Flight Review Friction with a Friend...

[Coney]

Well, I've been a CFI since May 31st of this year, and I gave my first flight review. A friend of mine (we'll refer to him as Steve) said he'd like to have me perform his flight review. Steve is about 20-something years more senior than I (in his 50s) and has been flying much longer than I. No instrument rating. No commercial. I agreed to help. We went through all of the ground material. He was okay on that stuff, but he needed some brush up on alot of the regs. When it came to the flying segment of the review, I started by letting him pre-flight the plane. I just watched as he simply walked around the plane looking at this and glancing at that. He checked the oil and fuel, but that was about all. I advised him to use the check list and hit everything on the list. He sort of chuckled at that. It seemed like he blew it off. I didn't say anything, and we pressed on. Once airborne, I asked him for a power-on stall. He went right into the maneuver before clearing the area. I politely advised him to clear the area and showed him how. Again, it was a "Yeah, yeah... blah, blah, blah ..." kind of response. At the debriefing, I didn't bore him with the same stuff he's heard time and time again (e.g., it's for your own good, etc.) Instead, I politely explained that the feds can come after me if he gets into an accident or incident. I also included in his logbook endorsement that he could benefit from addition training in clearing procedures and knowledge areas of FAA regs.
In retrospect, It seems he thought I'd grease him through, since he's a friend. Truth is, he probably mumbled under his breath about me all the way home. I don't expect he'll come back to me for instruction. Geeeez.

[MidlifeFlyer]

Your experience is not unusual. It's not even confined to aviation. Giving a FR is a professional/business act. When you "do business with friends" both sides need to go into it understanding that the emphasis will be on the "do business" not the "friends" part of that statement.

It's usually easier to avoid it, especially something with varying techniques, like aviation.

[kellwolf]

Better than the "I'll sign your FR if you sign mine" I've seen in some situations....

I woulda done the same thing in your shoes. Friend or not, you're acting as a professional.

[gtpilot]

I always advise friends ahead of time that we'll have fun but I'm gonna bust their nuts. Seems to head off problems early.

[Andrew_VT]

Although I'm a CFI as well, I couldnt help seeing the situation from the 50yo students side when you told that little story. Almost all my students are older, and ive done flight reviews for alot of aviators that have been flying since before i was born. My advice to you in that situation would be not to get caught up on the little things so he can actually learn something. Debating the merits of a clearing turn before every manuver once every 2 years isnt going to make him a safer pilot. If he's a good enough stick (he's remained an active pilot) I would focus the entire flight review on things that could get him...and thus you...into trouble. In this case new regs, ADIZ and TFR awareness, weather briefings, CFIT, airspace, and towered field operations sound like the areas i would focus the entire flight review on. Remember, you can do whatever you want in that minimum of one hour on the ground and one hour in the air...it dosent say anywhere that you have to do stalls, slow flight, steep turns, ect.

Andrew

[MSNFlyer]

It is a tricky situation--my first BFR was sort of the same. A friend needed a BFR and an IPC. The BFR went fine but he couldn't fly an ILS down to mins so I couldn't give him the IPC. I explained this to him and he was ok with it. We went out again a week later, he nailed the ILS approaches I gave him and then I signed his IPC.

I have also had a couple BFRs where the student read the regs and assumed we would be finished in two hours total. That wasn't the case and if I had not explained up front that those are mere mins and it may (and in most cases does) take longer, they would have been very upset I think. So, it is all about expectations. If you set them out beforehand then your students will know that they can't just walk through it and get an easy sign-off.

I don't know if I would sign someone off and write any extra in about them needed to do clearing turns or study regs though. If this guy has a mid-air and the FAA/NTSB find his logbook with your signature saying that he is ok to fly but still needs work on traffic avoidance procedures they may want to talk seriously with you about that. Don't be afraid to use the sentence "We will need another flight for me to be comfortable signing you off". You don't want to be wishing you said that in the following two years.

[MidlifeFlyer]

Originally Posted by MSNFlyer

I don't know if I would sign someone off and write any extra in about them needed to do clearing turns or study regs though. If this guy has a mid-air and the FAA/NTSB find his logbook with your signature saying that he is ok to fly but still needs work on traffic avoidance procedures they may want to talk seriously with you about that. Don't be afraid to use the sentence "We will need another flight for me to be comfortable signing you off". You don't want to be wishing you said that in the following two years.

That's a tricky one. I don't know whether it's in the context of giving a FR or IPC, but there are quite a few NTSB accident reports including grades and comments just like that regarding pilots who have received training at places like Flight Safety and I haven't heard anything about claims or lawsuits against them based on the practice.

I personally don't think comments are a bad idea, but I'd be careful what I put in writing. There's a difference between recommending in writing that a pilot take a few solo flights after you sign them off for a high performance or complex endorsement and saying that a pilot is deficient in some PTS area but you're endorsing a FR anyway.