What should I ask my flight instructor?

[pookie]

I'm looking into getting my private pilot's license and I was wondering what questions I should ask of my "would be" instructor?

I've never flown before, but always had an interest in flying. Will mostly fly for pleasure and maybe a little travel.

[pookie]

Also any good flying sites for newbies?

[on-ramp]

i dont know, i guess the obvious is whether he has a pilot's license... and how many hours in the air.

[Seahawk]

Pook,

Go to the EAA and AOPA websites...they will be very specific and have good forums.

Best of luck flying. Your first solo will be an event you will never forget.

[id10t]

How many hours instruction experience, see if you can talk to a couple of his students, average time to solo, what type of craft he is certified to teach in (does htis apply?) etc. These are the kinds of things I asked my scuba instructor long ago... with him, relative cert when he considered you "done" as well - he really didn't like it if you weren't ready to go right into the advanced open water classes that were extras beyond basic certification (low vis, night, deeper, etc) when he gave you your basic cert card.

[schamp]

Ask him how long he will be there. I have had two that found better jobs and its a pain. One had his green card expire. I had to tell him I was already married. We were at about 5,000 agl. He didn't see the humor. You want an instructor who will be with you til the end of the course. You will need to stay with it as well. Good luck.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Ask him to explain, in detail, why design manuvering speed (Va) varies with gross weight.

[Eric Coffey]

Ask him if he's evern been in an inverted negative-G dive with a Mig.

[HardDrive]

"Do ya drink much?"

"Every make frequent flights to columbia at an altitude of 100 feet?"

"Ever join the mile high club......by yourself?"

[johnco]

ask him to show you a spin after you start flying. get it over with. Or you can do one on your first solo like I did. Sure wish he had taught me something about spin recovery before that happened. Just flying around the area gets boring after that. BTW, I went thru 4 instructors before I gave it up.

[VINMAN]

"Where do you keep the parachutes??"

[Zeke]

Originally posted by johnco
ask him to show you a spin after you start flying. get it over with. Or you can do one on your first solo like I did. Sure wish he had taught me something about spin recovery before that happened. Just flying around the area gets boring after that. BTW, I went thru 4 instructors before I gave it up.

That had to be ineteresting. At the risk of a hijacked thread, care to elaborate?

[Loaded]

also depends on if you are doing prt 141 or part 61 flight training....If he wont address both of those parts with you then walk away

[Jim727]

Originally posted by Seahawk
Pook,

Go to the EAA and AOPA websites...they will be very specific and have good forums.

Best of luck flying. Your first solo will be an event you will never forget.

What Seahawk said.

Plus, I would ask him/her what he/she thinks are the basic skill sets to be a competent and safe pilot. If the answer sounds like it came from a "learn to fly here" brochure, or if it seems to be the first time they have thought about it, or if they seem annoyed at being interviewed for the position -- find a new instructor candidate. Personally, I would also expect to hear some reference to basic instrument skills and basic aerobatic skills.

Good question. Keep at it until you find someone you think is worth learning from. There are excellent instructors out there.

Jim

[johnco]

quite interesting! Instructor told me to go out and practice stalls on my first solo. Well, full power, pull up, stall and into a spin. spun for a while not knowing what to do, I happened to notice on the dash a small sign stating opposite rudder to recover from spin. whoops, wrong way with the rudder. Really spinning now. tried the other way and it straighten's out but still diving to the ground. fell from 3500 to -1500 before I got it level again. exciting? yep!! I was a little more careful with my practice after that happened. Flying with my father we've clipped tops of trees, bent the rear tiedown eye flying with my instructor, and dipped the tail in the river once flying low with my instructor after he failed to notice how LOW we were. My father used to land his J3 seaplane on the levee. Knocked out 5 windshields and stopped upside down on a railroad track landing on the highway once trying to get another plane safe from a hurricane. he also used to tie his boat between the pontoons to go duckhunting. Best fun was when we would toiletpaper houses from the plane. wild times!

[Jim727]

Originally posted by johnco
quite interesting! Instructor told me to go out and practice stalls on my first solo. Well, full power, pull up, stall and into a spin. spun for a while not knowing what to do, I happened to notice on the dash a small sign stating opposite rudder to recover from spin. whoops, wrong way with the rudder. Really spinning now. tried the other way and it straighten's out but still diving to the ground. fell from 3500 to -1500 before I got it level again. exciting? yep!! I was a little more careful with my practice after that happened. Flying with my father we've clipped tops of trees, bent the rear tiedown eye flying with my instructor, and dipped the tail in the river once flying low with my instructor after he failed to notice how LOW we were. My father used to land his J3 seaplane on the levee. Knocked out 5 windshields and stopped upside down on a railroad track landing on the highway once trying to get another plane safe from a hurricane. he also used to tie his boat between the pontoons to go duckhunting. Best fun was when we would toiletpaper houses from the plane. wild times!

You make your flying days sound like the car chase scene in "The Blues Brothers". Good grief!

[on2wheels52]

Flew with three diferent CFI's, still managed license in less than 45 hours. No excitement like John's.
Jim

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Any CFI that sends a student off solo to practice stalls without having at least EXPLAINED the procedure for spin recovery ("P-A-R-E") deserves to have his/her ticket yanked.

1. P - Power (idle)
2. A - Ailerons (neutralize, resist the urge to "turn the wheel the other way, it will aggrivate the stalled condition and deepen the spin)
3. R - Rudder (full against the direction of rotation)
4. E - Elevator full forward (this might seem counter-intuitive since a lot of times you'll swear you're pointing straight down, although you're not. In most spins you're only about 20-30 degrees nose down and the only way to reduce angle of attack is to shove the nose down)

Like I said, every one of my students got at least a briefing on the procedure and I tested to make sure they knew it by heart before they went up on their own. I'd have some serious issues with any CFI that said "just go take 'er up for some fun" without having evaluated a student's knowledge of that.

[pookie]

Thanks guys, here is the school I am going to meet with today.

http://www.flyaerosmith.com/index.html

It's funny I live really close to the airport, I knew I lived really close to the airport, but I just assumed they were too small to have any type of flight instruction.

Seahawk, thanks for the sites I am headed over there now.

[pookie]

Also what are the average cost to getting a license?