Wissam

Living in NYC, full time worker while pursuing PPL. 2Hrs/week flight
What are your thoughts for the following 3 questions?

1-Would It make an economical change having a flight buddy at the same page in order to share flight hours? How to find it? Don't say Craigslist, there isn't.

2-Any Schools recommendations near me? I have been going to KFRG so far.

3-How do determine when an instructor is great, good or mediocre?
I know the key is trying multiples, but I rather avoid jumping from school to school...

Appreciate your help.

rickair7777

Not really the norm, but you could make it happen. If you found an instructor willing to do it, you could probably share ground training sessions, pre, and post flight briefs. If the airplane is big enough, one student could ride in back and observe while the other student trains, and then swap when it makes sense. Observing the other guy would help when it was your turn.

For this to work, you'd probably want to study together too, so you'd need someone you get along with, with similar aptitude.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wissam

3-How do determine when an instructor is great, good or mediocre?
I know the key is trying multiples, but I rather avoid jumping from school to school...

You don't want to jump around, that's expensive. You do want to interview multiple instructors before you start, that way you would have some basis for comparison before you chose. They should present themselves in a professional manner. Be wary of CFI's who try to sell you on airline industry opportunities... unless you get the rare airline pilot moonlighting as a CFI, most CFI's don't know much about airlines, and should stick to what they do know... stalls, steeps turns, etc.

The underlying challenge is that flight students typically know little about aviation, so they are easily fooled. The best recommendation comes from other students who are further along than you (or former students). A freelance instructor should provide references, and you should call them.

If you're looking at larger schools with multiple instructors, try to talk to current students away from the staff, catch them in the parking lot, etc.

TiredSoul

Sorry to say I’d stay away from self employed flight instructors.
You have no recourse if things go pear shaped.
Find a school that has a good organized structure and they do stage checks and so forth. Stage checks are as much about the instructors performance as they are the students.
If you can find somebody to study together, great.

Wissam

First of, thanks a lot for the thoughts and replies.

One more question, Would I save some money, paying for an accelerated course (some of them include instrument + PPL for $13,999)

How does it sound ? Better that pay as you go, isn't ?
Any recommendation? Looking for cheapest and shortest path. Like most of the students i guess.

Best,

Stoked27

At 2 hours per week, I assume you're training under Part 61? I'm still working on my ratings, but over the years I've been on and off training via Part 61 and Part 141. I've flown with roughly 6-7 instructors who had an opportunity to be a longer term instructor - two of which I 'fired' or refused to continue flying with after the first few lessons.

One of the two (our first flight) had a nasty habit of trying to touch my flight controls without a positive changeover or any communication whatsoever. At one point we ended up zigzagging down the runway on rollout because we were fighting each other... once I finally realized I wasn't fighting weird winds and saw that he was kicking his feet on the rudder pedals I told him to take control. After that landing I tried talking to him about it and he lied, but eventually apologized and admitted that he was trying to steal the controls from me in the wrong manner. I couldn't trust him enough to fly with him after that. It happened multiple times that flight, but the rollout was the scariest. I think he initially tried offering minor corrections to get back on center-line, but when I felt weird forces acting on the plane I would compensate, then he would compensate even more, and then I compensate harder, and snowball....

Second instructor I flew with a few times, but his personality and mine just clashed horribly. He was god's greatest gift to earth and had to tell everyone about it, so it just wasn't going to work out long-term spending so many hours with him. It was a mutually respectful reassignment of instructors.

I've also had two instructors that became long-term friends of mine, and 2-3 others were great instructors on a professional level (just not a friend level).

I recommend finding an instructor who is humble and who you can stand to spend time with for long periods of time, but don't be afraid of having a respectful adult conversation with your instructor if you think things aren't working out. You might want to change instructors, but maybe they can simply adjust something in their training/communication to make a win-win. To your comment about changing schools, you shouldn't have to change schools just because you change instructors as long as you're respectful and professional about it. If the flight school only has one instructor, that's another story.