Originally Posted by
Grumble
You're correct in the fact that ERAU is (was when I was there) extremely standardized. You could fly with any instructor and expect the same techniques, answers, etc. Then there were instructors like myself who were sent the problem students. Guys and girls that couldn't seem to master the over complication of bullsht that Riddle puts out. I would teach these studs one on one, to what they needed to pass, no regurgitating the same standardization crap. In the three years there, I only ever had 1 student that just couldn't get to PTS standards.
My opinion was that they school is trying to railroad kids to a commerical way of thinking. A 172 is not a 737, but they try and get kids thinking that way right off the bat and it can be overwhelming. 0-50 hours is not the time to be making stupid altitude callouts, V speeds, etc. Nor is the instrument rating.
The whole process is over the top. the students suffer because the basic fundamentals of good airmanship frequently fall through the cracks amidst the requirements to do freakin stupid crew managment, in a 172 or Seminole. The instructors suffer because they are basically told what to teach. A lot of them never fully understood themselves what it was they were teaching they were just spewing out the standardization.
What use to be a credible University that had a decent rep in the industry has be come a 4 year accredited puppy mill. It cranks out over eductaed, under experienced entry level CFI's that think they deserve to be in the right seat of an RJ, not knowing what they don't know. There is no substitute for 1500 hours. Period dot.
/rant
Wow I really went off on a tangent there, answer your question USMC?
Yes
It was quite the rant - but I can understand where the frustration comes from.
I did pick up on those things in a previous post - callouts and flows and such when dealing with a PPL. But I thought maybe I was just old Corps and that was the way the training was conducted in today's environment.
I know that I did not have callouts, flows, etc...
I was taught how to look outside and fly, quite a bit of the 'fly by the seat of your pants' type of stuff actually. Except for a change of controls - I don't really remember any other standardized callouts like I have heard of used in the P121 world.
Training changes flavor over time. Maybe if your plan from day one is too fly in the airlines then training to that *style* from the start has some merit.
Personally - I DID like the whole syllabus styled training at the P141 school that I finshed my PPL training under and got the rest of my ratings. I think it even helped once I went into military flight training - lots of similarities. My P61 flight training seemed disjointed - less structured - and I did not do as well I think.
You and atpwannabe both mention ERAU's reputation in the past. I didn't know too much about these aviation colleges sotell me exactly what these reputations were in the past vice what I read on these boards now. Did they use to be more reasonably priced or have they always been outrageous? Were these colleges the first to bring a stringent standardization to training not before seen in flight schools?
USMCFLYR