Question on choosing a flight instructor

[jlowell]

I'm choosing a new instructor and looking at their qualifications. One guy has an ATP rating, others or at various levels....CFI, MEI.....they run the gamut.....but only one with an ATP. I haven't met any of them so can't say about personality and so forth.

Would you go with the guy with the most training.

If he has a crappy personality I can always make a change. )

Jim

 

[cougar6903]

Pick the CFI who you get along with the best. You won't need them to have a MEI if your just working in you SEL rating. A more valid question could be how much dual given they have. If you can try and take the CFI your considering to lunch. Good luck

 

[ePilot22]

CFIs

Would you go with the guy with the most training.

No, I would go with the one that is the most professional. Doesn't waste your time or money. Enjoys flying. Has knowledge and knows it, just doesn't spout information out that they don't even understand.

I also agree with the above post, but make sure you are learning! It very important to have fun, but get your monies worth as well.

 

[check six]

jlowell,

Just like doctors, lawyers, plumbers..............There are good ones and bad ones. The more ratings they have, the more they will charge. I would get someone for sure with CFII/MEI. ATP is so they can fly for airlines. The issue I always had was that many will only demand minimums be met in terms of precision, knowledge etc. So if you get a sloppy instructor who doesn't demand much from you, you will carry those sloppy habits with you. As I went on to more professional jobs, they really sharpened up my precision. I wish I they would have demanded that of me earlier. Also, get a guy who is good at teaching and likes teaching. Some of the guys think their mission in life is to be the next Don Rickles. You don't need that. If you are doing this for personal or business versus airline job, you still will be glad if you do it to perfection. I had a guy in training once tell me, "let's do a steep turn, 45 degrees on the bank, +/- 80 feet on alt is below average, +/-40 on alt is average, and +/- 20 feet on alt is above average. No one ever told me that when I was getting my earlier ratings but they should have.

Good luck, Check Six

 

[jlowell]

yep....It's tough to know unless you just go up with them a couple of times.

I'm joining a flying club and trying to find an instructor who is not just trying to build up hrs to get somewhere else where he really wants to be.

 

[westwind]

Go with the one that is committed to instructing. Somebody that has been instructing for a while and shows a longer term record at it. Not necessarily an old-timer, but don't overlook one, either. What you DON'T want is the instructor that will drop you like a wet turd, in order to jump in some claptrap Aztec, cargo hauler job and climb the next rung on the ladder at your expense. If that happens, then you get to start the search process all over again, probably taking you longer and costing you more money to achieve YOUR goals.

 

[banned username 1]

Find the one who doesn't teach big, wide traffic patterns!


Or tries to turn you into a flying radio announcer, either!

 

[Fly_Chick]

Check the schedules. The instructor with the busiest schedule is usually and indication...

 

[minitour]

Or tries to turn you into a flying radio announcer, either!

Play ATC with him for a few minutes. If he checks in "with you"...then you know.

All joking aside, it's who you're comfy with.

-mini

 

[LearLove]

Shop around alittle. Shift instructors for your first couple of lessons and then pick the one your most comfortable with. Ratings, TT and other stuff like that really don't show teaching style 100%.

Remember though, no matter how good your instructor is, skills or personality wise your only going to get as much out as you put in.

Good Luck, its all a giant crap shoot anyway.

 

[Lead Sled]

Go with experience - ya can't teach what ya don't know. When it comes to experience, there's a HUGE difference between 1 hour of experience repeated 3000 times and 3000 hours of experience. Chose your instructor accordingly.

'Sled

 

[FN FAL]

Go with experience - ya can't teach what ya don't know. When it comes to experience, there's a HUGE difference between 1 hour of experience repeated 3000 times and 3000 hours of experience. Chose your instructor accordingly.

'Sled

Yes, but you do have to give the guys right of school credit. They will be eager to work with you and they will have recent book knowledge...they just won't have much experience.

It could be a crap shoot either way with the time/experience thing. You could find an older and more experienced instructor that has both a love and a knack for instructing as well.

It's a tough call. I only had about 500TT and I really had a blast teaching 10 day instrument. I don't know if I would have the same enthusiasm now...maybe I could.

 

[Lead Sled]

Yes, but you do have to give the guys right of school credit. They will be eager to work with you and they will have recent book knowledge...they just won't have much experience.

It could be a crap shoot either way with the time/experience thing. You could find an older and more experienced instructor that has both a love and a knack for instructing as well.

It's a tough call. I only had about 500TT and I really had a blast teaching 10 day instrument. I don't know if I would have the same enthusiasm now...maybe I could.

You're exactly right. However, the bottom line is still this - When it comes to the quality of your flight training, YOUR FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR IS THE SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT FACTOR IN DETERMINING THE QUALITY OF YOUR FLIGHT TRAINING. PERIOD. It doesn't matter whether you select an Part 141 "Approved" or Part 61 "Non-Approved" flight school or use a "freelance" flight instructor, the quality of your training will be largely determined by individual flight instructor's skills, abilities, experience and knowledge. The best flight school facilities, training curriculum or the newest, best equipped training aircraft can not compensate for a mediocre flight instructor. Aeronautical colleges and universities certainly have not cornered the market on good instructors - they are where you find them. In fact, because of the nature of the beast, it is often very difficult to find flight instructors with any significant amount of meaningful "real world" experience in those aeronautical colleges and universities. Think about it. One of the "advantages" of doing your flight training in one of these schools is that once you receive your CFI you too can be an instructor at the school to build time quickly and (eventually) move on to bigger and better things. It actually smacks of "the blind leading the blind". You can't teach what you don't know.

As far as experience goes, like I said, there is a big difference between 3,000 hours of experience and 1 hour of experience repeated 3,000 times. CFI's tend to fall into the latter category. It's not that 500 hour commercial, instrument, CFIs don't have a lot to contribute. They certainly do. Many of them, who are active CFIs, can fly circles around us when it comes to specific maneuvers that they might be teaching and performing on a daily basis and we might not have done for months or years.

The issue is one of depth, not breath of knowledge. Remember, like I said earlier, you can't teach what you don't know. This is where you reap the rewards of diligently looking for that "golden CFI", the person who is that special combination of effective teacher and has the background and experience to go with it. Instructors like that aren't under every rock, they aren't at every university or FBO, but they are out there - you have to look for them.

'Sled

 

[cfi on the fly]

I thought about the question of who makes the best instructor quite a bit as I was instructing. When I first began instructing I was learning just as much as my students were...no amount of flight training for the cfi rating can really prepare you for what your going to face with students. Was I the best thing for my students during the first two hundred hours of dual given? Probably not. But I was very enthusiastic, eager to prove myself, very prepared and willing to do anything for my students...which may have made up for the lack of wisdom and un-book related knowledge that only comes with experience. For the next three hundred hours of dual given, I felt like I really had something to offer and was probably as good an instructor as any. After 7-8 hundred hours of dual given I found that I wasn't as motivated as I once was and found myself asking what was next. At this point I knew it was time to move on and gain more experience doing something else.

So what Im saying is that in my experience, the midtime instructor is probably the best thing going. He has some valuable experience to give and knows how to best share that experience. I know that there are people out there that have been instructing for thousands of hours and have a real passion for it even after all that time. Those would also be great guys to get as instructors, but they are pretty hard to find. Good luck