You have just experienced one of the truths of life. It isn't fair.
I had thought, before I started flying (the second time, without my father) that the aviation business was populated by people that my dad knew, the WWII guys, the ones that usually conducted themselves as officers and gentlemen. I no doubt carried this assumption forward from my youth, when such people were typical, not unusual.
What I found, ever increasingly, is that aviation now largely reflects popular cultural views of relativism and cutthroat human nature. Rather than finding a group of exceptions, I found a large group of norms.
You are not the only CFI to be on the short end of a stick.
Before I was hired, I was told that a new CFI would be needed right away, and I expressed that I was interested in being that go-to guy, stepping into the shoes left behind by my own instructor, who had moved on to his first charter job. I worked diligently, and made certainthat I aced the CFI test process, a 98 on the written and kudos on the practical from the fed who was my examiner. That fed now teaches DPE courses at OKC.
That same week I passed my tests, I saw a new face around the school. Turns out this new kid had been to ERAU, and the secretary started assigning almost every new student to him. I was asked to teach the affiliated college course on instrument flight, so I had a lot to do, and let it pass. After a couple of months of not seeing new students, I asked the boss about it. He told me that he was "unaware" of this, and said he would move to stop it. Perhaps coincidentally, this new face moved on, and the secretary started assigning students to another new guy, one who had passed his tests within days of me. He instructed for about three months or so, and left for a corporate flight department.
The secretary problem finally got fixed (she eventually went to another job, during which time it became appparent that she suffered some real emotional problems, like faking a pregnancy) and I started to pick up a good student load.
The next month was September, 2001.
So, Bodean, it was my mistake to begin with to assume that folks in avitaion conduct themselves in any way that speaks to the risk and responsibility of flying airplanes, or that ideas like fairness and comraderie are any more likely to be found near a hangar than they are to be found in the offices of Tyco.
Sure, there are good people running flight schools. I just don't hear of much fairness or respect at most places. Maybe it's because everyone is so eager to get along the path and head off to that big airline job. Maybe it's because things like honor are not emphasized in schools. Maybe it's because we are seen as interchangeable parts, with few options and a ridgid dynamic to fit into.
So, watch you back, and like Ceasar, "beware the ides of March."
