SJS article question

[Cessna414JJB]

I'm going to need to bow out of this contest if you don't mind...

Allrighty. I'll act as the student with Jtrain. :crazy:

 

[aloft]

I can. I won't bother to post my resume on here, either. I'm pretty content with my experience.

I'm guessing you missed this part of my post:

And just for the record, none of this is to suggest that I'm a better pilot than jtrain, or vice-versa. We're both solid pilots, I have no doubt of that. He's got his strengths just as I've got mine. Just making the case that instructing isn't the only path to becoming one.

 

[Greg01]

I subscribe to the view point that the crap can hit the fan unexpectedly without warning, however most of the stuff you can see coming...but it's those few moments that you can't see that I think about. It's a small gesture to keep your feet on the pedals just in case. I have some private and commercial pilots do some pretty wacky stuff on me in the few seconds before touchdown while giving rental checkouts and having my feet already on the pedals allowed me that much more time to intervene. Also, I believe Bill Kershner was an advocate of keeping the feet on the pedals and the hand ready to grab the throttle.


Just my thoughts,
Greg

 

[Beers]

I'll admit I only skimmed this thread, but I'll just add this:

Flight instruction DOES hone your piloting skills in a way you can't achieve in regular airline operations.

I guess I'm a bit prejudiced because in the Navy we didn't have sims for the airplanes I taught in. You had to go out and do the manuevers. That meant demonstrating how to fly a buttonhook around the ship's superstructure. Or single engine approaches with the King Air's prop feathered. Or full flap/no slat landings in the DC-9.

It also gave you a better understanding of aircraft systems than the average line pilot because you had to check guy's knowledge of the same systems.

That's all.

Good point Velo.

Something else that flight instruction hones is your ability to open your mind to critique. As a flight instructor you teach the student proper procedures and correct their mistakes while not demeaning them. This provides a contrasting view from your time as a student so you will have seen things from both sides. This cycle repeats when you move into your first crew airplane. The captain should be instructing/mentoring the copilot. The copilot is a captain in training and should be receptive to the advice/guidance offered by the captain. This is of course assuming that the captain isn't a "gear up, shut up" type. If the copilot has seen both sides of the training process then I think they will have a more open mind about procedures and adapting to their position/company. When the former flight instructor moves from copilot to captain then they should have the skills to effectively mentor the copilots into valuable crewmembers sooner. A captain's attitude can heavily influence the copilot's ability to grow. A hostile captain can and likely will hinder the development of the copilot by constantly holding them back while a good captain will help the copilot grow and think like a captain sooner.

If someone is only concerned about polishing their stick and rudder skills while instructing then they are missing out on most of what instructing has to offer.