Oshkosh 365 - Discussion Boards - Pilot training versus flight training....

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#1 Posted: 12/6/2010 04:10:45 Modified: 12/6/2010 04:28:12

As a soon to be ex-student, I thought I might share some observations on what makes a CFI a teacher rather than an instructor.

My current instructor is actually my second; I switched from my first after two hours. The biggest reason I dumped the first one was purely physical - I didn't want to train for one license (Sport Pilot) in an aircraft designed for another (172, and therefore Private). But a large part was the sense that he was teaching me to fly a plane in a purely mechanical way, with little context of the why. Do X, get Y. He also was very quiet with little by way of feedback, trying for aloof but coming off as bored. I got the impression he might be logging time as a CFI on the way to other career goals, and it didn't really matter who was in the left seat for this hour. He also sniffed at the notion of Sport Pilots.

In other words, a perfect case of instructor/student mismatch on a whole lot of levels. He's competent and I don't want to sell him too short in one paragraph, especially since I only had two lessons with him; but at around 200 bucks an hour I don't have the fiscal patience to build up report.

My current instructor, however, really impressed me from the get-go. He asked why Sport Pilot rather than Private, but in a way that came off as wanting to make sure that it fit my flying desires. The answer is simple - I have no desire to fly when I can't see out of the aircraft (night, bad weather, mist, etc) and so learning a bunch of skills that would simply evaporate over time due to disuse seemed wasteful. Likewise, I'm building my own plane which will fall under LSA qualifications, so it's a fit.

He took that at face value and then asked a few general medical questions - just small talk around the edge sort of stuff that eventually lead to "do you have any reason to believe you would fail a flight physical?" It sounded pretty weird, but he later explained that some people think of Sport Pilot as a doctor dodge, and if you're not well enough to fly a 172 you shouldn't be flying a CTLS (I agree). I didn't get the physical, though. Not because I'm afraid of it, but because it's one less thing I can fail to go get at the appropriate time (I'm infamous for failing to get my car tags and driver's license renewed on time).

And then he laid out the syllabus, including a rough timeline by hours with a lot of caveats ("if you have trouble with something, we'll spend more time on it until you can do it safely," and "it also depends on how often you can fly."). While my first instructor was more than willing for me to just show up, fly my hour with him, pay, and be on my way, my second asked if I had ground school study materials ("No." "Order some tonight - I have some recommendations.").

Oh oh. This guy's serious about this, and expects me to be, too!

Plus he had an LSA available to train in, so I'm using the right gear for the right task.

During my first pre-flight with him I got corrected quickly for grabbing the checklist and starting right in on it. "Whoa, what are you doing? Before you get six inches to the airplane, come back here about ten feet and just look at it. Does it look right? See any bird crap on it, which means maybe one got in the hangar and is trying to start up a nest somewhere, or dirt daubers flying around? Are there oil stains or gas slicks under it? Is it sitting level? The check list is a guide, but it's not an inspection."

My whole experience with him has been like that - one doesn't enter into the pattern at a 45 at the correct altitude because that's the book answer, one does it because that's where other pilots will be looking for you. Don't rely on the radio - look, look, LOOK around; not everybody has a radio (we fly in uncontrolled airspace) and pilots are people (this demonstrated itself to me quite literally when on my second hour of solo a fellow was one airport over from where he thought he was and went right pattern on a left pattern strip, without a radio and matching me on the downwind on the other side! I went long to base and let him have it.). Follow the rules not because they're the rules, but because almost everyone else does and that makes things safer....and most of the rules actually are there for very good reasons. But always watch because it's only almost everyone else.

So I've been getting PILOT training - how to think as part of the whole of aviation rather than simply flight training operating as one guy in a finite universe the size of the aircraft.

The funny thing is that the why and the context really help out on the mechanical operations. Why the pattern? Because it's consistent, and if you fly consistently you'll get fairly consistent results. Why was I all screwy after my turn to final? Because I cut my turn in to base too soon; and I cut it too soon because I was too high on the pass of the numbers and fell into the trap of using a landmark instead of paying attention to the aircraft and adjusting for it ("Learn landmarks and you'll land here; learn distances, altitudes and airspeeds and you'll be able to land anywhere.").

I'm pretty typical for a Sport Pilot student - 45, bald, and motivated. I'm used to learning things within broader context, and really do need to know the why of things; not to challenge them, but to understand how it fits into the larger scheme. I actually do the homework assigned, and don't mind the pop quiz to find out what I don't know, so give them both to me. I can take it when I'm not making the grade and need more training on something (I think I'm gonna get a bumper sticker that reads ASK ME ABOUT CROSSWINDS), and I appreciate an acknowledgement when I get stuff right.

And I don't need a friend. I don't need a driving instructor. I need a teacher and mentor. Lucky for me, I got one.