John-T:
About ten years ago I sold a flight training school with six fixed wing aircraft and one R22 helicopter for the simple reason that I could no longer accept the frustration of trying to operate a flight school with the robots the Government forced me to hire. For instance I put a J3 cub on line for those who wished to learn on a conventional gear airplane, guess what, only one instructor would fly it. The rest were convinced that it was just to difficult to train on.
I have reached the conclusion that flight instruction should be split into two camps. Schools that train airline crews to operate todays modern computerized aircraft and a seperate class of school with more flexibility in the methods of instruction. By that I mean the school can be free to choose their own curriculum free of the rote learning, dumbed down to the lowest common demoninator enforced teaching methods that the government insists on now.
This would allow for a choice of training for the student as there is definately a difference in flying between airlines and recreational flying.
When I learned to fly I had to first become an airplane mechanic before they allowed me to fly. ( Cubs and Stearman crop dusters ) <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> <img src="smile.gif" border="0"> beyond doubt that gave me a great advantage during my ensuing years and also allowed me to seamlessly shift into the glass cockpit era of todays world.. .The one thing I am still not comfortable with is landing the A320 in a stromg x/wind, my brain and hands and feet want me to fly it like a DC3, unfortunately a DC3 it ain't.
Looking foward to meeting all you down under guys and gals hopefully in about a year from now.
By the way Melbourne is blocked for a four day inspection on the airplane.
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The hardest thing about flying is knowing when to say no.