Best and worst experiences with flight instructors

[MAKE VAPES]

VT7 Safety has most of the digitized versions of my accels and decels as an IP on their hard drive (I had plenty of both... I got a little "animated" from time to time, ok most of the time... ok all of the time). One safety stand down around 05 was filled with near midairs, "Ef that Efing sh** we had the runway made!!! Don't ever say that word (eject) in my efing cockpit!!!", "JC knock it off!!", "aflac-ing" student solos for sounding dumb on the radio, OCF proceedures to tail sliding solo 3 plane ACM students, kids with vertigo on missed approches with pullouts at 300 feet and the like.

 

[gotta_fly]

The best in flight school was an IP who asked me in an early T-44 brief how my landings were going. I honestly admitted that while I had normal landings down fine I was having a harder time with crosswinds. Instead of following the standard OLF flight profile, the IP brought me to a runway he knew would be empty all day, and which had a direct crosswind right at our limits. He patiently let me bounce way more than I had in the pattern before, until I 'got it' on how to handle the crosswinds. Putting me into a situation that challenged my abilities and letting me figure out for myself what worked and what didn't really helped a lot. That was a big deal for my confidence and my flying abilities. Too bad it was wing down top rudder since those skills don't really help here so much.

 

[Python]

Sticky thread?

 

[Bobola2005]

I have only had one flight instructor so far and I don't really know if it counts because it was while I was working towards my civilian PPL. I know this is the "military aviation in general" section, but seeing as I have yet to make it into the Navy it is all I really have. He is a chief pilot for a local company and has like 5,000 hours total time and like 3,000 or so in their Hawker jet. I felt like he had a lot of experience and just enjoyed teaching people how to fly because of his passion for the profession. I just really liked the way he would throw me into the deep end and let me figure it out on my own. The first time I ever got in a Cessna he had me taxi it out to the runway while he was making all the radio calls. He made the call to take the active, put his hands on his knees and said "okay, go full power". In my mind I thought to myself, "holy $#!%!". I then took off and he verbally directed me how to fly around the pattern. He landed once to show me how to do it and then let me do it. After 3.5 hours of pattern work ended up getting out of the plane by the hangar and told me to go do it by myself. I just remember thinking “I thought it would take a lot longer to be up here by myself!” I did like three or four loops around the pattern and then did a full stop landing back at the hangar. I had a great time and that whole experience really sealed in my own passion for flying.

 

[C420sailor]

My favorite IPs didn't over-instruct. Riding of the controls (especially unannounced), excessive backseat driving ("I know I'm sucked, asshole!"), and not giving me enough rope to hang myself with really degrades my ability to learn. I need to be given the wiggle room to fuck a maneuver away and at least attempt to correct it without feeling the IP all over the controls or the ICS.

 

[AirPirate]

The bad ones are easy to remember. The good ones require effort to recall. If I have forgotten an instructor completely, he must have done his job supremely well.............I keed!

Two marks of a bad instructor,
1) Stereotyping and generalizing. "You're one of those guys who always likes to ____, aren't you." It degrades every situation, adds nothing to the experience, and creates enemies rather than allies. I've heard this, I've heard of others who heard this, and I've heard others complain about this.

2) A negative attitude filter that inflates every deviation and every wrong answer just to drive a negative agenda on the grade sheet. The tape shows +/- 50 feet and the IP says you were a hundred feet low all day. If there was ever a trend, it's the negative-attitude IP who makes a trend out of fabricating negative trends. 30deg AOB becomes 35, 800vsi becomes 1000, abeam becomes sucked, late becomes gay-late. Enough with the doom and gloom, guys. Our guys are typically pretty smart and there's no award for blowing the whistle the most.

Two marks of a good instructor,
1) Thinking independently. How many IPs do you know that evaluate a student based on what other instructors have told them about a student? It's a double-edged sword that helps and hurts, but whatever it is, it's rampant. The independent thinkers rise above the mayhem.

2) Putting the experience into context. The IP who can bring the big picture into the lesson is the guy who makes long-term contributions to your success. Part-task training is the way everything is constructed, and students are quickly buried in beating down the next closest alligator without regard for what it all means. This gets into my biggest tactical (classified) criticisms of the single-seat business today, but the IP that can provide the picture beyond the part-task is the one to fly with.

 

[Gatordev]

The bad ones are easy to remember. The good ones require effort to recall. If I have forgotten an instructor completely, he must have done his job supremely well.............I keed!

Two marks of a bad instructor,
1) Stereotyping and generalizing. "You're one of those guys who always likes to ____, aren't you." It degrades every situation, adds nothing to the experience, and creates enemies rather than allies. I've heard this, I've heard of others who heard this, and I've heard others complain about this.

I know what you're saying here, but it can be used positively, too. If I identify you (or even myself) as a "...likes to ____..." and it's in accordance with whatever particular pub that's being taught, then I can teach around your technique and help you get better at it. Maybe your way isn't the best way, or maybe it's the best way for you. IMO, that's what the IP needs to be figuring out and then going from there.

Of course, then there's the "You like to do ____ this way, don't you?" which means I (either as an IP or just a co-pilot) need to adjust my defensive position. And you can complain about stereo-typing all you want, but if it keeps both of us out of trouble, so be it. I had a 2P on my HAC cruise that liked to fly us into the hangar at night on the back of the boat. He was classified, generalized and stereotyped. But at least we never hit the hangar.

 

[Random Task]

One that sticks out to me is sitting patiently in the ready room for an early BI or RI (can't remember) flight brief. My instructor who was also in the ready room was asked what flight he had by another IP and proceeded to answer by saying an F-in early instrument flight. He then went on to talk about how he hated those flights and that the students always sucked. Granted I was no where near good but it definitely set my motivation back a few notches.

 

[phrogpilot73]

I had a 2P on my HAC cruise that liked to fly us into the hangar at night on the back of the boat. He was classified, generalized and stereotyped. But at least we never hit the hangar.

That's F'in varsity... Not using the RAST, saving the deck crew some work of respotting the bird after you land... Not many people can air taxi through the hangar doors and park it. Did he fold the blades first? If so, that would be epic win.

Just kidding, we had a 2P that routinely liked to approach the flight deck from BELOW the flight deck. Not fun.

 

[KBayDog]

That's F'in varsity... Not using the RAST, saving the deck crew some work of respotting the bird after you land... Not many people can air taxi through the hangar doors and park it. Did he fold the blades first? If so, that would be epic win.

Bah, flying into the hangar is no biggie. Apparently, it's flying out of the hangar that guarantees job security for the NTSB.

 

[squeeze]

Bah, flying into the hangar is no biggie. Apparently, it's flying out of the hangar that guarantees job security for the NTSB.

"The Sheriff’s Office purchased Air 1 in 1995 from a military surplus auction. The cost was $250, Ford said."

I've had higher bar tabs. Since the people were OK, that's a pretty inexpensive mistake.

 

[Jim123]

Bah, flying into the hangar is no biggie. Apparently, it's flying out of the hangar that guarantees job security for the NTSB.

Heheh! I remember reading this when it happened! I dunno, it always seemed to work for Batman in his jet...

 

[KBayDog]

Heheh! I remember reading this when it happened! I dunno, it always seemed to work for Batman in his jet...

1. Do you teach your studs to taxi out of the hangar?
2. It only worked when Batman was flying his jet. It never worked when he was out gettin' his chopper on.

 

[scoolbubba]

250 bones? I think I know what I'm doing with my next month's family sep allowance. Which one of you rotards wants to teach me how to fly a whirly bird? If they're all that cheap, I feel like I can afford to bend a few while I get my bearings.

 

[C420sailor]

Hitting the hangar? No big deal, even the best pilots do it.

http://fragg.me/video/helicopter-hangar