I have no intention of "B#*W ing" you, but I stand by the contention that flight instruction isn't what it should be. By and large, flight instructors today live with a heritage of inexperience. One low time pilot instructing another, with each instructor getting his or her basic instruction from someone who's never done more than fly around the pattern.
When I started flying, none of my instructors had less than 30 years experience, and most had considerably more. I suspect I'd be long dead, knowing the foibles and failings of the teenage pilot I was, had I not been tutored and guided by those folks.
This last summer, I spent much of the summer sitting under the wing of an airplane watching students and instructors doing some of the dumbest and most stupid pilot tricks imaginable. Several times I was moving for my vehicle because I was absolutely certain I was about to see an accident...I still haven't figured out how one in particular never materialized. (An instructor doing full stalls and slow flight with a student in a Cessna 172, while only a few feet above the runway...the wintips missed the ground by only a couple of feet, several times). I even watched one pilot crash into the runway, damage the airplane to the point of being unable to maintain direction control even in taxi, then taxi to the end or the runway with great difficulty, and take off again.
I work on several web boards: I say work, rather than simply participate, because I spent a considerable amount of time counseling and researching for folks. I do it to maintain my own proficiency in instruction and currency in information...the web sites are a tool to help me maintain motivation in studying. However, I frequently end up counseling on some of the most simple of subjects; certificated pilots who should have learned these things as students before solo...and were never taught them. Often those types of questions come from flight instructors.
When meeting with instructors in the field, I often encounter some extreme deficiencies in knowledge and understanding...it's a wonder how these people managed to make it through a practical test, or even get recommended in the first place. A terrifying prospect to think they're passing on their concept of knowledge to students. A heritage of inexperience, often mixed with a lot of attitude. I spoke this spring with an individual who was screening flight instructor applicants at a particular college. As we discussed the quality of the applicants, he allowed that he required a certain level of instructing experience above what many instructors normally have, and even with that background, something like 90% of the applicants couldn't pass his simple screening. That doesn't speak highly of the instructor applicants.
So no, I won't "B#*W " you, nor will I recant my statement that the level of instructor and pilot applicant these days, is severely lacking. It doesn't need to be that way.
UEJ500, I assumed nothing about your comments. I find it a ridiculous act to call on the radio asking for traffic reports. One might better start listening to the radio a little sooner. My favorite are folks who arrive at the end of the runway, and then ask for any traffic in the area to advise them of it's position...displaying extreme laziness as well as a certain conceit that the world must stop just briefly enough to inform that particular airplane of it's status. Such hautiness is further compounded by the inability of non-radio traffic to respond, or traffic which does not hear, or traffic which is unable to respond due to other preoccupation, wrong frequency, etc.
You only assumed I was speaking to you. I was not. Assumption in aviation is a fools errand. My comments were made in general, at large.
I have no desire to kick your "a$$" (wallet?), nor that of any other poster concerning this subject. Again, your assumption, and we all know about assumption.
Who made the suggestion that this forum would alter the ratio of midairs? Nobody. Do we realize this; that it won't alter the ratio or frequency of in-flight collisions? By and large, yep, we do. But then, if the discussion didn't have merit, most of us wouldn't be participating, either.
A collision occured, prompting Shawn to post a comment about it, and others to respond. Perhaps you'd prefer that we post nothing, and comment on nothing? After all, nothing said here will change a thing...so why bother?
Perhaps just because being involved is worthwhile, no? We all have our reasons for posting and participating, just as we all have our reasons for flying. Personally, I'm unskilled and uneducated enough I probably wouldn't make it in the real world...ergo, I fly. I have no life, ergo, I post. What's your excuse?
