Whither the flying instructor?
I've just received my October 2004 copy of General Aviation - the journal of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. I was disheartened to read on page 40 what a young gentleman who pilots a Cessna 172 on scenic flights had to say about instructing :-
"Getting an Instructor rating would not further my career ambitions one bit. It would cost me perhaps £5000, and the hours it would earn me would effectively be useless in the job market. Airlines are barely interested in instructor hours, where you sit with your arms crossed while someone else does the flying."
He goes on to say that his experience flying a Reims Rocket fitted with a variable pitch prop. is of greater value on a C.V. and ends saying "there is little incentive for young people like me to pay for the (instructor) rating".
I wondered if any of my instructor colleagues would agree with his comments - in particular the points about lack of incentives and about sitting with ones' arms crossed whilst instructing? I certainly spend all my time in the cockpit fully alert and ready to fly the aircraft should a student need me to and staying on top of whatever situation we are in. As an advanced car driver will consider the road ahead, I, as an instructor, must consider all the possible combinations of events, weather, traffic, R/T and student response during a flight. All this whilst covering the air exercise itself and seizing any opportunities to cover cross-curricular learning objectives if they arise - surely this can only lead to a greater depth of understanding and airmanship on my part which in turn leads to the furthering of my career? I also feel that my experience so far instructing in SEP aircraft has lead to a well adjusted balance of safety and skill, something which might not be so finely tuned otherwise.
I am personally very happy with instructing as my career, so the comments about relevancy of hours don't worry me - in fact I think the world of flight instruction would be a better place without hours builders. A number of students have asked me recently if I'm going to stop instructing to work for an airline. Sadly, when I reply "no - I am very happy instructing", I get the feeling they simply don't believe me because so many of my colleagues would leave instructing if they could.
As for incentives, I don't think you can beat that proud feeling of sending a student off for their first solo circuit, first solo navigation exercise, PPL skills test or indeed any dual flight when the student has shown improvement and enjoyment. Maybe this feel-good factor is the incentive that we need to be promoting in our industry magazines in order to attract instructors of a suitable calibre into our schools for the future, rather than simply dumbing down instructing as a means to an end? As the Department for Education and Employment would say - "Use your head".
The article also prompts a few questions about the gentleman's own training - did his instructor sit in the right hand seat with arms folded every flight? Or perhaps the student was so overloaded whilst training he didn't even notice what his instructor was doing? Maybe neither is true, but one thing is for sure - the subtleties of instructing were too shallow for our budding commercial pilot to pick up on. He is right that becoming an instructor would not further his career ambitions - his perception of instructing as a method of hours building is an attitude we are better off without.
Your thoughts will be appreciated,
Mystery Shopper