Choosing A Flight School

<sigh. /begin platitudes>

For effective flight training, you'll need to find a CFI you have a good relationship with. So, I recommend starting from the assumption that he or she is not some kind of crook out to milk you.
Be prepared to entrust the answers to questions like "whether I am competent/ready" to his or her judgement as an instructor. You're already trusting them with your safety, why not their judgement?
Assessing *your* judgment and attitude towards safety is part of the call they have to make. The call they are trained to make, to entrust you with a responsibility sealed with their signature, or not. So be nice. And listen.
It takes as long as it takes, and you can't take it personally. Everyone is different. Everyone hits different hurdles.
If you have a CFI with whom you don't have a relationship like this, then switch instructors.

</end platitudes>
 
I see you’ve gotten a POA welcome.

I recently finished my private certificate. I’m working on my instrument now. As far as finding a good CFI, I’d say it is in your favor that your CFI will be pretty good. I have flown with seven CFI’s so far thanks to endorsements I wanted to get and substitutions for my normal CFI being sick or something. While there are certainly some I mesh with better, I would have taken any one of them as my primary CFI and all of them genuinely cared about student progress. All of them helped me.

Also, for what it’s worth, your perspective may change. I thought since I was a grad student I wanted to finish my private as quick as possible and then come back a few years from now when I’m graduated to maybe do my instrument. I went ahead and started my instrument. Does it mean I’m flying a bit less than if I weren’t taking lessons? Probably. I’ve taken one true “personal” flight since I got my certificate. I found I really enjoy flying with an instructor because every single lesson shows me something new about aviation and I come awaybwith a greater appreciation for it than I had before the lesson. I know it’s cliche to say, “enjoy the journey,” but it is true. Enjoy the journey. Aviation is amazing world. Just relax, enjoy the opportunity to have the unique (relative) safety of a student to know nothing about something, and take in everything you can.
 
JP337 said:
Once again, unwarranted assumptions are being made. My basic question was long enough without going into detail of my life history. You can’t possibly know me or the number of hours in my logbook. I stated I have an interest in a Private Pilot Certificate. I didn’t feel it was warranted to mention my military records.
While I may be a bit rusty, I didn’t forget everything. My area of concern is adapting from military operations to civilian airspace. Two completely different worlds.
From the “attitudes” of some of the alleged CFIs, I’ll just remain silent, play their game, then if necessary, recover any loss through litigation. Some of us can financially afford lengthy court battles & some can’t.
It’s best to know who you are dealing with. I’m out. Thanks.
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This will be such a self fulfilling prophecy it’s not even funny!!

With your attitude no experienced good CFI is going to bother with you, tons of other students to pick from, and if you get dumped onto the high time CFIs plate they’ll probably fire you, chances are with your attitude you’re going to end up with the low time your builder who only cares about the Hobbs meter...because that’ll be the only CFI who will likely take you.


You're 100% going to be your biggest hurdle
 
I’d say that just like with anything else, you can probably plot CFIs on a bell curve with highly incompetent on the left and highly competent on the right side of the scale. But I’d also add that the curve is highly skewed to the right with a preponderance of the CFIs on the right side of the curve rather than the left or even the middle. If it were otherwise we’d have far less pilots and far more accidents.
 
JP337 said:
My son and I are seriously considering going after our private pilot certificates and I’m concerned about wasting money on unethical instructor(s).
The problem that “may” exist is the proverbial coyote guarding the chicken coup. I recently read that the average new pilot spends 65 hours in training when only 40 hours are required. Perhaps I’m questioning that simply because I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about... yet.
So... let’s assume a student absorbs everything an instructor has to offer and his skills are flawless. What is to stop an instructor to add more time merely to dig deeper into the student’s wallet?
How does one go about avoiding such issues? If encountered, what if anything could be done about it?
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Let's start with where you're located. Perhaps in another thread, titled "Looking for instructor in the Winslow, AZ area," since this one has already gone sour.

I don't see much in the OP's questions to take issue with. I'm sure many of us have had similar questions about other fields. He didn't say "It looks to me like most instructors are crooks," he asked "How do I make sure I don't get taken?" Two very much different things.

As was mentioned before, the 40 hours are a bare minimum. They're also an ancient standard from the days when most planes didn't have radios and most instruction happened at small fields in the countryside. You'd be airborne and in the practice area 5 minutes after engine start, maybe 10 minutes on a cold day and you had to wait for the oil temp to come up. Airports are bigger now so you spend more time taxiing and waiting for take off, most students spend more time talking to ATC, etc. There were simply fewer skills to master and fewer impediments to getting lessons done quickly.

The skills learned for a Recreational Pilot certificate are more similar to the way people learned when the 40 hour minimum was created.
 
mscard88 said:
Was going to respond, but I’m turned off by the OP’s ignorant comment about unethical CFIs.
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Meh, the OP is ignorant, but that's not a bad thing. He's seeking advice to cure his ignorance. To me, unethical CFIs is not a huge problem, not any more than unethical mechanics. Meet the CFI and make your own judgement of his/her character. If you don't like it, walk.
 
I'd say that you are going to learn at first from any CFI. If you've mastered all the skills that the CFI has introduced you to, and doesn't seem to be introducing you to new ones, then I'd say it's time to either solo, or get a new CFI. As for me, I'd never mastered all the skills necessary to solo before life got in the way. The next time I'm ready to start lessons, I'm going to take a previous poster's advice and get the toughest, most critical instructor available. I have Palo Alto, Moron Manetta, and Reid-Hillview to choose from.
 
This has been an entertaining thread. Thanks POA!

The original intent I think was fine. Nobody wants to be taken for a financial ride. Same thing as if you are applying for college or technical training. It’s a fair concern.

If the OP is as life-experienced as he claims though he should easily be able to tell if he’s being defrauded. Here’s a small tip: each lesson should mentally wear you out within an hour or two. Your brain will be mush after each lesson. I know mine was.

But the arrogance is a concern. OP, you are asking pilots for our opinion. You are getting our opinion. You are not the only one here with military service. And that doesn’t make one iota of difference. Nor does the credentials of your wife. The main thing is being safe in the air.

Looking back on my logs, almost half of my 130-something hours has been with an instructor. That’s how you learn and that’s how you stay safe.

If you are serious about this then get in a school or with an instructor and start training. If you have some uneasiness about being taken for a ride THEN post it here.

And btw, acting like a legal weenie and threatening hypothetical lawsuits does nothing but make you look like an effing jackhole. Knock that garbage off or see your way out.
 
I’m so glad I let this thread mature before contributing.

I was actually considering asking you where in Arizona you were, and possibly recommending the flight school that I used for my instrument rating.

Now I’ve just added a to-do to my list to call them and share this thread with them. I want to keep costs as low as possible and that means keeping people such as you away from them and out of court fighting jack holes such as you.
 
woodchucker said:
This has been an entertaining thread. Thanks POA!

The original intent I think was fine. Nobody wants to be taken for a financial ride. Same thing as if you are applying for college or technical training. It’s a fair concern.

If the OP is as life-experienced as he claims though he should easily be able to tell if he’s being defrauded. Here’s a small tip: each lesson should mentally wear you out within an hour or two. Your brain will be mush after each lesson. I know mine was.

But the arrogance is a concern. OP, you are asking pilots for our opinion. You are getting our opinion. You are not the only one here with military service. And that doesn’t make one iota of difference. Nor does the credentials of your wife. The main thing is being safe in the air.

Looking back on my logs, almost half of my 130-something hours has been with an instructor. That’s how you learn and that’s how you stay safe.

If you are serious about this then get in a school or with an instructor and start training. If you have some uneasiness about being taken for a ride THEN post it here.

And btw, acting like a legal weenie and threatening hypothetical lawsuits does nothing but make you look like an effing jackhole. Knock that garbage off or see your way out.
Click to expand...

Well said.
 
alfadog said:
Yes, some folks took a bit of umbrage at his original stance and instead of backing away from it a bit, he doubled down and doubled down again.
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I’ve experienced the type. Dropped them quickly, if I even started with them.
 
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