"Auditioning" CFIs

[livitup]

On Monday I cashed in my Groupon for my discovery flight. TLDR: It was awesome!

The FBO is obviously using these to drum up possible long term students. We started with a quick tour of the facility. The guy showing me around ended up being the owner and chief instructor. Which surprised me, since he seemed like he was pretty young for all that. He told me during the visit that he had graduated from Embry-Riddle and only recently bought the school. I'm only in my mid-30's so I thought this might end up being a good thing - we hit it off pretty well. During the tour he asked me what I wanted out of the flight; were we just sight seeing, was it my first trip in a plane, was I interested in starting training. When I told him I brought a logbook and I wanted the time, he figured out what I wanted, and he tailored the rest of the lesson for it.

After the sales tour, we headed out to the plane. He showed me everything he was doing as he preflighted the left side of the plane. After we went around the tail it was my turn to see if I could remember what to do. I bumbled around a little, but got it right by the end. I also realized I need to lose a little weight when I tried to climb up to check the right fuel tank.

We ran through the checklists and started 'er up. He gave me a quick rundown on taxi, and made the call to tower and we were off. I had "full" control the whole time - I'm not sure how much he was adding inputs, but taxi, takeoff, and climb were all mine. We got off, and ran through a few things. We did some quick sightseeing and then went back into lesson mode. He showed me how to trim the plane, how to manage the throttle, and such. We 15 and 30 degree turns, and he demonstrated the gravity effects of steep decent.

With that it was time to head back to the field, and again, the yoke was in my hands, even through landing. Abeam the numbers on downwind, he asked "do you know what will happen if the engine dies?" I said I knew we'd glide, but I had no idea how much or how far. He said "want to find out" and I said sure. He had me chop the throttle, and lined me up on a shortened pattern, basically arcing straight from the downwind into the final. We touched down, but he had to have been helping, because it's impossible my first landing was that routine. We pulled up to the building and that was that. My first .6 hours, in the book!

Impressions: I don't feel like I learned a whole lot... The CFI told me exactly what to do, but not much of why we were doing it. So I know I am capable of adjusting the power to 2200 RPM, but why we picked that number, I dunno. It makes sense, I guess to not to into too much detail on a discovery flight, but I think he went too easy on the teaching, especially knowing that I am in it for the long haul.

A couple times he said he was "working" on things that I thought would be prerequisites to offering instruction. He said he was working on better checklists, and on a training syllabus. In my mind a syllabus is a requirement.

I was pretty scared when we lifted off. There are a lot more stories of disasters than perfectly normal flights. So I was scared I'd stall the plane and we'd all die. Or that the wind pushing us around a little was going to flip us upside down. I hope this is normal for a first-timer and it will go away as I train.

The sight picture is SO weird to me. What looks like level is really a moderate climb. Level looks to me like a decent descent. I've got to get used to the "sight picture".

Regardless of the "issues", I had a great time, and it only reinforced that this is something that I *must* do. The few times I was able to get outside my head and nerves, I was just awestruck at what I was doing. The views, the physics of it, I felt *connected*.

I'm going to audition another CFI some time in the next few days. There is a smaller airport that is actually a little closer to my house that has a "campus" of a Part 141 school with operations at 3 locations. I'm sure they are more professionally run, and I think that's important to me. I felt like I clicked pretty well with this guy, and he knows his flying, but I didn't get the feeling he was much of a business man, and I want to get that feeling. So we'll see how things go at the other school.

OMG, I am so hooked! Thanks for reading all this, if you made it this far. Comments and any advice you've got is more than welcome!

 

[pikespeakmtnman]

I know exactly how you feel. I'm very much a newbie myself. My g/f bought me a discovery flight for Christmas but due to a traumatic injury I wasn't able to use it till last August, and I bought another one for me a month later. I've always been interested in aviation, both my parents fathers were involved in aviation (my mom's dad flew bombers in WWII and my dad's dad built them) but now I'm hooked. So far I've flown east and west of Colorado Springs (plains and mountains) and I plan on starting my training next summer once me funds get a little more organized (fingers crossed!).

It's obvious in your post that you're hooked, and it is infectious....but I don't mind. I suspect that some of the veteran flyers will chime in soon and reminisce about how they felt when they began their journey.

Best of luck to you sir!

 

[John221us]

It sounds like you learned a lot more than you realize; a very productive first flight. Welcome to flying. BTW, 2200 RPM seems to be a good pattern entry number in a lot of planes. Funny how that works.

 

[LDJones]

There is a syllabus in virtually every private pilot training kit. Ultimately, the PTS is your uber syllabus....that is what the FAA will judge you on.

Good luck with your training.

 

[denverpilot]

On Monday I cashed in my Groupon for my discovery flight. TLDR: It was awesome!

The hook is set. Heh. Prepare fiscally for the cash outflow and enjoy.

When I told him I brought a logbook and I wanted the time, he figured out what I wanted, and he tailored the rest of the lesson for it.

Smart move. Groupon is usually a significant loss for flight schools with their discount requirements and they get a lot of lookie-loos who just want an airplane ride.

Impressions: I don't feel like I learned a whole lot... The CFI told me exactly what to do, but not much of why we were doing it.

The first flight is a maelstrom of noise, and "stuff" going on that's mostly incomprehensible without "book learnin'" as grandpa used to say. Chat with the instructor about how to get started studying for the written exam, the material will start to fill in the blanks. It takes significant study but isn't overwhelming if you enjoy it.

Think about anything else significantly difficult you've learned how to do in life, and it'll be clear that a half hour doing it was just the tip of the iceberg. Driving is a good analogy... Think about all the things you learned about driving young, and things you've continued to learn as you got older, even without instruction.

Aviation is similar. Practice not only hones specific skills that tie back to the basics of flight and the physics, but also gets you so used to doing them that you free up a little bit of bandwidth in your brain to think about something else.

I recently finished my Instrument Rating. I had 400 or so hours and could fly an airplane VFR, just fine. I had gotten pretty comfortable at it. No sense of being "behind" or "overwhelmed" or as you put it, "not learning anything", or "just barely keeping up".

Single pilot IFR in simulated or real IMC is a workload significantly higher than YEARS of flying had prepped me for. I had to move faster, think faster, etc.

This is similar to where you're at after one flight. You saw a bunch of stuff going on, but as you said... You really didn't know if he was helping or not. The progression will be to awareness of the help, then annoyance that they're still helping, until one day they hop out and say, "feel like going around the pattern three times by yourself today?" That'll happen when they rarely need to help. And on a reasonable day when winds and weather aren't conspiring to make you over-worked and no brain cells left to keep all the balls in the air in the juggling act. Later during cross-counties, you'll start to see more weather effects and get more of a feel for limitations of both yourself (mostly at first) and the aircraft.

A couple times he said he was "working" on things that I thought would be prerequisites to offering instruction. He said he was working on better checklists, and on a training syllabus. In my mind a syllabus is a requirement.

This does sound a little weak, but he has a head full of how ER does it, and that isn't all that bad. They run a reasonably good "big school" training program. He's also running his first business, so time is probably tighter than he thought. He will learn to delegate eventually. Meanwhile, what you want to see is if you can learn from him... Or, as you mention later, someone else.

I was pretty scared when we lifted off. There are a lot more stories of disasters than perfectly normal flights. So I was scared I'd stall the plane and we'd all die. Or that the wind pushing us around a little was going to flip us upside down. I hope this is normal for a first-timer and it will go away as I train.

Keep in mind that ONLY the bad flights are reported in the media. You'll learn to hate the TV and throw things at it when aviation stories come on, eventually. Heh. Far more successful flights per day than unsuccessful ones.

You'll note pilots here have a different view of accidents than the general public... We usually want to know what caused them, so we can avoid similar thought processes and behaviors. A good pilot is always learning, and looking at their own performance.

The sight picture is SO weird to me. What looks like level is really a moderate climb. Level looks to me like a decent descent. I've got to get used to the "sight picture".

The instructor will tell you this, but you'll learn to use the cowl of the airplane against the horizon and it'll become second nature. You'll also learn that power and pitch (up down deck angle) are intertwined, and how they relate to one another. Select a power setting, put the pitch in a particular place, you'll get specific performance out of the craft, unless something is wrong. It won't take too long. In fact, after plenty of practice in an airplane you know well, you'll set power by sound and glideslope by sight, and not even need to look inside. Sounds the airplane makes will become interesting and important later on, as well as the "feel" of the control pressures. Airspeed slowing, the controls will start to feel "sloppy" compared to when they have 100 MPH air passing over them, etc.

Regardless of the "issues", I had a great time, and it only reinforced that this is something that I *must* do. The few times I was able to get outside my head and nerves, I was just awestruck at what I was doing. The views, the physics of it, I felt *connected*.

Some of us might call it "alive".

For some subset of the population, I'm convinced we grew up in some fashion or had experiences as kids that make our world tactile... We want to do and see how things work, and in aviation -- you literally can spend a lifetime doing it and still learn something about how air and machine interrelate on the very next flight. Our Earth's atmosphere is dynamic, and does things we can't possibly imagine watching it from the ground.

Many pilots also enjoy things like sailing vessels, car driving (competitively sometimes), and other similarly "immersed" tactile activities.

I'm going to audition another CFI some time in the next few days. There is a smaller airport that is actually a little closer to my house that has a "campus" of a Part 141 school with operations at 3 locations. I'm sure they are more professionally run, and I think that's important to me. I felt like I clicked pretty well with this guy, and he knows his flying, but I didn't get the feeling he was much of a business man, and I want to get that feeling. So we'll see how things go at the other school.

Getting along with an instructor is important. Especially a primary instructor. They're going to teach you skills that you'll build on for years and there must be a level of trust there or subconsciously you'll ignore their teaching.

Higher priority than getting along even, is that the person must be a teacher first and foremost. Not necessarily a businessperson. We can all learn business on the ground, but we MUST learn how to fly the aircraft well early in training, or we'll be forever trying to "unlearn" bad things as we meet better instructors and pilots later on in life who realize where we're weak.

FAA and educators call this "The Law of Primacy"... The first way you learn something sticks more than any other. If you learn from a mediocre instructor, with no other mentors around to give guidance and thoughts and to bounce things off of, there will be holes in your knowledge. A good instructor is a must-have. Meeting and knowing other pilots is also critical. They become a support group.

In years past, there was enough activity at most airports this was done in the lounge. Today, an awful lot of it is done online at places like PoA. A mixture of less people flying and the advancement of communication tech.

OMG, I am so hooked! Thanks for reading all this, if you made it this far. Comments and any advice you've got is more than welcome!

You got 'em. Let us know how the second flight with the other place goes.

 

[denverpilot]

So far I've flown east and west of Colorado Springs (plains and mountains) and I plan on starting my training next summer once me funds get a little more organized (fingers crossed!).

When you're ready to really start training in the Springs, send me a PM and I can put you in touch with a good instructor down there.

 

[stearmann4]

Glad it was a good initial experience for you, sometimes they aren't. There's a ton of articles online (AOPA) on what characteristics to seek when you're looking for a CFI. remember, you're paying A LOT of money and should be comfortable with both the teaching technique and demeanor of your CFI. There's also nothing wrong with requesting s resume' or some sort of flight experience description to know where he/she is coming from.

Most of all, have fun! Bleeding money was never such a good time!

Mike-

 

[write-stuff]

Download this free .pdf ebook at www.FreeFlyBook.com. It will give you a lot of great information to help you get going.

 

[pikespeakmtnman]

When you're ready to really start training in the Springs, send me a PM and I can put you in touch with a good instructor down there.

Much appreciated! I'll be sure to do that.

 

[Threefingeredjack]

Buwahahahahaha.... Another soul has come into our grasp!!!!!

Congratulations. I may be biased, no I am totally biased, but there is nothing to compare with the joy of flight. I got hooked at an early age when my father allowed me to crawl into the seat of a Kaman Husky helicopter. I got lucky and was given the chance to fly helicopters and fixed wing aircraft in my career and never looked back. You will not regret your decision.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

The sight picture is SO weird to me. What looks like level is really a moderate climb. Level looks to me like a decent descent. I've got to get used to the "sight picture".

What kind of plane was it, and how tall are you? Both will affect the sight picture. If you're tall like I am, you may want to ask if there's a way to lower the seat. Some airplanes do have an adjustment for that, and instructors who aren't tall will probably not think to tell you of that option.

Different planes have a different sight picture out the front, too.

Glad you enjoyed it, and welcome aboard!

 

[wabower]

If you carry a small single-serve juice can, a 12 oz soda can and a grease pencil along for the first few lessons, you'll find one or the other is pretty close to the horizon when placed upright on the glare shield. Make a grease dot on the windshield at the top of whichever one is best and the student will have his reference point.

What kind of plane was it, and how tall are you? Both will affect the sight picture. If you're tall like I am, you may want to ask if there's a way to lower the seat. Some airplanes do have an adjustment for that, and instructors who aren't tall will probably not think to tell you of that option.

Different planes have a different sight picture out the front, too.

Glad you enjoyed it, and welcome aboard!

 

[denverpilot]

What kind of plane was it, and how tall are you? Both will affect the sight picture. If you're tall like I am, you may want to ask if there's a way to lower the seat. Some airplanes do have an adjustment for that, and instructors who aren't tall will probably not think to tell you of that option.

Heh. I forgot about you "Big and Tall" store shoppers.

Kent is tall. I'm 5' 11" and have to tilt my head back if I stand too close to him, to look him in the eye.

 

[N801BH]

.......
OMG, I am so hooked! Thanks for reading all this, if you made it this far. Comments and any advice you've got is more than welcome!

Welcome to a lifetime of fun......

Enjoy the ride.:wink2:

 

[kimberlyanne546]

This is a great post because for me, I'd never been in a small plane in my life (and rarely in big ones).

The "discovery flight" is one hundred percent responsible for me becoming a pilot. That was my only flight with that plane and that CFI (they went out of business) but it got me hooked.

I am not a CFI but I often do let people sit up front and "help" fly the plane. Especially if they are interested in becoming a pilot one day.

Young Eagles was fun too since I got to give my controls to 4 young children, twenty minute flights each.

Watching people take the controls of my airplane when they have never done it before is really fun - whether they are 45 years old or 9 years old, male or female.

Kimberly

 

[j1b3h0]

I'm relatively nonplussed by flying these days, having done so much of it, but the one facet of light airplane flying that I'll never grow tired of is sharing it with others, witnessing the infectious wave of enthusiasm when someone holds the controls the first time, or goes for their first biplane ride or their first loop. Not everyone is as smitten with the gift as I was, but it's fun to show them all the same.

 

[DogDaddy]

Wow, I enjoyed reading this. That CFI sounds awesome to me. He did so many things right.

As for the RPM setting, and other things that might seem arbitrary, you'll learn that any given pitch and power setting will produce a particular result. So to answer the question "Why this power setting?" it's because the plane will descend at the exact rate needed in that situation.
In the plane I fly, if I use 1900 RPMs on downwind with 10 degrees of flaps and pitch for 80 knots, I will end up at 800 feet high when I'm abeam the numbers. If I then use 1400 rpm, and put in 20 degrees flaps after I turn base, my airspeed will be about 70 knots and I'll be at 500 feet as I turn final. If I then go to full flaps and pull power to idle, my airspeed will be between 62-65 knots and my descent rate will take me right down to the runway numbers.
Other pilots who fly the same plane might use slightly different settings, but they also fly a tighter or larger pattern. A larger pattern needs a slower descent rate.