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Finding the right flight instructor (cont)

By Steve Krog
Steve Krog is a flight instructor, EAA member and president of the Cub Association.

What’s the lesson here? Not all instructors are the same. Some treat instructing as a necessary evil in order to build time and get a job with the airlines. Others approach flying as a fun challenge, making every effort to understand the student and help make the learning experience fun, challenging, and safe.

The second student who contacted me had taken some flight training years earlier but hadn’t completed it. He was now in a position both financially and time-wise to pursue his sport pilot certificate. He contacted a nearby flight school and booked an entire week of training. His first flight was with the Chief Flight Instructor and consisted of a lot of review of maneuvers to determine how much the student had retained from his earlier training. The flight went well and the student returned the next day only to find that he had been turned over to a different instructor.

The new instructor then took him out for the training flight, but as soon as they were in the air stated that they needed to fly to another near by airport for fuel. It was a breezy and bumpy day so the instructor didn’t allow the student to fly. They landed, refueled and were soon back in the air headed for the home base of operations. Again the instructor didn’t allow the student to fly because of the wind.

At the conclusion of the flight the student canceled the remaining scheduled flights and decided to locate another flight school.

Another prospective student contacted a flight school and made arrangements to fly every day the first week. He also said he wanted to work with one flight instructor and not be passed from one to another. The manager assured him this would be so. The school was well managed and the young flight instructor worked well with the student. The four flights made during the week went well and the student was making great progress. When he inquired about flying over the weekend he was advised that his instructor was leaving on an extended vacation and the student would be turned over to someone else. This student, too, canceled all future flights and decided to find another flight school. So much for promises made by the manager.

A fourth student contacted a flight school and scheduled flight lessons for an entire week. At week’s end he was advised the airplane would be down for a while and there would be no flying for at least one week. This was quite discouraging because the student had traveled a great distance and wanted to streamline his training, completing it as quickly as possible and had been assured that there would not be a problem with scheduling a plane or his preferred instructor.

The student contacted the flight school a day or two later and asked the manager if they might review his flight progress. The manager couldn’t find the student’s records nor was the flight instructor available. Discouraged but still willing, the student contacted the flight school the next day and again was given the same answer but told that the instructor would call him. Several days passed but no phone call. Then the student inquired by fax and e-mail, only to have both go unanswered. He, too, decided the flight school didn’t have his best interests at heart and decided to look elsewhere for his flight training.

The students mentioned in these examples are still keenly interested in learning to fly. But all have learned a valuable lesson. All flight schools are not the same. Next page: Know your flight training needs