My first solo - and the worst flight of my life

Jim Logajan wrote:

Keep in mind that the OP mentioned the name of a real flight school:

"We return to Monarch Air...." and the handle he chose, "Monarch
Student," suggests to me, at least, that the story is real. I think it
unlikely that a troll would have mentioned or implied any real flight
school name that could be checked out.


Maybe a competitor, or someone with a grudge against 'Jake'?

"Monarch Student" wrote in message
...
My flight instructor is a new guy, about 25 who's never taught students
before a
month ago. But he seems to know his stuff, so I've put up with him for
this long.
snip

As a student you do not have the knowledge to properly judge whether this
'guy' 'knows his stuff' but there is more to being an instructor than just
being a good pilot. This 'guy' does not sound like he received very good
instructor training and he needs you to give him some.

So should I get a new instructor?
snip
Any advice would be appreciated. I'm beginning to hate flying, which
is sad because I began learning thinking it would be fun.

Flight students need to learn two things in order to become a pilot.

The techniques of maneuvering an aircraft are an obvious requirement as is
the knowledge needed to plan and manage flight safely and according to
applicable regulation.

The most important thing that a student must understand and perform is the
ability to act as Pilot in COMMAND. As a pilot you are responsible for all
aspects of safe flight and must ultimately accept responsibility for all the
factors and decisions affecting the flight. As a student you are also in
command of your learning. Only you can decide how much studying you require
and how much preparation you need to make each lesson productive. You must
constantly monitor your learning performance and evaluate the effectiveness
of all aspects of your training including the performance of any instructor
you hire. YOU are in command and for this privilege you get to pay (lots).

All students are individuals and each has unique learning styles and needs.
As the student in command only you can evaluate whether any instructor is
providing the training that you require.

Personally, I require instruction that is respectful and supportive of
myself and my efforts. For me flight is primarily an intellectually
challenging form of recreation and I demand that it be pleasant and above
all FUN. It is my money and I expect to receive a quality experience and I
expect an environment that allows me to learn and succeed.

Based only on your description, your 'guy' failed to provide the learning
environment that I would require. He also displayed shocking disregard for
safe cockpit procedure not only by a hostile and bullying posture but also
by failing to teach and ensure the required proper transfer of control ("I
have control / you have control"). I regard this as a basic safety issue
and for me would be grounds for immediate termination of both the flight and
the relationship. The lack of a proper (required by regulation?) debriefing
and the unprofessional behavior exhibited by this 'guy' would make me
question the school standards as established by the chief flying instructor.

I would suggest that you print out your initial post and the many thoughtful
replies and forward them to the chief flying instructor and the owner of
your (probably previous) school.

There are lots of professional and experienced instructors (and schools) who
will be happy to provide a much better learning environment that will make
flying fun for you again. Do not worry about any possible hit to your
progress as you now know what you need to avoid and I suspect your
performance will improve quickly with proper coaching. I suspect that your
'guy' has missed some important lessons but you are not so far along that
these deficiencies will be permanent. Most of us have trained with several
different instructors and many of us would advocate it.

Good luck and above all, have fun.
Congratulations on soloing.

Monarch Student wrote:

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm beginning to hate flying, which
is sad because I began learning thinking it would be fun.

Lordy Lordy, you need to get another instructor, or even another
flight school. That type of behavior is totally unacceptable.

If the chief flight instructor has any integrity you could talk
to him.

Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:


You know, Dudley, when I read his story my first thought was we were being
trolled (again).

So did I.

Jim Logajan wrote:
Keep in mind that the OP mentioned the name of a real flight school:

"We return to Monarch Air...." and the handle he chose, "Monarch
Student," suggests to me, at least, that the story is real. I think it
unlikely that a troll would have mentioned or implied any real flight
school name that could be checked out.


Or he's got some axe to grind.

"Dudley Henriques" wrote in message
...

Secondly, if I were you, I'd never fly with this outfit again and find
another CFI immediately.

I don't see it as a black mark against the outfit, only the CFI.

Now, if the OP talks to the chief instructor and isn't happy with the reply,
find another outfit. One advantage I see is that staying with the same
outfit reduces the chances of having to start all over.

Thank you for all your helpful replies. I made up the name of the
flight school and instructor, to keep it anonymous and not to get
anyone in trouble. I will have a talk with him, and get the situation
resolved.

Thanks again for everyone's comments.

"Monarch Student" wrote in message
...
I left this morning for my first supervised solo. My flight
instructor is a new guy, about 25 who's never taught students before a
month ago. But he seems to know his stuff, so I've put up with him
for this long.

Until today.

We take off from Addison to McKinney TX airport, arrive at McKinney
and begin pattern work. Apparently my pattern wasn't tight enough so
my instructor who I guess is having a bad morning starts yelling at
the top of his lungs, "90 KEEP IT AT ****ING 90 ON DOWNWIND!!". I
look down at the airspeed, which is at 87. He slaps my hand away from
the throttle, and mashes it in. The nose comes up and he hammers the
yoke with his hands so the plane pitches down suddenly. "Watch your
altitude", he says.

SNIP rest of story

I would have fired him on the spot and told him to land the damn airplane
himself.

Monarch Student wrote:
I left this morning for my first supervised solo. My flight
instructor is a new guy, about 25 who's never taught students before a
month ago. But he seems to know his stuff, so I've put up with him
for this long.

Until today.

We take off from Addison to McKinney TX airport, arrive at McKinney
and begin pattern work. Apparently my pattern wasn't tight enough so
my instructor who I guess is having a bad morning starts yelling at
the top of his lungs, "90 KEEP IT AT ****ING 90 ON DOWNWIND!!". I
look down at the airspeed, which is at 87. He slaps my hand away from
the throttle, and mashes it in. The nose comes up and he hammers the
yoke with his hands so the plane pitches down suddenly. "Watch your
altitude", he says.

We come in for a landing, on a regular runway with no displaced
threshold. He's yelling to keep it at 70 and pitches the yoke down.
We're headed directly for the grass in front of the runway. I ask if
we can land about fifty feet farther in because at this angle we'll be
right on the grass/lights. McKinney is over 6k long, so we have room.
And it's 2 days before Thanksgiving so hardly any traffic is present.

He says no (seemed like a reasonable request), yells, yells more and
my landing which is now low because of our airspeed and him not
allowing me to slightly power it to make it farther in, sucks. We
stop on the runway, and next pattern he simulates an engine failure. I
pitch for about 70, and get, "SIXTY-EIGHT. WHAT'S YOUR ****ING BEST
GLIDE? SIXTY-EIGHT!!". There's no way to make it to the runway, at
all even with 68. I get yelled at for being too far away, but the
tower asked us to be because of incoming traffic.

Jake smashes in the throttle and yells "GO AROUND!", forcing the yoke
forward because the nose pitched up (thanks to him hammering the
throttle in) then yelling at me for that.

At this point, I'm ready just to go home. But I consider it wasted
money, and probably better to let him scream for 10 more minutes and
I'll probably get to solo.

Sure enough, after two more landings I solo. "DON'T RUN ME OVER WHEN
YOU ****ING COME BACK", he says.

90 downwind, tight pattern, smooth landings. The McKinney tower guy
even told my instructor after he got back in that my pattern and
landings looked great, but I forgot to announce my callsign once, I
didn't center line all the landings, etc etc all announced on the
tower frequency. Thanks McKinney ATC guy! *sigh*

We return to Monarch Air, he says tie up the plane and hurry up.
Coming into the "office", there's 4 instructors standing there, all
not talking, avoiding eye contact and Jake in a chair looking down
with his hand outstretched for the key. No good solo (which is was),
congrats, nadda from anyone. And thus I left, no happy Thanksgiving,
see ya when I get back, almost like Jake just wanted me to get the
hell out of his face.

So should I get a new instructor? Mine seems like a miserable human
being. If I was a bad student, maybe I could understand. But the
senior instructor that's flown with me on progress flights called me
"significantly better than average".

How much of a hit would I take changing instructors this far in? Does
asking for a new one (preferrably with some experience) label me as a
problem student with the school?

Is it too much to ask, to be allowed a few feet into the runway if I'm
more comfortable with it?

Any advice would be appreciated. I'm beginning to hate flying, which
is sad because I began learning thinking it would be fun.
There is absolutely NO excuse for that type of behavior. Get another
instructor. There are plenty of flight schools about the north Texas
area. I am up in Sherman. Let us know what comes of this.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
KSWI

Monarch Air has schools at both Addison, from whence they took off, and at
McKinney, where he soloed. I have taken training at the latter from a very
competent instructor. I think it's this particular instructor, not the
school.

Rod
"Jim Logajan" wrote in message
.. .
"Dudley Henriques" wrote:
"Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com wrote in message
...
Dudley Henriques wrote:
Well, first of all, congratulations for not killing yourself under a
first
solo condition I would consider possibly one of the worst I've ever
seen in
print.

You know, Dudley, when I read his story my first thought was we were
being trolled (again). There's been a lot of that here lately.

Could be Mort.

Keep in mind that the OP mentioned the name of a real flight school:

"We return to Monarch Air...." and the handle he chose, "Monarch
Student," suggests to me, at least, that the story is real. I think it
unlikely that a troll would have mentioned or implied any real flight
school name that could be checked out.

Also, there is at least one Monarch Air flight school based out of
Dallas Texas:

http://www.monarchair.com/