Stoked27

You won't always know, but ask a lot of questions while you're learning and use your own intuition about how he/she responds. I have a method in other circumstances that I don't necessarily recommend using on someone who you will have a longer term relationship with like your flight instructor, but ask a tough question that you already know the answer to and see how they respond. (If they find out you're quizzing them, it can lower trust in a longer term relationship setting). Car buying example: Car salesman brags about how great this truck is with all the features and I had him pop the hood. We didn't have the paperwork for the truck, but seeing as he is is such an expert, I asked him if the truck had a V6 or V8. He ran inside to get the paperwork (he should've been able to look at the engine and tell it was a V8). I knew and I was testing him. His response told me a lot about how much I should trust his expertise. I don't really recommend doing this with a flight instructor though. It could tick them off if they discovered you were testing them.

Another example: There's a part on the Piper Seminole nose gear mount that sort of looks like there could be a bolt that should be there. I asked my instructor (legitimately curious) if there was a bolt missing on the gear mount and he said that he never noticed that before. Red flag! It was perfectly normal, but if I'm a brand new student questioning things that the instructor never noticed that tells me my instructor is pretty greenhorn or doesn't have a naturally curious personality to always find answers. He was still a great instructor, I just knew then to not skimp on my preflights. I sought to study hard and be the expert of the plane.


As in most things life, "It Depends." My tire tread example earlier, I knew my instructor was thankful and it opened his eyes to not tell me that we're okay to go fly without having me complete a normally minor portion of the preflight. After all it's possible a prior student burned some rubber and rolled the plane to hide the spot out of embarrassment or fear that he'd have to pay for a new tire.

It depends on your relationship with them. If they self-reflect, leave it at that. If you joke with your instructor, tell them he/she's buying the next beer. I'd recommend to not make a big deal out of the simple example type things I gave. There's a lot of mistakes you'll make that the instructor will give you slack on. Just keep your guard up, like you said, there is a responsibility on the student as well to not overly mystify the instructor. That's not just brand new instructors, that includes 10,000+ hour ex-airline pilot instructors! I've had a 10k+ instructor misrepresent the amperage on the second alternator of the SR20, mistaking it for electrical system of the SR22. A very very minor thing, but if I didn't do my own home studying I could've been swayed into believing the second alternator would've powered more components than it really could (should the first alternator fail).

I've seen how you've responded to your other posts on APC and it seems like you handle things fine. You don't seem to jump to conclusions and you aren't confrontational. Same goes in life to handle situations well.


I've only had this happen once. You might find another post I made detailing an instructor who kept touching my flight controls and we ended up battling each other. Super scary and frustrating, especially on landing, but what sealed it for me was when he lied about it and tried to throw it back on me. That was the first and last time I flew with him. I think it'll be rare if you experience an instructor who lies.