"There are no bad students only bad Instructors "

Congratulations to Stine Angen from Trondheim,Norway who recently passed her PPL after only four weeks of training.

During that period of time she flew 45 hours of training and passed all her ground school subjects and skill test.

This was especially remarkable when you understand her initial introduction to flight training.

Four years ago Stine booked some lessons in Kissimee Florida,she was hoping to gain her PPL,sadly she had a difficult time there and after 30 hours of being "flown around" by an instructor ( she was never allowed to actually use the controls,the radio or to see a map).

She left the school in tears after being told by the president of the Aero club that "flying was not for her" and "as she was staying in a cheap hotel she may want to use her remaining money on a better hotel rather than wasting it on flying".

As one might expect this experience had caused her to lose confidence in herself,however she still had a burning ambition to fly, encouraged by her family,she decided to give it one more try,after her father had read of some of the success stories on the Franco Flyers blog.

After we had discussed her previous training, I related to her a similar story which had happened to me about ten years ago.

Twenty years ago I took my PPL and night rating followed by an FAA IR.After completing that training I had a burning desire to pass my commercial licence and  to become an Instructor.

However, life is not always predictable and I subsequently went through a divorce which completely curtailed my ambition of working in aviation. In fact with four children to support I could  only afford to fly enough hours each year to enable me to keep my licence valid.

Many years passed, then I had a serious  horse accident, the subsequent injuries caused me to be unable to walk for three years.

Finally owing to my injuries, I had the time to study so I used this forced confinement to study the CPL by correspondence course, with the help of my original  PPL instructor Phil Matthews( Cotswold Aero Club) who received many plea's from me by fax "help I do not understand this question".

After passing the 16 ground  examinations ( the hardest work I had ever done in my life) I was ready to commence my training for the flying part of the CPL licence.

I arrived at the commercial school full of joy and enthusiasm, sadly this did not last as I became more and more nervous, it seemed that my instructor did not teach me,he  expected me to know everything and just chastised me if things were not going to his plan.

After ten hours of "training" I had become a complete nervous wreck and I found that even the task of speaking normally on the radio ( which previously had never been a problem to me) was becoming a a nightmare I was not good enough to pass a PPL never mind a CPL.

I had lost confidence in myself.!

I was not making any progress at all, and after another disastrous lesson my instructor asked me to come into his office where he imparted the soul destroying words "you are wasting your time and money, you will never pass the CPL or become an instructor , why don't you just enjoy your PPL".

I am sure that my readers will understand the feeling of utter devastation that I felt upon hearing those words.

I returned to my PPL school in floods of tears and was informed by everyone in the club that they were supporting me and I could make it!

I cannot describe the feeling of depression that lasted for days after I had been dismissed from this school as I had thought of nothing else except obtaining this CPL licence for over three years.

However I am not someone who just gives up, life as an amateur steeplechase jockey had taught me that.

Luckily, I was introduced to Tizzie Hodson she was a CPL/IR instructor at Oxford Flight training (Gloucester ) who upon hearing my story told me "that there are no bad students only bad instructors."!

She suggested that we go for a flight together and afterwards if she felt that I was not good enough she would tell me the ugly truth about my flying skills and future prospects.

We took a Slingsby Firefly Aircraft ( which I had never flown previously) and she threw me around in various aerobatic manoeuvres (which I hated) then she turned the plane around several times and said "take me back to Gloucester". I had no trouble doing this and surprisingly I spoke on the radio without any problem,we arrived at the field and I touched down gently on the runway without any problems and at that moment I felt totally calm and positive, I was no longer a "bag of nerves".

Tizzie's words to me were " you are much better than most of my current students I will take you on"

I subsequently passed the CPL and the Instructor rating without any further problem.However I have never forgotten her words about bad instructors and I vowed that I would always give confidence to students no matter how difficult they found the task of learning to fly.

Within a very short time Stine was soon relaxed and happy and enjoying solo circuits at Limoges, followed by her qualifying cross country flight.I was so proud of her as she was improving and gaining confidence every single day.

 She joined  Matt and I on our flight to Cannes this gave her untold confidence and knowledge.

Upon our return home we did some revision work and soon it was the day of the skill test.  

I listened to her calm voice on the radio prior to the flight and I was filled with happiness.

In fact after passing her skill test the examiner Mike Grierson told me she was a "natural" pilot.

Sadly too many students never obtain their dreams owing to the situations as described above.

Comments

[Stuart Morton]

Stine
a huge well done, such good news and really pleased for you,
hopefully it won't be long before we see you back here in the south.
Any hints tips or advice for this last part of my training will be welcomed
aswell drop me an email and let me know the gory details....
WELL DONE from us all here.
Stu
stupix@yahoo.com

[PIERRE CROZET]

CONGRATULATIONS FOR STINE AND SUE
I WAS HAPPY TO MEET STINE AT CUERS
I WISH HER A LOT OF NICE FLIGHTS WITH HER BRAND NEW PPL
PIERRE CROZET

[John Stevens]

Congratulations Stine, so nice to have met you on your trip to Jonzac a few weeks back too.

[Les King]

Sounds like the US school was a bit of a 'cowboy outfit'.

Doubtless there are a minority of students who won't 'make the grade' but I would have thought that this could be spotted within the first few hours of training.

I think that the secret of successful pilot training is a 'structured' course, over a fairly short period and with the same Instructor.

That's also true of learning to drive.

When I learned to fly in the UK, I did so over about 2 years as finance and weather permitted.

My first instructor followed the 'effing and blinding' school of training and I would have probably given up immediately had he not gone AWOL after 2 lessons.

I suffered several subsequent changes of instructor who often began each lesson by asking "what shall we do today?".

And there were the usual isssues of late and cancelled lessons.

It was only towards the end of the period that somebody actually gave me a sheet which listed the specific training tasks to be completed.

As this was over 30 years ago, I shan't name the flying school which must have improved considerably as they are still in business.

When I came to do my IMC rating some years later, I took my 'syndicate' aircraft to a school at Southend and completed the whole thing in about 2 weeks, which was a lot easier.

I had previously done the IMC ground studies at the City of London Polytechnic (London Guildhall University) which is just 'down the road' from where I live.

I also did my night rating with the same Southend flying school over 2 evenings.

More recently, my friend Bill went to Cabair at Denham where he had an excellent instructor who delivered a highly-structured training course which got him through both PPL and IMC in just a few months.

Well done to Stine for persevering.

[Gwen Jenner]

LIMOUSIN'S GOT TALENT!

Witnessing Stine's first solo flight and subsequent PPL qualification introduced me to a kind, friendly and committed student who had a fantastically encouraging and professional instructor. Sue's patience, storytelling and people antenna make tackling the challenges rewarding; we're lucky that she's ours.

[Peter Cazalet]

Well done Stine - and Sue. I can identify with a lot of what you went through during your training - the steady loss of confidence and eventually the feeling that you would never make it. I started flying in October 2000 after that there was a start-stop process where the times I felt I was making progress alternated with other times when I was sure I was not. The sense of making no progress seemed to be mainly due to lack of continuity such as bad weather and problems with planes and shortage of instructors. No instructor told me I was wasting my time although I know some of them came close to it.

I realised at the end of 2008 that I had flown 42 hours during the year without making any perceptible progress, identified the lack of continuity as the main factor and then looked for a training facility where this would be less of a problem.

It was obvious from the moment I found Nearly Heaven and exchanged emails with Sue that what she and the Aerolub de Limoges offered was exactly what I needed - prospects of much better continuity and the great bonus of understanding the lack of confidence issues and how to address them. And so it turned out.

Bad students? Bad instructors? I am sure there may be some students who find it incredibly hard to absorb information but I am equally sure that some instructors may not be capable of transmitting information in a way the student can absorb it. I suggest that the difference between good and bad instructors may be how well they understand how to teach flying as well as how to fly.

[Powerful Pierre]

Sounds like a great club.

Can anybody tell me what they charge for instruction as it doesn't say on the web site.

[sue virr]

Hi Pierre

I have sent you an email containing all the prices and information required for obtaining a PPL here in France.

I hope to see you in the future.
Please contact me on the email address below:

[Les King]

I forgot to mention that I once did a 'basic aerobatics' course on a Cessna Aerobat (as I said, BASIC) where the Instructor's first words (in the air) were "I am not officially qualified to teach you this".

As it happens, it went quite well and I was able to master basic loops and rolls though I was quite nervous about the concept of 'stall turns' as Cessnas don't fly very well in reverse if you miss the critical point to kick the rudder.

Spins, I had already done as they were 'in the syllabus' when I trained for my PPL.

My knees were 'like jelly' when I did my first spin but I grew to quite like them (I trod a similar path with my first 'winch launches' in a glider).

I was, however, slightly perplexed when my aerobatics instructor inititated a spin in the middle of cloud and advised me to wait until we had fallen out before attempting the recovery.

One just assumed that the instructor knew what he was doing.

Sadly. most club training aircraft are not authorised to perform any of these manoeuvres.

Anyway, my point was about 'cowboy' schools and I noticed that this establishment was prosecuted a couple of years later for causing the death of a student by negligence.

[Lorraine Thomas]

Well done Stine,all the hard work and determination have paid off,this is a wonderful story,I am delighted for you.

This is also further testament to Sue and her talent as an instructor:her patience,humour and practical approach make the difference.

Best wishes,
Lorraine

[Stine Angen]

Thank you so much for your lovely comments.
Not only have I gotten my ppl, I have also made many new friends, which I am very thankful for. And thank you Sue, for writing this kind article, and being so patient with me and giving me my confidence back. I could not have done it without your encouraging and funny remarks. Because of Sue I got to see much more of France than Limoges. The trips we did together made me realize all the fun you can have with flying, at the same time as it was very useful before my exam.
During my stay Matt helped me a lot with the theoretical parts and thoroughly explained all my questions, regardless of how stupid they might have been. So big thank you to Sue and Matt for being so wonderful and helping me achieve my dream!

[sue virr]

Stine your success is my reward!

[M.Galvin]

Once again, congratulations to you both!!

Stine it was a pleasure to help you during your PPL training. No questions are ever too 'stupid' it is only the persons need to truly understand that counts.

I hope that we will fly together in the future and I am so happy that you kept on fighting to achieve your dream.

As Robert Kennedy once said:

“There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why... I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them”

Best Wishes,

Matthew

[sue virr]

Hi Matt

I know that you will achieve your dream of becoming a commercial pilot, your dedication to flying is inspiring to my students.

Thank you for helping me too!

[Kristy]

Hi Sue

I have enjoyed reading the articles and blogs on this site so thank you.

Can you tell me if CPL training is available in Limoges & if not, are there any plans to provide this in the future?

Many Thanks
Kristy

[Les King]

Kristy

According to the AC Limoges web site, they don't really see themselves as a flying school and, consequently, don't offer commercial pilot training.

To quote the AC Limoges web site:

"In France, there are two forms of license.

The basic license (B.B.), it is a specifically French (it cannot be used out of our borders) whereas the P.P.L (Private Pilot License) is a European license which allows the holder to fly anywhere in Europe subject to certain linguistic abilities.

At the Aero club of Limoges, pilot training is undertaken by voluntary English and French instructors, enabling us to offer more attractive rates in comparison to a flying school (where the instructors are paid)"
----------------------------------------

I note that the Aeroclub du Limousin next door have both 'professional' and 'voluntary' instructors though they also appear to offer only non-commercial Pilot training.

They do charge 'openly' for instruction though the fees seem very reasonable.

I notice that they also offer a discount 'pack' which provides €1830-worth of flying at a reduction of 10% if paid in advance (i.e. you pay only €1647).

For students having one of these packs, instruction is offered at €15 per hour rather than €25.

I understand that AC Limoges will also be offering a discounted 'pack' at some point.

[bmain]

I'm in the US and on my 4th instructor trying to get my PPL having been at it almost 3 years and over 100 hours now. Bad weather, 2 instructors who were only in it for the hours whose idea of ground school was "go home and read your book" and a 3rd instructor who I think had a death wish. I'm finally with a good instructor that I'll stick with but I'm having to unlearn a lot of stuff so it's almost like starting over. Also switching from a Cessna 172 to a 152, from a non towered to towered airport and a new instructor. I soloed last year under instructor #3 but have yet to solo with this instructor yet. I'm in total agreement that there are no bad students only totally crappy instructors. I'm thoroughly disgusted that these idiots are still out there teaching and wish there was some kind of enforcement that would get these bad instructors away from students and out of the air. They only discourage students and potential students and teach unsafe practices.