Learning to fly, or thinking of learning? Post your questions, comments and experiences here

Moderator: AndyR

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By Dodo
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845644
I don't want to derail the thread, but I thought that thing about scraping ice off the windscreen in flight by reaching out of the left window rang a bell.
So I had a look and it is actually in the C150M POH. (See line 9).

Image
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845653
@Pilot1969 it does sound like you've had a bad experience, and some of their teaching technique has much to be desired, but there isn't a rule against that.
The window scraping is actually a proper procedure, but the fact they didn't explain that to you has left you miffed rather than it being a useful learning experience.
I'm glad you've now found somewhere you seem happier, but other than online review sites there may not be other avenues to warn others. Perhaps you can ask your new CFI / instructor to have a chat with the old one. They often weekend anyway as records are transferred.
Flying is a small community, naming and shaming is rarely useful and people on here are likely to know the individual.
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By AndyR
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845657
Pilot1969 wrote:Thanks I have indeed mentioned it to my new flight instructor and showed them the video of scraping the windscreen. I doubt a personality clash would justify mocking someone’s questions or describing their questions as stupid as well as other demeaning and inappropriate language. My instructor said that it was completely inappropriate. I just don’t want anyone else to be exposed to what I had been through.


Who took the video? !!
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1845789
AndyR wrote:
Pilot1969 wrote:Thanks I have indeed mentioned it to my new flight instructor and showed them the video of scraping the windscreen. I doubt a personality clash would justify mocking someone’s questions or describing their questions as stupid as well as other demeaning and inappropriate language. My instructor said that it was completely inappropriate. I just don’t want anyone else to be exposed to what I had been through.


Who took the video? !!


My GoPro takes videos all by itself from the moment I turn it on....................................... :wink:
User avatar
By Rob P
#1845813
PeteSpencer wrote:
My GoPro takes videos all by itself from the moment I turn it on....................................... :wink:


Yes, but why have you put it in @Pilot1969 's cockpit?

Rob P
#1847117
A week late but I definitely sympathise with @Pilot1969
I have had a few bad instructors over the years, during training and later doing revalidations.
It is extremely difficult/impossible to get anyone to believe they are not all Gods, as can be seen by this thread, reluctance to believe you, normal practice to scrape the windscreen may be, but what about releasing seat belts to do it? Is that in the POH? I doubt it!
A few years ago, reval flight, the instructor said he wouldn’t send me solo. I then flew my own taildragger home to a grass strip where I am considered perfectly safe!
It is insulting and it’s not nice.
#1847134
Miscellaneous wrote:
Crash one wrote:A few years ago, reval flight, the instructor said he wouldn’t send me solo.

Were you insisting on the merits of RPS during the flight? :wink:


During a discussion with a Head of Training of another flying school, following our “discussion” on the subject it was made very clear to me that RPS is perfectly correct practice under the circumstances that I routinely use it. Borne out by his use of it during a flight we made Kingsmuir, Pitlochry, Banchory, Perth. Changing to QNH before entering AB zone, and RPS on leaving.
So why don’t you stop talking utter rubbish? :wink:
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1847142
Crash one wrote:A few years ago, reval flight, the instructor said he wouldn’t send me solo.

With a list of specific items, presumably? That you then discussed rationally and as openly as you could?

If an instructor said that to me, it would give me great pause for thought, and if I genuinely disagreed with any of it, the next thing I would do is book a session with the CFI and get a second opinion. I absolutely would not disregard it, since either my flying is not what I imagine it to be, or that instructor needs some retraining, and either of those is a serious matter.

Obviously, you may be a sky god and the instructor in question a complete dipstick, but basing your view of that assessment on the fact that you

then flew my own taildragger home to a grass strip where I am considered perfectly safe!

... seems a little, shall we say, subjective?

It is insulting

It is not insulting. It is a judgement, which may have been reasonable or unreasonable. It's very much the sort of judgement that should be taken seriously.

and it’s not nice.

:boohoo:

If we all disregarded comments that we felt were 'not nice', we would never learn anything.

Oh wait, this is the Flyer Forum....
#1847151
Crash one wrote:So why don’t you stop talking utter rubbish? :wink:

Oh come on C1, I was merely trying to divert the thread from the potential responses to your post. :wink:

PS, be good if said HoT came on and explained how the pros outweigh the cons, for the benefit of all who think rubbish. :D

EDIT: I see my attempt didn't divert from the inevitable. Oh well, you did bring it on yourself. :?

I'm off for the popcorn.
#1847155
Top Cat.
There were other aspects of the flight that indicated to me that it wasn’t worth discussing.
PFL. I changed my mind on field selection during the downwind as the field became closer and was obviously a Rape crop. “Suit yourself, but we’re not going to actually land in it!” (It has been done).
Circuits. I was severely told to fly the circuit on compass headings, “ Never mind where the runway is, what’s the reciprocal of 27?” (Right hand circuit C152 and him in the way of vis).
On climb out wailing on about DI not set to compass, I moved to correct it, “you can’t do that in the climb!” Obviously I know that, but just trying to obey.
But as usual, the instructor is God Almighty and no doubt I am a complete ass hole!
Believe what you like, I couldn’t care less!!
By TopCat
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1847160
Crash one wrote:Top Cat.
There were other aspects of the flight that indicated to me that it wasn’t worth discussing.
PFL. I changed my mind on field selection during the downwind as the field became closer and was obviously a Rape crop. “Suit yourself, but we’re not going to actually land in it!” (It has been done).
Circuits. I was severely told to fly the circuit on compass headings, “ Never mind where the runway is, what’s the reciprocal of 27?” (Right hand circuit C152 and him in the way of vis).
On climb out wailing on about DI not set to compass, I moved to correct it, “you can’t do that in the climb!” Obviously I know that, but just trying to obey.
But as usual, the instructor is God Almighty and no doubt I am a complete ass hole!
Believe what you like, I couldn’t care less!!

... he said, confirming that he didn't read what I wrote, but reacted to what he imagined I thought.

Maybe the instructor didn't like your attitude either :D

I say again, it's not insulting. It's a view. Possibly wrong. To be evaluated dispassionately, considered, and then acted on or not.

Taking it as an insult, though, is quite telling.

I'd probably agree with you on the details you list above. But I wouldn't feel insulted. Why would I feel insulted by an instructor who was perhaps a bit inexperienced, and a bit limited by his own patter? I might feel that I'd wasted my money, I might be a bit narked that I'd wasted my time, but insulted?

No. Feeling insulted if someone says something mildly critical potentially makes you deaf to to hearing something that might be useful.

And actually says quite a lot about the person.
#1847167
Miscellaneous wrote:
Crash one wrote:So why don’t you stop talking utter rubbish? :wink:

Oh come on C1, I was merely trying to divert the thread from the potential responses to your post. :wink:

PS, be good if said HoT came on and explained how the pros outweigh the cons, for the benefit of all who think rubbish. :D

EDIT: I see my attempt didn't divert from the inevitable. Oh well, you did bring it on yourself. :?

I'm off for the popcorn.


What makes you think that your opinion is important enough for someone else to come on here and try to explain pros and cons to someone who won’t listen to them anyway?
Why were you trying to divert the thread from potential responses? “You did bring it on yourself”
Do you think I need your protection somehow?
Enjoy your popcorn.