All good advice so far.. .. .In my opinion, getting along with your instructor is the most important thing - and also the easiest to judge from a first meeting. Every instructor can fly, and has a basic understanding of teaching, otherwise they wouldn't have been able to qualify as an instructor.. .. .You'll be spending a large amount of time in a very small space with this person - you want to make sure it's someone who you won't mind being in a small space with. You'll need to make you can have good two-way communication - this will not only be important when the instructor is teaching you to fly, but will also mean you can make small-talk with your instructor during the lessons, which will make them more pleasant and relaxed, and you'll perform better.. .. .I've heard lots of people say that flying with hour-builders is not as good as flying with career instructors. The two main instructors I flew with were both hour-builders. I can honestly say that I could not have been happier with them.. .. .In both cases, they loved their jobs, and respected their students. I was never taken flying in unsuitable conditions - in fact, I once heard my instructor criticise the school's chief instructor (a career instructor) for taking a student flying in bad weather.. .. .The first instructor was offered an airline job when I had about 40 hours and was close to getting my PPL. In the time that I knew him, I never heard anyone who had a bad word to say about him, as a pilot, instructor or person, and I made sure I was one of the first to congratulate him when I heard about his new job. He talked to the school about the possibility of contuining to teach part time, just to get me and a couple of other nearly-complete students through our skills test, but unfortunately, this idea didn't work out, so I had to find a new instructor. I attended his leaving party, and the club was completely packed with students and ex-students who had come to wish him good luck - it took me about 1/2 hour to fight my way through the crowds to speak to him, and he had to turn down my offer of a drink because he already had several pints lined up which other people had bought him!. .. .My second instructor finished off my PPL training, and we became good friends in the few hours we flew together. Like my first instructor, she was always 100% professional, loved her job, and although she makes no secret of the fact that she's hour-building, she would never take anyone flying in unsuitable conditions. She was a recently-qualified instructor when she came to the school, and I had the pleasure of being in the operations room with her when she had her first opportunity to send a student solo. She was more nervous than the student, and once the student was safely on the gound, she almost burst into tears - it was clearly a very proud moment for her. It's because of her professionalism, and the fact that we get on so well, that I asked her to do my tail-dragger check-out, and she also recently did my cross-channel check-out (a requirement of the school if you want to take their aircraft cross-channel).. .. .Part of the reason why flying with hour-builders worked for me was the school I was with. Being at a large school with several instructors has several advantages.. .. .If your instructor is away for any reason (illness, holiday, etc.) the school will be able to arrange a different instructor for you to fly with for the day. The school will insist on proper student records being kept, so a new instructor should know exactly what stage of your training you're up to, and what your regular instructor wanted you to do next.. .. .If you do need to find a new permanent instructor, there'll be several for you to choose between. Not all instructors will be right for you. (Not that they'll be bad instructors - there might just be a personality clash, or a different teaching style that doesn't fit in with your learning techniques.) You may have had a chance to fly with several instructors already (as I mentioned above, if your regular instructor was away for any reason), in which case you might have an idea who you want to fly with. Although the school will generally re-allocate students themselves if an instructor leaves, if you ask for a particular instructor, you should get that instructor.. .. .Wow, didn't expect to make the reply this long!!! But good luck in finding a school/instructor you like, and make sure you have fun! <img border="0" title="" alt="[Big Grin]" src="biggrin.gif" /> . .. .FFF. .----------