Reflecting on my flight training: What went wrong and how it got better

[N918KT]

Ever since I started training for the sport pilot license 4 years ago, I went through multiple flight schools, multiple CFIs, and multiple aircrafts, both LSA and non-LSA. I knew that I never made any progress in my lessons, mainly because I kept switching flight schools. Through these years, I didn't give much thought on where I would take my flight training as long as it is close to home and as long there is an LSA with a sport pilot program. However, as time goes on, my first flight school closed down, the second one was too far away, the third had the expensive LSA, then they dropped the sport pilot program, 4th flight school had the same LSA as the 3rd school with a sport pilot program but always breaks down and never got a chance to fly that LSA. I was becoming frustrated with my training, and was ashamed that I kept switching.

Then the 5th flight school was the deal maker for me. A flight school that is dedicated to sport pilot training with very well maintained LSAs. I got paired up with a Chief CFI/DPE who is well known in the LSA industry, who is funny, professional, and felt like I made a best friend. He has a few other CFIs at his school, but since I never met his other CFIs, it feels that I am learning from an independent CFI, a CFI who is like an old master. The LSA that I fly now is very fun to fly and very easy to control. And I noticed how quickly I progressed in my training. For example, I got my student pilot certificate on my first lesson with him, bought a Gleim Sport Pilot Kit with books and materials, and am doing well in flying the plane, using checklists, and the like. Because my CFI and I clicked very well and the cool plane that I fly, flying for me is fun again and I look forward to every lesson ready to learn to fly. I now am very determined to get to my first solo and hopefully earn a sport pilot license.

Even though my current flight school is quite far away, I learned that distance is not important as much as the CFI I am with, how well the planes are maintained, and how much I have fun in my training. You have to really do your research about a particular flight school before you commit your time and money to that school. This school combined all of these things and I am now enjoying every bit of my training.

Sorry for the long rant.

 

[AggieMike88]

Ahhh grasshopper.... how far you have come in these short years....

Now go ask your CFI about that pebble....

 

[N918KT]

Haha, thanks!!!

 

[Geico266]

Use the travel time to study the reading material.

Very cool you stuck with it. Some CFI's like to teach people how to fly, most like cashing a check.

 

[N918KT]

Use the travel time to study the reading material.

Very cool you stuck with it. Some CFI's like to teach people how to fly, most like cashing a check.

Thanks for the comment!

I should have start my training with my current flight school (AB Flight) right from the beginning 4 years ago. I would have not wasted my time with the other schools if I started training with the flight school and CFI I am with now.

However, the only problem would be if I started training at AB Flight 4 years ago would be trying to convince my parents to drive me 66 miles to Queen City Airport and back, which does take almost all day to go there, fly, and come back. Plus, I would not have enough time to spend doing my high school homework on the weekends since the entire trip and lesson does take almost all day.

It's great how much more free time I have these days to go out and fly, at least in the summer on weekends.

 

[marcoseddi]

Where in NJ are you? I am in Long Branch.

 

[PW_Plack]

I should have start my training with my current flight school (AB Flight) right from the beginning 4 years ago. I would have not wasted my time with the other schools...

Ahh...but you also wouldn't appreciate the CFI you have now. Life's funny that way. Sometimes sweet tastes sweeter after you've tasted sour.

 

[Eagle I]

KT, your story sounds, well, almost exactly like mine! Although I've been at it for "only" two years. I think I'm on track for the most expensive sport pilot license ever! Perhaps you would disagree. Unfortunately there are not many flight schools that offer light sport aircraft, so our choices are limited. Once I chose the sport pilot route, I started at a school that was about an hour and twenty minutes away from me. Seemed like a long drive at the time, but I was more than willing to do it if I could achieve my goals.

More than 30 hours and many thousands of dollars later, I was still nowhere near soloing. I won't go into the specifics, but it was becoming painfully clear to me that I was simply a walking credit card to these people. I was discouraged and ready to abandon my dream. Then, as chance would have it, I attended an event at an airport even farther away, which happened to have the same plane I had been flying (Flight Design CTLS). I decided to give my dream one more shot, and what a difference it made! I suddenly felt respected, and what a surprise, my new instructor actually seemed to be working WITH me to achieve my goals, instead of pursuing his own agenda!

I soloed within a few weeks of flying there, and am now in the cross-country phase of my training. I drive about two hours and 15 minutes to take lessons, paying for a hotel overnight so I can get at least two lessons in each weekend, and it's worth every bit of that money, because I'm making progress. Now, when I'm talking with friends about flying, instead of saying "if I ever get my license," I find myself saying, "when I get my license." It's a good feeling.

Sorry I hijacked your rant.:wink2: I wish there were a better way for student pilots to evaluate flight schools. You're right, the CFI and flight school can make all the difference. Sadly, I think many student pilots have a similar tale, and unfortunately many have simply given up on their dreams. I'm happy for both of us that we persevered.

 

[N918KT]

Thanks for sharing your story Eagle! Seems we both have a similar flight training dilemma in the past.

I only got until before I go back to college in the last week of August to complete my sport pilot training. If I don't complete it, I will try to continue it during winter break and hopefully next summer. But by next summer I will graduate and then I will really have to devote my time to looking for a real job and live on my own most likely. Hopefully life will not get in the way of my flight training again. Not sure how I would pull this off. I think a first solo is much more likely I will accomplish before I go back to college, at least. Plus I got a family vacation that will take out 2 weekends of flight training around when Oshkosh Airventure is, so I don't know how I will make up the lessons in my summer work weekdays.

Hey, I got an idea. I should make a blog, a thread actually, on my flight training. I saw another thread of a person posting his progress on getting his PPL. Maybe I should do the same.

 

[Stevel]

I also know how this works. I started at a great school, and with a great instructor, but they didn't have any planes that I would be able to solo, so there was only so far tha I could progress.

After that I went to a place that was absolutely worthless, didn't know half of the regs and didn't follow the half that they did know. If you showed up on time for your lesson, there would be two people ahead of you still waiting for theirs...etc.

Finally I connected with a great instructor (Doug Erway) who had access to a great plane (A22 Valor) at a great airport (PRB ). I made the three-hour drive every friday night and stayed through Sunday. Weather permitting, I flew with Doug twice on Saturdays and once on Sundays. It took a couple of months this way, but it is exactly how I would do it again.

 

[patmike]

At least I'm not the only one who had flight school problems. I think Eagle I and I share the same move from one school to the other.

 

[GCA319]

Use the travel time to study the reading material.

Very cool you stuck with it. Some CFI's like to teach people how to fly, most like cashing a check.

I guess I'm not too fond of comment like these. Do we like cashing checks? Of course we do. We have to eat too and our income is on average quite a bit less than the average student. I love teaching people how to fly, but I expect tobe compensated for it like the professional I am. Then again, maybe I'm just a cranky SOB out trying to make a living

 

[Dave Krall CFII]

I guess I'm not too fond of comment like these. Do we like cashing checks? Of course we do. We have to eat too and our income is on average quite a bit less than the average student. I love teaching people how to fly, but I expect tobe compensated for it like the professional I am. Then again, maybe I'm just a cranky SOB out trying to make a living

Lots of flight students, caught up in the exuberance of their new aerial pursuit, don't realize the CFI's position of responsibility, much less the costs of liability protection, overhead and the like. Teaching correctly has many demands for the proper CFI and often generates somewhat less than the excitement experienced by neophlytes.

I've actually overheard a few students, low on funds, that said CFIs should pay them for the privilege....