Imabell, the fact that we are young instructor's doesn't mean that we have any level of incompetence. I feel that is very inappropriate of yourself to say that. Experience alone does not make a good teacher. Having taught many different things, not only flying, I think I realise what makes a good instructor. As I said in my last post we do have a fair few airline guy's come in to help out occasionally, more often than not they have to be checked out by one of us "junior" instructors. Their standard of flying is in general very high, but there are always things that need to be pointed out in respect to low powered, low inertia singles.
Airline flying is very different to G.A (obviously!) and as I've found with most PPL's it's not natural talent but normally how current you are on type that dictates your performance. Therefore if you normally fly jets for a living it will take a while to get back into the small stuff, no matter how good you are.
It does seem strange if experience is the be all and end all, how many students have asked to be transferred to the full timers from the occasionals despite our relative lack of experience. We know our students, what exactly their strengths and weaknesses are and yes we train them to as high a standard as anyone else. To say that we don't is nothing short of an insult. To be honest we seem to take more pride in our students and want them to do well as a matter of professional pride, not teach them as a bit of a hobby to keep the QFI rating up as alot seem to do. I don't assume that that this is true across the board, but in my experience this is what seems to happen where I am.
I'll leave you with this thought, of all the thousands of take-offs and landings we have a year, we've only had one accident in the past 12 months. A senior Training captain for ********* airways forgot to put the gear down. Experience-Yes, Currency-No. Not a serious problem, but very embarassing none the less. Not to mention expensive.
So before you take a Holier than thou' attitude because we are younger, just remember who'll be doing your check out if you fancy taking a club a/c for a spin, I bet I could find something not 100%. I find them with my own flying and with our CFI's (well over 10,000 Hrs in G.A) So I bet you're not perfect. Noone is.
Your's,
An arrogant young-whippersnapper!!
[This message has been edited by Say again s l o w l y (edited 01 June 2001).]