Quality of flight training in USA.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

If I see a Transport Canada inspector approaching me I know I am in far more danger than if I were being approached by a common street criminal.

However to be fair a child molester is lower on the unacceptable scale.

[David MacRay]

That was the way I thought it worked, certainly sounds reasonable to me.

I was never expecting to avoid doing some practice tests. I am not even sure how a person could decide they were ready to write, unless they attempt some form of a practice test to find out.

I meant I felt bad because you had wrote the earlier explanation about people trying to get recommends without earning one.

Regardless of how I go about it, studying is going to be a fair bit of work, I'll have to see if I can handle it.
Even if I approach the colonel or another source for a recommend I might bother you for an opinion of wether or not I'm prepared at that time. (Practice test)

I am amused that someone wanted to take a test home.

[Colonel]

[quote]all sorts of sob stories and false promises[/quote]

SSU has clearly been burned and bitten on
a daily basis and as a result is jaded and
cynical, but ...

Aviation is built upon trust and honour.

When an AME signs work out in a logbook,
we are trusting in his honour that the aircraft
had the work done, and is safe to fly.  You
are betting your life on that.

When a student pilot takes an aircraft, we are
trusting in his honour that he will do what he
is told to do, where he is told to do it, in the
manner he has been told to do it.  Remarkably
few times, is an airplane brought back with
wrinkles, after buzzing the main street.  I get
the feeling that SSU has that happen a lot in
Alberta.

When a pilot applies for a licence or rating
(PPL, night, float, CPL, instrument, ATPL)
we are trusting in his honour that his flight
experience recorded in his personal logbook
is true and accurate.  We have no way to
verify every entry.

We trust ATC to give us instructions that won't
kill us (vectors and altitudes in cloud) and ATC
trusts us (verified by mode C) that we will do
what we are told.

We trust parts manufacturers that the tag they
provide is a true and accurate representation of
the hardware that we purchase from them.

Aviation is built upon honour and trust, and
according to SSU, there is no honour and trust
in aviation in Alberta, and I believe him.  A
fucking scary place to fly an airplane, with
spoiled oil patch babies everywhere.

If someone lies and cheats on a practice
exam, they are only fooling themselves.

They will fail the TC written, and will learn
a lesson about honour and trust.  This might
all sound a little bit silly and quaint to the
youngsters, but ...

I know a little bit about aviation.  My family
(specifically my Y chromosome) has been flying
for 98 years now, starting in [url= War One[/url].

A [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Cayley]cousin of mine[/url] pretty much invented aviation
as we know it in 1799.  Yup, over 200 years ago.

With all due respect to TC, my family has been
in aviation a lot longer than they have, and I
think I have a pretty clear understanding of the
concepts of honour and trust that are fundamental
to aviation as we know it.

[David MacRay]

Excellent post. I might be jaded and cynical too, shiny just seems realistic to me.

Part of why I have not been flying regularly since regaining my currency is I don't feel like I deserve the privilege of flight because life keeps getting in the way.
Kind of silly perhaps, sounds like there are quite a few out there not taking flying seriously enough to earn said privilege.

I think there is a similar need for trust and honour driving on public roads.

There are decent drivers out there.
People who can merge.
People who will allow a gap for you to change lanes.
People that change lanes as soon as they see the sign indicating construction ahead.
People that know what yield means.
People that don't block our driveway.

Then some days I get back to the office after a trip and could use a Valium.
There are people driving that in my opinion should not be allowed to drive.

It only takes three or four of the bad drivers and I can't remember
the hundreds of good ones I interacted with that day.

I have flown with more flight instructors than most pilots, partially because I would sometimes work out of town between sessions of flight training.
That added plenty of dual, also because I was typically flying once a week when I did fly, it was like I was always retraining. No regrets but bummer for not finishing CPL before I got married.

I have chosen schools fairly well, almost every flight instructor I have flown with was ok.
There are a few including shiny that were better than average and
one who unfortunately moved on to other aviation pursuits that was really excellent for me.
He was polite and used humour but was also right on top of every detail.
If he asked, "What's happening?"
I knew there was something I needed to fix, a change of altitude or heading that I had not initiated for example.

There was also one instructor that I may have only flown with once after a break in flying who I regret paying to ride with me.
I remember him and forget several decent ones I may have flown with three or more times.

Like we don't remember dogs from when you were a kid. You probably remember a couple of bad ones decades later.

[David MacRay]

Thank you for encouraging me guys. I'm re-learning Oktas. At least you got me off my over sized buttocks to exercise my poor neglected brain a bit. Even if I don't get to the point of writing. I might start a new thread in hot air for shaming/encouragement.

[Colonel]

good quality boutique type instruction

Guilty - I only have one ab initio student
right now, and I take them on very reluctantly,
for a number of reasons.

Yesterday I was doing tailwheel and formation
training flights, both of which today are viewed
as "advanced" or "exotic" flight training.  While
it is nice for me to do this, probably more important
is the instructor training (both normal and acro)
that I do.  More leverage.

there does need to be flight training accessible for the masses

and that's where I disagree.  But I suspect you
and I have different idea of what the "masses"
are.

I enjoy teaching people with a strong internal
motivation to learn to fly, and fly as well as
they possibly can.  They are driven.  They
are not "the masses".

What revolts me are people (to me, the masses)
whom are happy to be hamburger in the cockpit,
and actually have very little interest in aviation,
and just like to push buttons on pretty colour
displays on plastic nosewheel airplanes which
have all the soul of a small green plastic soapdish.

Little johnny who is dropped off by his parents
with an $80,000 cheque comes to mind.  I have
no interest in stuffing warm butter up his
disinterested @ss.

[Chuck Ellsworth]

Chuck, I will have to study for the ATPL using you black out method.... it sounds excellent. Fkn hate these word games. I failed the PPL written by 1 mark on MET the first time I wrote, ended up writing the Rec. Written the next day and I was flying around.. Took awhile to get back and write that PPL written..

If the co.ksuckers genuinely cared about proper teaching and learning they would design exams based on the students understanding of the subject the exam is written  for.

Their only goal is to get a certain failure rate so making the exam as tricky as possible gets them the result they want.

When I learned to fly the exams were answered in writing not multiple choice.

Their problem today would be getting inspectors who can read an answer and know if the answer is correct.