3.6 Hours and have not flown in 4 weeks

[ChrisK]

Due to two weeks of weather followed by my flight instructor being sick for two weeks (and canceling on me every day I schedule an aircraft), I haven't flown for almost 4 weeks.

I certainly don't want to go instructor hopping as I think I have a good CFI (he's an older gentleman with a lot of experience and more instructor ratings than I will ever need), but I have heard the occasional instructor allow their students to fly with other CFIs when they are not available for whatever reason. I assume that they would tend to do that only after their students receive a minimal amount of instruction, which I clearly have not.

Also, I am concerned about losing what little value I may have gotten from my training to date.

Anyway, I'm just frustrated, and wanted to come here to vent!

 

[TMetzinger]

I understand your frustration. As long as you're sure your CFI was really sick and not avoiding flying with you for another unacceptable reason, then I think you're learning a valuable (if frustrating) lesson in patience. You'll doubtless run into unavailability again due to maintenance or other issues.

One of the advantages of large operations is having a bunch of CFIs and airplanes that can be somewhat interchangeable, but the CFI-swapping is generally only useful in the post-solo phase of flight training. And even then, you sometimes run into situations where 90% of the fleet is down for maintenance at the same time.

If your CFI isn't flying with anybody, then just hang in there. If he's flying with others, but not flying with YOU, then it's probably time for a heart-to-heart with him.

 

[dell30rb]

1 lesson a week is a minimum... 2 lessons is good, 3 is excellent...

If you don't think you can get this guy to schedule with you at least once a week and you're being reasonable trying to work with him and his schedule, find someone else. He may be a great cfi but if you're not taking regular lessons, you will find it much more difficult to learn.

If you think its a one time thing and you want to work with another instructor just so you can get up in the air, tell your current CFI "sorry we can't schedule something this week, but I really want to go flying. Can you recommend someone for me to take a lesson with this week?". If he does not know someone, ask him to tell you what to work on. "practice slow flight, do a few power off stalls etc..."

Good luck, welcome to POA

 

[ChrisK]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I agree that I'd rather fly 2 times per week. I had a theory that I'd schedule 2-3 days per week as much as I could and let weather subtract a bit. I'm sure you're right in that once I solo I can swap in other CFIs for dual time.

We'll see what happens over the next week. If I get a bit of instruction time this week then I'll feel a whole lot better! I have every reason to believe he is canceling his other students as well (I see their aircraft get deleted off the schedule shortly after he contacts me), so I do not think he is avoiding me. I only had one pretty bad landing so far, and he has said that I'm doing better than at least one of his other students, so I don't think I'm scaring him away!

Winters up here can get a bit snowy. If I'm doing CC's by December I'll feel like I've accomplished something; otherwise, I'll just have, as you said, a lesson in patience to teach the next eager student!

 

[bobmrg]

Thanks for the feedback and encouragement. I agree that I'd rather fly 2 times per week. I had a theory that I'd schedule 2-3 days per week as much as I could and let weather subtract a bit. I'm sure you're right in that once I solo I can swap in other CFIs for dual time.

We'll see what happens over the next week. If I get a bit of instruction time this week then I'll feel a whole lot better! I have every reason to believe he is canceling his other students as well (I see their aircraft get deleted off the schedule shortly after he contacts me), so I do not think he is avoiding me. I only had one pretty bad landing so far, and he has said that I'm doing better than at least one of his other students, so I don't think I'm scaring him away!

Winters up here can get a bit snowy. If I'm doing CC's by December I'll feel like I've accomplished something; otherwise, I'll just have, as you said, a lesson in patience to teach the next eager student!

I agree with Renjamin...tell your current CFI that you are getting rusty and don't want to lose what you have gained. Let him suggest another CFI.

Bob Gardner

 

[ChrisK]

Well, we moved some things around and got off the ground yesterday. He banged the rust off a bit and I actually showed some improvement (though in other areas I relapsed slightly). Did a couple decent landings.

Hopefully if I can get 3-4 hours this week I'll be back on track! So much of this is about student confidence..