Originally Posted by
xpigx
bah . . . I have not flown all week.
Instructor told me he could not fly until Tuesday, because he is studying for his Airline written.
Are all CFI's in it to build time only?
LAFF thinks so, because he had a bad experience with one. Any professional who also happens to be a human being will be either motivated or not, motivated for the right reason or not, or somewhere in between. Your instructor is probably studying for his ATP or ATPL (airline transport pilot) which doesn't mean that he will fly for any one type of operation, it's just a certification (and a tough one).
I experienced a variety of performances. My first was a young woman who was extremely capable but went off looking for career opportunites every other week. The second was the best, he would do anything to help you, was extremely good at teaching, and inspired the heck out of me. The example still inspires me to this day. The third was a time waster, a mediocre teacher, and did not know much about commercial manuevers. He was a 90-day zero to hero flight school product. I fired him after about a month. The replacement was a good instructor and a nice person, but had a short temper. The sixth was a young guy at AllATPs and he taught a system of flying more than skills, but it worked and I give him a good mark. For endorsements I went to a variety of teachers, but since endorsements are not checkride graded you cannot compare them to checkride instruction, it's a different focus.
An example to illustrate this occurred when I obtained my high performance signoff. We started it with a trip around the pattern and no instruction. At the hold short line I got my usual checklist and the guy says "put that away". As soon as we are airborne I hear this loud "woooooo hoooooo this baby will climb!!!". When we got back a minute or two later he says, here's your signoff and didn't charge a dime. Turns out he disapproves of the high performance signoff.