U
Unregistered
Guest
Not sure where else to post this, but I know he's fairly well known around my area since he's been doing this for so long. I'm less than 15 hours away from my IR, so I'm in kind of a pickle.
There have been a couple incidents I can point to where I think he has done dangerous things and numerous others that don't seem in and of themselves dangerous. For example, while on a practice ILS 18 with a circle to 36, during the daytime at a Class D airport, I could hear the tower clearing people for takeoff to the north, directly into us. Most were staying in the pattern, but I did hear a twin bonanza cleared for takeoff with a north departure, which would take him right into us. As the tower told me to break it off to the left, I did so, but then my instructor grabbed the yoke and turned it back toward the oncoming twin. He argued with me that we needed to get out of the way as the tower controller began telling us the same. He then got on the radio to argue with the tower that we were fine. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken the hood off and told him it was my airplane and landed it, but I thought it was a simple oversight on his part.
Last night, as we were doing the same thing (no traffic this time), the approach got unstable. I was at almost full scale deflection, so I elected to go missed and applied full power. He pulled the power and turned the plane back toward the circling side of the runway. I told him I elected to go missed and he just told me no, that I was going to land. So I took the hood off and landed at that point. No point arguing since I could stay safe without a hood on.
Usually, while we're flying, I'll look over with the hood on and see him messing around with his phone. He spends the time in the air telling me all about his family and the trips he has taken, or anything else but flying for a majority of the time. I don't mind paying for a safety pilot, but I sure don't think what he's giving me is anything better than a safety pilot. He keeps telling me I'm just about ready for the checkride and that I'll for sure be ready by 40.
At this point, I don't care how I get my 40 hours of simulated IMC, but I want to make sure when I do get there, I am ready. My concern is that if I fire him, I will end up having to start over with a new CFII and that I'll have to find a different place to rent a plane as where I am now is the only rental at that airport. He is the chief flight instructor for the flying club, so my complaints would have to go to him, and would likely mean no more renting those planes for training.
So what's the best way forward? Just blast through the last 10 hours while ignoring him? Have a sit down CTJ with him? Start over with a new CFI at a different airport? Am I being unreasonable to think he's borderline unsafe?
There have been a couple incidents I can point to where I think he has done dangerous things and numerous others that don't seem in and of themselves dangerous. For example, while on a practice ILS 18 with a circle to 36, during the daytime at a Class D airport, I could hear the tower clearing people for takeoff to the north, directly into us. Most were staying in the pattern, but I did hear a twin bonanza cleared for takeoff with a north departure, which would take him right into us. As the tower told me to break it off to the left, I did so, but then my instructor grabbed the yoke and turned it back toward the oncoming twin. He argued with me that we needed to get out of the way as the tower controller began telling us the same. He then got on the radio to argue with the tower that we were fine. If I had it to do over again, I would have taken the hood off and told him it was my airplane and landed it, but I thought it was a simple oversight on his part.
Last night, as we were doing the same thing (no traffic this time), the approach got unstable. I was at almost full scale deflection, so I elected to go missed and applied full power. He pulled the power and turned the plane back toward the circling side of the runway. I told him I elected to go missed and he just told me no, that I was going to land. So I took the hood off and landed at that point. No point arguing since I could stay safe without a hood on.
Usually, while we're flying, I'll look over with the hood on and see him messing around with his phone. He spends the time in the air telling me all about his family and the trips he has taken, or anything else but flying for a majority of the time. I don't mind paying for a safety pilot, but I sure don't think what he's giving me is anything better than a safety pilot. He keeps telling me I'm just about ready for the checkride and that I'll for sure be ready by 40.
At this point, I don't care how I get my 40 hours of simulated IMC, but I want to make sure when I do get there, I am ready. My concern is that if I fire him, I will end up having to start over with a new CFII and that I'll have to find a different place to rent a plane as where I am now is the only rental at that airport. He is the chief flight instructor for the flying club, so my complaints would have to go to him, and would likely mean no more renting those planes for training.
So what's the best way forward? Just blast through the last 10 hours while ignoring him? Have a sit down CTJ with him? Start over with a new CFI at a different airport? Am I being unreasonable to think he's borderline unsafe?