[Normy]

Normy steps into the conversation. 2100 hours of dual given at FlightSafety Academy in Vero Beach, Florida. I was the Assistant Chief Pilot at that school for a while.

-What I would tell you, if you are interested in learning to fly, is to do it RIGHT. I tell people interested in my Porsche to do the same thing- do it RIGHT. Buy the most expensive car you can afford, and then do good maintenance.

Flying is the same thing. Many small FBO's and flight schools operate on shoestring budgets these days. They stave off maintenance if they can to cut costs. After I graduated from Embry-Riddle, I tried to find a job for a month and regularly flew this Piper Cherokee from an FBO in Sebastian, Florida. First time I did the preflight, the oil was dirty and LOW. I had to ask the man that ran the place to add a quart of oil. And then on the climbout to 3000 feet, the oil temp went right to the redline! Believe me, I was eying that beach! I kept it within gliding distance of the airport from then on. It was $26 per hour wet in 1989, and I needed to keep my skills up for interview flights. I only had 210 hours....

-Go to a decent, well-known and brand name flight school to do your training. They have the coin to do decent maintenance, so you won't be doing engine out demonstrations FOR REAL!

Another person posted that a young flight instructor is a bad idea; At a big school, that doesn't matter as much. At a small school, it sure as hell does! Big flight schools have lots of kids with 747 cockpit windows in their eyes, but they are all the same. Small places have some guys that are very good and some that are very BAD. The smaller the place, the more lucky you have to be with regard to instructors. This is true at large airlines such as the one that I fly for today.

DO NOT BE AFRAID to fire a flight instructor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cannot emphasize this enough. A good CFI works with you. He will tell you when you are wrong. He will tell you when you are correct. He KNOWS TO SHUT THE HELL UP when you are trying to do a stall, a steep turn, or another maneuver!

-A GOOD flight instructor ONLY yells at a student when he has done something dangerous and stupid! This last is a big problem in the industry. Too many fools sit down next to a student in a plane and then cross their arms and knit their brows as soon as the prop starts turning.

"WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?" But they don't give you any corrective actions. I had an instructor like that through most of my instrument training, and I eventually fired him. I asked for another instructor, and he was dumbfounded! One day, at the start of my training with him, he asked me which car wax I used, because my '85 Scirocco was gleaming in the parking lot. I went down the whole story of how I clean my cars, which I still do to this day.

After I fired him, when he asked me why I had a problem with him, I told him that I didn't yell at him when he asked that question. Why does he feel the need to yell at me now? He still didn't get it. He flies for US Airways Express to this day, and has a HORRID reputation there! I jumpseated on them a few years ago and mentioned his name to the crew and both of them turned around in the seat and gave me a bad look!

-THERE is NO need for that sort of personality in aviation. But people like this guy are ALL OVER THE PLACE!


These are the sorts of things you need to AVOID if you are going to join the legion of aviators. The main thing I want you to take away from my post right here and right now is that

YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW YOUR TRAINING GOES, not your instructor. Don't let him overcharge you for briefing time. Don't let him NOT do any briefing with you before and after a flight! Don't let him forget items on the syllabus, so that you can find out about them on the checkride. Don't let the engine overheat on your plane- if it does, TURN around and find another flight school. Don't let some a55hole sit there and scream at you....while you are paying him! TURN around and put said a55hole on the GROUND where he belongs!

Good luck. I hope I haven't scared you off, but aviation is like Porsche-dom: It is either heaven or a pit of snakes. If you are being paid, it is usually BOTH.

N!