So my student busted today...

Mavmb

Mavmb

Well-Known Member
My favorite student that I've been flying around with for a long time busted today. We're good friends and we've been flying for over a year on and off. He thought he was ready for the checkride just because he had a lot of hours. It got to the point where we canceled the checkride once and he got kind of frustrated about that.

I almost feel like he wasn't really making the most out of the lessons anymore either because he just thought ahh forget it, I'm ready! Three days before the checkride I wanted to go through every maneuver. Well we did the PTS manuevers and then I said, "all right let's do the S-Turns." He said, "Ahh, I know how to do that." I argued a little about it and said, "Are you sure?" We had just done them last week so I let that slide. Then on the checkride, he tried to do the ground ref manuevers at 5,000 ft. I don't know how many times I've said too, "ground ref manuevers, we have to get close and reference the ground, 600 to 1000 ft."

It's not like we didn't fly before the checkride either. In fact, we flew everyday a week before the checkride. Maybe I shouldn't have signed him off but I did. The last flight before the checkride I knew it was going to be iffy because every once in a while we would balloon and a landing would get dangerous. And the examiner said the landings are the thing that really failed him today. I guess what's so difficult too is that I'm good friends with this student, so that makes the failure suck even more.

I almost feel too like sometimes some people just need to get burned before they learn. Perhaps sometimes a shot of reality is good, although at the time it's very difficult to swallow. I guess now I'm just kicking myself for signing him off because now we've got a failure to deal with.
 
You signed his death warrant!
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Seriously, so how's his attitude now, out of curiosity?
 
It's a tough position, between nice guy and CFI.

My first CFI finally shut me up by saying, "I don't sign you off for THE check ride until you pass MY check ride."

I use that a lot now.
 
I don't know if this is the case in your particular situation or not, RWB, but sometimes the only way to show a student that he isn't ready for a ride is to send him up and let him bust. The DPE I always used was and is a good friend of mine, and we had this discussion many times. He always said, "If you've got somebody in that situation, meet with me beforehand and explain it to me. If you need me to, I will be a real hard @$$ to the guy and send him back to you."

Personally, I never had a student get to that point (came quite close once or twice, and it is always about money!), but one of my friends did, and it did a world of good.

Good luck with your guy.
 
Actually, since you've already signed him off and he's failed his checkride, in retrospect, you might have done him a big favor.

This might have been a turning point where he realizes that his perceived ability isn't necessarily his actual ability.

Like "Oh, it's 200 and 1/2, piece of cake!" then perhaps that nagging suspicion of his own ability from his failed private pilot checkride might lead him to rethink his instrument proficiency and divert to an alternate or not even launch at all.
 
It's funny that you mention this, because the topic of students who are overconfident in their abilities came up with my instructor this weekend, and he basically said sometimes you have to send them on that stage check or checkride that you know they really aren't ready for, because it will take the failure for them to realize that you were correct on what they needed to work on. He said that he had a student that was like that and it took a lot for him to send the student on the checkride, since he had a perfect passing record at the time, but it was exactly what the student needed to realize he had problems that needed to be worked out. My instructor said that in that situation the best thing to do would be to discuss your concerns with the DE and make sure the student isn't given any breaks with the PTS. That way you know you will get that student back and they will be ready to fix their bad habits.
 
Overconfidence is a killer. I'm way more of a wuss now at 8,000 hours than I was at 150 hours.
 
Well thanks guys, I feel a little bit better about it now. I guess I haven't been the only one with overconfident students. Looking back with 20/20 I think I should have let him ride with another instructor again instead of the DE but then again maybe this was just the jolt he needed and the only one that would really work.
 
Perhaps save him the failed checkride on his record and send him up on a "mock" checkride with another more senior instructor......talk to that IP beforehand and have him/her be hard, but fair, on this student. You can then teach him the same lesson without giving both him and you a failure on your records.
 
Just like everyone else has said I think it's exactly what he needed. I think the thing that's bugging you, the most, is that your friends with the guy. That's the hard thing about teaching (anything, not just flying) friends/family ... it's really hard to be objective about things.

A failure on a ride isn't the greatest thing but it's not the end of the world. Hopefully now he'll be open to fixing his problem areas and he'll go back, do a few landings and get his ticket.
 
One thing I learned as an instructor (the hard way) is not to become too friendly with your students. It's easy to do and leads to this type of situation you just described. I keep all students at arms length (ie proffesional distance)

I'm not your friend, buddy, pal, whatever. I'm your CFI. You are paying me to provide proffesional training.

After your checkride is over we'll hang out and tip a few back, I'll even go to your wedding (one student) but while we are training no way....
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Yeah, I was my roommate's instrument instructor for a little while. That didn't work out too well. Had to give him to someone else because he wasn't taking me seriously enough.
 
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