You get home tired after another long day, grinding out hours flight instructing. Every evening you sit down with your favorite beverage and logbook, and meticulously fill out the day’s hard-fought hours. This was my daily routine as an instructor.
You’ve seen all the job websites and all the news stories about the airlines furloughing pilots. But the future is not as dark as it seems. Time spent flight instructing should be looked at as future airline captain-in-training time.
FAR 91.3 states, “The pilot in command of an aircraft is directly responsible for and is the final authority as to the operation of that aircraft.” The first line in my company flight manual under “captain’s responsibilities” speaks to the same thing. When you are acting as an instructor/pilot in command, you have to manage many things for the safe outcome of that flight. You begin to develop skills to think like a captain. At the airline level it becomes more about managing the flight, such as possible diversions to a suitable airport because of poor weather or mechanical issues. As a flight instructor you develop and use judgment on items such as student solos, go/no-go decisions, or questions (if I lose an engine doing ground reference maneuvers, where is my emergency field?). There are many other examples where flight instructors fly with the big picture and teach that to their students.
One of a captain's responsibilities is to promote and maintain an atmosphere of professionalism. This is something that a good flight instructor will seek to achieve while teaching a student, from trying to dress professionally to how you carry yourself in front of customers and fellow employees. The Aviation Instructor’s Handbook states, “Without professionalism an instructor will not have the student’s respect.” If you don’t act like a professional, you won’t teach like one, either. A captain has to maintain that same level of professionalism to promote a high level of crew resource management (CRM) between the first officer and crew. If he/she does not promote that type of atmosphere there will be a breakdown of CRM, which could lead to an avoidable accident.
This professionalism that flight instructors develop will facilitate the exchange of information needed for good CRM when they become captains in the left seat of a dream airliner.
Finally, this is so important my company prints it in our manual, so we professional pilots are reminded of it every time we review company procedures—“Always treat fellow employees and passengers with respect.” Captains are paired up with many different crewmembers in the course of a career. The captain must respectfully accept all these different personalities to complete the goal of a safe flight.
A flight instructor must accept the student’s personality as well. This will help the learning process and minimize student frustration. The student has a goal, and an instructor with acceptance and patience, can help him reach that goal. With this understanding a respectful relationship is formed. Being respectful and accepting of individual crewmembers will serve you well as a captain at an airline.
