Disillusioned with training......

[Flying Squid]

Evening all,

Apologies for the downbeat tone guys/girls but I'm totally pissed off with the training and wondered if anyone else cared to share their experiences of CPL/IR???

I'm trying to see all the frustrating things that go on as character building and a learning curve.....but as the weeks go on and I try to focus my efforts on producing the goods in the air, I find myself devoting more and more time to worrying about FTO politics (something I vowed never to get sucked into from day 1)

1) Having scrimped and saved to pay for the training I find a chunk of the enjoyment being sucked out of it with the stress of dealing with Flight School's.

2) Thing's are slow to progress thanks to poor weather (which is no-one's fault of course, just bloody annoying)

I love the flying side and thankfully have a really good instructor so maybe I should just be thankful for that and get on with it....afterall, I consider myself very lucky to be doing what I'm doing but at the same time can't help but feel like I've got a case of the training blue's. Anyone else get stuck in a rut during training???

Cheers all and have a good evening

FS :ok:

[flyndad]

Towards the end of my Instructor rating I found flying and the groundwork to be a chore and was glad to be finished with it. After I was done I rented a plane and just had some fun. Keep your chin up, once you are done you will be glad you stuck with it. Hope that helps.

[Flying Squid]

Cheers for that, I think the answer might be to go and rent a PA28 or something and go have some fun for an hour or so. I LOVE flying and wouldn't ever want to do anything else but I think it's easy to lose sight of the fun aspect of it and get so wound up in the CPL/IR that you forget why you wanted to do it in the first place. I haven't had a problem enjoying my flights (a part from a couple of **** one's along the way) but dealing with FTO's is just bloody hard work and there's never any sense that I'm a customer...just a walking credit card.

Cheers

FS:ok:

[tropicalfridge]

Well fella, if you are disillusioned with the training, wait until you finish it and start looking for a job!

There are plenty of schools around, so if they aren't meeting your expectations find another one as the training if too expensive to put up with any crap.

[Flying Squid]

tropical fridge.....

Yeah that particuarly riveting thought has been put to the back of my mind for the time being. To be honest I'm not worried about finding a job. I'm not blind, I know how the market is but I can go back to my old job until things pick up without too many worries. For the time being getting the shiny blue book with an IR stamped in it is the goal. Dealing with the uneccesary FTO induced stressed is real topic of this thread. As for moving FTO.....they're all the same when it comes down to it so can't see much point. Besides, I like my instructor and the quality of training that I'm getting.

FS:ok:

[buggingout]

Go up for an hour with a mate and enjoy it, remind yourself why you're doing it!. That's exactly what I did during my IR went I went through a similar thing.

Don't get involved in the politics.....you don't work there!

[Jerr]

Flying Squid

Hang in there mate. Flying always takes time. Nothing goes right, great weather plane goes US, or instructor ill or worse still off on charter. Crap weather never a plane problem.

My night rating took months, my CPL dragged on for ever.

Still frustrating at times when working as a CPL, plane problems, weather, out of hours etc

Hang in there....


JERR

[kwachon]

Flying Sqiuid,

Keep at mate, we have all been there. There are those that will tell you that when the training is finished the hard work begins. True in more than one way, but the satisfaction will more than compensate. Sure it is tough finding a job, but believe me, they are out there and using all your resources and the internet combined with a willingness to travel away from home to get that job, you will make it and never look back. Yesterday I had a flight that took me to the border with Myanmar from Bombay, flew along the Himalaya's and took some great pics. Look at this pic and tell me it is not worth it at FL410 with this view from the "office".

Keep going mate, it is all worth it.

http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg8/kwachon/Image0001.jpg

Cheers

KW:ok::ok:

[betpump5]

It's not worth it.

Only joking. If there is one positive thing to take from those low times you get during Flight Training, just remember that you are gaining a thick skin. This is something you need once you get out there. Especially in this climate.

In your post, you mentioned that you are really pissed off. Ok fair enough. You mentioned the weather and alluded to the fact that it is no ones fault. But I thought you would continue to explain your grievances but you didn't.

Do you care to share some in order to get more encouragement from readers?

[Robthestudent]

Squid,

Not entirely sure about your comments, if you are supposed to be doing a full time cpl/ir course how can you possibly have the time to indulge in office politics.

When I was training I was completely focussed on my training, if I wasn't flying I would have my head in the books, with all the money I was paying I could not afford to do otherwise.

Can't help with the weather, however important I feel.!!!!

I also fully understand your angst about been seen as a credit card machine, it is a very expensive business. My message would be to concentrate on the flying, and believe you me the effort is worthwhile, it is the best office in the world,

Rob

[Flying Squid]

Many thanks guys. Nice to know it's a fairly common thing during training, however much we all love it.

To answer a question above..... I can't really out my finger on what is really pissing me off, which in itself pisses me off even more. Of course the weather is a factor but thats not really what gets to me, I can live with the bad weather in good old blighty.... one thing that gets to me is a lack of foresight within FTO's. By that I mean clear bottle necks that can be seen to be on the horizon weeks or even months in advance that are simply ignored until a couple of days before aircraft go in for their annual's for a few weeks and yet 4 new smiley faces pitch up on a Monday morning and suddenly the op's board is even more cluttered with people banging down the door to fly. Now, thats not to say that I'm not generally happy at my FTO, just that when things like this happen it creates such a bad atmosphere in the place so unneccesarily because suddenly you're scrapping with your mates to get flying. Everyone rapidly gets wound up and it quickly spills over into people having **** flights.

Rob.....Im not getting involved in office politics mate. The politics I referred to are to do with the issues mentioned in the above example. As for studying....I consider myself a fairly dilligent student. By no means perfect but I put the work in. However, theres only so many hours you can spend reading the company SOP's or playing with NDB tracking etc etc in the FNPT1 before you go mad. As for the EFATO and Engine Fire drills.....Oddly I never get bored of practising those, just aswell I guess. I spend hours going over those in my head and in the aircraft if ones sat on the ground long enough for the props to stop spinning!

Thanks again guys. And the above pic taken at FL410 is fooking awesome!!!! Lucky man!

FS :ok:

[Robthestudent]

Squid,

Fair comment, it does amaze me how inefficient management and ops can be when trying to acomodate everyone, ultimately a lot of problems of too many students at one time is poor planning by the ops dept.

Good luck with your endeavours and I promise you it will be worth it in the end.....

Rob

[Flying Squid]

Rob....

Yeah It'll be 110% worth it when I get my arse into that illusive RHS. Until then it's hard to swallow the constant £2k batterings that my credit card is getting whilst being messed around. Had a great flight yesterday in the end and all my worries dissapeared...until getting back on the ground only to discover the mayhem that's ensued for the forthcoming week's schedule :ugh:

Anyway, on the plus side the sun's out at last...on the really annoying side my flight's been scrapped..... Pimms O'clock me thinks!!!!

Thanks again all.

FS:ok:

[Airbus Girl]

Yes some FTOs try and pull the wool over your eyes - keep one step ahead of them and ensure you shout the loudest! It will stand you in good stead when you are working for an airline and have exactly the same issues except this time with handling agents!! There is a reason Servisair's nickname is Circus Air!!!!