Quote:
Originally Posted by Wissam
2Hrs/week flight
3-How do determine when an instructor is great, good or mediocre?
I know the key is trying multiples, but I rather avoid jumping from school to school...
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Appreciate your help.
At 2 hours per week, I assume you're training under Part 61? I'm still working on my ratings, but over the years I've been on and off training via Part 61 and Part 141. I've flown with roughly 6-7 instructors who had an opportunity to be a longer term instructor - two of which I 'fired' or refused to continue flying with after the first few lessons.
One of the two (our first flight) had a nasty habit of trying to touch my flight controls without a positive changeover or any communication whatsoever. At one point we ended up zigzagging down the runway on rollout because we were fighting each other... once I finally realized I wasn't fighting weird winds and saw that he was kicking his feet on the rudder pedals I told him to take control. After that landing I tried talking to him about it and he lied, but eventually apologized and admitted that he was trying to steal the controls from me in the wrong manner. I couldn't trust him enough to fly with him after that. It happened multiple times that flight, but the rollout was the scariest. I think he initially tried offering minor corrections to get back on center-line, but when I felt weird forces acting on the plane I would compensate, then he would compensate even more, and then I compensate harder, and snowball....
Second instructor I flew with a few times, but his personality and mine just clashed horribly. He was god's greatest gift to earth and had to tell everyone about it, so it just wasn't going to work out long-term spending so many hours with him. It was a mutually respectful reassignment of instructors.
I've also had two instructors that became long-term friends of mine, and 2-3 others were great instructors on a professional level (just not a friend level).
I recommend finding an instructor who is humble and who you can stand to spend time with for long periods of time, but don't be afraid of having a respectful adult conversation with your instructor if you think things aren't working out. You might want to change instructors, but maybe they can simply adjust something in their training/communication to make a win-win. To your comment about changing schools, you shouldn't have to change schools just because you change instructors as long as you're respectful and professional about it. If the flight school only has one instructor, that's another story.