8 Secrets that Your Flight Instructor Doesn't Want You to Know

[ARFlyer]

That one, if word gets around that you're a crank about it, will eventually lead to a student hiding an airworthiness issue from you worried that you'll think they didn't have the plane ready.

Be careful with that particular attitude. And hopefully you aren't trusting their pre-flights without verifying.

The first one that can't figure out how to get the mud dauber nest out of the stall horn hole, will just say the plane is good to go...

I worded the sentence incorrectly.

I meant if we are scheduled for the 10'o'clock slot do not show up to the airport at 10:05. I like to be able to walk out at 10 or earlier and meet the student at the plane since I'm only theirs for two hours.

What happens is that the 8AM guy shows up at 750 thinking he can check out the plane, preflight it, and fuel it in 10 mins. So we end up getting off the ground at 830 which puts us back at 930-945 and makes the plane late for the next guy. If it's winter it's worse because I have to preheat the plane for 20 mins since the student isn't allowed to. So instead of being airborne at 830 we're airborne at 845-9.

 

[ARFlyer]

+1 ... as easy as it is to just have the student preflight everything before you get there ... you still need to verify. Luckily I can preflight a trainer faster than they can usually get in the airplane and get their seatbelts on so it doesn't take much of any time to verify.

Sometimes there will be a known squawk that you can find on preflight that grounds the airplane. At some point in the training I won't call the student to cancel the lesson and will instead pretend like all is well and see if they find it. Often times they don't and it's a good wake up to them to be more thorough.

I always check the oil and pitot tube. The rest I can usually spot while walking to my door. I ask them how much fuel we have and based on how they answer I'll either visually check it or just look at the gauges. If it's less then 30 gals they know to fuel it.

 

[N801BH]

I worded the sentence incorrectly.

I meant if we are scheduled for the 10'o'clock slot do not show up to the airport at 10:05. I like to be able to walk out at 10 or earlier and meet the student at the plane since I'm only theirs for two hours.

What happens is that the 8AM guy shows up at 750 thinking he can check out the plane, preflight it, and fuel it in 10 mins. So we end up getting off the ground at 830 which puts us back at 930-945 and makes the plane late for the next guy. If it's winter it's worse because I have to preheat the plane for 20 mins since the student isn't allowed to. So instead of being airborne at 830 we're airborne at 845-9.

Your whining rings hollow.. I assume the "student" is paying for the entire hour before launch ?

 

[jesse]

I always check the oil and pitot tube. The rest I can usually spot while walking to my door. I ask them how much fuel we have and based on how they answer I'll either visually check it or just look at the gauges. If it's less then 30 gals they know to fuel it.

I check the oil, look in the fuel tanks, and walk around the airplane confirming things. Takes no time at all.

I don't want to be the guy who runs out of gas instructing with my only defense being my student pilot I'm training told me we had gas. FAA isn't going to respond well to that.

Student is there to learn and I'm there to teach and make sure we stay safe. I can't fulfill that duty properly if I don't actually look at the airplane myself. If anything goes wrong you as the instructor will be fully responsible and held to a higher standard with a more severe penalty. You're being paid to ensure things are done right.

Even if I'm doing an IPC with an experienced pilot in their airplane I'm going to be looking the airplane over and looking in the tanks myself. I've yet to have anyone get upset about that.

 

[coloradobluesky]

11. We really don't want to sign off on anything that you have to take a test for with a DE (too much liability/hassle/exposure), so after we get some hours out of you, we shuffle you off to some other instructor. Let HIM sign you off for the rating...

 

[jesse]

11. We really don't want to sign off on anything that you have to take a test for with a DE (too much liability/hassle/exposure), so after we get some hours out of you, we shuffle you off to some other instructor. Let HIM sign you off for the rating...

Not for me. I like signoffs a lot, makes CFI renewal easier. Never had a failure.

 

[hook_dupin]

9. When the CFI says, "It's tradition that when we stop for lunch, the student pays", there really is no tradition.

I alternate with my students to make paying the bill easier. It seems like two cheesburgers, two cokes, and a tip is universally $24 in my AOR.

No ground instruction is billed over the course of lunch.

 

[RyanB]

Love number 8!

 

[zaitcev]

My CFI was visibly TERRIFIED and for good reason probably.

My CFI wasn't terrified, but perhaps he should've been. It was smooth sailing at first, but once I became more comfortable, I started trying various things, like landing slower and faster, or what rudder actually does. I ended with porpoising, landing on downwind leg, and spinning the airplane. It's a miracle that I never wheelbarrowed it in.

 

[DavidWhite]

The nice thing is, if the pax/students smell bad, you can smell bad too.

 

[Blueangel]

How do experienced CFI get into cockpit ready for take off in seconds? It takes me a few minutes to get situated and ready for take off.

 

[DavidWhite]

How do experienced CFI get into cockpit ready for take off in seconds? It takes me a few minutes to get situated and ready for take off.

Familiarity perhaps? Complacency? Who knows. I catch myself sometimes moving to quickly and have to force myself to slow down (but I'm not a CFI)

 

[jesse]

How do experienced CFI get into cockpit ready for take off in seconds? It takes me a few minutes to get situated and ready for take off.

Pretty easy. Open door, plug in headset, climb in seat, adjust seat, put on seatbelt, close door. The rest the student does. You supervise and teach as appropriate. The student is the one doing all the work and getting things ready.

After the above list the only other action I physically do is reach over and push on their door to make sure it's latched right before we take the runway.

The only thing I bring with me when I instruct is my headset. Sometimes my iPad.

Just because it APPEARS we aren't doing anything doesn't meant we're not. I'm watching everything their hands do. I'm running the same checklist they run mentally in my head and visually making sure they didn't miss anything critical.

 

[Clark1961]

Just because it APPEARS we aren't doing anything doesn't meant we're not. I'm watching everything their hands do. I'm running the same checklist they run mentally in my head and visually making sure they didn't miss anything critical.

That's only for the first lesson...after that you're taking a nap - that's why ya wear the dark glasses...

 

[jesse]

That's only for the first lesson...after that you're taking a nap - that's why ya wear the dark glasses...

Complacency really can get you sometimes. I once was with a student that was post solo. We were taxing up to the runway and I asked them why they didn't do a runup. They told me they did. I was so zoned out from flying so much that day I didn't even notice the fact that we stopped and did the runup. That was a good reality check. I was pretty ****ed off at myself for a long time afterwords and use that as a reminder to myself that I need to pay attention to what is actually happening.

 

[JimNtexas]

Since I'm sort of working on a CFI I've wondered the same thing.

When dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a WSO/EWO in the F-4 and F-111 I frequently got yelled at by my pilots for taking too long to 'build my nest'.

It was worse in the F-111 because I needed a bigger nest, and also because F-111 WSOs are expected to preflight the whole airplane, not just the weapons.

Nowadays that I only fly bug smashers in our local club I don't get yelled at, but when one of my club friends is in the right seat they seem to notice my 'deliberate' approach to nest building also.

So I feel your pain.

 

[denverpilot]

My CFI wasn't terrified, but perhaps he should've been. It was smooth sailing at first, but once I became more comfortable, I started trying various things, like landing slower and faster, or what rudder actually does. I ended with porpoising, landing on downwind leg, and spinning the airplane. It's a miracle that I never wheelbarrowed it in.

I bet a lot of students do that. Push the envelope a bit since they have the safety blanket feeling of having a CFI with them to save them from serious stupidity. Kids do it as they get older, too.

That's only for the first lesson...after that you're taking a nap - that's why ya wear the dark glasses...

Hmm. He did have sunglasses on during the BFR...

I know he wasn't napping though. That strange problem that only happens when CFIs are on board happened again. The engine went to idle and wouldn't go any higher in power until we had lined up on a field. Craziest damn thing. The airplane never does that (knock on wood!) when CFIs aren't aboard. Haha.

 

[danhagan]

Instructors only need three things in their vocabulary:

1. More right rudder.
2. My Airplane.
3. You can pay me now.

4. Do you still want those flaps out?
5. Plane will climb better without the carb heat on.

A little Vicks Vapor Rub under your nose can help make it easier to deal with number 4. No joke.

I work in the medical field and when we have an absolute potential puke fest abscess or infection, out comes the vicks. Works better in the O.R. under your mask; otherwise, it looks like snot.

 

[denverpilot]

4. Do you still want those flaps out?

Damn it.

 

[N801BH]

Damn it.

BUSTED.............