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meritflyer · May 4th, 2008, 17:19

My school of thought is not the see all, be all! My school of thought comes from wanting to know the correct explanations, reasons, and motives for all that entails flying. In my humble opinion, an instructor is an elite rating. One that I saw many attempt and only few really finish and/or succeed. Most earn their instructor certificates around 300 hours or so. I find that plenty as a platform to build on. If you've been flying in a flight school on a full or even part time basis, it's the idea of immersion flying and seems to be plentiful to produce quality instructor candidates.

I was at my sharpest point of my flying career the second I finished my commercial certificates. I had been knee deep in books, study, and flying the airplane at my best. My CFI/II/MEI came easy because I wanted to be the person that knew the answer or knew exactly where to find the answer. Teaching makes you study what you don't know, refine what you do know, and practice what you should be able to do. In fact, the airlines made me lazy. No more teaching IFR procedures, approaches, and regulations. No more teaching weather, VFR, aerodynamics, the AIM, the FAR's, or performance maneuvers.

To me not teaching allowed a ton of information that I spend years gathering and studying to evaporate. It essentially took the "aviator" out of me. Not to dig on you at all, but the folks I found unwilling to teach or at least try it before they despised it (as in your case), were usually the ones who struggled with their ratings from PPL-CP. They knew they couldn't hack the CFI certificates, for lack of a better term, and always had some justification for excluding them from their training as a pilot. I experienced this as a CFI training commercial pilots time and time again.

Teaching solidifies what you've learned and makes you be the authority on flying. It teaches you CRM, personal skills, flying skills, communication skills, and decision making that I found, can't be experienced on the same level as a "time builder" trying to rack up hours to get in a jet.

May 4th, 2008, 17:19	#12
meritflyer Old Skool Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Winchestertonfieldville Posts: 5,886	Re: NASA form My school of thought is not the see all, be all! My school of thought comes from wanting to know the correct explanations, reasons, and motives for all that entails flying. In my humble opinion, an instructor is an elite rating. One that I saw many attempt and only few really finish and/or succeed. Most earn their instructor certificates around 300 hours or so. I find that plenty as a platform to build on. If you've been flying in a flight school on a full or even part time basis, it's the idea of immersion flying and seems to be plentiful to produce quality instructor candidates. I was at my sharpest point of my flying career the second I finished my commercial certificates. I had been knee deep in books, study, and flying the airplane at my best. My CFI/II/MEI came easy because I wanted to be the person that knew the answer or knew exactly where to find the answer. Teaching makes you study what you don't know, refine what you do know, and practice what you should be able to do. In fact, the airlines made me lazy. No more teaching IFR procedures, approaches, and regulations. No more teaching weather, VFR, aerodynamics, the AIM, the FAR's, or performance maneuvers. To me not teaching allowed a ton of information that I spend years gathering and studying to evaporate. It essentially took the "aviator" out of me. Not to dig on you at all, but the folks I found unwilling to teach or at least try it before they despised it (as in your case), were usually the ones who struggled with their ratings from PPL-CP. They knew they couldn't hack the CFI certificates, for lack of a better term, and always had some justification for excluding them from their training as a pilot. I experienced this as a CFI training commercial pilots time and time again. Teaching solidifies what you've learned and makes you be the authority on flying. It teaches you CRM, personal skills, flying skills, communication skills, and decision making that I found, can't be experienced on the same level as a "time builder" trying to rack up hours to get in a jet. __________________