Originally Posted by
JamesNoBrakes
There's a lot more that goes on during flight instruction than people give it credit for and it's a lot more applicable to crew environments and dealing with people on a daily basis in the same sense. You are flying with different people frequently that have different habits, you have to modify your teaching and behavior to achieve a successful outcome, because they are all different. If you are any kind of observant person (kind of important when flying planes) you'll notice there are almost infinite iterations of how someone can "screw up" and you learn from each and every one of those mistakes. Sitting there observing landing after landing you realize what really goes on and what really contributes to aircraft control, rather than just reacting automatically because someone told you to do so. You'll experience people trying to put themselves into descents and approaches without being prepared, causing extreme task overload, you'll get to realize what it means to be the person ultimately responsible for a flight, you'll get to instill habits that will prevent future accidents.
As a captain, you'll be expected to train first officers, you'll be ultimately responsible for the flight, you'll be required to deal with all kinds of different people every day, you'll have to get along with many different first officers, cabin crew and passengers, you'll have to monitor the flight and your FO to ensure they are prepared to descend and make an approach, you'll have to build and shape the FO and ensure they are demonstrating the skills and behaviors that will make them successful pilots and captains.
This isn't all that different and the attitude of "I don't want to instruct, I just want to get to an airline" completely misses the point that you'll be required to do many of the same things and demonstrate many of the same behaviors/be put under many of the same stresses. If you can't handle it at the flight instruction level, you probably can't handle it in "real life", although they are both just as "real". I can appreciate flight instruction being distasteful because one was operating under the assumption that they sacrifice and get their certificates/ratings and then get automatically hired by an airline. Most people at first operated under that assumption and as the reality has become clearer during training and progression they come to see that each step requires at least several years. That's reality unfortunately.
Agree 100%, and this discussion hints at the difference between those who have a deeper appreciation of the art & profession of flying vs. those who are essentially job-hoppers in basic outlook, and there is a difference. Having flown with various captains all of whom exhibit solid piloting skills, I noticed the ones who also had nice teaching skills were by far the better ones to work with. I did not always see a correlation with those who had their CFI tickets and who could teach well, but differences in teaching skill were painfully obvious anyway since the key marker of the non-teacher is a quick rise in frustration when things were not going well with the student. Their attitude tends to be, you do not come here to learn, you come to work, why are you wasting my time trying to teach you something.
By contrast the skilled teacher sees it as a chance to improve the other pilot while improving the self in the process. Airlines often do not make teaching skill a large part of captain upgrade evalution, although some try and place key pilots such as the check airmen through sim instructing duty before check airman status is awarded. It is common for the job hopping types to end up teaching other pilots when they really should not be used in that role. I do not take a side on the ATP rule changes we have now, but if there is an outcome I'd like to see it would be that more airline pilots are forced to teach a couple of seasons in GA before getting to the airline environment where teaching is not as easy to learn or adequately rewarded.