Student Pilot / Instructor Expectation?

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zemmad

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Sep 27, 2019
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Zemmad
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I’m a new student who just completed ground school. My first flight instruction was in a simulator. Next instruction, preflight. Next instruction preflight again, then flight to practice area to do left and right turns with increase and drop in altitude. Next class three landing and take offs in pattern where I did one take off and one line up through down wind, base and final. Next flight more preflight time then intro to slow flight and stalls. Had to demonstrate slow flight once and went back to airport. Next class...fuel missing, then had to wait an hour, went to practice area and did one power on stall by instructor, then I did one and went back to airport where I lined up for landing again.

Is this the typical approach to initial flight training? I have only 4 hours logged. It seems I’ve paid for almost 10 hours of ground related activity before the engine starts.

Is this typical where I do less actual flying in the beginning? I’m worry that my instructor is just using all possible time to bill me for instructor time to prolong my training. Seeking other opinions.
 
zemmad said:
Background

I’m a new student who just completed ground school. My first flight instruction was in a simulator. Next instruction, preflight. Next instruction preflight again, then flight to practice area to do left and right turns with increase and drop in altitude. Next class three landing and take offs in pattern where I did one take off and one line up through down wind, base and final. Next flight more preflight time then intro to slow flight and stalls. Had to demonstrate slow flight once and went back to airport. Next class...fuel missing, then had to wait an hour, went to practice area and did one power on stall by instructor, then I did one and went back to airport where I lined up for landing again.

Is this the typical approach to initial flight training? I have only 4 hours logged. It seems I’ve paid for almost 10 hours of ground related activity before the engine starts.

Is this typical where I do less actual flying in the beginning? I’m worry that my instructor is just using all possible time to bill me for instructor time to prolong my training. Seeking other opinions.
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Are you learning new things each time?
 
In my case, ground to flight instruction was about a 1:1 ratio. 1hr of ground and 1 hour of flight time on average.

Might think about having a chat with your instructor and see what the typical progression is like under their syllabus.
 
It would appear that your instructor has a boat payment coming due. Get a syllabus, as suggested above, and see how the building block method works. Your instructor is your employee, so tell him/her to follow the syllabus. Each new lesson should build on what was learned during the previous lesson.

Bob Gardner
 
Too much flight time in one day isn’t good. You’ll get burnt out. Ask your CFI for a syllabus. You should be doing a healthy mix of ground and flying.
 
The progression of topics sounds normal. (Straight and level, turns, climbs, decents, takeoffs and (intro to) landings, slow flight, stalls...)

Four hours of flight logged over four lessons seems low. But it can depend on your airport (how fast you can get to your practice area) and on you (how fast you seemed to be absorbing things during the lesson). For most people, 1.5 hours per flight is about when the brain gets fried.

Ten hours of ground logged over four lessons seems excessive. Although it is normal for a lot of ground at the beginning, less and less as you progress.

Doing the first lesson in a simulator is unusual.

Having an airplane (or weather) problem that disrupts or delays a lesson is very very normal.
 
I am not so concerned about how much ground you do as I am about how little you apparently do in flight, e.g.:

"went to practice area and did one power on stall by instructor, then I did one and went back to airport where I lined up for landing again."

All you did was two stalls and a landing, really? How long was this flight? It would be interesting to see what your logbook looks like on those flights. As a CFI, on the student's first 2 or 3 or 4 flights, I can barely fit everything we did in the space available, even with micro-print and overflowing into other columns (I know some instructors use multiple lines in such cases).
 
You need a syllabus that you can reference during your training. Have a talk with your instructor to determine a time span .
 
dmspilot said:
I am not so concerned about how much ground you do as I am about how little you apparently do in flight, e.g.:

"went to practice area and did one power on stall by instructor, then I did one and went back to airport where I lined up for landing again."

All you did was two stalls and a landing, really? How long was this flight? It would be interesting to see what your logbook looks like on those flights. As a CFI, on the student's first 2 or 3 or 4 flights, I can barely fit everything we did in the space available, even with micro-print and overflowing into other columns (I know some instructors use multiple lines in such cases).
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The flight was logged as 0.6
 
bobmrg said:
It would appear that your instructor has a boat payment coming due. Get a syllabus, as suggested above, and see how the building block method works. Your instructor is your employee, so tell him/her to follow the syllabus. Each new lesson should build on what was learned during the previous lesson.

Bob Gardner
Click to expand...

Yes. Thanks everyone. I have a syllabus but will have a conversation with instructor. Most likely might try to find an alternate instructor as everyone is confirming my suspicion that this isn’t normal.
 
dmspilot said:
Why so short? It is very hard to get anything done in 0.6.
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That’s the same reason I’m curious. Fly to the practice area, do two maneuvers then fly back just to charge me for instructor time where I did not learn anything. The feedback here is really helping to make it clear to me what is happening.
 
Other than the inane use of the simulator, it appears to be normal. The first few times you're going to spend more time on preflight under supervision of the instructor and then as he trusts you, you'll probably do it on your own.

You can't solo until you master slow flight/stalls, flying the pattern, and takeoffs and landings.
 
zemmad said:
Background

I’m a new student who just completed ground school. My first flight instruction was in a simulator. Next instruction, preflight. Next instruction preflight again, then flight to practice area to do left and right turns with increase and drop in altitude. Next class three landing and take offs in pattern where I did one take off and one line up through down wind, base and final. Next flight more preflight time then intro to slow flight and stalls. Had to demonstrate slow flight once and went back to airport. Next class...fuel missing, then had to wait an hour, went to practice area and did one power on stall by instructor, then I did one and went back to airport where I lined up for landing again.

Is this the typical approach to initial flight training? I have only 4 hours logged. It seems I’ve paid for almost 10 hours of ground related activity before the engine starts.

Is this typical where I do less actual flying in the beginning? I’m worry that my instructor is just using all possible time to bill me for instructor time to prolong my training. Seeking other opinions.
Click to expand...

No.

First lesson is normally a intro flight in a real plane, next one is a longer ground on preflight, but also involves flying and doing some basic stuff, later graduate to pattern work, to first solo etc.

How much time does your instructor have?
 
With the exception of my first lesson, each flight started with about 10min ground then 1...1.2hrs flight and then 20min ground. Or about 1.5hrs of instructor time per hour of flight time. In a strange twist (in my favor) the FBO caught that all his hours were billed as flight time (not his fault) so they back credited me the difference for the overcharged ground time which was $10/hr cheaper IIRC.

The first flight lesson was more like 45min of preflight and quiz on airplane parts ID and ownership advice! Then an hour of flying.

I could see much higher ground instruction if you have studied any materials yet.
 
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