Is my instructor leaching me?
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After a 5 month absence and such low time/experience overall it's ENTIRELY normal to go do some airwork with you first, at a safe altitude.
Would you prefer he let you go kill yourself!?
Your instructor is just properly doing his job AND looking out for your safety and well being for god's sakes. He should have you concentrate on aircraft handling in slow flight and a few stalls.
If you continued to complain after demonstrating to you how rusty you likely were, then I would have you do an approach and resist talking and watch you scare the crap out of yourself, LOL.
(I have 3000+ hours of just instructional experience BTW.)
Would you prefer he let you go kill yourself!?
Your instructor is just properly doing his job AND looking out for your safety and well being for god's sakes. He should have you concentrate on aircraft handling in slow flight and a few stalls.
If you continued to complain after demonstrating to you how rusty you likely were, then I would have you do an approach and resist talking and watch you scare the crap out of yourself, LOL.
(I have 3000+ hours of just instructional experience BTW.)
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Looks like Elvis has left the building....er...thread I mean...
Elvis, if you do read this, no one here can really tell you whether or not you are being used by your instructor...you are going to make the call on that one, bud. The previous page of comments in this thread have given you lots of advice. I personally would start with an hour with another instructor, perhaps even the CFI , just to get some feedback and judgement from a different set of eyes.
I had close to 4000 instruction hours with hundreds of students before I found my way into the a big iron job years ago. And during those days, I soloed students with as little as 14 hours (flew an hour every day...non-stop), and as much as 60 hours (2+ years to finish a PPL). Then there were the few I could never let solo at all.
But I can tell you this for sure, if any of my 18 hour students took a 5 month sabbatical between lessons and showed up one day expecting to fly off on his own soon, he certainly wasn't going to do it too soon under my tutelage.
Elvis, if you do read this, no one here can really tell you whether or not you are being used by your instructor...you are going to make the call on that one, bud. The previous page of comments in this thread have given you lots of advice. I personally would start with an hour with another instructor, perhaps even the CFI , just to get some feedback and judgement from a different set of eyes.
I had close to 4000 instruction hours with hundreds of students before I found my way into the a big iron job years ago. And during those days, I soloed students with as little as 14 hours (flew an hour every day...non-stop), and as much as 60 hours (2+ years to finish a PPL). Then there were the few I could never let solo at all.
But I can tell you this for sure, if any of my 18 hour students took a 5 month sabbatical between lessons and showed up one day expecting to fly off on his own soon, he certainly wasn't going to do it too soon under my tutelage.
Elvispilot,
Keep your chin up mate, keep plugging away. It will come together before you know it. 18.8 hrs and no solo over 8 months is on par. After a 5 month break I'd say you would need at least an hr and a bit of airwork and a good solid hr of circuits, by then you should be pretty much back in the grove.
I sent my 300th 1st solo yesterday, he had 17.8 hrs and is a full time cadet, flying every 2nd day. So don't feel too bad.
OG3
4500 hrs dual given
Australia
Keep your chin up mate, keep plugging away. It will come together before you know it. 18.8 hrs and no solo over 8 months is on par. After a 5 month break I'd say you would need at least an hr and a bit of airwork and a good solid hr of circuits, by then you should be pretty much back in the grove.
I sent my 300th 1st solo yesterday, he had 17.8 hrs and is a full time cadet, flying every 2nd day. So don't feel too bad.
OG3
4500 hrs dual given
Australia
Yup, with all of that time off you will certainly need much more review time. And aviation is more complex now than in the days of the seven hour solo*. Next winter be sure to do at least some flying. If nothing else, the world looks completely different, and more deliberate planning is required, all of which help develop new skills.
* I did mine in six hours. BUT! After every lesson the instructor would usually have a freight charter, so I'd get to go along in an Apache or 310 and get to fly most of the way, so I actually had maybe 20 hours twin time unlogged as well. I had some pretty patient and generous instructors, but that was 43 years and 30,000+ hours ago.
Oh! This will annoy you: Cessna 172 dual in 1970: $16.00/hr. High school kid wage:$3.10
* I did mine in six hours. BUT! After every lesson the instructor would usually have a freight charter, so I'd get to go along in an Apache or 310 and get to fly most of the way, so I actually had maybe 20 hours twin time unlogged as well. I had some pretty patient and generous instructors, but that was 43 years and 30,000+ hours ago.
Oh! This will annoy you: Cessna 172 dual in 1970: $16.00/hr. High school kid wage:$3.10
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Australitecus, what is more complex about aviation now? My course started on T6s {Harvards} one fellow went solo at five and a half hours, a farm boy from Ontario, mind you we did find out that the very bored ex WW2 instructors had a betting pool as to whose students would solo first! Not only is the T6 more complex than any Cessna or other common trainer in use these days it also has the little wheel on the "other, i.e. correct end "and has a bit of a tendency to switch ends given the chance. Multi was done on B25s or Beech 18s, {the taxpayer bought the gas}, most of my mob retired on either a bus or Boeing product, both of which are very simple to fly, either in auto flight or hand flying. I am constantly told by those in flight training that these days is very stressfull given the ATC system, traffic, et all, personally I find its never been less complex that these days when I fly our corporate heavy twin, hell, nav systems which really work, {no more sextants, range approaches, or sitting in the ice for hours on end} engines that rarely fail, and a cup holder for the coffee! More complex ? I don't think so!
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A hooker on Jarvis street cost $10.00 in those days, everything was cheaper
I swear, I only know this because I drive past that corner at night on my way home... I don't have even have a clue how much a hooker costs.
(If $10 could get you an hour of dual, which now costs $200, then I'm guessing a hooker costs $200 too... I should change careers...
)
Hi Clunkdriver...
After getting a twin rating on an Apache I went to the Beech 18, then the DC-3. Those planes were honest, simple things. Easy instruments with no confusing colours, fixed card ADF, drum DG's, pull-to-cage, carb heat and cowl flaps, radial engined reliability
Oh...and often as not back then we flew for people who were old pilots themselves, or were at least straight-shooters.
I harbour this illusion that I could climb into a Twin Beech today after 37 years and have it feel like home.
Writing about aviation being more complex now I was thinking of changes to airspace, new approach aids and types, fly-by-wire etc. On top of having to know all the things that you need to fly a basic airplane you also have to know what the modern airplane is doing, control laws, often non-intuitive procedures, incredibly obtuse manuals (Airbus), and almost always employers are objects of hatred.
After getting a twin rating on an Apache I went to the Beech 18, then the DC-3. Those planes were honest, simple things. Easy instruments with no confusing colours, fixed card ADF, drum DG's, pull-to-cage, carb heat and cowl flaps, radial engined reliability
Oh...and often as not back then we flew for people who were old pilots themselves, or were at least straight-shooters.
I harbour this illusion that I could climb into a Twin Beech today after 37 years and have it feel like home.
Writing about aviation being more complex now I was thinking of changes to airspace, new approach aids and types, fly-by-wire etc. On top of having to know all the things that you need to fly a basic airplane you also have to know what the modern airplane is doing, control laws, often non-intuitive procedures, incredibly obtuse manuals (Airbus), and almost always employers are objects of hatred.
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Easy instruments with no confusing colours, fixed card ADF, drum DG's, pull-to-cage, carb heat and cowl flaps, radial engined reliability
Oh for those simple days when all we had to do was fly off into non controlled airspace in IMC weather and find a low power NDB hundreds of miles away and then land on a ice strip at night with blow pots for runway lighting in driving snow with a wicked cross wind.
For sure today's pilots have it far more demanding.
Last edited by Chuck Ellsworth; 5th May 2014 at 18:36.
Yeah, exactly. Back then when we were young all that stuff was character building, and actually fun. Now I have the best of everything but it still takes two guys an hour to plan and prefight. And a half hour to push-back and taxi, and eight hours later end up in a holding pattern. I will miss it like crazy, but it is hardly the carefree business of swinging the props, gas n oil and file enroute.
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Chuck, while I respect your experience and standing in the aviation community... It does get a little tiring and disrespectful towards some of the younger professionals out there today how you have a constant holier than thou attitude towards them. You may or may not intend it that way, but thats the way that I am reading it.
I do stand to be corrected if it is not your intention. Since this thread has gone thoroughly off of track, and the original poster has long ago left the building.... I would like to address some of your points.
Yes, things were a lot different out there once upon a time, but things have changed because a lot of people like yourself, did not come home again.
Most rules and regs have come into place after accidents where people have just "swinging the props, gas n oil and file enroute."
We now have to deal with rules and regs on a day to day basis. Not to keep ourselves safe, but for the most part, to cover our own asses.
Was flying more difficult back then as it is now? Perhaps... but up is up and down is still down. The basics are still the same.
The weather is still the same. We still get roaring crosswinds on frozen gravel runways... and a lot of the time its taking aircraft that were never designed for that sort of flying into those strips.
A lot of the northern runways might as well be using blow pots since they are so ill maintained or covered in snow that they can barely be seen.
Going back to your T6 and how it likes to groundloop, its just like any other aircraft and their idiosyncrasies. Some like to drop wings, others like to roll on their backs. Some don't like to stop once on the ground and others tend to never want to land... then decide to drop like a rock at the most inopportune moments.
Once you get the thing into the air and flying, for the most part... as I said before, up is up, down is down, left is left and right is right.
If you can't adjust to that certain aircraft type that you are flying and master those little idiosyncrasies and ass biters, then you should find and aircraft that you can manage.
As to the complexity of the aircraft, you are compare apples to oranges.
Lets compare a Piper Cub to an A320.
Getting it started and airborne, a Cub is FAR easier than an A320.
Landing an A320 on an ILS and Radar equipped runway in icing, a gusting wind and down to minimas is much easier than the basically equipped Cub.
While planes these days do everything for you, when you don't set it up properly, it can nearly become un-flyable. Older planes will keep on going in the same direction and wont care if you can't figure out what direction you want to go.
As I said earlier. Full respect to you and your incident free career which no doubt came about by a large degree of skill, and a little bit of luck... But please lay off the thought that all pilots these days are crap.
I'd like to reinforce that a lot of the rules and regs in place today are because of pilots of your generation, that didn't have your skill/luck and are no longer with us.
I do stand to be corrected if it is not your intention. Since this thread has gone thoroughly off of track, and the original poster has long ago left the building.... I would like to address some of your points.
Yes, things were a lot different out there once upon a time, but things have changed because a lot of people like yourself, did not come home again.
Most rules and regs have come into place after accidents where people have just "swinging the props, gas n oil and file enroute."
We now have to deal with rules and regs on a day to day basis. Not to keep ourselves safe, but for the most part, to cover our own asses.
Was flying more difficult back then as it is now? Perhaps... but up is up and down is still down. The basics are still the same.
The weather is still the same. We still get roaring crosswinds on frozen gravel runways... and a lot of the time its taking aircraft that were never designed for that sort of flying into those strips.
A lot of the northern runways might as well be using blow pots since they are so ill maintained or covered in snow that they can barely be seen.
Going back to your T6 and how it likes to groundloop, its just like any other aircraft and their idiosyncrasies. Some like to drop wings, others like to roll on their backs. Some don't like to stop once on the ground and others tend to never want to land... then decide to drop like a rock at the most inopportune moments.
Once you get the thing into the air and flying, for the most part... as I said before, up is up, down is down, left is left and right is right.
If you can't adjust to that certain aircraft type that you are flying and master those little idiosyncrasies and ass biters, then you should find and aircraft that you can manage.
As to the complexity of the aircraft, you are compare apples to oranges.
Lets compare a Piper Cub to an A320.
Getting it started and airborne, a Cub is FAR easier than an A320.
Landing an A320 on an ILS and Radar equipped runway in icing, a gusting wind and down to minimas is much easier than the basically equipped Cub.
While planes these days do everything for you, when you don't set it up properly, it can nearly become un-flyable. Older planes will keep on going in the same direction and wont care if you can't figure out what direction you want to go.
As I said earlier. Full respect to you and your incident free career which no doubt came about by a large degree of skill, and a little bit of luck... But please lay off the thought that all pilots these days are crap.
I'd like to reinforce that a lot of the rules and regs in place today are because of pilots of your generation, that didn't have your skill/luck and are no longer with us.
How many guys die learning this trade now? I can count five guys that I knew or knew of who died in the early 70's, but there were plenty more than that.
I haven't paid attention to Canadian GA for many moons. Surely it is safer now?
I haven't paid attention to Canadian GA for many moons. Surely it is safer now?
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It does get a little tiring and disrespectful towards some of the younger professionals out there today how you have a constant holier than thou attitude towards them. You may or may not intend it that way, but thats the way that I am reading it.
It is not my intention to come across as holier than thou.
I guess my personality is just not meant for communicating on the internet.
Getting it started and airborne, a Cub is FAR easier than an A320.
I will try and be very careful from now on so as not be on the receiving end of complaints such as yours that have no real justification.
I quit posting on the Canadian forum to please you guys, looks like I should just bow out period as it seems my past due date has expired.
Last edited by Chuck Ellsworth; 6th May 2014 at 03:36.
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My two cents:
I am in sort of the same situation as you. Ground school in Fall 2012, radio certificate 2013 and then 12 hrs on the book and this is about seven months ago. It will be October, before I have a yoke in my hands again. The reason being very short on the monies. I could be flying in August again, but I know that if I do not fly at least two times a week, I can forget about getting the feel for flying, therefore I have to build savings. You cannot pause this long at this point of your training. I don't care if it takes 20 hr for me to solo and 50 hrs to make the first navigation. As long as I am this restricted in my flying this is what is going to happen. I want to be a safe pilot.
On the other hand, I know for absolute certain that our school does not milk students. So maybe you should also, if possible, make an assessment, if your instructor has a good reputation.
But right now, with your flight frequency, you're looking good to me.
I am in sort of the same situation as you. Ground school in Fall 2012, radio certificate 2013 and then 12 hrs on the book and this is about seven months ago. It will be October, before I have a yoke in my hands again. The reason being very short on the monies. I could be flying in August again, but I know that if I do not fly at least two times a week, I can forget about getting the feel for flying, therefore I have to build savings. You cannot pause this long at this point of your training. I don't care if it takes 20 hr for me to solo and 50 hrs to make the first navigation. As long as I am this restricted in my flying this is what is going to happen. I want to be a safe pilot.
On the other hand, I know for absolute certain that our school does not milk students. So maybe you should also, if possible, make an assessment, if your instructor has a good reputation.
But right now, with your flight frequency, you're looking good to me.
Flyboy 262 You are wasting your time with your argument, it has been made many times before.
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Originally Posted by Chuck Ellsworth
I quit posting on the Canadian forum to please you guys, looks like I should just bow out period as it seems my past due date has expired.
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Chuck, Its not that I don't want you to post anymore.
I enjoy a lot of your posts and agree with a lot of what you say as your opinions are largely based on personal experience.
What I don't agree with is the constant generic tarring of all pilots with the same brush saying that we are basically
I enjoy a lot of your posts and agree with a lot of what you say as your opinions are largely based on personal experience.
What I don't agree with is the constant generic tarring of all pilots with the same brush saying that we are basically