a very wise CFI explained to me recently that there is a new breed of PPL trainees coming through the system.
Try instilling airmanship into a mindset like that.
It's what I like to call
'the Macdonald's mentally in society'. They think it's just order what they want and it appears in 2 minutes. "I what a CPL and MECIR, FIR and I want to do it all in 6 months....oh, and chocolate thickshake". And it's not just in aviation.
I reckon there are 2 types of students. Those who want a licence and those who want to learn to fly. I had break from instructing between 2002 to 2004. When I returned in '04, most of the students were only interested in doing the bare minimum for whatever training they were doing.
Used to get asked all the time, "what's the minimum I gotta do for....". Everything from PPL through to MECIR.
Don't get me started on the LAZY, LYING, CHEATING, MINIMUM EFFORT international students. Just before I finished in aviation earlier this year, one of them was leaving us to go to the Florida. Why? Because he said it was easier to get a licence over there and that we were asking for too higher standard. That's what you end up teaching.
Pilot's need to take a bit more pride in their work.
A lot of recent generation of instructors are just bad. Especially the sausage factory products with their cookie cutter production line degrees. "I have the (minimum)hours for my grade 2/1, can you sign my test form?" or "Can Ol'mate and I do half ICUS half PIC in Seminole for the META 50 hours PIC. The test form say we can." Why only the minimum, why not a higher standard!
Like ol' mate Cranky, I know i'm not perfect, but i have the professional motivation to learn and always do things better.
Aim for higher standards, not just the 
MINIMUM!
Actually learn the stuff correctly. Ask why is it done this way, not just "because I was told to do it that way" or "because that's what we did GFS/Oxford".
Landing on centreline - it's OK the paint is
dry, you wont' wreck it!
Radio calls - Get it right from the black and white. Not once have I seen written anywhere "
TURNS base,
TURNS final.
It use to frustrate the
out of me with full time students whose currency should'nt be a problem at this stage, see there standards drop down to barely that of a pre-solo PPL student. Like VH-XXX said - LAZINESS.
Those who fly for a hobby. I understand, family comes first with your time and dollars, so recency can be an issue. Try take advantage of the Airservices info nights. Some aeroclub's have right hand seat night to help keep your knowledge up to speed as well. Each flight you do, have an objective of a standard you want to improve. Be it circuits or DR nav.
I was a career instructor. I was very passionate about teaching people to fly and helping them succeed in their choosen hobby or career. The Macdonald's mentally in society attitude took it's toll on my enthusiasm. Maybe having a stroke was blessing in disguise. Now that I am out of the industry, I'm much more relaxed these days.
For the rest of still in aviation....
Good luck, and don't
it up!
In-cog-nito, signing off.
P.S. Yeah I know what you think. All sounds like B.S. I used to get that a lot
