This is what happened to me about 10 years ago.
I was a flight instructor working at a flight school in Central California. The name of the flight school was Sierra Academy of Aeronautics.
When I was first hired, I was given 5 students. I taught those 5 students how to fly, and each of them passed their private pilot checkride. One student failed on his first attempt, which was a fair failure. The examiner's name for each of these 5 checkrides was Bruce. Bruce was a great examiner and my experience with him was amazing.
After that, I continued teaching these 5 students instrument. After a few months, it was time for each of them to take their instrument checkride. This time, Bruce's schedule was booked solid for like 2 months. I didn't want to wait months to get my students finished, so I asked if there was an alternative. The lady who schedules checkrides (they called these people "flight dispatchers") told me that the other lady who does checkrides, whose name was Linda, has a wide open schedule.
This should have been a clue that I missed. Why was Linda's schedule wide open, when Bruce's schedule is booked solid. I should have seen that this was fishy. Me being 22 years old, I just said "sign them up for next week"
I don't really want to write out all that happened, but let me say this: This Linda woman was completely unprofessional. First off, she wouldn't accet the 871 I had prepared. She made me go through all the steps to get IACRA up and running. Then after the checkride (which she failed the student), she started quizzing me. Instead of treating me as a professional like Bruce did, she treated me as if I'm an idiot. Instead of telling me why she failed my student like a normal human being, she quizzed me instead, as if my students didn't know something because I didn't know it. Instead of saying to me "I failed your student because he couldn't calculate the crosswind component", she said to me "How do you calculate the wind component".
I think Linda was having a dispute with the management of the flight school and got it in her head that she was going to fail my students no matter what.
At the time, I was 22 years old and didn't really want to argue with the examiner, especially since I have 4 more checkrides to do with here for that week. Needless to say, the rest of the 4 check-rides went the exact same way. My instructor first pass batting average want from 80% to like 50% asfter this one week. Each of my students failed the first try, but they all passed on the second try.
The reason why this whole story bothers me so much is that after those 5 students eventually passed, I was fired from that flight school. The reason they fired me was because they claimed my batting average was too low, which means I;m a • instructor. When they called me into the main office to tell me that they are firing me, I actually thought they were going to promote me. Not once did they ask for my side of the story, I was a • instructor thats all there was to it from their perspective. I probably could have filed a lawsuit against the flight school for wrongful termination, but at the time, I just wanted to get on with my life.
Has anyone here had any similar experiences? I've since moved on to other things (far far away from flight instructing), but this story still bugs me. If you show up to a flight test with your student, and the examiner seems "off", what would you do?
I was a flight instructor working at a flight school in Central California. The name of the flight school was Sierra Academy of Aeronautics.
When I was first hired, I was given 5 students. I taught those 5 students how to fly, and each of them passed their private pilot checkride. One student failed on his first attempt, which was a fair failure. The examiner's name for each of these 5 checkrides was Bruce. Bruce was a great examiner and my experience with him was amazing.
After that, I continued teaching these 5 students instrument. After a few months, it was time for each of them to take their instrument checkride. This time, Bruce's schedule was booked solid for like 2 months. I didn't want to wait months to get my students finished, so I asked if there was an alternative. The lady who schedules checkrides (they called these people "flight dispatchers") told me that the other lady who does checkrides, whose name was Linda, has a wide open schedule.
This should have been a clue that I missed. Why was Linda's schedule wide open, when Bruce's schedule is booked solid. I should have seen that this was fishy. Me being 22 years old, I just said "sign them up for next week"
I don't really want to write out all that happened, but let me say this: This Linda woman was completely unprofessional. First off, she wouldn't accet the 871 I had prepared. She made me go through all the steps to get IACRA up and running. Then after the checkride (which she failed the student), she started quizzing me. Instead of treating me as a professional like Bruce did, she treated me as if I'm an idiot. Instead of telling me why she failed my student like a normal human being, she quizzed me instead, as if my students didn't know something because I didn't know it. Instead of saying to me "I failed your student because he couldn't calculate the crosswind component", she said to me "How do you calculate the wind component".
I think Linda was having a dispute with the management of the flight school and got it in her head that she was going to fail my students no matter what.
At the time, I was 22 years old and didn't really want to argue with the examiner, especially since I have 4 more checkrides to do with here for that week. Needless to say, the rest of the 4 check-rides went the exact same way. My instructor first pass batting average want from 80% to like 50% asfter this one week. Each of my students failed the first try, but they all passed on the second try.
The reason why this whole story bothers me so much is that after those 5 students eventually passed, I was fired from that flight school. The reason they fired me was because they claimed my batting average was too low, which means I;m a • instructor. When they called me into the main office to tell me that they are firing me, I actually thought they were going to promote me. Not once did they ask for my side of the story, I was a • instructor thats all there was to it from their perspective. I probably could have filed a lawsuit against the flight school for wrongful termination, but at the time, I just wanted to get on with my life.
Has anyone here had any similar experiences? I've since moved on to other things (far far away from flight instructing), but this story still bugs me. If you show up to a flight test with your student, and the examiner seems "off", what would you do?
