Instructor courtesy

GlenWimpy

GlenWimpy

Well-Known Member
What happened to instructor courtesy? When I first got My CFI , instructors didn't charge each other for checkouts or sign offs? I understand the new breed of pilot ( dude pilot with the hair gel ) , but I guess the unwritten rule of instructor courtesy no longer applies in 2007.
 
I've also had this rude awakening. . . what a pity. I even asked my check-out instructor twice what he charges. No response. I assumed it would be a courtesy. When we ended the flight he pulled out his stop-watch to show me exactly how many fractions of an hour he had been there. . .
 
LOL , now your telling your age. I needed a simple ATP written sign off for a retake. I had a young kid , not even make eye contact with me tell the secretary , with me standing right there , "OH , it would be a week before I could even go over the material with him"!

15 years ago , when most of these kids were watching airplane on cartoons , instructors would help each other with sign offs and checkouts.

All I needed was a simple sign off ..............................
 
Id find somewhere else to work. I would slap someone if I heard them trying to charge another instructor for a sign off. Were all in it for our own reasons and most of us don't make #### for money. Having some punk spiky haired kid livng at home with his parents with 250 hours try to charge another instructor for an IPC or something, I would loose it. It still exists but maybe not as common as it used to be.
 
GlenWimpy said:
LOL , now your telling your age. I needed a simple ATP written sign off for a retake. I had a young kid , no even make eye contact with me tell the secretary , with me standing right there , "OH , it would be a week before I could even go over the material with him"!

15 years ago , when most of these kids were watching airplane on cartoons , instructors would help each other with sign offs and checkouts.

All I needed was a simple sign off ..............................
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Errrrrrrrr ahhhhhhhhh you don't need a signoff for the ATP written???
 
I don't mind paying , I'm lucky enough to have the extra resources to pay. I always pay and tip! I taught my friends daughter for FREE FREE FREE , 15 years ago. She now fly's for airtran. After I taught her for free , she wanted to CHARGE me for a check out. I said no thanks!


Its just the sign off part , thats what I'm peeved about! It takes like , ah , 4 seconds to sign your name , # and date. Thats all I was asking , a signature , for a written test retake , I wasn't asking for a 747 type!
 
thats crap! hell, ill fax you an endorsement if you really cant find someone to do it for you! seriously!
 
LOL , Its no big deal. I just wanted my written out of the way before I interview. It makes my resume look better , but its not a necessity for the interview.

Thanks
 
Glen,

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I think one of the problems is that nobody CFIs long enough anymore to learn these unwritten rules. It's part of the "CFI culture" that's been lost because they're the fine points of CFIing that they don't go over on the CFI checkride and aren't taught during CFI training.

Of course, also try to see it from the CFI's position. It doesn't sound like you knew the CFI in any way, nor do you work at the same flight school as him. To him, you're just some guy walking in off the street wanting his signature.

I'm a pretty flexible guy, but even I have limits to my flexibility with strangers. I don't go throwing my signature around carelessly. Had it been me, I wouldn't have charged you, but I would've wanted to talk to you for a few minutes and seen a couple successful practice tests before endorsing you for a retake. The endorsement says you're proficient in the areas you failed and for a legitimate sign-off the CFI needs to verify you're prepared.

Still, no excuse for the rudeness. Better luck next time.
 
"After I taught her for free , she wanted to CHARGE me for a check out."

That's about the WEAKEST thing I've ever heard of.
 
I'm a rarity these days I think. Most instructors I know are simply interested in time building and thats a shame. I love instructing and don't see a time in my life when I won't teach. I never even charge friends who aren't CFI's for little things, I could imagine charging another CFI for a checkout. Sometimes people offer to buy lunch and I of course accept but thats as far as it goes.
 
esa17 said:
I'm a rarity these days I think. Most instructors I know are simply interested in time building and thats a shame. I love instructing and don't see a time in my life when I won't teach. I never even charge friends who aren't CFI's for little things, I could imagine charging another CFI for a checkout. Sometimes people offer to buy lunch and I of course accept but thats as far as it goes.
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Alot are also interested in acting like they are gods gift to aviation. I do most of the private pilot stage checks where I instruct and most of these 18-20 year old 300TT instructors fresh out of CFI school have so much confidence it would make you sick. At least if you have this big of an ego send someone who actually can fly a plane. Nothing worse than an instructor that sends a student on a stage check then throws the student under the bus when they are crap pilots. "well she knew that when she was with me, what the hell, I know I taught her that she did it perfect last week...." That was today when I told another instructor his student needed me to walk her through P/On and P/Off stalls and that she told me that her instructor only did ground ref with her once at the very begining of her training. This guy was mad that I wouldn't agree she was ready for a checkride and the student even told me she didn't want to take her checkride and felt like she needed more work in some areas. What happened to Standards and raising the bar. Minimums are not something to be happy with......
:crazy:
 
SoCalAprch said:
Alot are also interested in acting like they are gods gift to aviation. I do most of the private pilot stage checks where I instruct and most of these 18-20 year old 300TT instructors fresh out of CFI school have so much confidence it would make you sick.
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I had a roundabout run in with one of these over the summer. A good friend of mine runs his own shop off his private field. This kid came in to fly a mooney out of the very small strip and acted as if his his jacket should have read: "Iceman".

He claimed to be an expert in flying Mooney's and didn't know a few basic things about them like the flying tail and the PC system. Well, long story short he took off with full nose high trim and crashed upon takeoff. He walked away and blamed everyone else for the incident claiming the plane was rigged wrong. Of course he wasn't aware the plane had just been through 5 hours of flight testing by us.
 
having instructed or flown professionally for so many years, i've only had to have a basic flight instructor bfr one time. the guy was recently divorced, three kids and one on the way. i pulled out my wallet to pay before he could take time to object. otherwise i'd always been extended and extended myself, instructor courtesy.
 
GlenWimpy said:
LOL , now your telling your age. I needed a simple ATP written sign off for a retake. I had a young kid , not even make eye contact with me tell the secretary , with me standing right there , "OH , it would be a week before I could even go over the material with him"!

15 years ago , when most of these kids were watching airplane on cartoons , instructors would help each other with sign offs and checkouts.

All I needed was a simple sign off ..............................
Click to expand...


Was this someone you worked with, or you just went into a random flight school expecting a CFI to sign you off for something you failed once already? If it is the latter, I wouldn't have signed you off without making sure you were ready. If it is someone I work with, I have no problem working for free for them, whether it be IPC, BFR, whatever....

If it is some random person off the street, CFI or not, I am not going to randomly sign my name stating that he is prepared to take an exam, when I have no idea if he has even studied for the test.
 
mojo6911 said:
Was this someone you worked with, or you just went into a random flight school expecting a CFI to sign you off for something you failed once already? If it is the latter, I wouldn't have signed you off without making sure you were ready.
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Alright Henry, stop bringing the plane back 15-30 minutes late EVERYTIME you go out in one, and bump the next student and instructor back that 15-30 minutes. Show some courtesy, brother. Your name is Henry, isn't it?
 
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