To be the cat amongst the pigeons, I learned to fly at a 'sausage factory' and later instructed at one.
Some of my instructors were good, some not so good.
As an instructor I fortunately worked under a gifted CFI. He demanded a high standard of me, and in turn, I of myself and my students. Most of the instructors I worked with had similar standards.
The claim that 'sausage factories' just churn out sausages, in my opinion, is just a claim.
Has anyone ever evaluated the statistics on the percentage of good vs bad pilots from the various types of Flying Schools? With more pilots gaining their licence from said 'sausage factories' than from other establishments, it follows that numerically more duds will emanate from them, not neccessarily a greater percentage though.
Good pilots are so because they set and maintain a high standard. For a junior instructor to mature into a high quality instructor, they must first be the type of person to seek the standard and they must also be guided by their CFI and more experienced colleagues.
The problem as I see it, is determining at the recruitment stage, whether the potential instructor has the vocational calling to produce a good quality student, rather than just to build up hours.
Ultimately the industry will get the standard it sets overall. If ATO's, the final arbiter of the 'standard', grant a licence to substandard pilots what hope is there. This of course creates difficulties for those CFI's and ATO's who DO maintain and expect a standard, as bloggs the customer may chose the 'easy' (financially) way.
To generalise against 'sausage' factories though, has the inherent problems of all generalisations.
Thank you for the use of the soap box!
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ChickenTrainer
[This message has been edited by CHICKENTRAINER (edited 03 January 1999).]