination airport. That is what happened.
How anyone sees this as the instructor not being at fault is beyond me. Oh well
 
Doubt all you want, but its the truth. And there is no crowd I run with at DCA, which is why I know these stories...I talk to everyone. And id venture to guess you have no clue who I am so any knowledge of my skill as a pilot is out of your grasp.

Im not sure which individual you are refering to because several have been fired for trivial reasons at DCA, but as big a tool/jerk you think he was, though ill gladly stand up for them, its completely immaterial. What is material is that he did his job, did it well, was safe, and efficient...Like most of the good IPs that are fired, but the piss poor ones will stay. Like the ones with 50% pass rates, the ones that sleep with students, the ones that fly into imc on a commercial xc without a clearance while on an ILS (before someone invariably says something here, ATC doesnt know when you are in the clouds all the time), Or the ones who get in fights with ground school teachers, or even the ones who fly without a valid medial! I guess staying staying under the radar will work for me.

As for the indivuals at RAA, they instructed for 6mos and totalled near 700 hours. Since airlines regularly visit RAA for spot intervies, they were selected on the spot. No type rating. Why does that not happen here anymore?

In truth I said everything, so if you are going to gripe about a gripe, please get all the facts straight
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First off I was not questioning your skills, I'm sure they are very good. However I have not met too many people that get lost on VFR plans. Much less 70% of the people I know, that's a bit dramatic. Since I don't know these people you must, that's what I was trying to get at. We must be around different levels of instructors. It was not a personal attack, don't be so sensitive.

Seems like you listen to alot of stories and don't see anything first hand. Expired medical guy got fired, so don't know where you're going with that one. Sleeping with students, yeah probably not too professional but I'm sure the school is not beating down instructors doors to fire them because they heard they were sleeping with so and so. They don't exactly run in the same crowd so I doubt they know too much about it. What people do with their lives at home I could care less about. And we all know the seat of their pants pilots that do all kinds of "interesting" things in the air, nobody knows about it for sure but the people in the plane and the rest is just rumors. Again, kinda hard for someone to fire someone on rumors. Pass rates rarely accurately show an instructors ability, I'm sure you are smart enough to know that so why bring it up. If someone is known to work well with "challanging students" then they will probably get more. It turns into a vicious cycle. Some instructors there, I think, suck. I agree but I base that on how they treat their students and how much extra effort they give.

Do I like working here, not really, I like the work, just not working for a big academy deal. If I tell you what I don't like It's because I experienced it not because I heard a story from someone that heard it from someone, etc. Some of your complaints I share but alot of it seems to be bloated numbers (ie: roomate that spent $120,000 on tuition) and embellished rumors that have no fact whatsoever.

I'm happy for the guys at RAA and glad they did not fall for the type rating hype. If life is so good there, get your MEI there and try to work there. You are right though, not many airlines come here to spot interview but we do go there, not sure your point there.

Yeeep, that should be long enough, okay, fire at will.
 
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