Where to live now?

[Colonel]

older fellows talk about low times to solo back in the 1950s

Lots of people tell me I'm not very bright compared to them, and my first logbook
says I soloed on a nasty taildragger Maule after 4.4 total hours of dual which
included spin training on a C150 (can't spin the Maule). So, two types, spin
training and tailwheel solo in 4.4 hours.

If I can do it, and I'm not too talented, maybe other people can do the same, or
better.

[David MacRay]

Sure but you didn’t have a PPL and a credit card.

[Squaretail]

"We teach to the absolute lowest skill level!"

I doubt you ever will. Even if they do.

No, but their advertising now might as well say "We will teach you to the sill level potential employers find acceptable."

And people go for that. Quality flight instruction just doesn't sell. Occasionally it does if guys learn the hard way, but actually not often. Part of this is because people don't often view that instruction is even necessary. I mean talk to a hundred pilots and you would swear that none of them ever had any instruction, or if they did, that guy was just holding back their natural talent. People hate to pay for instruction. They will grudgingly pay for it if the regulator mandates they need it to get a piece of paper that says they're qualified. Forget about making a living as an instructor if you aren't interested in cranking out volume, and having a slave like existence. I mean part of the reason I got away from instruction is the demand on my time. People expect you to be at their beck and call, and it wasn't unusual to get demands to do flight lessons at four in the morning, or their surprise that you were not hanging out at the airport on a Friday night. These days my price is enough to dissuade most people, which I think is cheap, but that just goes to show.

People love cheap instruction, or fast instruction and definitely convenient instruction. If you can dress it up a bit, its going to sell. You can't be a high priced hooker if there's ones on the corner giving it away, no matter how good you are.

I blame the parents. Er, instructors.

Meh, there's lots of blame to throw around. Most instructors only know they've been used by the system after it spits them out the other end. Some never realize it, since they're too busy being in awe of being able to sit in the right seat somewhere. Only after the magic of that wears off do maybe they see. But then its too late, and I don't blame them for not being inclined not to do anything about it.

PS: Mike Busch is required reading for new hires. There's a few of his articles I've saved that I hope if the FNGs can absorb it, it will keep some old pistons running for another season. If I get a hold of the AOPA or EAA mags, its the first bit I look for.

PPS: I only have a grand total of 2 hours of dual on the tail dragger. The rest I figured out on my own. I'm not an especially smart as evidenced by this forum. So its not rocket surgery.

[David MacRay]

How about here?

https://www.yyc.com/Portals/0/BUSINESS% ... 20(DA).pdf

[Liquid_Charlie]

, but their advertising now might as well say "We will teach you to the sill level potential employers find acceptable."

Employers maybe but training captains ---- NOT - yup bottom line improves all working conditions.

Don't get me on today's instructors. As I have said in the past the regs and requirements to get an instructor's rating, which in my opinion should be a separate licence not just a "rating" . How can you get good quality instruction from a person who doesn't want to be an instructor and is only building time to live the Utopian airline life style. The system is flawed by the most critical basic requirement. Skilled, knowledgeable and dedicated professional career teachers. Right now there is too much "baby teaching babies" and it shows.

[David MacRay]

Regarding some garbage instruction out there, they can’t teach what they don’t know. Some must not be familiar with feeling the difference between a plane (ok fine, “A Cessna 172”) slipping and/or skidding versus flying coordinated, to let people fly around with their feet on the floor. Worse is said instructors presumably never looked over to see it, or the ball on the wrong side of the line.

I don’t even blame the instructors.

Who is doing the flight testing, how are people getting a CPL, if they are unable or unwilling to coordinate turns and land without yaw, somewhat near the centreline?

In my opinion there seems to be some, maybe not enough, but some hope though.

I have had instructors that might not fit in. Possibly more than four, in this last decade, that had caught me flying uncoordinated, seriously, people that cared when a 172 was slipping unintentionally and told the silly guy who shouldn’t have been letting it happen.

Two instructors have even let me fly and land a couple of planes with a little wheel at the back. I heard those planes are really scary. Actually the first one with the springy main gear in a cross wind kind of was.

I personally know and flew with an instructor, this year, in Canada, who is in his twenties, and only teaches and flies small planes with conventional gear. He refused to even consider flying with me in a 172. Go figure. I bet if I had a C-182 he would reluctantly come for a ride somewhere after I was checked out and ready to go.

[Colonel]

Who is doing the flight testing

That's another story. Examiners are just flight instructors with serious
conflicts of interest that everyone refuses to discuss.

I've told this story before ... a few years back, I had a nice kid come to
me. He had failed his initial class 4 instructor ride (possibly with TC?)
because the ball was not centered except when it was passing through.

Begs the question who gave him his PPL and CPL (see conflict of interest
above).

Anyways, he wasn't a bad kid. Just that no one had ever taught him to use
the rudder pedals, and he only had flown 172, which is far too forgiving.

So we go up in the Maule M4 with the tiny round tail, which is the exact
opposite of forgiving. We do rolls around a point, and falling leaf.

Then we jump in a 172, and we repeat. It didn't take him very long to use
the rudder pedals. He just needed to find someone who wanted to bother
teaching him.

I have trouble believing this, but ...

Anyways, I heard later he was CFI at some school in Montreal. That's years
ago, now. He's almost certainly flying a Boeing or Airbus now.

Aviation is strange. There's a lot of people who are full of shit, and I'm
probably one of them.