tm602

Actually not completely. An instructor does not know how to teach well until they have done it a while.
I know this will bruise a few egos, but a 300 hour instructor barely knows how to fly himself. I didn't like hearing that when I had 300 hrs and about 2 dual given, but now 4000 dual given later I see that it is true.

misterpretzel

Everything you said is purely subjective. If what you said were objectively true, then the FAA would set the minimums for a CFI ticket to be massively higher.

Is there a place for statistics relating instructor experience to checkride pass rates?

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FOCrunch

I know I'd like to apologize to the first couple students I had when I started out as a instructor... Just like any other cert, when you get your CFI you're qualified to use the cert, doesn't mean you have any clue what it's actually like.

I had good training, but once I started teaching myself it took a few students to figure out how to actually structure my lessons and to be efficient with my time

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JamesNoBrakes

Good points, the "old fart" CFIs can be just as bad, so set in certain ways that they are inflexible to the needs of the student. A good program should have good controls to ensure that the students learn and instructors can teach, but as we've heard from above, that's not always the case. WW always had a good reputation for the teaching side of things when I was in the state.

I would absolutely take a stand against an instructor charging you for time where they aren't doing anything. A caveat would be if I was on the ramp with the student, doing MY checks, supervising and making sure they are safe on the ramp, that is absolutely chargeable time. But if I'm sending them out to preflight and am not with them, not chargeable, and it's also my job to make sure they are learning something and my time is quality spent when I am with them. It's also being professional and not doing ridiculous things like charging someone for the time having a hamburger at the restaurant, etc. If you are seeing these signs of unprofessional-ism, you should run away. This is going to be indicative of their attitude and behavior in general. What other corners are they cutting and what else are they willing to sacrifice at your cost? Not worth it.

JamesNoBrakes

It's totally dependent on the quality of your own training IME. If your training taught you to understand the standards well, to understand the maneuvers well, to structure well and deal with varying performance, it's not such a great big leap. It can be and I definitely hear you there, but IME, it doesn't have to be. There's a lot of "telling" in CFI training and often not a whole lot of "teaching". There's a lot of "if we do this enough times you'll eventually figure it out" vs. "this is how and why this works". You can get to that higher place during your training and start out teaching it as a CFI just fine, but you can also never reach that higher understanding until much later in life. All depends on the quality of training.

I remember when I was learning how to land at one point I was not landing straight and my IP tried to make a point about how drivers are able to tell straight-ahead and drive their cars in the middle of the lanes (like the millennium falcon or something). Then I started paying close attention to people driving cars and realized my IP was wrong. People in cars do not drive their cars centered in the lanes, they tend to all drive with their body in the center of the lanes, which offsets the car to the right.

metalfeather

Angel aviation in Glendale does it right. They have a few career instructors, multiple Cessnas and a seneca. It's not fast track and it's not a ripoff. You'll be a fully capable private pilot with solid skills and sound understanding.

If you want quality training, this is the place. If you want fast self-study training go to KDVT or KIWA.

tm602

That's always been my policy, but I learned to watch them these days. Texting or phone calls on the ramp during preflight is wasting MY time and I do actually bill them for that time. Never had an argument over it, they are told on the first lesson the "rules of engagement" in flight training.
Also, sometimes we do a lunch on a split lesson day (2 lessons per day with a lunch and gas stop). If the lunch is quick and they don't waste time on it, I'll pick up the tab for them sometimes.