Discovery Flight today...unexpected results

DGS wrote:
After we were done I should have notified the manager of
the FBO.


BINGO! We have a winner. That is exactly what you should have done and
isn't to late to still do it. One outcome is that he will give you
another discovery flight "on the house" with another instructor.

Dallas wrote:
On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:04:05 -0600, DGS wrote:

At this point I'm obviously looking for a new instructor. I'm torn on
whether I want to go through the bother of reporting this to the FBO.

I'd say no.. the chief pilot is likely aware of this instructor's style
and if it's an ongoing issue, chances are he'll be looking for a new job
soon enough.

Dallas. You are so wrong on this that it is scary.


If the FBO has several instructors, just call in again and tell whoever
answers the phone that you didn't think the chemistry was right and you'd
like to try again with another instructor. Consider describing what you
would like in a good instructor, FBOs are usually small places and the
person answering the phone could help you match up with someone else.

Why not try the other school first just to see what they are like? But
again, try to describe the type of instructor you'd like.

On Feb 10, 8:34*pm, DGS wrote:

What a great post...this one really made me feel better. *What you
describe here is a carbon copy of how I feel, especially the part
about questioning yourself and feeling like a failure

I'm glad I could help. You are not a failure because you had those
feelings. They are completely normal. Flying an airplane involves a
whole raft of new sensations and a big set of new skills. On that
first flight, the sensations are totally unfamiliar and the skills are
totally unlearned. With each successive flight you will chip away at
both until you become comfortable flying, and one day you will go from
"how am I ever going to be able to do this?" to "hey, I think I can do
this!".

The failure in this situation was the failure of the instructor to
prepare you for how overwhelming that first flight can be. From
reading other posts like yours here, I suspect that there are very few
instructors who talk about this. There are probably a number of
reasons they don't. They probably don't remember much about how they
felt on their first flight. Pilots tend toward macho, and talking
about feelings is not really a macho thing to do. And they want you
as a customer, so they don't want to paint flying lessons in a
negative light.

But you've got this group, and you've gotten a lot of good feedback.
I hope you keep at it. It's good to push yourself out of your comfort
zone once in a while. Flying will definitely challenge you, but it
doesn't require any superhuman abilities. Every day normal human
beings just like you get into airplanes and fly them. If they can do
it, so can you.

Phil

DGS writes:

Hard to tell but judging from his age and lack of compassion over the
situation it's very possible. I don't really know of a tactful way to
ask him this.

Ask him how long he has been an instructor. If the answer is twenty years,
he's probably not just instructing as a stepping stone to a professional
pilot's job. If the answer is six months, then he probably isn't a career
instructor.

I always find it odd that the FAA has set things up so that practically all
instructors are totally amateur teachers who care only about accumulating
hours. Seems like a dangerous way to teach new students.

Dgs,

Any feedback or experiences anyone can share?


Two things:

1. Re-evaluate your expectations of yourself. They are WAY too high!
Worrying about "not making any mistakes" on the discovery flight? The
instructor is there for your mistakes, so just stop worrying. If you
mess up, he'll be there to bail you out. You can't make no mistake
while you learn this.

2. RUN, don't walk from that instructor. Get a new one, someone you
click with. Shop around until you do.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Oh DGS, please ignore this guy (MXS). He is not a pilot, not a student,
just a wannabe who likes to pretend.

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Dallas wrote:

After the seat belt thing, I'd run away from this guy.

The spam cans I fly mention seat belts on at least three different
checklists, engine start / pre taxi, takeoff, and approach. G

Gig 601XL Builder wrote:

BINGO! We have a winner. That is exactly what you should have done and
isn't to late to still do it. One outcome is that he will give you
another discovery flight "on the house" with another instructor.


Good idea.

"John T" wrote in message
m...
"Peter Dohm" wrote in message


If you have the same problem that I do, and sometimes have a little
difficulty recalling seldom used words, you might consider a brief
page of crib notes at the back of your check list--at a towered
airport, where you are confused about the taxi route, the
nomenclature (IIRC) is "sequenced instructions" and an airport
diagram is a nearly indispensable asset as well.

"Progressive taxi" has worked well for me.

Oops, I did not recall correctly, and need to take my own advice about those
crib notes.

Peter

On Feb 12, 6:04 am, DGS wrote:

At this point I'm obviously looking for a new instructor. I'm torn on
whether I want to go through the bother of reporting this to the FBO.
There are only 2 in my city and I hate to burn a bridge.

Well you've met the worst instructor you could have so you now have
experience.
Though not one that any of us would wish upon any-one.
Through his lax attitude he put himself, you and the aircraft into a
pre incident situation.
Report him because if you don't one day soon you'll be reading about
him in an Accident Report