Letter to RAA mag

[fly_tornado]

I don't think the letter was complaining about not "clicking".

 

 

[facthunter]

Andy's contributions are always valuable. He puts a lot of thought into what he says and cares about outcomes.

 

. In the context of audits etc they ARE done ( my experience is not recent, I stopped instructing for RAAus about 3 years ago but I still talk to a lot of instructors at all levels). But I honestly don't know how effective they (Audits) are. The ones I have seen had the capacity to check a lot of things, but it might be the obvious paperwork etc that gets the attention. There are some wiley types out there who are pretty good at having things appear OK and are all palsy to the guys when they come around, say yes and nod often and then do exactly what they want to do after the Audit is done. I used to find this with external teaching inspections when teachers would bring out all the teaching aids charts etc and "window dress", the scene. Threaten the kids with "be nice to the important visitor", ( or you are for it). The last bit doesn't happen with flying, but you get the drift.. They can put on a show.

 

Experienced pilots are pretty adept at appearing competant. It takes a clever check pilot to find their weaknesses, and if you went in real hard you might get rid of some quite good pilots, in the process..A heavy handed approach can break most pilots simply by bullying them till they are overloaded. I hope this is a thing of the past. Getting uniformity is probably more difficult than might first be thought. There would be a lot of resistance to that. Most would think their method/appraoch is the best, and there has to be a lot of room for people being different. Airforce trainers are getting quite predictable and uniform students. In the RAAus environment you get everything, from surfboard riders to earthmoving equipment operators, paravanes to Jumbo jet people.15 years old to ( think of a number)?.. Nev

 

 

[motzartmerv]

I don't think the letter was complaining about not "clicking".

Probably wasn't. Your point??

 

 

[shafs64]

The only instuctor i thought was doing a crap job with me was the guy who was texting his mates when we where flying around the training area.

 

 

[turboplanner]

Some of them do that to lull you into complacency Shafs. Very early in my training we were doing circuits on a grass strip at Moorabbin in a Victa on a beautiful sunny day. The temperature was balmy and the instructor pretended to drift off to sleep, but on the downwind leg would appear to wake up and tell be I was 5o feet high, which to my consternation I was. Couldn't understand it because I was doing everything right, but he was teaching me focus. Then on one circuit I saw him, supposedly asleep push his knee forward and just slightly budge the throttle - not enough to hear, but enough for a slight altitude gain.

 

Saying nothing, I pretended to notice the height gain, adjusted throttle, but then when we touched I gave it full throttle but left the wheels on the grass. It was a short strip but I was ready to lift off. After a short time with the wheels rumbling he suddenly jerked out of his slumber, and as he did that I sent us rocketing up.

 

There was a grin on his face and he never kneed the throttle again.

 

 

[shafs64]

Never thought of it that way turbo.

 

 

[kaz3g]

More on Sport Pilot letters...

 

You will no doubt have seen the proposal put up in the current issue by a few very interested members for some fine tuning of the constitution. You will also have seen the Presidents comments following this.

 

I can't see any issue with the proposal at all and, in fact, support it strongly. In particular, I support the proposal to have a General Meeting (not the Annual General Meeting) of the Association membership at Natfly. I can see no impediment to a change in the rules to allow this and believe it will add greatly to the governance of our organisation.

 

Management of RAAus is something I have heard so many of you make critical or concerned comments about and lthis is your chance to do something about it. I think we owe a collective vote of thanks to those behind this initiative and I urge you all to write to your delegate and the President asking them to implement the change.

 

Use your proxies when the chance comes!

 

Kaz

 

 

[Sapphire]

Some of them do that to lull you into complacency Shafs. Very early in my training we were doing circuits on a grass strip at Moorabbin in a Victa on a beautiful sunny day. The temperature was balmy and the instructor pretended to drift off to sleep, but on the downwind leg would appear to wake up and tell be I was 5o feet high, which to my consternation I was. Couldn't understand it because I was doing everything right, but he was teaching me focus. Then on one circuit I saw him, supposedly asleep push his knee forward and just slightly budge the throttle - not enough to hear, but enough for a slight altitude gain.Saying nothing, I pretended to notice the height gain, adjusted throttle, but then when we touched I gave it full throttle but left the wheels on the grass. It was a short strip but I was ready to lift off. After a short time with the wheels rumbling he suddenly jerked out of his slumber, and as he did that I sent us rocketing up.

 

There was a grin on his face and he never kneed the throttle again.

You should have done a flick roll at 30 feet to "wake him up". Saw Chris Spiru do them at Murry Bridge and he was probably yawning.

 

 

[turboplanner]

I thought I could do them because I'd watched war movies, but it would have been a very short wake up before we hit the dirt.

 

 

[cazza]

Hello rec pilots,

 

Charles Sturt University is conducting research into recreational pilot training. The research is looking at identifying good practice by instructors and will assist in getting a good picture of the recreational training scene. Pilots and instructors are asked to complete a survey. If you have 10 spare minutes, can you help with this data gathering exercise so that we have some proper information about the rec training scene? It is all explained on the website. You only need your logbook and all informtion is confidential and will only be used statistically. Dr Matthew Thomas is the researcher, some of you may have met him at natfly. He's a Jabiru pilot and a member of RA-Aus. Go to this website if you can help.

 

Ta, cazza

 

http://wsww01.csumain.csu.edu.au/psysurveys/mt/index.asp

 

 

[spacesailor]

Me too!

 

 

[facthunter]

Might have to keep posting to keep the survey alive. Nev

 

 

[Guest Escadrille]

If you really want to experience inconsistency in instructing standards go and do a few glider flights! GFA seems to have a very "individualistic " approach to acceptable flying standards amongst Instructors...Apparently thats Ok cos they are all volunteers...

 

 

[facthunter]

It's OK IF it doesn't cause problems for the recipients of the instruction. CONFUSION is an unwelcome aspect of aviation. We should try to reduce it to the minimum for the sake of safety in which we all have an interest. We don't necessarily want the thing to be so prescribed that the individuality is removed. Navigation is a skill where a great variety of approaches/ layouts can work, but they must essentially be correct in the technique of dealing with the essentials Nev

 

 

[Compulsion]

I fly at Gawler and the club doesn't charge for Instructors because they are all volunteers and I might add very professional. I flew at a local school that charged $50 per hour for an instructor plus the aircraft. These instructors where volunteers as well. They too where extremely professional. I learnt to fly Gliders at Gawler and I must say my instructor was hard but fair and is still at Gawler instructing 16 yrs later. Again a volunteer.

 

 

[campslive]

I fly at Gawler and the club doesn't charge for Instructors because they are all volunteers and I might add very professional. I flew at a local school that charged $50 per hour for an instructor plus the aircraft. These instructors where volunteers as well. They too where extremely professional. I learnt to fly Gliders at Gawler and I must say my instructor was hard but fair and is still at Gawler instructing 16 yrs later. Again a volunteer.

i think personally finding a good raa instructor is getting harder and harder or you have to travel further and further,i have seen one instructor not far from alb tear shreds off a fellow pilot for a common little mistake,and trust me was very minor,but the cfi continued to barrage the pilot with abuse and belittled him in front of a large group of his friends! not called for and should not be tollerated ,this so called cfi was more like the chief of the gestapo police and had no right what so ever.

 

yet the very next hr the same cfi took up a potential new student on an tif in the same 25knot winds and scared the jesus out of the so called new student to the stage he will not fly again?yet this heroic flying is tolerated and legal??????

 

i really think the raa should be doing more listening and promoting safe flying practices thru there cfi instructors and pulling up those that commonly brag and boast on there own websites.since how does we flew in 27 knot crosswinds today and it was fantastic,and there were no ga aircraft in the air at all promote a good safe status or at worst attract students to even think this is a normal and safe practice????

 

sorry guys but i am here for the long haul not a short one ,as written above from a cfi website!

 

safe flying saves lives and the less risks the longer we live,,,

 

find a good cfi and treasure him,dont make the mistakes i did in the past and listen to the wrong ones,,,,,,

 

 

[Guest nunans]

I also found that when I found an instructor that I really felt good with (in this case the CFI) I found that there were other instructors at the same school who were also to my liking. This seems to be consistent with the philosophy that the character of an organisation comes from the top down.

So true, I must say I found a great example of this at Aldinga SA, I had so much fun with those guys