Motivating Students

[Chief Captain]

Take them to the busiest airport near you. Have him watch all the 767's, A330's, 777's etc. for a few minutes. When he starts to get excited, have the following conversation:

You: Man it would be cool to fly one of those planes, wouldn't it?

Him: Yes, I can't wait to be an A380 Captain

You: This is as close as you're going to get to an airplane that size if you don't show up at 8am tomorrow.

 

[p1l07m4n]

Luckily I've only had one or two students like that. One thing that I always used to do (besides the breakfast fly-ins, and $100 hamburgers), was take them to an airport that had an air museum at or close by the airport. This let them see some interesting aircraft up close, and broke up the monotony of regular flights. Another is to just take a break in the middle of the flight, and let them do some "zero G," and steep turns to 59.9 degrees. It just gets their minds off the maneuvers, and lets them have fun in an airplane. It doesn't even take more than 0.1 on the hobbs, so you can still cover the rest of the lesson.

 

[spoolinup22]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Chief Captain good thing KSTL isn't too far but I'm sure we wont see anything bigger than a 757 there. We can make that work though.

p1l07m4n first off, you know how challenging it was to tag you? second i hate zero g and monkey see monkey will do on solo . guess it has to be the right student though right?!

 

[jskibo]

Thanks for the tips everyone. Chief Captain good thing KSTL isn't too far but I'm sure we wont see anything bigger than a 757 there. We can make that work though.

p1l07m4n first off, you know how challenging it was to tag you? second i hate zero g and monkey see monkey will do on solo . guess it has to be the right student though right?!

I went into Lambert the week of the tornado. Coming out of GRR, I got stuck in ORD for 5 hours while they cancelled flights left and right. They finally loaded us all on a 777 and went ORD -STL. Even did a missed with the storm over the airport.

Used to Fly on 767's from there to Gatwick every month back in the TWA days.....

 

[spoolinup22]

Well it's changed a bit since those TWA days...

 

[Autothrust Blue]

Well it's changed a bit since those TWA days...

I was there for initial sim at Eagle not that long ago. Other than the "Canyon Blue" (it's purple, don't lie) end of the airport, the place is a ghost town.

 

[jskibo]

I was there for initial sim at Eagle not that long ago. Other than the "Canyon Blue" (it's purple, don't lie) end of the airport, the place is a ghost town.

The tornado help alot. Interior of concourse C was as old as a TWA Stew before it hit

 

[p1l07m4n]

p1l07m4n first off, you know how challenging it was to tag you? second i hate zero g and monkey see monkey will do on solo . guess it has to be the right student though right?!

Yeah, I'd bet it was a pain. I agree with you though. Generally I noticed my two hit the wall with those last couple of flights prior to a check ride. Teaching them how to do something cool (and not kill the engine in the process) was worth it, and completely motivated them. There were a couple students I would never teach it to because I know they would get themselves into trouble. It's all about the right student and the right timing.

 

[Roger Roger]

Send em up here and they can ride along on a 14 leg, 7 hour flight, 14 hour duty day starting with an 0530 show. After that 8 AM will seem like a cakewalk.

 

[🦈💜]

Send em up here and they can ride along on a 14 leg, 7 hour flight, 14 hour duty day starting with an 0530 show. After that 8 AM will seem like a cakewalk.

Can I come, instead? Sounds like fun!

-Fox

 

[mastermags]

 

[Roger Roger]

Can I come, instead? Sounds like fun!

-Fox

Sure! All that is needed is a commercial single engine rating, instrument rating, high performance endorsement, willingness to load, unload, fly lots of short legs and generally work hard. A certain disregard for "the way things are done down south" is helpful.

For realz though, to the OP: if they are in a career pilot program, then barring other life stuff like what jskibo was talking about, they really just need to get over it. This industry will eat you alive if you don't take the reins and make stuff happen. Also if you can't stomach showing up at 8 AM.