Flight Training – Deciding On Your Instructor

By Author: Vikram Kuamr
Total Articles: 2912
Comment this article

When you begin to look at flight schools and considering which to pick for your pilot training, it will quickly become apparent that one of the hardest things to do is to choose which instructor you would like. Obviously, you will be paying quite a bit for your flight training, and you will want to get the best experience you can, but it’s always difficult to assess people when you may only meet them for a few minutes. But it’s an important decision to make, because you’ll be spending quite a bit of time in his or her company, and you’ll need to trust them and their instincts to quite a high degree while you go through your pilot training. So to get the best chance, I would recommend the following two-step plan each time you visit a flight school:

Initial phone call
Rather than just booking an appointment to be shown around the flight school, which will probably only entail your speaking to an administrator or receptionist, ask if you can speak with one of the flight instructors themselves.

If one of them is available, have a list of pertinent questions to ask them. These will depend on your personal ...
... concerns, but may include such things as: Do you try to take your students through their course as quickly and economically as possible? What is your opinion of the facilities at the flight school? How do you allocate instructors to trainees? Make a list of questions to which you would like an answer and any others that you feel might help to reveal some of the personality/character traits of the instructor you speak to before making the call, and leave space on the piece of paper to make notes as to the answers you are given.

Assess the instructor’s performance as much as you can, noting things like how efficient they were, whether they explained things clearly, and how well they listened to your question and addressed your specific concern or area of interest. You’ll likely speak to several different people, possibly more than one at the flight school you eventually choose, and it’s worth having a note of each one’s name and how the conversation went so that you can refer back to it when you need to.

During the visit

When you visit the school, try to do a similar thing with the questions you want to ask. Most people will not mind if you take a list of questions as a reminder for yourself, but if you feel uncomfortable doing this, try to keep the list in your head. Either way, it’s best to make notes as soon after the tour/meeting/conversation, when it is fresh in your mind. Keep a notebook in your pocket or in the car and take a few minutes to write down your impressions before driving home.

Once you’ve made all your visits, you’ll then have a record to look back through. If you still have questions (you may have heard something from the last person you spoke to which you would like to address with the others, for example), do call the school back. Picking the right instructor for your pilot training will make the whole process more pleasant, and while you may not have the same instructor every single time, you will look forward to your time with them much more if they’re on a similar wavelength.

So take notes, and have fun!

Author Bio.

To help with ideas for questions you might want to ask instructors about Pilot training, why not go to the Flight Learnings website. It includes an account of one person’s Flight Training experience, and can really help give you an idea of what to expect.