Oh, The Humanity

[Colonel]

Just don’t hurt anyone’s feelings, ok?

[dumbbell daddy]

Great thread. My most memorable check ride was with Stan Miller for my CPL. Most 22 year old, bearded, Blunstone wearing, backpack flight bag, Seneca grad-Jazz FO's won't know who the hell he was, nor care. Stan was a WW2 Lancaster pilot. He was known for closing his eyes and resting his chin on his cane while you flew. In the debrief he would remember every little thing you did though. When the check ride was over he asked me how old I was. He responded "you're doing a great job young fella. I was about your age and your experience level when they sent me loose to fight the war!"

I quit Air Canada (after they laid me off) during the pandemic. When I was sim instructing though, they were all about be kind and gentle. "How do you feel the sim session went?" "As an instructor, do you feel I could have done a better job?" Blach blah. I'm sorry but if you f@ck up and crash the sim, you shouldn't feel good. You should learn from what you did wrong and don't do it again. Sheesh.

[Squaretail]

I'm just the most left leaning person, you know

Given that I live just south of SF, that’s actually quite something!

Not sure I agree that aircraft aren’t good teachers. One of the best flight instructors I ever knew - Bill Whaley, long dead and deeply hated by TC - never said much in the cockpit.

Well I think you're closer to the truth. People learn things rather than are taught things. But for a thought experiment, do you think in your own learning what was more important: Having a good instructor that let you explore learning the airplane even if you had a lesser nose wheel airplane, or a bad instructor that maybe wouldn't let you explore the tail dragger? Do you discredit yourself to say that you couldn't have learned on a nose dragger?

[Colonel]

You don’t land an airplane with your frontal lobes. Stuff is happening too fast - your lizard brain on top of your stem is driving the controls. Your instincts, or reactions are responding.

As a taildragger instructor, the first thing I had to do was unteach pilot’s wrong instincts. Their nosewheel trainer had taught their lizard brain to leave their feet on the floor - they didn’t really need to control yaw in a nosewheel aircraft.

This was a pain in the ass and took twice as long as teaching a newbie the right way the first time, on a taildragger. Primacy is real.

I get the feeling Shiny, that you were a natural pilot. I’ve never met one in the last half century of flying but they could exist. What came easy to you, other people have to work at.

[Big Pistons Forever]

My ADB says SMELS, ATPL, Grp 1 Instrument, Class 1 Aeroplane and Aerobatic Instructor plus glider Instructor and Aerobatic instructor and 6 type ratings.

Looking back over 47 + years of flying the best instruction I got was from the gentleman who did my initial instructor rating. It was back in the glory days of the Royal Canadian Flying Clubs organization and he was a WW2 bomber pilot and then did 8 years more years in the RCAF teaching on the Harvard (The real one not the current lame excuse for an airforce trainer) before working for my Flying Club.

Anyway he was the first and only instructor of mine that really challenged me. He rode me like a cheap donkey. Ball was 1/4 diameter out of the cage, not good enough, 2 knots too fast on final, not good enough, not perfectly straight and on the exact runway centreline, not good enough, etc etc

He was never an asshole, he just demanded that I do better and he never had to say much, he would just casually demonstrate what a perfectly flown exercise looked like, and I would feel like a doofus.

He recalibrated my whole approach to flying and I try to pay it forward with my students, but I know I will never be his equal

[Squaretail]

Their nosewheel trainer had taught their lizard brain to leave their feet on the floor

No, they learned that from their instructor. People learn primarily by the cues they get from other people. If not flying straight was ok with their instructor, then it carried on from there.

Primacy is real.

Indeed.

I get the feeling Shiny, that you were a natural pilot. I’ve never met one in the last half century of flying but they could exist. What came easy to you, other people have to work at.

Uh, no. There's been a lot of work in this life because I ain't talented at anything. The the main difference I always see with pilots is there are those who want to be better at it, and those who are happy to just be good enough. Whatever level "good enough" is in their minds. All the people who could fly the taildragger were in the former category - regardless of the type they first learned on. I mean its like this conversation I was having with some other pilots the other day. One group was very happy with being first officers. Right from the get go that was as far as their career aspirations went. This was alien to the other side of the conversation where guys were shooting to be captains (and girls too). Here's the kicker: the want to be captains group also coincided with having tailwheel time, or wanting to get some. The first officer group had zero interest in it. Now my sample size was small, but it just made me think of this. The people matter way more than the machines.

I mean if you think about the old BCATP scheme, you either were someone up to the task, or you went to tailgunner school. They didn't have any illusions about how the tailwheel was going to make the latter class better. If the taildragger is indeed the teacher as you postulate, it still matters more whether the student wants to and is capable of learning. If they don't, well the airplane doesn't matter a hill of beans, they will still be a bad pilot.

[Colonel]

there are those who want to be better at it, and those who are happy to just be good enough

True. And anyone that shares a cockpit with Nark or me is going to be in the first group, whether they like it or not. :^)

[Big Pistons Forever]

Me sitting in the back seat of the Nanchang 3/4 of the way through the owners PPL.

“Hey smarten up ! You are all over the sky, you can fly better than that !”

Student

“ Ummmmm, you said you had control…..”

Me

Oh yah I guess I did , never mind

[Slick Goodlin]

He was never an asshole

This part seems to get lost a lot. What I see too much of is, “This guy was an asshole and I learned a lot, therefore if I’m an asshole…”

Correlation =/= Cause

[Colonel]

On that subject ….

I am old and crusty and do not suffer fools gladly. I honestly don’t care if I hurt someone’s feelings.

My job is to transfer as much knowledge and skill as I can, in the short time that I have. If that makes someone burst into tears, well, this flying thing isn’t going to work out for them anyways so I just saved them a ton of time and money. Go home.