Sincerely,
Fred
Greetings Fred:
As far as learning to fly is concerned, it's not the experience of the flight instructor that counts most (yes, it counts - it just doesn't count most). What counts most is the quality of your teacher. I would much rather be trained by a young person who's a good teacher than an experienced person who is incapable of explaining even the most basic aviation ideas. Of course, if you can find a good teacher with experience, then you've got the best of both worlds.
As the Rolling Stones' lead singer Mick Jagger once sang, "You can't always get what you want." The next line of that song is "But if you try sometime, you just might find you get what you need." You can't always find an experienced CFI who's also a good teacher.
But don't fret, mon fr�re. To earn a flight instructor certificate you have to be able to fly, and fly quite well, I might add. It stands to reason that a younger CFI who can teach (and there are plenty of these enthusiastic CFIs out there, believe me) can at least teach you to fly as well as he or she does, right? If you could fly with even a modicum of your CFI's skills, you'd be qualified to bypass the private certificate and go directly for the commercial license. Of course, this isn't possible, but you get my point, right?
Whether your flight instructor is young, older, experienced, building time, or building a career is irrelevant. What's relevant is his or her ability to teach. Nothing matters more. I suspect that you're just as likely to find as many capable younger CFIs as you are to find capable and experienced older ones. So find someone capable.
I will add this important proviso. There's nothing wrong with asking a CFI if he or she is planning on being around for the duration of your training. You should expect an honest, square answer to this question, too. It's possible that a CFI is nearing the magic 1,500-hour mark, which means that he could fly the coop (instead of a Cessna 172). It's easy to suffer a setback as a student if you have to change instructors halfway through your training. You might want to select another CFI if this one looks like he or she is planning on leaving you midway through your training.
Dear Mr. Machado:
I have a problem. I'm a new CFI and live in a relatively small town. As such, it's very easy to get to know everyone. I was recently asked by one of our local pilots to fly with him for his flight review. I don't want to be associated with this person in any way, shape, or form. He's creepy, ornery, argumentative, and talks bad about everyone. He's not known as a safe pilot, nor is he someone who is fun to be around. He only asked me to do his flight review because he knew I was a new CFI. Since there are very few other CFIs in these parts, I can't recommend him to anyone else. How do I tell someone that I don't want to fly with him?
Sincerely,
Mark
Greetings Mark:
First, you have every right not to fly with someone if you decide you don't want to. You have no obligation to jump in the cockpit with someone whom you feel could subject you to liability because your name is in his or her logbook. The fact is that if Gomez or Morticia Adams makes you feel uncomfortable, then you shouldn't fly with them. The big question is how to tell them without causing more than a minimum of collateral damage.
Well, there's no way to avoid being wounded on this battlefield. Don't make up an excuse that isn't true, either. By that I mean, don't make something up to put him off. If you tell Gomez that you are too busy to fly with him when you aren't, he'll simply keep hounding you. A little white lie may be the easy way out in these situations, but it almost always comes back to haunt you. Take the high road. Tell Gomez something like the following:
"Gomez, I am unable to be the flight instructor for your flight review. My decisions are personal and it's my policy not to explain them in every instance. I hope you will respect this."
If Gomez asks why, you simply say, "My decisions are personal, but thank for asking anyway."
You have no ethical or moral responsibility to explain to Gomez why you choose not to fly with him. This, of course, might not be the case if he was already a student of yours and you'd already established a CFI-student relationship.
So be frank and hope he understands, which he probably won't. But that's OK. He'll most likely run off in a huff and say bad things about you, but he'd probably do that anyway once he no longer had a use for you. Find solace in the fact that Gomez probably says bad things about everybody, just as you mentioned. It's a good bet, however, that few people place much stock in what he says. If your objective is to try to make everyone happy, then you're destined to live a life of constant frustration. You probably also need to find another line of work besides being a CFI.
Dear Mr. Machado:
I can't find anyone who can answer this question for me. Would you care to give it a try? I want to know why some people prefer high-wing airplanes over low-wing airplanes. For that matter, why does someone prefer low-wing airplanes over high-wing airplanes? I'm hopelessly confused.
Sincerely,
Brent
Greetings Brent "The Confused":
Your question ranks right up there with some of the greatest questions in aviation. Questions like, "If an airplanes lands hard in the forest and there is nobody around, does it really make a sound?"
Perhaps the answer is that some people like looking at the sky while others like looking at the ground. For those who don't know what they like, maybe they fly biplanes.
That's the best I can do.
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