Dear Rod:
I am an older student pilot (almost 50) who became serious about getting my private pilot certificate last fall. I have about 30 hours spread over the past six months. I need to fly two to three times a week, but because of weather, scheduling, and work, I am unable to fly more than a couple of times a month. My flight instructor doesn’t want to work weekends, but also doesn’t want me to fly with the other instructor who just started at the FBO and who does work on weekends. I don’t think that my instructor respects the new instructor because of some incidents around the airport—but I am wondering if there is something else going on.
I really like my instructor, and he tells me that he will have more time to instruct me in a month. He does have an excellent student pass record on the oral exam and flight test. I’m not too sure about the new instructor since he is not from around here. How do you feel about someone getting lessons from two different instructors? I live in a very small town, and this is the only game around.
Emotionally Exhausted and Wanting to Fly
Greetings EEWF:
I’m with your instructor on this one. I’m not a big fan of students taking training from two (or more) instructors. There’s only one time I would recommend this, and that’s if both instructors have the same teaching, training, and flying philosophy. Good luck with that, since this is the exception rather than the rule.
It’s simply too easy for you to become confused when another instructor—one who has different training priorities and methods than your primary instructor—contradicts your previous learning (and yes, there’s a very good chance that this will happen). I know it seems like a wise thing to have two different opinions about how to fly. This is certainly appropriate once you have your private pilot certificate and already know how to fly. It’s mostly a hindrance to learning if you’re a student pilot.
That said, it sounds like you have a good instructor. In particular, you have an instructor that you like. In my opinion, that’s gold and you shouldn’t be easily willing to give that up. If he says he’ll have more time to train you next month, then wait. It will be worth it. If he doesn’t have the time you need, then you have little choice but to find a different instructor.
Regarding the new instructor arrival, don’t be so quick to dismiss him. Most everyone is “the new CFI” when they first start teaching at a flight school, and few people are originally from “around here”—wherever “here” is. Do a little gumshoe work and check out his reputation.
Dear Rod:
I’m a CFI candidate. On my last flight with my instructor, we practiced Dutch rolls as a demonstration of control coordination. Is the ball supposed to remain centered during this maneuver, or is the airplane’s heading supposed to remain constant? Or is it both?
Joline
Greetings Joline:
The maneuver you’re practicing is more appropriately called a “coordination roll” and not a Dutch roll, which actually is a dynamic stability problem. The purpose of coordination rolls is to coordinate your application of rudder with aileron input in order to keep the nose fixed on a distant reference point. As you roll from one bank to the next, the nose shouldn’t move if you’re properly correcting for adverse yaw caused by an aileron.
Whether or not the ball remains centered, however, depends on the design of the inclinometer and its placement on the panel. For instance, the ball can lag in its response because it has inertia, and its motion is often damped by the liquid in the slider tube.
I recently demonstrated perfect coordination rolls in one model of a Light Sport airplane, and the clicking noise from the ball hitting the sides of the glass made me think my blinkerwas on (OK, I exaggerate, but onlya little).
Then again, the inclinometer’s ball is quite accurate once the turn is established and stabilized.
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