Best Flight Instruction Moment

[Lazy8]

Nice to read all of these. I was beginning to wonder if there were any CFI's out there anymore lol. I think for me it's been the numerous first solos. Each and every one is a pretty big deal for the student. Talk about some big smiles!

And for those of you lurking... One story you'll never hear is how "awesome it was when I bought my way into Pinnacle through ATP!".

g

 

[Princedietrich]

I'd say one of my favorite flight instructing experiences was back in 2000 when I got to fly into CGX twice with IFR students. We did the GPS approach into 36 and got great heavy traffic ATC experience, and on one of the trips we even got to see a Starship land not more than 300 feet away from us (the south parking ramp was REEEAAAALY close to that runway).

Too bad the digital photos I had of those trips got lost to a hard drive suicide.

 

[nosehair]

Everyone gave up when there was no hope of getting him his license or moving him through the "program" with the ground school and the written and all that. All he wanted to do was fly, and hopefully solo once, but he never said that. I realized that unlike goal driven, career minded CFIs, sometimes the student's objective is not reaching the last page of the PTS.

This is the stuff of which golden memories are made. You left the world in a little better place than what you found it in. You have found the secret to lifelong happiness.

 

[midlifeflyer]

The one that sticks in my mind is the first time I soloed a student. I was able to watch from the Tower and was getting razzed by the controllers on duty. We have three runways, two of them parallel. My student was doing his takeoffs and landings on 35R. The standard taxi instruction after a final landing is, "Exit next taxiway, taxi north on Bravo. Hold short of 35L at Bravo 8."

This is already in the period of special attention to runway incursions and I know that ATC has had to ask pilots specifically to read back that hold short instruction - far more than they should have to, and sometimes several times with the same pilot.

When my student responded with, "North on Bravo. Hold short Bravo 8," both the Local and Ground controller turned to me, smiled, and nodded approvingly.

 

[woutlaw]

Fun thread.

Since I have a whopping 10.7 hours of dual given I don't have many moments to choose from, although the "my primary student tried to kill us today" stories seem to be building at the rate of about 2 per hour.

So far though my favorite was taking my instrument student into IMC for the first time. He thought it was about the coolest thing he'd ever done.

He was doing a reasonable job keeping us greasy side down but was still pretty tense. So I reached back into my flight bag, grabbed my camera, told him to smile and snapped his picture.

He looked at me like I'd gone insane until I told him you only get your first time in IMC once and I thought he'd like to have a souvenir.

That lightened things up, he relaxed and flew much better.

 

[skygod75]

Best flight instruction moment...hmm, when I quit that low paying profession and realized that not flying wasn't so bad after all.

 

[Erlanger]

Best moment for me was when I got 3 students in a day to puke while doing unusual atitudes. I won the bet and it was off to the "all you can eat" sushi place afterwards. It cost the other instructor almost 100 bucks.

 

[Princedietrich]

Wait wait wait wait......

You had three guys yarf all over the inside of an airplane WITH YOU IN IT and then went to eat sushi afterwards??? Holy crap dude, is your stomach made of titanium or something?!

uke:

 

[waverider]

When I lived through a power on stall that turned into spin in a Bonanza that the student tried so hard to kill me with.

I know what you mean. One of my students once tried to do that to me too. Only difference being that it was in a C-172R.

However, there were good moments too. For me, the best moments were taking students on their first dual x-country. Being able get away and see new scenery was fun for them and I enjoyed sharing in their excitement of going on a new adventure.

 

[Princedietrich]

I had one at LUK when a student froze up on the controls while climbing out from 21R to do pattern work. I guess the sight of a hill right in front of him and a river right under him freaked him out and he completely locked up. I had to pop the guy in the nose to get him to get go of the controls so I could recover, we got so low over the river that the guy in the tower thought we went in with the fish.

The punchline is that once we got on the ground the guy threatened to sue me. Um, hello! I just saved your life you moron!