Scudrunners

Providing type training these days has become a real drag.  I’m not a hard ass by any stretch of the imagination but here I am teaching licensed pilots with hundreds of hours things that I wouldn’t have sent someone on their first solo without.  It’s frustrating, you know?  I ask for chefs and I barely get cooks.

I think it’s high time I moved along and became the dummy in someone else’s right seat.

As much as you're going to miss Kakabeka in the winter,
it's time for you to get a 737 or 320 type rating.  You've
earned it, compared to the @ssclowns out there that
already have them.

PS  I'm a real closed-loop kind of guy.  Back when I was
working for this company (TC would send process servers
to me there):

[img width=478 height=500][/img]

Any time I had a technical question asked of me, I would
update the documentation.  So, over time, my answers
converged to RTFM.

Now, here's the trick.  Making documentation organized and readable. 
AFM's for example suck moose cocks.  Like NOTAMs they try very very
hard to obscure and hide the most valuable information.

Try making up a one-pager like this:

"Ten Things You Need To Know On Your First Day Of Work"

using your experience to focus on the top 10 things that low-time
pilots have no clue about, and need to know if they're going to
survive a year at work.  Don't provide the answers - just the
questions.  We're fucking Yoda, man.  Note that I'm not providing
your questions - I'm the fucking Yoda to the Yodas.

Give it to your newbies, and hope they know how to use Google.

[img width=378 height=500][/img]

I was hoping to lock something down this week but so far radio silence, I imagine the 737 groundings have tossed a wrench in things.  Regardless, though a very select few know it, I’ve put things in motion to replace myself at work.  At this point even if I’m stuck there forever I ought to at least have an easy summer.

Interviewer: “What do you make at your present job?”

Interviewee: “Mostly mistakes and inappropriate comments.”

When you're burned out at your current job, it's time to move on to do something different.

You've learned all you're going to, and your performance
may suffer, in that you don’t lovingly tolerate fools as
well as you used to.

Lovingly tolerating fools is tremendously important
today.  Some think it is the most important, which
makes me chuckle.  In today’s nutty world, hurting
someone’s feelings is worse than killing them.

I feel the same way doing instructor ratings.  Its hard to teach someone how to teach when they can’t even fly that well.

No one wants to spend the time to do it, but before you start an instructor
rating, you have to make sure that the candidate himself can fly.

While some people might think this is unreasonable, they will be required
to fly from the right seat and perform a near-perfect demo for the student
to emulate.  This is not always easy.  I liked to spend time having flight
instructor candidates do steep turns, left and right, from the right seat,
while explaining what they are doing, and keeping a good lookout, with
the altimeter needle unmoving.

Another thing I hammered on was forced approaches.  PPLs and CPLs
are terrible at forced approaches.  So, I had my instructor candidates do
a ridiculous number of forced approaches, all the way to touchdown.  Most
people simply don't practice them enough.

And, slow flight.  Instructor has to be an ace at slow flight, and should be
100% comfortable with dealing with a wing drop, skillfully recovering from
a stall and totally ok with high alpha.  He’s got to be able
to use his feet.  Falling leaf.

Historically, people have also struggled with diversions.  My approach to
that was to practice the procedure on the ground, over and over again, until
the student could easily perform it at a desk.  A solid foundation is required
before they climb into an airplane.

[quote author=mcrit link=topic=9538.msg27486#msg27486 date=1554128623]
I feel the same way doing instructor ratings.  Its hard to teach someone how to teach when they can’t even fly that well.
[/quote]
There are certainly fundamentals missing from I dare say most candidates these days.  I was going to write about it this past weekend but to be honest it was just too damn depressing.  Having said that, my day today is shit and getting worse so I might jot down some thoughts after work to pick myself up.  Everything is relative, after all.

Follow up: starting Monday I get to be the dummy at someone else's airline, while still doing a little training development and testing on the side.

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