TheReelDeel33

This is a question directed at CFI's...

How many of you would take offense if a regular student started flying with someone else?

I've noticed that when a CFI can call someone "their" student, they take some pride and go more out of their way to meet scheduling needs or give such a student the occasional free ground advice/instruction. Plus, they can watch you progress and really get a feel for strenths/weaknesses

I also think every CFI has something valuable to offer from their own experiences, that no one else can teach quite as well as they can. Plus, a different instructor can catch things the other instructor may not have noticed.

So the question for flight training is should a student stay loyal to an instructor or seek advice from as many as possible?

shdw

My opinion here: I believe it depends on a few things. If it is primary training a single instructor is often better as every instructor will teach things differently and the vast variety of teaching styles can often leave a new guys head spinning. Now if that student can't seem to get something with one instructor than sure, go with another instructor and try it out. But communication is the key to keeping these activities from hurting your current instructors ego.

I believe much if this holds true into your instrument training and through it as well. Once you move onto the commercial training I believe there is a change in how this could work. I think it would be great to fly with a few different instructors, listen to their stories, go through scenarios each finds pertinent and gather info on what you might experience with your commercial ticket. Pre commercial as I said before I think opens the student to a vast array of confusion with little benefit unless they are having issues learning with their current instructor.

abelenky

I believe students benefit both from consistency and from new experiences. It is important from the student's perspective to have a consistent instructor who knows where they are in flight-training, and what they are capable of. But no two instructors teach alike, and it is important to get different view points, information, techniques, etc.

In my training, I've had the same instructor most of the time. But occasionally he's unavailable, and I end up with a substitute. Each sub has definitely had a subtly different, but new approach to flying the airplane, and I end up learning something new.

In this sense, I do have "my" instructor, and I am "his" student. But I don't think he'd have any problem with me occasionally flying with someone new. If I were to switch to a different instructor as my primary CFI, he might well wonder why, and maybe even take some personal offense.

But there is another important angle, the student-as-customer. Obviously a student wants a teacher who fits them well, and I know I've met at least one instructor I wouldn't get along with long-term. For one lesson, it was fine, but for an ongoing project, I would have sooner quit. If the student doesn't feel right with an instructor, I absolutely support them finding a new instructor. But hopefully this is done early enough before one instructor starts to feel they "own" the student.

I know an instructor might not enjoy losing a student, but it should be viewed a bit the same as a salesman losing a regular customer. It is business: each has their own interests to look out for foremost, and losing a customer may sting a little, but it shouldn't be a big deal.

fjetter

Having the same instructor is very important especially for PVT training. As others have mentioned everyone teaches a little differently, likewise every student learns a little differently. It takes me about 2-3 flights with someone before I know how to most effectively go about teaching them.

As far as insulting the instructor by flying with someone else, that depends on the situation?
1. If you are unhappy with your instructor, talk to the chief instructor and request a different instructor. The school would much rather you fly with a different instructor than to lose your buisness. If your instructor has a problem with that, its not your problem he is being unprofessional.

2. If you want to fly with others just to get their perspective, great! Just be upfront about it to avoid bruising egos. Again if he has a problem with that he's being unprofessional.

3. If you are having a hard time learning something and your instructor hasn't suggested you flying 1-2 times with another instructor (sometimes a more seasoned instructor)....suggest it. Sometimes having someone else explain the exact samething in a different way makes all the difference.

rickair7777

Generally stay with one instructor who fits your needs, otherwise you add training time and costs bouncing between different folks (unless you train at a highly-standardized school).

But definitely fly with another instructor at least once as you near your checkride to get another perspective. This should be arranged with the intent of identifying problems, not changing up all of the techniques you have already learned. I would do the same before XC solos for a student pilot.

Of course don't hesitate to change instructors if the one you have isn't working out well.

Ewfflyer

In a normal environment, students IMO should train with a single instructor, if there's a problem with a certain topic, and another's input is needed, that's when they can fly with another.

The other situation is when the student is doing final preparation for check-rides, I would "pass" them around with other instructors to see if they could find something that we were missing mysef due to being familiar with the student. This seemed to be very effective and made sure we brushed up any minor details.

Now in the situation where a student and an instructor just don't fit together well, then that situation needs to be rectified immediately. I had a student that just didn't respect my opinions etc... He had a problem, but in the end it wasn't me. I discussed with him immediately that I wanted him to learn regardless of who he flew with, and gave him options on other instructors we had available at that time. Needless to say we never saw him again, and no one had any hard feelings about it.

floridaCFII

I always liked my students to fly with someone else at least a few times. If nothing else it made them less nervous when it came to checkride time, since it wasn't the first time they'd flown with someone new.