I have about 25 hours toward Private and I've flown with six different
instructors since I started last October. (Various reasons: My first one
quit to go back to school, the second one got another job, the third one is
now my regular instructor, the fourth was a pre-solo checkout by the chief
instructor -- does that count?-- and the fifth and sixth stepped in when my
regular guy couldn't make it on a couple of occasions.) My flight school's
and instructor's policy seems to be that if you don't mind, they're happy to
let you fly with whoever's available that day.

Anyway, here are some observations from my admittedly limited perspective:

Because each new instructor wanted to get familiar with my skill level
quickly, they tended to ask a lot of questions at the start about things my
regular instructor already knows I know -- what's pattern altitude, etc. But
the result is that I've gotten better at articulating what I'm doing and
why, which, for me, means I've gotten better at actually *thinking about*
what I'm doing and why.

I've practiced things I ordinarily might not have, and I've practiced the
same things but in different ways. For example, the checklist says to give a
passenger briefing, but I never actually had to do one until last time when
I half-jokingly asked if he wanted me to and he said "sure." I mumbled
something about safety belts and operating the door latches and hoped I
wouldn't look like a complete idiot. They all had slightly different ideas
about radio calls, too.

It takes a certain amount of time with someone new to get used to their
style, which made the lessons less productive for awhile. Personally, when
I'm trying to learn something challenging and new, I tend to focus on every
little detail of the procedure rather than getting the big picture, which
has the effect of making the same maneuver taught by two different
instructors seem like two entirely different maneuvers.

Having said that, getting used to a new instructor was easier than getting
used to a new instructor getting used to me, by which I mean they've tended
to take (or at least help with) the controls more frequently, where my
regular instructor would let me go it alone unless I started getting into
trouble.

A big plus is that I now have a couple of alternate instructors to choose
from if my regular guy is booked that day. Overall, even though I'm not very
flexible-minded, I don't think any of this has done me any harm. I soloed
about 10 hours ago and (to hear my instructor tell it) I'm making decent
progress toward my cross country.

Next: night flying. Egad :-)


Tom Young
t e y o u n g 1 @ c o m c a s t . n e t
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