Student, client, customer, pilot, applicant ...

[JScarry]

but not learner.

I’ve been helping an older CFI renew her certificate using the AOPA CFI Renewal Course and I thought it was amusing how many different ways they refer to pilots receiving training.

If you need to renew your CFI this course is much better than Sporty’s although the quizzes are poorly written. Lots of ambiguous questions and plenty of questions with several correct answers so you need to choose the ‘most correct’. There were a few where none of the answers were correct so you needed to choose the one that was ‘least wrong’.There were at least a half-dozen where we disagreed with their answer although we understood why they picked it. And a few were we could never figure out why their answer was correct.

 

[midlifeflyer]

"Their" answer is typically the one the FAA wants. I once had a discussion about that with a provider about an answer I disagreed with. P

 

[MauleSkinner]

but not learner.

I’ve been helping an older CFI renew her certificate using the AOPA CFI Renewal Course and I thought it was amusing how many different ways they refer to pilots receiving training.

Where I work, the person receiving training is the client. The entity paying the bill is the customer. When the client walks in for a checkride with application in hand, he is an applicant. All three of these terms can refer to the same person, simply depending on context, and these terms have been in common use for a long time.

Some genius at the FAA came up with “learner” a few years ago, apparently because he or she was so far removed from the industry as to not know an additional term wasn’t needed.

 

[Dave Theisen]

I’ve flown with folks that I would never describe as “learners”.

 

[Baked Potato]

"Their" answer is typically the one the FAA wants. I once had a discussion about that with a provider about an answer I disagreed with. P

Same. I asked Sporty's about this one, and they just said their questions come from the FAA, and just to choose the "best" one. (Even though this answer is objectively incorrect)

 

[midlifeflyer]

Same. I asked Sporty's about this one, and they just said their questions come from the FAA, and just to choose the "best" one. (Even though this answer is objectively incorrect)
View attachment 118544

Exactly.

I actually think the first answer is the more correct one because of the "only" in the second.

 

[MauleSkinner]

I actually think the first answer is the more correct one because of the "only" in the second.

Except that would (or could) mean “the airplane’s rudder is the normal way to turn the airplane.” Technically you’d have to add or subtract words from either one to make them anything other than totally wrong.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve become more tolerant of things like that over the past decade…I’ve been trying for at least 5 years to schedule time to fix bad questions in our test bank (among other things,) but the company says I have more important things to do.

 

[midlifeflyer]

Except that would (or could) mean “the airplane’s rudder is the normal way to turn the airplane.” Technically you’d have to add or subtract words from either one to make them anything other than totally wrong.

I have to admit, though, that I’ve become more tolerant of things like that over the past decade…I’ve been trying for at least 5 years to schedule time to fix bad questions in our test bank (among other things,) but the company says I have more important things to do.

It's hard to get rid of all of them and most of the people who whine are often either perfectionists or came close to not passing.