@ 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.
Thanks for assuming I was referring to all Indian students. The very point that shoots these idiots down is that their peers often sail smoothly through their course because they put some effort in. But there is no question that in 99% of cases, the ones that take 3 years to do a GFPT and the like simply come out here for a holiday. They honestly expect that if they pay the money, they are owed the license.
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.
Thank you for painting every instructor with the same brush. You display some incredible ignorance in your post. Some Instructors may behave as you have mentioned, but then again…..
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?
Assumption correct. I don’t know what ‘airline training’ is supposed to mean, but if you’re saying that students come out here expecting to be trained as an airline captain then I don’t agree that this is a commonly held belief. Are FTOs able to consistently deliver what they promise? Well what they promise at my school is a CPL and various bits in a set period of time depending on student performance. Every student that I’m aware of that’s put in an effort, taken the concept of being a pilot seriously and actually shown up has gone through the course in a fair amount of time, call it 12 months roughly. You can’t help someone if they’re not motivated to learn.
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.
ok ? I think it sounds more like you’re trying to fish to see where I work.
Remember back to your PMI course. There is a lot an instructor can do to help his students succeed.
Could you be any more patronizing? There is a lot an instructor can do, but with many students who come over here from India, learning to fly was Mum and Dads idea, not little Vinesh, they’re away from their parents and rigid discipline back home, they can drink, they can do what they like more or less and so they will. Faced with that kind of scenario, often its simply impossible to get these kids to put the work in. Laying the blame with the instructor in these situations is ridiculous. Doing so would display a great deal of prejudice on your part.
I think there are a lot of things which can be improved, and that includes students, instructors and FTOs taking responsibility
Sure, all parties have room for improvement.
@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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Ultimately we don’t have all the facts but what I’m sick of is the media harping on about these hard done students, when often they couldn’t have cared less when they were training, and now that its home time and they haven’t been gifted their license, they stamp their feet and demand whats owed to them. It’s a 2 party deal this flight training business and both sides have to put the effort in.