@ das uber soldat - Thank you for painting every international student with the same brush. You display some incredible ignorance in your post. Some international students may behave as you have mentioned, but then again so do some local students.
I have also seen first-hand the complicity of instructors in perpetuating the problem. Part of the instructors job is to instill discipline, professionalism and make the students aware of the great responsibility of being a pilot - along with the enjoyment and sense of achievement it can entail. Being an instructor does not consist of just rocking up for a booking and going for a bit of a fly. There is a LOT of work that needs to be done on the ground, and very few instructors make the effort of getting that done. The ones who do put in the work, generally end up moulding competent students. It seems like as long as the hours are ticking over, some instructors don't complain.
This is not to mention the flight training organizations, who, once having identified incompetent or unmotivated students, are generally not inclined to refunding remaining credit and asking the student to leave. By the way, the contracts demanding advance payment of fees are not drafted by the students, but rather by flight training organizations. Many international students are ignorant of the fact that there is absolutely no legal requirement or visa condition for having to pay large sums of money in advance. Flight training organizations prey on this ignorance.
I assume you have worked at one or more flight training organizations. Would you agree that the FTOs you have worked for were consistently able to deliver the product that they advertised? What do you make of all the talk of "airline training" that the FTOs keep advertising?
I have met students who complain and bitch like the ones mentioned in the article, and some of them have a very poor attitude towards their studies, leading lifestyles that are not compatible with the goals they are trying to achieve. Some of those who complain, however, do have a valid argument. Without facts it is impossible to form any conclusions, and it displays a great deal of prejudice on your part having such opinions.
Remember back to your PMI course. There is a lot an instructor can do to help his students succeed.
I think there are a lot of things which can be improved, and that includes students, instructors and FTOs taking responsibility
@glenb. I totally agree with you. You obviously have experience with students -international or otherwise, and have spent time thinking about the issue.
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