How many instructors have you had??

[nanocas]

Hi! I was just wondering about the following:

I am currently doing my PPL with currently 26hrs. I am doing it with a seemingly very good flight academy in Belgium. My question is, since the start of my flight traing I have had about 7 or 8 different instructors, basically the school has over 20 instructors and whenever I book a flight they just give whichever instructor is available. Is this normal, I mean they all have different ways of teaching and sometimes when I do something in flight which I had been taught by one instructor, the new instructor will ask me to do it a different way.

I am curretly doing touch & go's, and still having difficultie's with the flare, but I get quite bugged by all this change in instructors and ways of doing things. A lot of these instructors are new and I also wonder who will eventually take the responsibility to let me solo...

If anyone out there can shed some light into this I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks

[Vee One...Rotate]

I'd want (and had) one instructor for my PPL training. If there's a clash of personalities, which happens, you can always swap.

Surely you can just book slots with the same instructor (they might need a bit more notice)? I presumed one instructor was the norm.

Rgds,

V1R

[the dean]

hi nanocas,

i have always ecouraged students to fly with others if i was not available but i have encountered what you say from time to time. we all ( despite trying to sing from the same book ) teach a little differently, and so particularly at your stage, i think it is important that, to avoid confusing , you should request that your instruction is done by one person in particular, if available...

this is not an unreasonable request...unless for some reason the rostering would make this impossible or mean that you would only be able to fly on occasions that would make it impossible for the school to get you through your course in the timescale permitted..

good luck.:ok:

the dean.

[captain_rossco]

Pros and cons of both sir!
I enjoyed sticking with just the one, meant not having to demonstrate where is was ability-wise every other lesson etc.
Instructors often have different styles, and providing your training has not been disrupted by frequent changes, it is quite likely you are the reaping the beneifts of these!

Best of luck with it.

Rossco

[nanocas]

Thanks Dean, as far as I know, this seems to be common procedure at my FTO, once I brought the issue with one of my instructors and he was very surprised that I preferred to not have different instructors everytime I flew. he ended up giving me a short comment to the effect of: "I don't understand why you would have a problem with that" and we left it at that..
I agree that I should try to let them know that I would prefer to have the same intructor everytime but I think they won't be happy..
however, I have only 10 hours of circuit training (touch & go's) and for those 10 hours I had about 5-6 different instructors.. Is this a common thing???
Thanks for your imput!

[robdesbois]

I'm currently 30 hours into PPL and have done all my training with one instructor.
I think that learning with several instructors is a detriment to the training that you get as you don't get the same person who can see your progression from lesson to lesson, and there's only so much that can be conveyed by the lesson write-up in your training log.
I also believe however that it is beneficial to have a few lessons with a different instructor occasionally. Because all FIs do things a different way and pick up on different things, the odd one with someone else will actually be to your benefit, especially later on in training.

As V1R said, it may just require more notice to your FTO to get a single instructor, but it would definitely be worth it IMHO.

[bigfoot01]

I had 4 instructors through my PPL, and I really appreciated the different way they did things and their different views on things. They also picked up on things. I genuinely believe it caused me to extend my PPL training beyond the minimum (but I don't see that as a bad thing). 7 seems like a lot, however, and I would definitely have a word!

[davidatter708]

I had One insturctor the whole way through my training till the point when I was just hour building and doing trips to places with free landing fees. Then very rarely I would take a different instructor if mine wasnt avaliable

David

[Canuck Spin]

I'd have to agree with bigfoot:

Whilst flying with many different people and several instructors allows you to pick up all sorts of useful (or not so useful!!) tips and things, I think at your stage you need to be concentrating on the basics (and learning them one way) in order to then start developing modified ways of doing things. Having a familiar instructor also makes it easier to ask those questions/approach them for advice etc. when you are starting out so the easiest way to do this in my opinion is to limit the number of instructors at first!

...so in short yeah have a word with the ops dept. or one of your instructors - I'm sure they would understand and if you can be a little flexible on when you're able to train I'm sure together you can fit something together!

Enjoy it! CS

[high-hopes]

12 different instructors
55 hours logged
2 flying schools
5 aircraft types

Chaos courtesy of a well known Scottish ex-flying school.
It's been a mess but I can now see the light at the end of the tunnel, since changing FTO.

There's some really poor level of instruction out there. But fortunately there are also some very passionate and committed instructors to pick up the mess left by others and help you through the hard times !

The only positive.... If I ever become an airline captain, I guess I'm already used to having a different pilot on the right hand seat every time I fly ! ;)

[FREDAcheck]

A woman learning to fly when I did claimed to have had one or two.

[Ripline]

A woman learning to fly when I did claimed to have had one or two.


Bad form, that man.

Mind you, it was the first thing that went through my mind when I read the thread title :}

I only had 3 instructors: being blokes I didn't fancy any of them.

Still don't.... :)

Ripline

[BackPacker]

Oh man.

I was in a flying school which also trained helicopter pilots. One day a female helo student came back with a red face and adrenaline up to her eyeballs. She told us she and her (male) instructor had just done an autorotation down from 500 feet. According to her, that was better than sex! But now I'm beginning to wonder what really happened then?

[Katherine Alexandra]

Haha!
I've so far had 3 instructors (4 if you count T/L) but have had just the one from lesson 7 (thus something over 21 hrs now, I think). I started with our mature male CFI, progressed to a female and now have an immature male :rolleyes: it's an interesting mix and I wouldn't change it for the world but, in hindsight, having one instructor may have been easier!

Lucky I've a good 'un now then!

[tangovictor]

nanocas, having tried some different instructors, most excellent, and are able to pick out tiny details, not picked out by my main instructor, ( & one not so good )
it then occured to me, its MY money, Im spending here, so choose exactly who you want, don't settle for an instructor your not 100% with

[Sideslipper]

I used up 15 instructors in the 18 months it took to get my PPL.
Most of that was due to the meltdown of instructors going off to get right hand seat jobs in grown up aeroplanes.:ok:
The need for the school to get part-time instructors in at short notice did lead to a few amusing situations, such as;
Climbing out, starting a continuing climbing turn at 900 ft.
Instructor "Where are you going?"
Self "Into the circuit."
Instructor "Well you had better level off then."
Self "It's a 1500 ft circuit here.";)
Instructor "Is it?":\

[Mad Girl]

I think I'm up to 5 alternatives, other than my main instructor (32 ish flat hours) in the PPL at various stages, and 1 extra for aeros at 8 hours (1/2 hour with the CFI on my 3rd flight). PPL & aeros instructor are one and the same.

The others have only acted as fill in when my main instructor is on hols, sick or if someone has beaten me to the booking sheets and he's totally booked up. I've only once managed to fly twice with an alternative instructor that I've flown with before...hence the total body count. Only equates to about 5 PPL hours & 1/2 hour of aeros though.

In the earlier days I was uncomfortable flying with other people (apprehensive) and would get confused by the different approaches.

I didn't feel that I knew much back then... so I didn't know any better, but I don't mind so much now - 'Cos now I know I don't know much :O .

If I'm told anything different by one of the others I either point out how I've been taught so the instructor can give their point of view on the alternative they're showing me, and/or bring it up with my main instuctor next time we fly so he can do the same.

The last guy I flew with for 45 mins before being sent off doing solo circuits, provoked a few differences which has encouraged discussion with my normal guy...All good and positive....I might add :ok:.

So it's nice to keep the same instructor for consistancy in the early stages, but you can learn a lot and think about what you're doing more when you've got the basics sorted - more brain capacity available.

[rondon9897]

The main problem with different instructors is lack of standardisation. I have worked at schools were 5 different instructors had 5 different ways of doing the syllabus and none of this was monitored by the lazy CFI.

Having a different instructor with a different take on how to achieve the same goal is one thing but swapping to one that thinks he is running his own flying school can be very confusing for a student.

At any school which allows you to have more that 3 instructors I would question their commitment and interest in teaching you to fly.

Remember to most schools you are just a wallet, finding a good school with a dedicated management AND dedicated knowledgable vocational instructors is a pretty hard task. The number of instructors that are involved in your training however is a useful pointer.

One of the most often heard statements from PPLs sometime after their training is;

"Well i was never shown/taught that"

Also consider that in the early days of flying most pilots taught themselves to fly. In some cases this is still true today!


ASK CAPTAIN JON

[S-Works]

There should not be a lack of standardisation. When we do our Instructor courses we are taught from a standard cirrculum following standard lessons. Every Instructor has to pass a pre entry test and complete an end of course test with an independant examiner. These processes are supposed to act as gatekeepers and ensure the student gets consistancy.

The problem lies in the number of Instructors who don't gove a toss about the student, they just want hours in the log book for the jet job. This is where the problems arise in consistancy for the student. I am well known on my views about taking the hour builders out of the frame and encouraging dedicated instructors to stay in GA with better terms and conditions. Increase the use of PPL Instructors and properly police the standards.

Personally I like flying with different instructors, I am never to big to learn after all aviation is one long learning experiance and would hope that my students take away something from me.

[tiggermoth]

I learnt with one instructor all the way through my PPL. It was good because he knew the bits I was weak on, and we could carry on easily enough from the previous lesson.

[nanocas]

Thanks a lot for all the helpfull comments!
I did have a flight today with an instructor (new one at the school) whom I had flown with once before. I had a chat with him about this issue and he did admit that it is best to keep to 1 main instructor initially and eventually another one as a back-up, certainly in the beginning. But he explained however, that the new trend with large FTO's these days is this continuous rotation between instructors and students... (I just cannot imagine that is a good thing though...) as was mentioned before, it is not only the fact that everyone teaches in a different way but also the fact that when you are passed on between instructors, it becomes increasingly more difficult for an instructor to judge where your weak points and strong points are, as well as generally attitude of the student when confronted with different situations. All this will, I think, stretch the number of hours students will need to not only learn but also the stage at which eventually one of the instructors will feel confident in you to let you solo etc...
I hope all this makes sense!:}
Also, as has been mentioned above, there are sadly always instructors who simply want to log another hour....
So, I have decided that I am going to "choose" 2 instructors and work around their schedule... (now, after so many I don't know who that will be!! the new chap I flew with today seems very motivated though..:confused:

At the end of the day, I started feeling that I had to prove myself over and over again to the new guy...

oooof! sorry for the long blurt out!!!!:O

[Ptkay]

I used to have just one, all the way, and I enjoyed it... :)
My wife is doing her PPL now, changed the instructor just before
first solo flight, and it was a HUGE stress for her...
She almost failed the pre-solo test. :ouch:

I belive, just one instructor, at least until first solo, is a MUST.
:=

[Whirlybird]

As an instructor, I know that standardisation is only possible up to a point. To a large extent, it's not what you teach that is important, but the way you teach it. Some teaching styles suit some students better than others. A good and experienced instructor will vary his/her style of teaching to suit the student. But not every instructor does that, and it's nearly impossible to do if you don't know the student. So constantly switching between different instructors sounds to me like a recipe for disaster, from the point of view of both instructor and student! As an instructor, I'd hate it. How am I supposed to know the best way to teach someone, when I never get to know them? What I learned, and the rest of us learned, on our instructors' courses, is only a starting point; after that we've learned the best way to teach by...doing it!

Learning from different instructors now and then may have its advantages, but only now and then. But most importantly, it's YOUR money, and YOUR choice as to who you learn from. And if the school won't let you decide, it's time to change to a different school.