Page 20 - Dear aviator...

Studying is not always easy. But, as I mentioned elsewhere, aviation is serious. We
have lives in our hands; if we are passionate about aviation - and we should be as
we have decided to entertain a career change for it - then we should be passionate
for all aspects of aviation and we should desire and strive to learn as much as we
can about it. It’s not easy but it shouldn’t be a chore. Additionally, if it were easy,
then everybody would do it and it wouldn’t feel special when at the end of it all you
get that licence.
Just one final remark. Sometimes the exams do seem insurmountable, however…
the RPC/RPL and PPL exams are designed for a 16 year old to pass; the CPL exams
are designed for an 18 year old to pass. I hope that puts the level and effort
required into some sort of perspective.

Milestones; instructors

My first five lessons, taken as a private student before formally enrolling in the
course, were done with the same instructor. That is what I came to expect and
indeed what the school told me was going to happen. Each student would be
assigned a primary instructor and a backup one in case the former were
unavailable.

I shall let my log book speak now:
Number of different instructors up to RPC (31.9 hours): 11 (average of 1 instructor
every 3 hours)
Number of different instructors from RPC to PPL (30.9 hours): 10 (average of 1
instructor per 3 hours)
Number of different instructors from PPL to CPL (44.1 hours): 8 (average of 1
instructor per 5.5 hours)

I do not wish to comment too harshly on this as I am not sure what the norm for
other aviation schools is; let’s just say that an average of 20 different instructors to
guide me along an approximately 100-hour long course seems a bit, shall we say,
inefficient.

In my career as a teacher, educator and training coordinator I have always striven
to guarantee teacher continuity as much as possible and to assign the same
teacher to a student or a group of students for the duration of, at least, a unit of
study. It is my firm belief that changing teachers and instructors in the middle of a
discreet study unit or unit of learning promotes confusion, misunderstanding and
in general slows down the progress of students and reduces their performance.
This has nothing to do with the effectiveness of the individual instructor or trainer
or teacher; however each educator has their own style of explaining, logic
constructs and recurring examples which together make up a coherent teaching
method. The teacher is also well acquainted with the students and knows well what
their strengths and weaknesses are, when they can push and when they should
hold back. It is sort of like a puzzle; each lesson is a single puzzle piece and if the
pieces come from the same set they will fit easily and seamlessly one into the other

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