Instructing frustrations

[skidz]

oh yeah - i forgot this one.

A student, on his long solo cross country, decided he didn't want to actually do it. So the foreign student flies to an airport 5 miles from the base airport, ties the aircraft to a TREE, with the engine running to put 2.whatever on the hobbs.

Needless to say, one of the locals knew the plane and called the school to let them know what whas going on. They found the student having lunch, plane unattended.

The reason they got from the student was that he felt that a VFR cross country would not benefit him as flying for *insert Country name here* Air would be getting ATC instructions on their IFR flight plan.

This student was pre-private.

I can't elieve I forgt that story.

That's freaking hillarious damn, he could have given it to me, I'd fly it for two hours LOL

 

[cfii2007]

tgrayson,

You have to keep in mind that these students(indians) are far different than most students when it comes to their reason for flying. To them this is just a job and only a job...a very high paying job in India. They will never fly a GA plane again after the get their commercial certificate. They will be going straight into an Airbus/Boeing. This is all temporary knowledge for them, and they know it. They want as many shortcuts as they can to finish their training.They have never even heard of Orville or Wilbur before in their life or have more than likely have never been on an airplane before in their life before they came here for training. Most of them freely admit they don't even like flying, they would pencil whip every hour if given the chance. Hell, they even try to bribe DPE's to just give them a license and not do any check rides. They don't care if they fail a check ride 5 times if it means getting done faster.

These are the things CFI's deal with..zero motivation from their students. It is very hard for a green CFI.

I'm not here to bash them in any way, but I am telling you the truth....I promise. There are a select few who are very good students that will work their ass off for you.

This is VERY true............

 

[cfii2007]

oh yeah - i forgot this one.

A student, on his long solo cross country, decided he didn't want to actually do it. So the foreign student flies to an airport 5 miles from the base airport, ties the aircraft to a TREE, with the engine running to put 2.whatever on the hobbs.

Needless to say, one of the locals knew the plane and called the school to let them know what whas going on. They found the student having lunch, plane unattended.

The reason they got from the student was that he felt that a VFR cross country would not benefit him as flying for *insert Country name here* Air would be getting ATC instructions on their IFR flight plan.

This student was pre-private.

I can't elieve I forgt that story.

You're joking....right????

 

[AngelFuree]

Hell, they even try to bribe DPE's to just give them a license and not do any check rides. They don't care if they fail a check ride 5 times if it means getting done faster.

True....true....it wasn't a blatant bribe, but I was conducting a stage check oral where I failed the student (foreign). He asked me shortly after I failed him, "what are you doing after this? I would like to take you to a restaurant to get you dinner."

I smiled because I didn't know how to react and told the student it wouldn't be a good idea for him to invite me for dinner during the stage check. It was pretty clear what his intentions were.

edit: oh yeah! There was another contract student whom I failed for not being able to comply w/ ATC taxiing instructions (he was gonna cross the active runway!!!!), the first time. The second time, he failed because he was 7 (!) nautical miles away from his x-country checkpoint, couldn't find it, and was going AWAY from course. He decided to change stage check pilots because he was unsatting while flying w/ me. I'm sorry, but I'm not lowering standards for your sorry ass, the PTS is there for a reason and 3nm is the max. I think most of them think that their lack of English lets stage check pilots pity them and pass them. (in fact, I get the impression that such is the case w/ some stage check pilots here, which is extremely sad and scary)

 

[FD4life]

Personally I never trained foreign students. I can imagine how hard it must be. Something to remember to is that any student learning flying has to learn a new language. Aviation has a complex vocabulary that takes time to learn, let alone for someone who does not even speak the language they are studying in. It's like trying to learn how to speak chinease from a spanish speaking teacher, tough. I think the best thing to do is get some american students who want to fly for fun. It's much better teaching someone who is extremely exited about flying. It makes you remember why you love doing what your doing for a living. Stick in there.

 

[AngelFuree]

Personally I never trained foreign students. I can imagine how hard it must be. Something to remember to is that any student learning flying has to learn a new language. Aviation has a complex vocabulary that takes time to learn, let alone for someone who does not even speak the language they are studying in. It's like trying to learn how to speak chinease from a spanish speaking teacher, tough. I think the best thing to do is get some american students who want to fly for fun. It's much better teaching someone who is extremely exited about flying. It makes you remember why you love doing what your doing for a living. Stick in there.

True, true....thanks for the kind words. The worst part is trying to have them speak to FSS. Nothing standard about that...lol

 

[Thunder-Robo]

kay, so i read most of this, just wanted to drop my 10cent in and grab some popcorn...
first things first, i am not a CFI, nor an international student.

There are quite a few international students at my local flight school, from India... this is just personal experience with them (student to student)

The goods...
There are actually a few guys my age (17ish) that i've met at the flight school (i've been spending 5+ hours a day there) that are actually really nice guys, i bring them out to movies and dinner with my friends after a day of flying and these guys are really likeable, aside from the obvious language problem, we treat them like anyone of our other friends and they treat us the same. to me, they (some of them) are honest and trustworthy. (i've left my pair of BoseX in one of the planes once and one of the international students went up with the plane for a solo, after the flight he spent at least 10min hunting me down to make sure i got the headsets back)
All i'm saying is that there are some good guys that come to north america to learn how to fly...

The bads...
one of them wanted to get his flight hours done but all the planes were booked up, so what does he do? he ERASES my name and puts his down on 'MY' spot!! like wtf, if you wanted the plane, come ask me for it, i would have given it to you, thats just wrong. (i have 3 hours booked everyday, wayy more then i need to achieve my goal of 40hr before late sept, and i've given my spots to others before)


actually, i could go on, but i got a eairly flight tomorrow, later.

 

[doog]

There are a lot of Indians training at my airport. I agree with the assessment of the instructors, many of these guys act like spoiled children. Maybe it has something to do with the caste system and in India they grow up having poor destitute people picking up after their mess for a few pennies...

I've also experienced the thieving. The other day I was taking a long flight so I went to the grocery store and bought a few bottles of water, a sandwich and some snacks. I went into the FBO, put down my bag in the lounge where a group of them were sitting, went to the bathroom and when I come back my bag is gone and so are they. Luckily I didn't leave my flight bag in there... in fact, one of the guys in the group I had even taken flying once, because he was a new student and the owner of the FBO asked if he could come along. Stealing my stuff is how he repays me (I don't know if it was him but he was in the group). I could see how teaching these pricks could be a nightmare.

On the plus side however, they are bringing dollars into the country and into the FBO...

 

[hart11b]

Here is a good video from a T-38 w/ a foreign student. There is a bit more to the beginning of the video (the IP didn't jump down his throat from the get go). Pretty funny stuff.

For those of you not in the know...it can get damn HOT in the -38 with the heat on and/or defog up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjD67VZuYNU

 

[moxiepilot]

You're joking....right????

True story.

 

[jwp_145]

oh yeah - i forgot this one.

A student, on his long solo cross country, decided he didn't want to actually do it. So the foreign student flies to an airport 5 miles from the base airport, ties the aircraft to a TREE, with the engine running to put 2.whatever on the hobbs.

Needless to say, one of the locals knew the plane and called the school to let them know what whas going on. They found the student having lunch, plane unattended.

The reason they got from the student was that he felt that a VFR cross country would not benefit him as flying for *insert Country name here* Air would be getting ATC instructions on their IFR flight plan.

This student was pre-private.

I can't elieve I forgt that story.

Man, I've been trying not to chime in on this, but this story just takes the cake!!!! On a side note, I've heard of students doing that here in TUlsa at my former school.

I didn't want to chime in because I had started a topic a while back asking for advice on how to effectively teach my Indian students how to land and was accused of being a racist. Not a racist, just a REALIST.

So my two cents... most of the stories I have read in this thread are totally true and plausible. The thing with Indians is, I love their culture, and the majority of Indian students I've had turn into valued friends of mine. I care about them greatly as friends, so not ALL of them are shady. The ones that are shady are the ones who are too immature to realize that shadyness doesn't fly here in the states.

 

[CoffeeIcePapers]

oh yeah - i forgot this one.

A student, on his long solo cross country, decided he didn't want to actually do it. So the foreign student flies to an airport 5 miles from the base airport, ties the aircraft to a TREE, with the engine running to put 2.whatever on the hobbs.

Needless to say, one of the locals knew the plane and called the school to let them know what whas going on. They found the student having lunch, plane unattended.

The reason they got from the student was that he felt that a VFR cross country would not benefit him as flying for *insert Country name here* Air would be getting ATC instructions on their IFR flight plan.

This student was pre-private.

I can't elieve I forgt that story.

We just found out about this doozie today:

A group of our students went to another flight school to take the written exam, which is strange, because we have a Laserground testing center. When we questioned them, they finally fessed up. Apparently, they grease someone at said school to let them take the written tests "open book". Needless to say, we are contact the testing center and are still working out what to do about the students. One of them was one of the more intelligent ones, that could have easily passed it with a day of studying.

His response: It would have taken too much time to study for it. This, in a week where we have uncovered scam after scam. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

[pacer7a]

Heard on CTAF today:


"Pilot reporting 3 miles west of the airport, what is your altitude?"

20 seconds elapse

Unintelligible response, seemingly Indian accent.


"Pilot reporting 3 miles west of airport, say your altitude?"


20 more seconds elapse

Heavy Indian accent: "Sir, I cannot talk to you now, I am flying the airplane"


Thankfully, the airport where I was shares the CTAF with an airport 60 miles away.

 

[NotCoolEnufToFly]

We did a logbook check on one of our students today and realized he had 70...SEVENTY... freaking hours in his logbook that he NEVER flew. I was freaking amazed!!! I think they are about ready to just send this one back home though.

 

[Flyin_bryan]

I heard one didnt want to go on a cross country, flew to an airport nearby, sat on the ground and ran the engine, took off and crashed because of some sort of vapor lock situation. :laff:

 

[Thunder-Robo]

I heard one didnt want to go on a cross country, flew to an airport nearby, sat on the ground and ran the engine, took off and crashed because of some sort of vapor lock situation. :laff:

:cwm27::cwm27::cwm27:

 

[Thunder-Robo]

Heard on CTAF today:


"Pilot reporting 3 miles west of the airport, what is your altitude?"

20 seconds elapse

Unintelligible response, seemingly Indian accent.


"Pilot reporting 3 miles west of airport, say your altitude?"


20 more seconds elapse

Heavy Indian accent: "Sir, I cannot talk to you now, I am flying the airplane"


Thankfully, the airport where I was shares the CTAF with an airport 60 miles away.

:cwm27::cwm27::cwm27:

 

[doog]

We did a logbook check on one of our students today and realized he had 70...SEVENTY... freaking hours in his logbook that he NEVER flew. I was freaking amazed!!! I think they are about ready to just send this one back home though.

Hopefully with a revoked cert if one was ever earned, that's insane...

 

[jwp_145]

We did a logbook check on one of our students today and realized he had 70...SEVENTY... freaking hours in his logbook that he NEVER flew. I was freaking amazed!!! I think they are about ready to just send this one back home though.

ARE YOU SERIOUS IN SUGGESTING THERE IS A POSSIBILITY THAT HE WOULD STAY?????

The first school that I taught Indians at puts up with NOTHING from them. They start to get out of line one single bit and they let them know that the door is close by!

 

[Blip16]

edit: oh yeah! There was another contract student whom I failed for not being able to comply w/ ATC taxiing instructions (he was gonna cross the active runway!!!!), the first time. The second time, he failed because he was 7 (!) nautical miles away from his x-country checkpoint, couldn't find it, and was going AWAY from course. He decided to change stage check pilots because he was unsatting while flying w/ me. I'm sorry, but I'm not lowering standards for your sorry ass, the PTS is there for a reason and 3nm is the max. I think most of them think that their lack of English lets stage check pilots pity them and pass them. (in fact, I get the impression that such is the case w/ some stage check pilots here, which is extremely sad and scary)

i get in trouble for that because my checks are too long because i hold standards, the checklist for the lesson says we are covering these items, and we will cover these items!