15 Hour Wonders

On Tuesday, December 10, 2019 at 9:31:15 AM UTC-5, wrote:
I believe it was George Benard Shaw who said "He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches," in "Maxims for Revolutionists, Man and Superman," 1903. A more recent addition to this phase is "he who cannot teach, teaches teachers."

While I don't completely agree with this it has been my experience that there are those who are cut out to teach and others who clearly are not. I had the good fortune to always find myself in the hands of those with tens of thousands of hours both flying and teaching. My private and commercial were at the hands of a WW2 P51 pilot who instructed in the T6 for the Army Air Corps and later the USAF as a contact instructor and another who had flown the Ford TriMotor for an airline. My commercial glider add on was from a guy with thousands of glider flights, grey hair, an amazing level of skill and the proper personality and temperment to be an instructor. I have since added a private/rotorcraft certificate with a far younger instructor, relatively low time and about 1/3rd my age, such is the status quo at whirlybird schools. I was able to see the stark difference in communications and teaching technique.

My concern is not with the amount of time an instructor has but with his or her "ability to teach," to impart information and to know when the student has adequately achieved that level of skill. One can have amazing skills in the glider, skills that many top level Senior and National Champion racing competitors might not have and still not be able to judge when a student is ready to solo, allowing ones ego to get in the way of safety. I believe I have experienced this first hand as a tow pilot. I would strongly advise that any commercial or club operation closely supervise new CFIGs and before they solo a student to have the chief instructor ride with that student. The helicopter flight school with which I am now involved does this and it makes sense. While a new instructor may be up to date on rules and regulations and fresh from a check ride, there is NO substitute for experience.

Walt Connelly

Well put Walt, you hit the nail on the head. I like you have been around this game for quiet a few years, have seen many accidents and have watched several new instructors tell students the opposite of what they should know. There is no substitute for experience, I remember the instructor that endorsed me for my checkride back in the 70's. A very good instructor and qualified to say the least, his obit noted that he had 60 thousand hours of flight time. When Bill Harris wasn't flying for Delta he was at the glider club in Miami teaching. When Mary Gaffaney was called to do the checkride there was never a question about the students ability. The common factor there was experience, plain and simple and never any doubt when Mary was called to examine.
Our club has very good experienced instructors, and my towplanes are safe as you have observed. Our club double checks with two instructors prior to taking a student to the checkride phase. Just last weekend one of our instructors asked me to get another instructor to confirm the students ability prior to the checkride. That instructor happened to be CFI in rotor and aircraft along with CFIG and when he is not flying a G5, or his helicopter, or Staggerwing he is teaching in gliders for volunteer work at the club. The big attribute is experience and there is no substitute for it.