BHawks 0 #1 December 30, 2008 Pissed off pilot...venting my angst! Crap! The Flight Instructor school ATP offers is beyond ***** freaken ridiculous. Here is my opinion why. This grouchy old man sits you down for the first week for about 11 hours of ground school, plus 3 hours of homework. You fall asleep with study material in hand at somewhere around late something thirty.Get up at zero dark thirty and do it again. The other part I love is, you get 5 hours of flight training time towards your CFI. 1.5 hours is flying with a relaxed instructor going out flying from the right seat, doing maneuvers, getting used to the nutty airspace around North Las Vegas etc, not so bad... Then you have an evaluation flight, better be Jonny on the spot for EVERYTHING! Flying from the right seat, talking your way through the maneuvers, and knowing them cold. If you louse that up, you get a second evaluation flight, but with out going up again to work on any deficient areas. Jack that one up? No problem, that will be an additional 400$ bucks per flight hour in the plane. Somewhere in the insanity you are supposed to learn, to an flight instructor level of knowledge some pretty technical areas, (not so bad, but, combined with the already mountain of shit they throw on you, makes its a little far fetched.) One key subject area they totally leave out is the whole "learning to teach" subject, you want to be a flight instructor, think you better know that area pretty good. I talked to other flight instructors, when they went to a "regular" CFI class they would teach the different subject areas to each other, another CFI, or someone else, and receive a critique on how well their class went so the instructor candidate would know their strengths and weakness accordingly. In my opinion you need to have a good foundation here, because your students are also your customers. If you provide crappy instruction to a student, you are not only doing him/her a serious disservice, but costing them alot of money now, and later if they have to relearn something at a later date...if your are lucky, my hunch is they would fire you and find a different instructor...there goes your reputation, flight time and what ever pittance you slaved away for. Then you get reminded, "Oh by thew way, your check ride is tomorrow. If your not ready, we will put you off for how ever many dates, you will get a DPE instead of an FAA inspector, they cost 500 bucks, and oh yeah, if you fuck that up, its an additional 500 bucks for the recheck. These are a few of the reasons I pulled the ejection seat handle. I've have all the study material I need, and I'll find an FBO and work on my initial CFI rating at my own pace in a Cessna or Piper; and make darn sure I know this crap. Until then, I think I have a decent chance of flying a 182 for a skydiving operation in California. I also checked out this rigger class near Vegas to get my rigger's ticket to be of more use to the DZ and it sure doesn't hurt my resume. Thanks for putting up with my ramblings -Neb Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CSpenceFLY 1 #2 December 30, 2008 Pilot training programs have been going down hill for years. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tuna-Salad 0 #3 December 30, 2008 I considered going to ATP for a while but decided on the Comair school instead. Accelerated flight training.. That is a term in itself.Millions of my potential children died on your daughters' face last night. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
godfrog 2 #4 December 30, 2008 sounds to me like you went to one of those wham bam thank you jobs......find a good CFI that can give you what you need and do the book work yourself. books; fundamentals of instruction, and I think the other one is called phsycology of learning. these may help if you don't already have them.Experience is a difficult teacher, she gives you the test first and the lesson afterward Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
SuFantasma 0 #5 December 30, 2008 QuotePilot training programs have been going down hill for years. Pilots are trained? Wow !Y yo, pa' vivir con miedo, prefiero morir sonriendo, con el recuerdo vivo". - Ruben Blades, "Adan Garcia" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Conundrum 1 #6 December 30, 2008 Quote Pilot training programs have been going down hill for years. 'tis a shame. Our training programs are fantastic and very successful. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skybill 22 #7 December 30, 2008 Hi BH, Sounds like an outfit that's into the $$$ out of your pocket rather than teaching flying!! SAT Got my Private SEL 06SEP79 from Long Beach Flyers FBO LGB Ca.(Dougherty Field) Heard some good "Hanger Flying" storys about a couple of other FBO's whose students bailed when they were donating $$ without getting any flying compensation!! Talked to one lady Student said she had 25 hrs Dual and not Soloed yet!! She said her Inst said,"Oh there's plenty of time for that, we'll do it later!!" "Oh really, not even 3 TO's & LDGs supervised solo?? HMMM?? She bailed on that FBO and came over to Flyers. Many testamonies!! Or is it "Test-a-MONEY??"SCR-2034, SCS-680 III%, Deli-out Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
stitch 0 #8 December 30, 2008 Quote Quote Pilot training programs have been going down hill for years. Pilots are trained? Wow ! Kid Rock was the captain on the last flight I was on (At least he said he was on the intercom). Although the way he sat the plane down at DFW, I assumed he was Kid Crack. "No cookies for you"- GFD "I don't think I like the sound of that" ~ MB65 Don't be a "Racer Hater" Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
