The Ideal Training Captain
(1) As SE7EN said - "Patience, patience and umm....oh yes, patience."
(2) As CDRW said - "the ability to teach". Absolutely agree that the best pilots do not necessarily make the best instructors, they often cannot understand why others cannot cope as well as they do themselves. Of course a good pilot who also has the ability to teach well is a bonus+++
(3) A clear appreciation that no two students are the same, and will learn at diffent rates and in different ways. Often times the slower student ends up being the better pilot.
(4) A clear appreciation that a Training exercise is NOT a test of the candidates skills and techniques, that is a Check flight. A Training exercise is the opportunity for the student to steadily apply pre-learning for the new type and put it into practice with the guidance of the instructor.
(5) A clear appreciation that MOST students learn more effectively if not just taught HOW, but WHY. A clear understanding of why a particular technique is practiced quickly leads to his being able to use the technique (the HOW).
(6) A clear appreciation that a large number of errors made by the majority of the students is not their fault. (You know the type - "All you sods are the same"). It is the fault of the system, the instructor, or for a group of pilots from similar backgrounds entering new dissimilar techniques.
(7) A good instructor will take the student through new procedures in a careful and explanatory manner. The student may have prepared himself well, but a good instructor will assist in his complete understanding and ability to perform consistantly.
(8) Within the constraints of safety, a good instructor will allow a more advanced student some lee-way in "running his own show", but ready to step in quickly if safety or learning is compromised. This builds up the trainee's confidence enormously.
(9) The ability to recognise areas where the student is under-confident, and reinforce his confidence by example and talking him through those aspects which the student finds difficult, and finally to go it alone (oddly enough, I've found that in my own students, their initial points of under-confidence often become their strong points if managed carefully).
(10) The ability to recognise when "on-the-spot" mini de-briefs are desirable during the exercise whilst the event is fresh in the student's mind. Major items can wait for the post flight de-brief.
(11) The ability to recognise when the student is assessing his own mistakes correctly, as he can now work positively towards correcting them. Just as importantly, the ability to recognise when the student is NOT assessing his own mistakes correctly or realising them, at which point much more instructor input is needed.
(12) Although the Instructor does not have to be an "ace" pilot, he must be able, at a moment's notice, to take full control of the aircraft without assistance - reverting to single pilot operation.
That's a mini summary, there's a lot more, but it's among the points that I look for when interviewing potential instructors, and conducting their Instructor training and final approval.
Regards,
Old Smokey