Frustrations of a CFI

drgwentzel

Pre-takeoff checklist
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I remember in grade school I would be sitting in class shaking like a leaf because I knew the teacher was about to collect our homework and I hadn’t completed mine. Sometimes it was because I forgot, but more often than not, I just chose not to do it. Typically, this was because the subject didn’t interest me and I didn’t appreciate its importance. In actuality, I guess I was just a typical adolescent.


As a flight instructor I am now on the opposite side of the fence. I am the teacher and my flight customers are my students. I am the one handing out homework, and I have to be honest, when a student doesn’t complete an assignment it is puzzling and confusing. This training is an endeavor they chose, it’s one they have obvious interest in, and they are clearly no longer a rebellious whipper-snapper. Further, the importance of the information cannot be understated and this is training they are directly paying for.


The reason for this post is an effort to assist students in understanding the importance of completing and comprehending the study materials we assign before a flight lesson.


As you probably have discovered, each lesson has a learning objective and an aviation skill to hone. Typically, we ask that you read a related chapter in a textbook or watch a relevant video, plan a cross country, or complete a navigation log prior to a flight. The efficacy of the flight exercise we are about to engage in would be significantly hobbled if you did not prepare in advance. Moreover, each flight lesson is a building block which supports each subsequent lesson to come. Without proper study, the house we are attempting to build is being forged on a very weak foundation.


When an aircraft is scheduled, it is usually for only 2 hours or so and let’s break down a typical encounter:


After the usual pleasantries and small talk 10 to 15 minutes pass. The instructor knows that there will be significant time spent walking out to the plane, performing a pre-flight, calling for fuel, adding oil, completing checklists, starting-up, warming-up, running-up, taxiing and flying to the practice area…so he or she looks at their watch, closes their eyes and inquires with trepidation…


“…ok, so, did you read the chapter I assigned which covered Sectional Charts and emergencies procedures?”


The student is caught off guard by the question and begins a sheepish apology of:

“Ah, yea…I ah…well… sort of…I mean I ah.… you know...might of missed a little…or some…you know…basically all of it.”


It is now clear the quality of the lesson is compromised. The instructor won’t reprimand the student, send them to the principal’s office or demand penance, but trust me, the sentence is close at hand!


Now, instead of just a 5 or 10 minute synopsis of the lesson plan, the instructor must give a 90 minute lecture compressed into a hasty 30 to 40 minute oration of the subject matter.


This student arrived at the airport with the excitement of flight, but unfortunately they just deprived themselves of precious air time. They are now ground-bound, forced into self-inflicted atonement for the sins of educational neglect. They are sentenced to sit in a windowless classroom and listen to a middle-aged man droning on about some topic on a beautiful Saturday morning…one with the Sun bright, the sky blue, the winds calm and an aircraft beckoning from its tie-down. For pity’s sake, I beg you to avoid putting yourself in this position!


There is so much more to becoming a pilot than stick and rudder skills. You are going to need extensive knowledge of aerodynamics, the weather, aircraft systems, cross-country planning, ATC communications, FAA regulations, aeronautical charts, the POH, and the list goes on. It is for pity’s sake that I implore you to study your assigned material before for the scheduled flight.


Escape the mindset that it is only your job to show up, sit inertly at a desk while an instructor pours knowledge into your head. This attitude is deeply flawed, because becoming a safe and knowledgeable aviator is not a passive activity…it is an active process; you and only you must take charge, take the initiative and take command of your learning.


After solo, the instructor’s role transitions from teacher, to evaluator, to passenger, to peer. Therefore, take ownership of each flight!


In closing, your instructor will always be there as your mentor, your guide and your most dedicated supporter, but understand it remains your responsibility and it benefits only you to complete required assignments, to comprehend the material, to show up prepared, and to ask relevant questions.


Gene Wentzel, ATP, CFII
 
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I was that student. I simply wanted to fly. I drank beers and watched youtube videos of other people flying instead of reading the PIM, FAR/AIM, PTS, etc.

About 20 hours in I had a stage check, and failed horribly. My CFI was scolded by the boss, because he was way too nice to me. I felt horrible and got my stuff together quickly, and that is when the challenges and the rewards kicked in.
 
Exact same missive, but I'm teaching computer science. Far too many of my students haven't turned in homework since early October, finals are tomorrow, and I won't even bother grading the exams. Waste of my time when the sun is shining, light winds, and I want to go flying.
 
How long have you been instructing? I am wondering if it has gotten worse in recent years.
 
I approach teaching as a sales process.

We regularly go over the syllabus and the short term goals and I work to show them the value of the homework and what plan B is if they don’t do the homework.

We stay focused on their goals and the costs.

I have had good success with this process.

My clients are often not local so an additional cost is added for travel.

It is rare that we get started with less than an hour briefing or finish with less than a fifty minute debrief.

Some of the time is spent reviewing or planning the homework.

Most of my clients are more than a half century old and it has been a long time since they have been responsible for homework. They are successful and are often used to being in charge. Trying to force them to do anything doesn’t work well.

I am a fairly new CFI; although not new to teaching. Perhaps I will become frustrated as time goes by.

So far sharing the joy of flight is one of the most enjoyable things I have done for compensation.
 
It's always been this way with (most) students. They love the romance of learning to fly but aren't crazy for all the bookwork that goes along with it.

I've had a few students come to me in the past that already had the written test passed. They were much easier to teach. Not only were they motivated but understood the basics.

A pilots certificate is earned. There is no other way.
 
I’m not sure what you mean by recent but when I was a full time instructor in the late 90’s I had the same issue with some of my students.

I'm sure you did. I'm wondering if that "some" is a larger percentage now than it was before.
 
Not sure I ever assigned a chapter to a student
 
“Well since you didn’t study I can’t proceed with today’s lesson. But seeing that you’re paying for me time and the aircraft anyway, wanna just take a discovery flight through the neighborhood? We can proceed with the lesson once you’ve studied”

Bet that will be the last time the student does that. Either way you’re not losing anything financially.
 
Not to diminish your personal frustration but that didn't bother me when I was instructing. If my student was a very self motivated quick learner, I could spend the vast majority of the time flying with them/saving them money. If they wanted me to read to them/lazy/not quick learner, I'd spend much more time on ground lessons/ultimately charging them more in the long run. Unlike grade school, these are voluntary paying customer that can pay me to teach them to fly or for me to read to them or whatever combination they want/need. On our initial briefing, and periodically along the way, I explained the best/most efficient way to get to their goal. It just never bothered me either way and they were all required to meet the same standards in the end.

I had a very rich guy (dad started an airline) that literally didn't want to touch the controls or learn a single thing about flying. He was just trying to pacify his dad and paid me to fly him around for many hours/several months. Kept thinking maybe he'd change his mind and get interested but nope, oh well.

My CFI frustration: "right rudder, right rudder, right rudder" :)
 
As a skydiving instructor I routinely had to 'call to the carpet' students who were jacking around in class or not taking things very seriously. Granted the classroom instruction portion was done in the course on one day, but it was serious business and I didn't tolerate monkey business (unless it was actually the PoA monkey). If another instructor was doing the class and had 'that guy' they usually called me to help with the class. I was the designated A-Hole
 
After solo, the instructor’s role transitions from teacher, to evaluator, to passenger, to peer. Therefore, take ownership of each flight!

Gene Wentzel, ATP, CFII

This was something that took some time for me but once I began to treat my instructor as a passenger/peer, rather than a safety blanket, that is when I started to feel confidence and really make the most progress. Take ownership and be confident in your decisions. If your instructor doesn't like or agree with it, they will speak up.
 
Exact same missive, but I'm teaching computer science. Far too many of my students haven't turned in homework since early October, finals are tomorrow, and I won't even bother grading the exams. Waste of my time when the sun is shining, light winds, and I want to go flying.

Hmm... scantron cures that problem. Even better throw them in the testing center if its a college level course.

Cure for all of the above is offer FREE pre- and post flight briefing if less than 15 minutes. If you love charging ground time, raise the hobbs time rate. My CFI didn't charge except hobbs, I appreciated it and made sure I read everything he asked plus some.
 
Cure for all of the above is offer FREE pre- and post flight briefing if less than 15 minutes. If you love charging ground time, raise the hobbs time rate. My CFI didn't charge except hobbs, I appreciated it and made sure I read everything he asked plus some.

"Love" charging ground time? You make it sound like those who do charge for ground time are trying to get every dollar we can out of our clients. You can't make a statement like that without expecting a response.

I don't "love" charging ground time any more than any other; I charge for my time. My time is worth the same to me whether I'm in the airplane or not. I charge in 15-minute increments and generally round down. What we flew in the airplane is irrelevant for that purpose. It keeps the math easy. Note that all my clients are flying their own airplanes and paying me directly, it is not going through a school or anything like that.
 
Since I don't teach for a living I tell students upfront, I do not spoon feed. If you are not prepared it shows me you do not have the passion to fly, and fly safely. I'm out of there, I will explain forever something they don't understand as long as they are putting in the effort to learn, but if they are just trying to get by, so long.
 
Should a passing grade on the written and a 3rd class medical be prereqs for flight instruction?
 
"Love" charging ground time? You make it sound like those who do charge for ground time are trying to get every dollar we can out of our clients. You can't make a statement like that without expecting a response.

I don't "love" charging ground time any more than any other; I charge for my time. My time is worth the same to me whether I'm in the airplane or not. I charge in 15-minute increments and generally round down. What we flew in the airplane is irrelevant for that purpose. It keeps the math easy. Note that all my clients are flying their own airplanes and paying me directly, it is not going through a school or anything like that.
+1. My CFI charged me for ground time and briefs. I happily paid him. Some of the most important things I’ve learned were from pre briefs and de briefs. I charge for my briefs as well. It’s not that I want or need your money. I don’t stop instructing once we get out of the plane.
 
I don't teach courses that can be simplified to scantron exams or homework.

1) How to get fired your first day on the job...

a) DROP DATABASE;
b) Not bringing the senior DBA a cup of coffee.
c) Believing a System working for 20 years really has a really big problem when the users realize there’s a fresh new face in the DBA office, and jump you.
d) Telling the DBA you can fix it all with a quick Python script.
e) Starting an argument that Java is the proper fix for anything.
f) All of the above.

 
It's ironic people think a CFI is milking a student charging for ground. I'm sure there are some that do but vast majority don't.
 
1) How to get fired your first day on the job...

a) DROP DATABASE;
b) Not bringing the senior DBA a cup of coffee.
c) Believing a System working for 20 years really has a really big problem when the users realize there’s a fresh new face in the DBA office, and jump you.
d) Telling the DBA you can fix it all with a quick Python script.
e) Starting an argument that Java is the proper fix for anything.
f) All of the above.


one of the above is not true ... guess which? :)
 
The OP statements are why I think I am done instructing after many years. I find students now want things spoon fed to them. I usually assign blocks of questions they take home to work on. I explain all the answers can be found in all the books I have suggested they buy, and that they even spent money on. But when it comes time to review the answers. I can tell right away they just google the question and get a quick answer. I explain that they need to have an understanding of the information, not just have an answer that they really don't know what it means. I tell them "go home, read A, B, C, any questions or anything you don't quite understand we will go over when we meet again". I find they never read anything, can't answer anything I ask them about the topics. It is where student pilots want to get their license like a drivers license. I tell them we can sit for hours upon hours and go step by step in the information that needs to be learned, and I will make a lot of money doing that if that's what they choose. I really don't have the patience or motivation to spend 60 to 80 hours ground on a student. I have high standards when it comes to my students, I expect them to take the time to study and learn. I am not there to hold their hand. I am their to teach them. But I find most students are lazy about it now. Sad part is, I am hearing this from many instructors that I am friends with across the country.
 
In my opinion the aircraft is not a great place to teach people to fly.

There is a lot going on and lots of things to pay attention to in the air.

I feel the aircraft is a good place to demonstrate what has been taught on the ground in the preflight briefing and measure understanding and performance.

I feel the debrief is a good place to ask questions, explain what did and didn’t work well and figure out how to do better.

On the ground it is just the cost for me; in the air the cost of the aircraft is added.

In my opinion the class room is a better place to teach and less expensive than dual instruction.

I would like to see more room in the logbook for the details of ground instruction so the DPE can see if the required subjects have been covered.

I am fairly low time flight instructor so perhaps I will change my mind with time.

I feel there are many ways to teach people to fly and this is just one of them.

I am an independent flight instructor and can adjust the teaching to the client.
 
I had a prof who made it clear to us "if you don't do your homework, I won't do mine. My homework is grading exams."

So when the exams came, we had to set our completed homework on the corner of our desk. While we completed the exam he would walk around and review our homework. I guess it gave him something to do during the exam period.

He got to about the 4th person and his homework was sitting there blank. He said, "You didn't do any of this? Might as well stop now since I won't be grading it"

The guy got up and walked and walked out, as did 3 or 4 others who apparently hadn't done their homework either!
 
"Love" charging ground time? You make it sound like those who do charge for ground time are trying to get every dollar we can out of our clients. You can't make a statement like that without expecting a response.

I don't "love" charging ground time any more than any other; I charge for my time. My time is worth the same to me whether I'm in the airplane or not. I charge in 15-minute increments and generally round down. What we flew in the airplane is irrelevant for that purpose. It keeps the math easy. Note that all my clients are flying their own airplanes and paying me directly, it is not going through a school or anything like that.

I am a salaried commercial pilot with flight time bonuses for a small commercial operator. To fill in the gaps in the work we offer instruction. When I instruct I generally provide the 15 minute Pre and Post Flight Brief free of charge to the customer. I can do this because I am getting paid (a little) for the time anyway and the company can do it because Flight instruction is only about 5% of what we do and the customer is paying for the aircraft and keeps coming back. That said, if the student shows up unprepared I will take the time to make sure that they are prepared and then charge them for the extra time. It encourages them to get things done on their own and punishes therm for their failure to do so.
 
RE: charging ground instruction time

This is a topic I'm very torn on

Before we had our own business I found it was somewhat in "poor taste" to charge a student for two hours of instruction time, when really the HOBBS was 1.74 and there wasn't any actual ground work involved, IE, the student preflighted, instructor sat in, you flew, then came back and student buttoned up. Flying is expensive enough as it is, so I felt like this was kind of a low blow to many people. There is a club here (I don't use them ever for instruction, just renting sometimes) that charges "handshake to handshake" .. even if that means the instructor since in the office for 20 minutes while you preflight the plane for a checkout (read, not real instruction).. I find that pretty aggressive.

Imagine if the club charged the airplane time you had the plane, not the HOBBS time? The plane is also worth something to the school, so they could easily make the argument that you pay for the time you rent it, not fly it. You book it from 10am - 4pm... guess what you pay 6 hrs even if HOBBS was 4.2

**THEN we built our own business.. so I can understand better why instructors do this now... many guys aren't part of a school, just run their own business. If you book your guy for 2 hours, then you better expect he'll charge you for 2.. even if Mr.Hobbs says 1.74

Still kind of torn though..

My time is worth the same to me whether I'm in the airplane or not.
Not you personally, but this is where I sometimes have a hard time with that. The instructor is not teaching the student anything when they're shooting the breeze walking out to the plane, waiting for the fuel truck, etc.

So I still feel like, unless you need legit ground instruction time then it still seems kind of harsh to me to charge someone a full hourly instruction rate when there is no instruction actually happening


My $0.02. You guys will tell me how wrong I am... maybe I am. Not a CFI/II but we do have our business so we do "get it"
 
Been there. I had one charge me for all of their time once.

We were flying MY plane, and I was fueling it. During the fueling she went to the ladies room and spoke to her husband on the mobile phone. I didn't care... until she charged me for the whole time block and I'm like "What did I learn during that" and she said that I consumed her time and had to pay for it.

Needless to say, that never happened again, and I didn't allow her to use her mobile phone in my plane.
 
I've been that student, but not normally so. Flying is expensive. Families are time-consuming. I've got a day-job that demands 60+ hrs/week from me. Sometimes I just don't have time to do all my homework. Since I'm paying my instructor regardless, I accept my failure,confess my sins, and move on. I certainly don't expect to be signed-off for a check-ride until I meet that instructor's standards (which I want to be higher than PTS). Of course it'll take me longer to finish up the rating, but it's my dime ... I see it as a win for the instructor.

If my instructor isn't OK with me, or I'm not OK with my instructor, there are plenty of other instructors out there. I've never had reason to switch though ... maybe just lucky so far.
 
In

I would like to see more room in the logbook for the details of ground instruction so the DPE can see if the required subjects have been covered.
.

No reason why you can't use 2 lines, 3 even, to record ground instruction along with the flight instruction, or in the back of the logbook. Fills the student's logbook up quicker too so they can move on to their 2nd logbook! Win Win.
 
Oh man, you got me on a roll now!

RE: charging ground instruction time

This is a topic I'm very torn on

Before we had our own business I found it was somewhat in "poor taste" to charge a student for two hours of instruction time, when really the HOBBS was 1.74 and there wasn't any actual ground work involved, IE, the student preflighted, instructor sat in, you flew, then came back and student buttoned up.

If there is no actual instruction of any sort going on before and after the flight, the instructor (IMO) is doing it wrong. I have never once showed up at the airport and literally hopped in the plane and later, left as soon as the engine stopped. Preflight/postflight review is almost more important than the actual flight. I'm going to spend around 15 minutes on each end providing you with that beneficial review. Sure, it might be less sometimes. But maybe more.

There is a club here (I don't use them ever for instruction, just renting sometimes) that charges "handshake to handshake" .. even if that means the instructor since in the office for 20 minutes while you preflight the plane for a checkout (read, not real instruction).. I find that pretty aggressive.

I tell my clients that they are free to get there before I do and preflight the airplane (assuming they're at that point in their training). If we're scheduled at 4:00, and they get there at 4:00 to start their preflight, well, that's time I could have been with another student or at home with my family. So, yes, I'll charge.

Note that I work solely with aircraft owners and club members, for whom aircraft scheduling back-to-back is usually not an issue. Of course I'd make allowances for that, if say, the previous guy returned the plane late.

Been there. I had one charge me for all of their time once.

We were flying MY plane, and I was fueling it. During the fueling she went to the ladies room and spoke to her husband on the mobile phone. I didn't care... until she charged me for the whole time block and I'm like "What did I learn during that" and she said that I consumed her time and had to pay for it.

Needless to say, that never happened again, and I didn't allow her to use her mobile phone in my plane.

I agree with you on that specific case. However, I want to temper it a little bit - I have had clients scheduled at, say, 4:00. I get to the hangar at 3:55, they've preflighted, we discuss what we're going to do, get in the airplane, and then they say "mind if we taxi over to the pumps to get some gas first?" No, I don't mind, because I'm still charging you for my time while you fill up. Next time, how about I just meet you at the pumps at 4:00, where you've already taxied the plane after your preflight and had everything ready to go? It sounds harsh maybe, but hey, my time is important to me.

I've been that student, but not normally so. Flying is expensive. Families are time-consuming. I've got a day-job that demands 60+ hrs/week from me. Sometimes I just don't have time to do all my homework. Since I'm paying my instructor regardless, I accept my failure,confess my sins, and move on.

I think we've all been there, where sometimes we don't get done what we need to. That's not really a problem. Life happens. It's the person who NEVER does their homework that's an issue.
 
My instructor had someone approach him about flying lessons. The 'kid' was in college and wanted to know if he could just learn to fly but skip all the reading and studying... The CFI told him 'You're essentially wasting your time and mine doing something like that. If you're determined to give me your money just to go flying, I guess that's one thing. But, you're not going to ever become a pilot that way.'
 
Thanks @RussR that's a very reasonable and pragmatic way of doing it. But I've had situations, especially during new club checkouts, like @Ravioli described where I was charged an additional 20 minutes of time while the CFI was nowhere to be found.. that bothered me
 
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