Timbo

I was based at Pease for 8 years in a Guard KC135. I went TDY to Bitburg many times, back in the mid 1980's, to refuel you guys. At least half our missions there were cancelled because the ceilings were too low for the fighters to fly... We got a car and did a lot of sight seeing on all those no-fly days, so we had a good time there!

As to who does what, and what creates a better IP, have you been through a Civilian Instructor Course? Or are you just repeating what they told you in UPT? It's a lot more than just a few hours on top of the PPL.

I agree about the pilot mills; too little, too fast, and the biggest problem with the civilian training programs are that there is no real Quality Control. It's hit or miss, depending on where you go and who you get and how much money you have to spend. There's no real way to wash out the bad apples.

When I was a kid my Dad was CFI'ng every day, and flying mail runs in a twin Beach at night. He used to say, "Given enough bananas you could teach a monkey to fly." The Civilian program allows anyone with enough money to keep coming back and getting more lessons, no matter how lazy they are about studying and working on their skills.

When I got to UPT, I saw that they'll only give you 10 bananas, then a check ride, 10 more bananas, another check ride, etc. You bust one checkride, you are one more bad ride away from being out the door. So there is a much tighter quality control there, no doubt. I was amazed that they could take a guy with zero time and in 49 weeks have him flying a T38 in a 4 ship and IFR qualled too. But, the washout rate is 30%. Not so in the Civilian world, as long as the student has money, they'll keep taking it.

At UPT, Flying is all you do for those 49 weeks, you eat, sleep, drink it. No day job or other distractions that most Civilians have to deal with, no trying to save up enough money for your next lesson either, still some guys find a way to party too much and wash out.

OK, sorry to get so long winded, back to my original point, wich was a reply to your statement about pilot mills:

I feel that the two programs, the Civilian Pilot Mill, and the Military, would BOTH produce much better pilots if they both used IP's with some real world experiece, vs. 250hr. FAIPs and Pilot Mill grads. As I said in my UPT critique, send them out to get some flying experience for 3 years, then bring them back to instruct.

I've been through both programs, and I've had brand new IP's in both, and I've had very highly experienced IP's in both. The guys with the experience were much better, no doubt. That's my only point here.