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Primary on Monday
- Thread starter Erin M.
- Start date
I never taught Michael Scott.
The majority of my civilian time is out of KSPG (which still can't manage to see the benefit of contract gas). It's a great little airport with water approaches on three sides. When I first moved there, two gray-hairs had just driven off the end of the runway into the bay. Back then, the interstate was almost completely lined up with RNWY 06, and apparently the one small fence (pre-9/11) didn't stop their determination.
Think of the children!
I hope everyone in the Panhandle is hanging in there. Keep your heads up, we'll all get through this together.
Oh, the humanity!
Get out while you still can!!
I hope everyone in the Panhandle is hanging in there. Keep your heads up, we'll all get through this together.
Oh, the humanity!
That is brutal. I almost got rained on. It was pretty close.
I have a question for all of you instructors out there. I am not trying to ruffle any feather and intend to keep this as respectful as possible, so here it goes;
For those that do this, why do some instructors give out straight MIF/ straight 4's/ whatever, and offer no debrief?
I know that the job can be exhausting and unrewarding at times, and I know that some students probably don't care at all what the instructor has to say, but for those of us that really do listen to what the instructors tell us, it is nice to be given some feedback.
It has helped me tremendously to have that feedback at the end of flights. I listen to what you guys say, and I use that to fix/amend/maintain my study habits and methods of preparation. So, it just sucks to come back from a flight and hear something along "Hey, great hop. No problem areas noted, excellent brief/preparation. Keep it up."
Alright, rant over.
Fire away.
For those that do this, why do some instructors give out straight MIF/ straight 4's/ whatever, and offer no debrief?
I know that the job can be exhausting and unrewarding at times, and I know that some students probably don't care at all what the instructor has to say, but for those of us that really do listen to what the instructors tell us, it is nice to be given some feedback.
It has helped me tremendously to have that feedback at the end of flights. I listen to what you guys say, and I use that to fix/amend/maintain my study habits and methods of preparation. So, it just sucks to come back from a flight and hear something along "Hey, great hop. No problem areas noted, excellent brief/preparation. Keep it up."
Alright, rant over.
Fire away.
If you're getting 4s, what kind of detailed brief are you looking for? If you're not getting a debrief on items where MIF is less than 4 and you're making MIF, you'll have to be more specific with the items. If you're on FAM 3 and getting a 3 on landings, then you're tracking really well. If you're on FAM 9, then yeah, you should certainly be getting some talking points.
I'm waiting for my Aero solo now. On my 4604 and 4790, I had 4 on nearly every aero maneuver, and on the ones that I got a 3, the instructors offered me a great amount of detail on what my trend was and what I needed to correct to bring it to a 4.
My first 3 aero flights were accomplished with the same instructor, in addition to a night contact. I enjoyed flying with him a great deal; it was a nice change of pace from Contacts. However, aside from 5's on the briefs for the aero flights, I was MIF'd on everything. The grades don't bother so much, except that we didn't have a real debrief and he left virtually no comments on anything I did.
The one particularly puzzling thing was the night contact. I've had a 5 on every brief since 4201 with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions, and had a 5 on all 3 aero flights with him but a 4 on the night contact brief. In the plane, he said my landings on the night contact were the best I'd had with him all weekend, but I had straight 3's on the landings after getting 4 on the aero flights. So, naturally, I wonder what I did differently at night OR if he just MIF'd the grade sheet because nothing memorable happened either way.
I imagine that because we got back later on a Sunday night, he just wanted to get home. I understand and respect that, but without a chance to debrief and without any comments on the grade sheet regarding anything I did, I came away feeling like I didn't really gain anything but being able to see what I'd been practicing at home.
You gained flight experience and had a flight where you did what you were supposed to do. So you are obviously doing something right. Keep up the chair flying and don't look for reasons for the IP to "debrief" you if you don't need to be debriefed. If the IP says you suck and doesn't provide you with any feedback I would say you have something to be concerned about or at least be upset about. When you have a bad flight you will say to yourself you would rather be getting MIF'd and not yelled at for doing poorly. If you say "I enjoyed flying with him a great deal" but are upset he didn't give you feedback on what you obviously did well, I think you should just ask him if there is anything you need to work on. Otherwise just enjoy flight school man!
Concur.
If you were told that Frank Corvin himself couldn't have made a better landing and then you were given a "3," I'd do as JTW suggests and ask if there's something you could improve on ("Sir, you said my landings were the best, Jerry, the best! But I saw you gave me a 3, what can I do to improve?"), otherwise, it sounds like you're doing well........and need to get over the fact that not every brief will be a 5.
If you were told that Frank Corvin himself couldn't have made a better landing and then you were given a "3," I'd do as JTW suggests and ask if there's something you could improve on ("Sir, you said my landings were the best, Jerry, the best! But I saw you gave me a 3, what can I do to improve?"), otherwise, it sounds like you're doing well........and need to get over the fact that not every brief will be a 5.
Keep in mind that NSS is, by nature, based on a lot of things that are out of your hands. One MIF 3 in a field of 4's doesn't hold you back. If you happen to be contemporary with and behind a boatload of rockstars, then them's the breaks, but if you're among a boatload of average students, you're gonna be just fine. Either way, you still have plenty of opportunity to get your wings.
Do your absolute best, make notes for yourself on your own performance, at least in your head, and try to engage instructors based on those observations, rather than on some arbitrary grade system that all squadrons consistently have to work to maintain standardization in its use. Lately, it's seemed that many select what they want out of primary, and grades aren't usually a hindrance. As long as you're on track and not on SMS, you should endeavour to learn, as you have, and enjoy as much of these flights as possible, because you have enough to worry about without making pure grades your priority. Being the best aviator you can be is the goal, not being #1 in the class. If that happens, good for you, but beware the quicksand of misplaced priorities.
That's at least my philosophy.
Do your absolute best, make notes for yourself on your own performance, at least in your head, and try to engage instructors based on those observations, rather than on some arbitrary grade system that all squadrons consistently have to work to maintain standardization in its use. Lately, it's seemed that many select what they want out of primary, and grades aren't usually a hindrance. As long as you're on track and not on SMS, you should endeavour to learn, as you have, and enjoy as much of these flights as possible, because you have enough to worry about without making pure grades your priority. Being the best aviator you can be is the goal, not being #1 in the class. If that happens, good for you, but beware the quicksand of misplaced priorities.
That's at least my philosophy.
Hell yeah, man. Chances are that the same IPs you talk about give the same type of debrief and grades to other studs. Me and my buddies bitch about the same shit. I can usually identify what I need work on, what I am alright at and what I'm pretty good at. If the debrief is just the "no problems, good job, keep it up" type of thing, sometimes your best debrief is the self-criticism approach.