presolo exam help. question on fuel consumption

[Henning]

I find this sad and infuriating at the same time. An instructor should be teaching you the aeronautical knowledge you need to be a safe and proficient aviator, not just going along for the flying portion and keeping you from injury while you teach yourself how to fly.

If you're not getting aero knowledge on a regular basis from your instructor, you're doing yourself a disservice.

For all you students out there, the next time the weather is poor, go to the airport anyway, and spend some time on knowledge subjects with your CFI. The airport is a much better classroom than the airplane for those subjects.

It depends on what you contracted for, but in principle I agree completely. Regardless if they teach it to you or not, it's their duty to introduce the material to you to study then review and make sure you learned the material.

 

[jconway2002]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think this presolo exam is a good way to bring up ground instruction, and see what his views are on it. Honestly, up until this point I thought studying on my own, and following the Jeppesen syllabus would be could enough, but I dont think it is.

 

[denverpilot]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think this presolo exam is a good way to bring up ground instruction, and see what his views are on it. Honestly, up until this point I thought studying on my own, and following the Jeppesen syllabus would be could enough, but I dont think it is.

It definitely is not.

Your instructor should be working through sample problems with you in your POH/PIM and should have shown you how to find the answers on that pre-solo quiz at least once and how to calculate them long prior to handing you that test.

In fact, I can't think of a single aircraft type change I've done where even after having a Private Pilot rating, the Instructor doing the aircraft check-out didn't schedule at least an hour or so to go over things like special limitations of that aircraft in the POH and a double-check to see if I could find all pertinent data in it before ever getting in the aircraft.

I do not like the sounds of this instructor. You're doing good to have stopped in and asked questions. Be cautious with this instructor. At the very least they'll waste your time and money not preparing you properly in an orderly way. At the worst they'll miss something important in your training.

 

[Henning]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I think this presolo exam is a good way to bring up ground instruction, and see what his views are on it. Honestly, up until this point I thought studying on my own, and following the Jeppesen syllabus would be could enough, but I dont think it is.

It is plenty, you just have done enough of it yet because this is the first time you have gone to measure your progress.

 

[jconway2002]

It is plenty, you just have done enough of it yet because this is the first time you have gone to measure your progress.

I spent the weekend watching the King Flight School videos, and man were they helpful! A lot of the presolo stuff is in these videos. I wish I had watched these before taking the test...

FYI, I ended up doing fine on my test, but I struggled through it a bit. It definitely would have been easier have I had some exposure to certain things...if anything, just to easy the overwhelming feeling you get initially from looking at the charts.

 

[Clark1961]

I spent the weekend watching the King Flight School videos, and man were they helpful! A lot of the presolo stuff is in these videos. I wish I had watched these before taking the test...

FYI, I ended up doing fine on my test, but I struggled through it a bit. It definitely would have been easier have I had some exposure to certain things...if anything, just to easy the overwhelming feeling you get initially from looking at the charts.

Good job of taking control of your training. Continue the practice and you'll be a fine pilot. Not all instructors are lacking on the ground side of things. As you progress perhaps better instructors will help with the ground school but you have already learned to self-educate utilizing reputable sources. Excellent.

 

[dell30rb]

It is plenty, you just have done enough of it yet because this is the first time you have gone to measure your progress.

Completely agree. You'll do fine. I didn't follow any written syllabus or ground school. I just asked my instructor to e-mail me what we would be doing during the next lesson, and I made sure i read up heavily on those topics before the lesson. Also helps to ask questions here.