It Gets Easier....right??

Shiner

Shiner

El Capitan
Just started my first CFI gig about a month ago and I'm teaching zero hour foreign students. Today one student tried to land on the wrong runway, another tried dumping the flaps on short final, and the last one shut the engine down on the taxiway when I called for the after landing checklist. It was just one of those days...

I love earning my living as a pilot, but I'm hoping this CFI thing gets easier or I may lose my medical from going crazy.

/End Rant
 
That is all good stuff for a couple reasons. In another month you can look back and take great pride in how much you have taught those students in such a short time. The other reason is that as your experience increases you will be amazed how you can anticipate mistakes and turn them into learning opportunities for your students. Both you and the students are learning and you will be pleased with the outcome for both of you.
 
In the almost 700hrs of dual I have had countless students try to kill me. Its both a learning experience for both you and your student. All I can say is it get easier to tell bad maneuvers/landings from good ones further out the more you instruct. I have gotten to the point I can almost call down wind abeam if it will be a good landing or not, and I only have about 525landings to my name but I have seen hundreds. There are ups and downs as an instructor I have had the 500 dual burn out. But I have pushed past it all I can say is I hope you have some students who actually want to fly for the fun of it, instead of a career. Those are the most fun to teach and the most rewarding in my opinion. While some career students fly for the same reason we fly, there are a few who don't and they are not fun to teach. Learn, Teach, and most of all pass on you passion for flying to another, if you can do that you are a great CFI.
 
About a week ago in a Citabria, I had a student mistake the trim for the throttle. The knobs are exactly the same part, the trim is located just below an forward of your left elbow. The throttle is just above and forward... No big deal, it's happened before. Student goes to reduce power on the downwind and all of a sudden you're slammed back in your seat and the nose is pointed to the sky (you can practically fly a loop with the trim alone).

Last week was different. He didn't apply enough wind correction on base and we got pushed out a little farther our from the runway, this made us a little low on the approach as well. Our TPA only sits at 600AGL so there's not much room for error. After turning final I mentioned to him that it might be a good idea to add a little power so we could make it to the runway... Then the nose started diving toward the ground. I grabbed the stick, yelled. "my airplane", and started pulling and the pressure was fighting me and getting stronger (I thought it was him still pushing). Then I realized I never heard any power being added, looked down and say his had on the trim running it forward, pushing the nose down, thinking he was adding power! The lower we got the more "power" he was trying to add! We recovered on final well below 100 ft. If anyone had been watching I can't imagine what they would have thought...

Even after 3300 hours of dual with about half of that spent spinning and/or upside-down, something new will manage to pop up now and then and help add to the gray hair collection. It's ok to be relaxed, just don't get complacent.
 
Sounds like fun! I've missed a lot of that. As stated above, you'll learn to anticipate mistakes. Funny thing is, I've told students that they're are going to to make a mistake and they'll still do it. Foriegn students can be difficult, particularly oriental ones. When I was working with a couple of foreign students, I had a discussion with a friend of mine who was working on a Masters in TESL (teaching english as a second language), and discovered that in some oriental cultures, the listener (as opposed to the speaker in western culture) is responsible for communication. What this means is that you'll explain something to them (i.e. stalls), they'll say "yes, yes, yes" whether or not they actually understand. This can be frustrating (and just downright wrong IMHO), but I learned to do was to test their knowledge level by asking very specific questions that require an informed answer.
 
LOL... You'll be laughing at all the students shenanigans a few years from now with your old CFI buddies. It does get easier. right now you are just overwhelmed. :)
 
In the military, too many of those bad flights and they get the boot!!! I've flown with Italians, German, Indian, Brazilian and the worst of all, Saudi's :eek: Students always trying to kill you, even in Navy advanced jet training :mad: Going over the top in formation is the worst initially...that and night formation.
 
I'd say the worst students are the purple ones. The purple ones with green and yellow spots that live over there ->

Really, it doesn't matter where they come from, what their culture is, or what you think about anything at all. They're all students and they all make mistakes, some of which you'll have seen before, some of which you wont have.

It will get easier to teach both native and non-resident students because of the experience you're gaining now. But, teaching will never be easy as long as you're invested in your student's progress. If it becomes easy, it's probably time to reflect on putting your student goals above your own goals.

#soapbox
 
Thanks for the encouraging words everyone. Things got a little bit easier this week. Part of that was me accepting that this is how the job works. The students are learning and it's my job to help them learn from the mistakes. I feel I've become a much better pilot in the few short weeks as an active CFI, I'm really happy I've gone this route.
 
moxiepilot said:
Really, it doesn't matter where they come from, what their culture is, or what you think about anything at all. They're all students and they all make mistakes, some of which you'll have seen before, some of which you wont have.
Click to expand...

As far as the military goes, not true at all. Countries have different methods for selecting pilots; certain cultures have a way producing folks who don't give 100% (cough....Saudi's....cough) and the language barrier can be huge. For example, the future Brazilian A-4 pilots who we train do not fly primary in the US. The language barrier crushes them in the beginning. The future Indian Mig-29 pilots are all over the map in terms of performance. As the OIC of the school for training all Royal Saudi Navy pilots, 80% of the pilots were crap for various reasons. Higher percentage of attrition from the Saudi's that all foreign students and Americans combined.
 
Flew with different guys, worse are Arabs. My last guy was aiming the nose to the touchdown but the flightpath was crashing 300ft before the runway.
This guy was sent by Qatar airways and had bad reputation and try to corrupt his instructors.i lost my job before they realise this student had nothing to do in a plane. Some students are piece of •. Be careful... They are lazy, and prey hala before take off.... on 10 pilots, maybe one is good.

Indian guys speak fast on radio and forget their head.... They need to follow procedures. They are very friendly. They could be good if they were focusing more on what they are doing.

Eu/USA guys no problems in general except EU guys are shy on radio. They try to avoid asking for clearance and think we "disturb"controllers. Thats normal because controllers sleep at work. Social system!!!

I want try chinese...

I think the faa should conduct research on teaching with different nationalities. We could avoid accidents.


On landing, always keep your hand 1 inch from the yoke, you never know.i got experimented student on multi who pushed the nose down to land the plane at night.

And be sure someone is stopping the plane after landing.:D

sent from tapatalk :-)
 
I would like to say that it ends there, but even when you get out there and fly larger stuff, people can ALWAYS surprise you!

It'll pay dividends for you down the road!
 
Welcome to the Jungle.... Seriously, you probably already realized that you will learn more in one month of instructing then in the last years of being a student. It gets better. And you get better at foreseeing the mistake about to occur.
 
Nervous students, with the exception of the arrogant ones, make the most mistakes. I found half the battle of instructing was just getting my students to chill out and stop panicking every time something unexpected happen. If a student makes a mistake, dissect it, then discuss how to prevent it from happening again.

Things will get better. Trust me, by the time you encounter your 10th incipient spin, you'll be as calm as a Hindu cow.

I officially made it through my first year as a instructor! Hi-fives all around...where'd everybody go?

My first student was from India. He was also my best student. If I had more students like him I would have a Gold Seal by now!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top