Just Started Training, Already Concerned

Students and teachers (in aviation, medicine, karate, manners, anything really) should always remember that you can learn something from everyone. Sometimes you learn how not to do things from some people
 
Jesse Jetty said:
I go back up tomorrow morning. I’m scheduled with the first (good) instructor. We’ll see how it goes. I’m going to talk to him about my experience last week.
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Aaauughh, I can't take the suspense!!
What did he say?
Can you fly with First Guy?
Will Second Guy be fired?
Who killed Laura Palmer?
Who are the final five Cylons?
What does Rosebud mean?
To be or not to be?
Professor Plum, in the conservatory, with the knife? :) :)
Tell ussssss!!.....

Edit: seriously, I hope the conversation helped, and yielded some kind of a plan...
 
kath said:
Aaauughh, I can't take the suspense!!
What did he say?
Can you fly with First Guy?
Will Second Guy be fired?
Who killed Laura Palmer?
Who are the final five Cylons?
What does Rosebud mean?
To be or not to be?
Professor Plum, in the conservatory, with the knife? :) :)
Tell ussssss!!.....

Edit: seriously, I hope the conversation helped, and yielded some kind of a plan...
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So the weather was crap, I got about halfway to the school and my instructor called to cancel. I asked if I could get some simulator time since it’s an 85 mile drive one way. Got in the sim and instructor played on his phone most of the time. I got SOME good training out of it, but I’m really not impressed with this school at this point. We worked on slow flight, power on/off stalls and some IMC stuff.
 
Jesse Jetty said:
So the weather was crap, I got about halfway to the school and my instructor called to cancel. I asked if I could get some simulator time since it’s an 85 mile drive one way. Got in the sim and instructor played on his phone most of the time. I got SOME good training out of it, but I’m really not impressed with this school at this point. We worked on slow flight, power on/off stalls and some IMC stuff.
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What I'm reading in this thread is pointing toward this not being a very good school. Hopefully you don't allow these mediocre instructional experiences to muffle your interest in learning to fly, because they are not typical.
 
Uggghh. I'm so sorry this place is not showing any improvement...
Don't give up on flying. There ARE good 'uns (schools, instructors) out there.
 
They are being paid to instruct YOU. Not play on their phone.

Next time politely and calmly say "I am sorry but right now you are on my dime and I am not paying you to play on your phone. Please do that on your time'.
 
Jesse Jetty said:
So the weather was crap, I got about halfway to the school and my instructor called to cancel. I asked if I could get some simulator time since it’s an 85 mile drive one way. Got in the sim and instructor played on his phone most of the time. I got SOME good training out of it, but I’m really not impressed with this school at this point. We worked on slow flight, power on/off stalls and some IMC stuff.
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This was lesson 3?

What you shared here isn't providing encouragement they are truly interested in you as a student.... maybe your money, yes, but not you. My input about your situation is start looking for a different school. Yeah, that is going to suck, but I don't want you to come to the end of training with lackluster skills, and I sure don't want all of this training money wasted and you're in a spot that requires repeating many lessons.

That you asked for the sim shows that you have interest in learning, but instructor allowing you to do that and then doing the tasks you listed isn't a productive use of your current time.

If'n I was your instructor I would have said, "We can do some, but there is also some important ground school items we go over that will make you more comfortable/confident when we get back into the air. Let's do that for most of our time and then we can finish in the sim repeating some of the things we do in the classroom."

Then worked you through some key items like airport environment (aka signage, pavement stripes), communications, key V-speeds, and another item or two. So if your lesson was to be 90 minutes, do 50 minutes of that, take a 10 minute break, then put you in the sim to repeat the lesson with you "looking out the window" of the airplane. Have you taxi around a virtual airport and occasionally stopping the sim to point something out and have you tell me what that is and what it means and its importance. Then resetting you at the FBO and have you practice your radio work with me acting as ground/tower controller.

To me, slow flight and stalls in a sim are a waste of time. That needs to be in a real airplane. "IMC stuff" in a sim can work, but only if it the student has the ability to understand what is being taught. But, IMO, a "less than 5 lessons" student pilot isn't one of these.
 
It's difficult to evaluate the long term prospects here with such limited exposure. Give it some time. Go in with as positive an attitude as you can muster, smile at everyone, and radiate positivity. That tends to go a long way towards making a less-than-ideal situation better.

3 flights is not even scratching the surface -- as you know -- and everything seems like a chaotic whirlwind. As things start to settle into place you'll have better perspective with which to make a judgement call.
 
I just started my training last week and I was already overwhelmed on the ground while taxiing. I couldn't even make this thing go straight! My first flight lesson was only 0.5 hours (just 1 pattern and landed). He told me to take control even during the take off, although he put his hands on the control to help me. I thought it was a bit fast-paced, but according to the Jeppesen syllabus, we did all what the syllabus said for the first 0.5 hours of flight lesson. I was happy about that.

The syllabus says on the 3rd lesson (after 1.5 hours of flight) it requires 0.2 hours of "view-limiting device" training. I guess your instructor was just following the syllabus without considering the student's status.

https://html1-f.scribdassets.com/48kc43w05c4odx2k/images/61-54ff796da5.jpg
 
The VA is paying these Yahoo's tens of thousands of dollars, much of it up front, so if you're getting jerked around you need to hitch up your big boy pants and have a sit down with the head guy. This not following the syllabus and doing touch and goes before mastering basic turns and stalls is BS and totally unacceptable. The VA approved syllabi I'm familiar with are very structured and you're challenged to keep to a strict time schedule. If they go off track and waste your training time, you're the one that's losing out and the VA is wasting our tax dollars. Complain to the college admin if the chief pilot won't assign you a single instructor for continuity. You're going to have to pass phase checks that test what the syllabus (and your instructor) has you doing, not whatever some random instructor feels like doing. Your primary instructor should be accountable for your progress; if you don't fly with a primary instructor, he can't be held accountable and it's easy to say it's all on you. The post 9/11 GI Bill is a great opportunity--don't waste it or let them waste it for you.
 
pd8 said:
The syllabus says on the 3rd lesson (after 1.5 hours of flight) it requires 0.2 hours of "view-limiting device" training. I guess your instructor was just following the syllabus without considering the student's status.

https://html1-f.scribdassets.com/48kc43w05c4odx2k/images/61-54ff796da5.jpg
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I didn't train in that environment, and maybe a lot of others here didn't as well.

My training would sound bad initially as well. Lots of flights scrubbed for high wind, second lesson was ground lesson in the hangar (went over everything in detail in the pre-flight and had multiple de-cowled planes to look at systems, took a fuel sample and added a little water to see it separate). At the end it made sense: why fly a < 10 hr student in plane's max crosswind component weather. At the end it was reversed, we did a LOT of high wind training.
 
So did the OP ever come back to tell us how the next flight went? I scanned quickly through the thread and didn't see anything...
 
Mr.T said:
So did the OP ever come back to tell us how the next flight went? I scanned quickly through the thread and didn't see anything...
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I don't know, but I pity the fool if he don't come back and fill us in.
 
I’m still here. Things have been hectic recently. Family sick and trying to balance work and school. Anyway, I don’t know that the instruction is getting any better, but I’m starting to get more confident just getting more time in the air. I’ve primarily been with one instructor the last couple weeks, but I’m still bouncing between others occasionally. I finally got a copy of the syllabus. They’ve been following it for the most part, they have combined lessons a few times. I’m assuming just to make sure I stay on track since the weather isn’t cooperating. That’s what I get for starting flight training in the fall in Iowa.
 
Stick with it @Jesse Jetty! Sounds like you’re beginning to understand how it all works. As you progress you’ll become more comfortable and confident. Keep us up to date ok?
 
I'm not a fan of pilot mill programs. At all. But it sounds like your options are limited due to the GI bill. Will repeat what others have said. Do not allow them to forget that YOU are the customer and you are perfectly willing and able to take your business to their competition if necessary. That doesn't mean you have to (or even should) make threats. But you should make it clear that as the customer, you have expectations for them. Be a good customer and be polite but be firm and let them know that you do not appreciate them playing with their phone when they are being paid to work with you.
 
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