Dealing With Teenage Students

[pilotman2105]

...They are not only jeopardizing their own privileges but are misrepresenting your integrity, the other instructors and the company.

And aviation as a whole.

Airplanes and the like have gotten a bad reputation from the media and various other public misconceptions. These/This arrogant student(s) are simply perpetuating those thoughts.

Hopefully things smooth out for you. I would pay a bunch not to be in your shoes some day.

 

[bobbysamd]

Not all teenage students are bad . . .

I stand by everything I wrote above. But I feel some counterpoint is in order.

There is always a danger in generalizations. Not all teenage flight students are cowboy punks. Example: In the late '80s, Oklahoma Wing CAP put on flight encampments for cadets. I was an instructor in the program one year and Project Officer for the program the next year. The program provided ten hours of flight instruction to selected cadets in the wing's 172s leading to solo. The cadets had to go before a selection board (compare to an airline interview board) and a flight screening with a CAP instructor (compare to a sim ride) to determine if they had potential. Most of them soloed.

These cadets were outstanding, motivated young people who took the program and their flying seriously. I picked up one cadet who had soloed with another instructor and finished him for his Private. He was my first signoff. I'm sure he learned a few things from me but I probably learned more by training him.

My point is not all teenage students are irresponsible. For that matter, quite a few adult students can be dangerous. Our job as instructors is to astutely separate the responsible from the irresponsible and deal with the latter group appropriately. You'll be surprised, as I was, how readily young people pick up flying. They really can be fun to instruct, and by foreclosing on young people you will foreclose on some of the joy of instructing good students. Just beware of the bad apples.

 

[ThomasR]

I learned to fly in the Army. Instructors were in your face all the time. They got physical if you made a mistake. They taught to keep your focus on flying no matter what was going on outside the aircraft or inside. So my perspective is skewed in that direction.

There are many types of flying also: beside passenger airlines, there is cargo, sport flying, racing, site seeing, advertising & movies, power line inspections, etc. Each takes a certain skill and attitude to enjoy that particular aspect of the industry. I think we might all have strayed from time to time and I think where we stray becomes part of where we realy want to go.

Airline pilots are probably the safest pilots in the industry, that is they fly by the numbers with everything in order. Crop dusting takes another type of attitude. I think as an instructor part of your job is to see the kind of pilot your students want to become but do not have the knowledge yet to see it in themselves.

Everyone says they want to be airline pilots because they are the super stars. But many realy would not be happy doing that kind of flying. One thing is for sure; rules and regs are there for a reason and to fly in any industry requires we learn to reason through the temptation to exceed the limits.

 

[Tired Soul]

Bobbysamd, as usual you have something intelligent to say.

Just my point is I can't be bothered anymore teaching people with the attention span of a goldfish. Sure I 've had excellent teenage students, but in my opinion they're more the exception then the rule. To be frank I've pretty much had it with PPL- training. In my first couple of years as a CFI I enjoyed having as many full time PPL students as I could fit in a day...after 4 years I'm just out of patience.
I prefer instrument and commercial now. More my problem than theirs I agree but still. I truly care about my students but "Tired Soul" is my cranky alter ego..
I'm surprised I managed to stay sane as long as I have. So while I'm in the postion now I'll pass on most of the teenies thank you.
But like you said there are bad apples in every age group.