View Single Post
Old 03-19-2021, 11:26 AM
  #20  
Duffman
Gets Weekends Off
 
Joined APC: Jan 2018
Posts: 644
Default

Sounds like you're dealing with a CFI whose trying to milk you for money and hours, or whose just completely checked out. You called him out on it, but because he's very ill-equipped with the emotional tools to handle it (immature, arrogant, naive, insecure, self-centered, inexperienced, etc) he defaulted to getting angry. People get angry when they feel threatened. You're paying him for feedback, he's not giving it to you, and the fact he arbitrarily increased the number of required flights from 1 to 5 means he's either stringing you along, or he knows he can hang this over your head and he's reaffirming his 'position of power.' I've met about a dozen pilots like this. Worse yet, slime balls will preemptively start bad-mouthing you behind your back to hedge 'your side' of the story.

I wouldn't be surprised if he's already bad mouthing you to his management so they think they're dealing with an arrogant, entitled, crappy airline pilot (not saying you are, but that picture would serve his interests best). You caught him in the wrong and he chose to dig in and tried to pull a power play on you. This isn't a one-off event, it's a trend from multiple flights, so I'd tread forward knowing this could be going on behind the scenes. The other alternative is he's so angry and burnt out that he's about to rage quit anyway and he's taking it out on the students, in which case, he either needs a new job or a massive attitude adjustment,

I switched careers to be a pilot and a few of the flying organizations I've been around are toxic like this. My theory is that the "lost decade" caused a lot of people to get stuck in places where management, instructors, etc just abused them, so they think it's acceptable, and even propagated the behavior to new generations.

My recommendation is to pay special attention to how management and instructors interact with each other, how they talk about students, etc. Also, pay attention to other students' debriefs to find good instructors. Some people just shouldn't be CFIs, but they need it as a stepping stone, so instead of rising to the challenge they just bring others down (make the world fit you instead of vice versa). Sometimes it's just one person, sometimes it's the entire organization, but it isn't Active Duty or a legacy where there's a massive system ensuring accountability. If it's just one person, you can work around them, but go into it knowing you'll likely be starting from a disadvantage and understanding what those disadvantages may be. If it's the whole organization, cut your losses as soon as you possibly can and get out of there without giving them things to gossip about. Who knows, maybe you'll start your own flight school and if they're a slime ball organization, wanna guess how they'll undermine you?

I'm not saying this IS the case, but it certainly MIGHT be, and it certainly wouldn't be the first or last time.
Duffman is offline