Motivation to Teach

[Big Pistons Forever]

Fairly early on in my instructing career I started using the "Robin Hood" approach to billing my time. Those students that were keen, motivated, and did their homework, but did not have a lot of money got billed the minimum usually just a 0.2 more than the flight time. They got a fair amount of advice and formal instruction for free.

Those students that did not try that hard and expected me to spoon feed them everything got billed for every second from the "H" in the Hello to the "e" in Bye.

Things averaged out to a decent return for me and the school.

[Cat Driver]

Either way, it will erode your motivation,

Teaching flying full time is a job and like any job the motivation in the end is how much money you can make so as to have a comfortable life style.

[Colonel Sanders]

you'll run into problem students

... and once you figure out who they are,
run away from them

I don't teach problem students. I used to, when
I was younger, but not any more.

Unless someone has the basic required genetic
abilities, and gallons of motivation, I'm not
interested in spending my time on them.

I'd rather create one incredible pilot, than ten
hamburger pilots. If P.E.T. doesn't like that, fine.

Maybe you think I'm being a bit harsh or elitist,
but I teach some pretty interesting, advanced
flying. Just soloed another Pitts pilot last week,
starting a new class 2 aerobatic instructor rating
this week, and on the weekend wrote a type
rating course for a brand new high performance
type on the Canadian registry.

If someone doesn't do it just right, they're going to die.



No place in my world for people lacking basic
abilities, or strong motivation.

[Shiny Side Up]

you'll run into problem students

... and once you figure out who they are,
run away from them

The problem being that they aren't always immediately obvious. In many cases you'll have to find out the hard way, in which case it can be tough to get out of. More so if you're a new instructor and really need that class 3 upgrade.

[Docbrad]

So, basically, it is he way it is, if you don't like it, go elsewhere. Also, don't be an a**hole and charge by the vowel and give advice where it is appropriate. But if they insist on wasting my time with their questions, charge em?

[Fury161]

When I was instructing at the local FTU, we were paid by the flight and ground hour and for each ground school class. We wouldn't bill just to answer questions, but if it became obvious the guy required further instruction, we would suggest a ground briefing on the subject. Answering questions was free. Ground brief was billed.

[Big Pistons Forever]

So, basically, it is the way it is, if you don't like it, go elsewhere. Also, don't be an a**hole and charge by the vowel and give advice where it is appropriate. But if they insist on wasting my time with their questions, charge em?

Yup

[Shiny Side Up]

So, basically, it is the way it is, if you don't like it, go elsewhere. Also, don't be an a**hole and charge by the vowel and give advice where it is appropriate. But if they insist on wasting my time with their questions, charge em?

Yup

Reality is harsh! This thread just became real!

[burninggoats]

Interesting thread, figure i'd throw in my view as a former instructor and now captain on a medium turboprop.

Instructing for me was a great start to aviation. I really tried to enjoy it while I was there, and really tried to be the best instructor I could be, not just using it to "build hours". After 3 years I was ready to move on, and I did just that. Looking back, I really enjoyed working with the driven students. No the "smartest" students, and not the most natural students, the ones who actually cared about it enough to try hard every flight, study their asses off, and continually try to be better. unfortunately they were less than half of my students, and the pay wasn't worth the headaches dealing with some other types of students.

Looking back now, I wouldn't go back into teaching unless 1. the pay was better, and 2. I could choose my students. for now, unless I happen to fall into a Col. Saunders type teaching position one day, every time I get the Itch to go do some teaching, I go and visit Shiny and listen to his latest student horror stories, then I'm usually good for 6 months or so.

Having said all that, My class 2 expired at the end of the year, and I've decided not to re-new it. If i ever want to get back into teaching again, I have a feeling it will be doing things in which I don't need an instructor rating for.

[Cat Driver]

Having said all that, My class 2 expired at the end of the year, and I've decided not to re-new it. If i ever want to get back into teaching again, I have a feeling it will be doing things in which I don't need an instructor rating for.

Renewing your class 2 will only cost you money to make less money.

[Shiny Side Up]

Part of the problem is that you couldn't pay most people enough to teach ab initio regardless, and that's the only thing you really need to have an instructor rating to do (besides a few other very niche things). Ab initio unfortunately carries with it all the worst things about teaching, hence why it needs fresh meat into its grinder. Experienced folks who want to do it - and maybe even go back to it - are very rare.

I suppose on a long enough timeline, the amount of people who would remain interested in continuing ab intio would approach zero, such is its attritional effects.

[Cat Driver]

Would it be easier if you did not have to answer to TC and follow their bizarre methods?

[Shiny Side Up]

Not especially. That's just icing on the cake. The main issue is engaging in ab initio puts you in the position of dealing with customers. Even if you pick an choose them sooner or later you tend to make a bad judgement of someone's character, get sucked in by someone's story. Find yourself wondering why you decided to cram yourself into a box to help someone who doesn't care about it as much as you do and probably won't finish training anyways, over all the more productive things you could have done that day.

Drop by some day, you can answer some of the student's questions, take a few for a lesson. Then at the end, tell me if you want to do it day in and out.

No, TC is the CFI's problem, the GM's problem, not that of individual instructors.

[Cat Driver]

Drop by some day, you can answer some of the student's questions, take a few for a lesson. Then at the end, tell me if you want to do it day in and out.

Oh trust me I know all about how the training industry works having been an instructor since the late fifties and owned a medium size school myself ( 6 singles, one twin and one helicopter )

Burn out in ab-initio comes early.

[Shiny Side Up]

Burn out in ab-initio comes early.

And we must put forth that part of the problem with getting good instruction is that we need to do something to solve this problem. There are things that could be done, some regulatory, but ultimately, flight training isn't important to enough people to enact real change in this regard.

[Shiny Side Up]

...Speaking of...

Just spent an hour of my night putting out a fire and soothing the egos of some parents. Turns out their child is not the next aviation phenom - as if there is such a thing and is going to complete his license in a completely average (for the school) fashion in under fifty hours. Of course I had to weather the implied notions that I was a cheat, a crook and a thief, not to mention an all round bad person for the clear non preferential treatment of their child.

Its this, THIS kind of stuff that gets people to get the hell away from ab initio instruction as soon as possible.

[photofly]

TC requires 45. How much under 50 were they hoping for?

[Pop n Fresh]

TC requires 45. How much under 50 were they hoping for?

"At very least the full 5. Junior is a chip off the old block. I missed out on getting into flying but,
his grandfather did his in 11 hours back in 1963.
I don't understand why he didn't test early, then just start his CPL course to finish the 'required' hours he would need"

[eh3fifty]

you'll run into problem students

... and once you figure out who they are,
run away from them

I don't teach problem students. I used to, when
I was younger, but not any more.

Unless someone has the basic required genetic
abilities, and gallons of motivation, I'm not
interested in spending my time on them.

That's a luxury I wish I had. I've been out of instructing for awhile. If I went back into it, which I'd like to do, I'd only want to work with select students and teach anything but ab initio.

[Colonel Sanders]

99% of the instruction I give is advanced:

- tailwheel
- aerobatic
- formation
- formation aerobatic
- low altitude acro/form acro
- unusual/high performance type (rating)
- instrument
- multi-engine
- multi-engine instrument
- instructor
- aerobatic instructor

The people whom I teach are generally very
bright, and very motivated. They do what
I tell them to, and their learning progresses
very quickly.

I do very, very little ab initio, though I will
make an exception if the pilot is unusually
bright and wishes to train tailwheel. No one
else will do that, so I end up doing it (goalie).

Me riding around in the right seat of a Cessna
or Piper teaching ab initio is a waste of my time,
frankly. I would far prefer to teach a new class
4 instructor, and have him ride around in the
right seat. That way, the new class 4 is learning
(to instruct) at the same time the student in
the left seat is learning to fly. Better for aviation.

[eh3fifty]

I would far prefer to teach a new class
4 instructor, and have him ride around in the
right seat. That way, the new class 4 is learning
(to instruct) at the same time the student in
the left seat is learning to fly.

I think there's a joke in there somewhere!