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Old 27th Dec 2005, 12:24
  #16 (permalink)  
Whirlybird

The Original Whirly
 
Join Date: Feb 1999
Location: Belper, Derbyshire, UK
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If you try to get rid of human individuality, uniqueness and opinion (where discretion is valid) then we will all fly like clones with no enthusiasm or self expression and the world of aviation would be very dull indeed.
There's nothing wrong with different instructors teaching in different ways. I think all students are capable of understanding that there is more than one way to do something, and certainly more than one way to teach it.

The problems start, for students, when an instructor wants it done his or her way, for no particular reason. The attitude of: "I always turn downwind THERE, and I teach my students to do that, and that's how I want it done, and the reason is because that's what we do and because I say so.

It's that attitude which has no place in instructing. And that's what annoys PPLs, and why they'd sooner go to the dentist than fly with an instructor. And that's what we need to get rid of.

There are also the instructors who criticise destructively, to the point that a PPL can end up feeling he/she doesn't know how to fly at all. There are other ways of getting something across, like the nice chap on my f/w biannual check, who said to me, "You're fine; you're a bit rusty, and you need to practise, but you know that already". I had no problem with that. But if he'd said, "Your steep turns are crap, your PFL wasn't much better and if we'd had a real engine failure you'd have crashed"....would that really have helped me to improve?

Some instructors just need to know how to teach - not to teach flying, but to teach PEOPLE! It's the FI courses that should be teaching this. Or revalidation seminars - I'm going on my first one fairly soon; do they teach this kind of stuff; if not, well they should. AOPA and other organisations who run these courses, if you're reading this thread, TAKE NOTE! ! !
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