Discovery Flight today...unexpected results

On Mon, 11 Feb 2008 07:53:25 -0800, "gatt"
wrote:


"DGS" wrote in message
.. .

Another thing that left a bad taste in my mouth. After the flight was
over and we'd taxied back to the hanger he was climbing out of the
plane and realized he didn't have his seatbelt fastened. He laughed
about the fact that he had forgotten to do so.


He'd have failed his private and commercial checkrides, not to mention the
CFI pratical. Your pilot didn't have his head in the cockpit. Seatbelts
are right there on the checklist.

I dunno, I guess it's not a big deal, but I really kind of want someone
who maybe takes it all a
little more seriously.

Even if he -hadn't- gotten you up doing stalls, it's a big deal. Had that
turned into a spin you guys would have been all over the cockpit. Your
problem here isn't you, it was the so-called "instructor" who busted an
important safety regulation and demonstrated poor attention to detail in his
very first flight with you.

-c


Agreed. What I *should* have done was ask the instructor why he
wasn't using a checklist, however being totally new to real world
piloting I was intimidated and didn't do so. Had he used a checklist,
he would have remembered our belts (and again I will state
emphatically that I know for a fact that no checklist and NO seatbelts
were used). After we were done I should have notified the manager of
the FBO.

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.