So you’ve decided to learn how to fly. No problem! Just open the yellow pages, choose a local flight school, call for an appointment and you will soon be linked with a professional flight instructor who loves teaching almost as much as he or she loves flying.
When I asked for feedback from Flying readers about the instruction they had received, most of the people who responded said this scenario was a recipe for disaster. I read over and over about students who had been transferred from one instructor to another as their previous instructors were hired by the airlines, and most people reported that at least half of their instructors were marginal at best. We really shouldn’t expect much better in an industry in which the least experienced are often the teachers, and where most pilots have to jump through the instructing hoop to build time so they can be hired by an airline. Add in dismal pay that hasn’t increased much over the last 30 years, little or no benefits, long hours and difficult working conditions and you have a recipe for a bad attitude. It is unrealistic to expect much from instructors who don’t have much experience or depth of knowledge, don’t want to be doing what they are doing, aren’t being compensated very well and are focused on getting out of instruction as soon as possible.
