My first flight in a small plane was my introductory flight at a small flight school in Norther California. I didn’t know what to expect but I had already caught the aviation bug. It was now time to find out if I liked flying or if I should keep my love of aviation to flight sims and documentaries.
Introductory Flight
It was a nice cool day and the instructor was a nice guy in his late 30s trying to build time to go to the airlines. He ran me through what he would be doing during the flight, the safety checklist and explained what he was doing as he did his walk around and run up. Seconds later we lifted off and I knew this was for me. Any hesitation regarding turbulence or being scared went away right when I had my hands on the yoke. I was IN and scheduled my next flight with the instructor right after we landed.
Changes Happen, Change With Them
After about 5 lessons I was progressing, I had completed my written test and was honing my skills on the way to soloing at some point. Unfortunately, I got call from my CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) which was not a normal occurrence unless had a flight that day, I knew it was bad news. I picked up the phone and I could hear both the excitement and ever so slight sorrow of telling his student he was going to the airlines and different CFI would reach out. I congratulated him, he was a great CFI and I knew he would be a great Airline pilot. I got lucky with my first CFI but the next would not be the same.
Knowing When To Punch Out
The next CFI was an older woman who had been with the school for many years. I have no doubt she knew everything possible about getting a private pilots certificate and understood everything about the aircraft but she saw flying from completely different angles.
I was looking for someone that would highlight the amazing freedom and excitement of flying as I learned the skills and knowledge to keep myself and other safe. By no means did I want to skimp on safety but my view was and is that you have to love what you are doing if you are going to be committed to it. My CFI spent a lot of time and energy reminding me that she would not let me solo unless she felt I was safe enough for me to fly her children in the plane, it was a weird thing to bring up multiple times a lesson. She also felt that it was necessary to test my knowledge and explain the the answer in great detail, whether I proved I knew the topic or not. This resulted in the first 40 minutes of each 2 hours lesson being burned on topics I had proved I learned. The last straw for me was this CFI telling me multiple times that the information I learned from my previous CFI was subpar and he was wrong.
I gave the school a call and let them know about the issue and asked for a new CFI, which they had no problem doing, it evidently wasn’t the first time that CFI had complaints. Maybe there’s students that love that type of relationship but it wasn’t for me.
Finding A Style Match
I was my next CFIs first student. I’ve managed large teams and I’m use to training employees myself so I have no problem with people that are new to the job so I was fine with a New CFI. He was younger but knew his stuff and flying was exciting for him so it rubbed off. At the beginning of each lesson we did a review of what we would be doing that day, he gave me homework so I we could use our time together wisely and we had a overall plan on how I would get to Solo and to the Check Ride. It was exactly what I wanted. Over the next 4 months he became a good fiend and eventually came to my wedding since we had spent so much time together. He’s off the the airlines now but
Think about the kind of CFI you want and make sure you don’t settle with someone who doesn’t fit your style just because it’s faster to go with someone suboptimal.
