Wed Apr 25, 2018 12:30 am
#1607011
I had a lot of problems with my 'flying school' - although I only had 2 different instructors, the main one was not a nice person. Very rude and would on occasions shout and scream at me in the cockpit, creating an awful and unpleasant atmosphere and putting me on edge. On one occasion, we approached the airfield and it was my first time doing an overhead join. I'd done plenty of circuits, take-offs and landings but up until that point, the instructor had always joined us into the circuit if we had left the area for training. Anyway, as we approached the field (less than a mile from the overhead), he instructed me to carry out an overhead join. We'd never discussed the procedure in the past and I hadn't paid a great deal of attention to him doing it (as he'd never explained what he was doing). When I asked him what to do he said I should know by know, and subsequently refused to give me any instruction. I literally had no idea what to do and as we flew over the top of the runway he then screamed at me, eventually snatching the controls and bellowing some more. I was very upset, it was a traumatic experience. The circuit was particularly busy at the time also, so the situation was not only distressing but potentially dangerous. I was so shook up from the incident it then took me 4 attempts to land the aircraft. I did a few lessons after that and he left shortly afterwards, leaving no instructors at all. Several months passed and I was promised they would find someone to finish my training, but there were various excuses as to why they were unable to provide an instructor. Eventually I approached another local school and the difference was 'night and day'. They were incredibly professional with a number of full-time instructors and within less than 3 weeks I'd finished my training and done the skills test.
Moral of the story, if you're not happy with your flying school - go elsewhere.