Originally Posted by
lstorm2003
I disagree with CubDriver's last point. I think its your job as a CFI to try your best to work with a difficult student and try to find a way to help them learn. I wouldn't sign anyone off for a checkride who isn't ready-- but -- you should try your best to help the student who is having a hard time achieve his goal. If you give up on a student-- they will quickly lose whatever self-confidence they have and never improve. Give each student your best! You owe it to yourself! And again- congrats on your CFI-A!!!
Cubdriver didn't say you shouldn't try your hardest and do your best as an instructor to try new teaching methods that might help the student learn or get over a plateau. I definitely agree, as I believe anyone would that has spent any length of time instructing, that unfortunately there will be a very small percentage that are simply not cut out for a life in aviation, professionally. For many reasons, you need to be the person to have "the talk" with the student. It is very uncomfortable and flat-out sucks to have to try and tell someone that "loves" flying that a career in aviation might not be in their cards. The reality is that this student could kill themselves and/or passengers, period. Another aspect, which you will see all too often, is instructors using the excuses above to drag out the students training just to keep steady student loads.
Obviously we're not talking about "OK, you haven't soloed and you have 25 hours, most people do it 15 so you shouldn't be a pilot"...everyone will progress through training differently and all will struggle learning something along the way. But as you instruct more and more you will get better at identifying basic learning practices and the student's reactions that should be triggered as a result. When there is a disconnect that repeatedly surfaces again and again, there is a problem.
I'll give a quick example - I knew a friend that I instructed for a little bit of time during his instrument rating and it was the classic 'multiple instructors, lots of time, no real progress'. We would go out (and trust me, I would try everything, as did many other before me) and practice x-type of instrument approaches over and over; there would be very little progression throughout the flight, but there was some. The next day we would go out and do a quick review, and it was like he had never even heard of what we had done for an hour straight the day prior. Needless to say, there were several times we had the talk behind closed doors, once with the chief pilot; but there was always someone that didn't care enough and just wanted to fill up there schedule. Long story short, he ended up finishing his commercial with something around 400 hours...and a couple of months later, he was killed in a plane crash. Is everyone that struggles going to kill themselves, no. Could more people have agreed that he was a danger to himself and other people, yes. Would he still be alive today, maybe.
Originally Posted by
Cubdriver
Great job. A couple of points.
1. Unfortunately for the student, the first 100 hours that you teach is really your learning how to teach while the student is a guinea pig. Teaching is an art and some people get it quickly while even the talented ones needs a ton of seasoning.
2. Flight students are generally among the better residents of humanity, but always assume each and every student is trying to kill you. You have to assume so, this is the only line of defense against the randomness of human nature. Guard the slip skid and enever assume anything. This is where the slightly impersonal professional demeanor of seasoned instructors comes from, they simply have to assume no student is going to be reliable so they perpetually have to watch like a hawk. You had better be able to "talk and walk" at the same time.
3. Students ask some rather probing questions, and they ask them when they occur which is generally not the best time to ask. Usually it is during air work or at a towered airport. But that may not be the best time and place to explain it. Get used to saying we'll talk about it on the ground and keep the air talking at the business level, and always fairly minimal.
4. Occasionally you get a student who is not meant to fly at all, and you can recognize this type by their terrible flying skills despite tons of dual instruction time. These students are fairly rare but they also tend to run through entire lists of looking for one who will pass them without demanding proper standards. When the story is I have 55 hours and have not soloed because my last 4 instructors were all jerks, that's the flag. Ask for the names of the prior instructors so you can call them and do not forget to call them. You can fly a few hours with them and see, but generally you MUST act as gatekeeper to prevent that person from flying at some point. The latter may be the most arduous, emotionally challenging thing teaching can deliver, because at that point you have to stop acting as a helper and act purely as gate keeper.
Good luck.
To the OP: I'll make this quick because this post is already too long, but take this to heart. Don't be too "grabby", students don't learn that way, but ALWAYS keep your mind on the defensive side, even if you've flown with the student 100 times or another great instructor vouches for them - it's your life, be vigilant! There's another story there...but I won't go into it.
Congratulations again! Have a good time and you'll be fine!