Killing a dream…

… a post where WMAP gets upset on someone else’s behalf, renews her rant about “hour counting” and realises just how lucky she is.

I met up with a friend last night. A friend who is currently also working on their PPL. A friend who may or may not be flying from the same school as me. A friend who definitely doesn’t have the same instructor as me. A friend who is, quite frankly, struggling with motivation at the moment.

This upsets me, to see them so down and de-motivated. It upsets me because it’s so unnecessary.  We all hit plateaus, we all hit points where we think the repetition is never ending. Hell, I’m there myself at the moment. The difference is, I can see beyond to the other side. My friend doesn’t even know there is “another side”.  It also upset me because I think I may have contributed, albeit inadvertently, to their general depression by mentioning some of the PPL requirements that they weren’t even aware of. The last thing you need, when you are depressed by your apparent lack of progress, is someone telling you about even more stuff you have yet to do.

 I need to be very careful here, I would take care to point out that I’m in no position to make judgements about anyone else in a professional capacity but these are some of the issues that came out in our chat.  Given that, according to AOPA figures, 80% of people who start a PPL don’t finish it, I thought his could be an interesting thing to discuss. Again just to reiterate, this info is as a result of a conversation with an anonymous friend. I’m not doing anything more that blogging about what we discussed. I’m not making any judgements on anyone who may be involved.

·         Hour counting – my old nemesis.  It’s very dangerous, in my opinion, to sell the idea that you can get your PPL in 45 hours. The person in question has logged around 30 hours. They think they are 2/3 of the way there. They are not.

·         Lack of understanding as to what is actually involved in getting PPL. – A couple of issues here. It wasn’t until the 7 or 8^th lesson of ground school that someone actually sat down and told us exactly what the requirements were. How many hours of this, how many hours of that etc.  Even then, TBH I don’t think it was 100% clear. You may argue that someone should do some basic research before committing to this. I wouldn’t disagree with that but when you are not familiar with any of the terminology, concepts etc. it is hard to make sense of what you are reading. You may not understand the implications of what you research.  You may say that the instructor has a responsibility to communicate this in terms the student can understand. I wouldn’t disagree with that either.

·         Lack of a coherent plan of action – You can cope with hours of circuit bashing if you know why you are doing it, what you are trying to achieve and where you need to be before you move on. Again I will leave it to you to decide whose responsibility that is.

·         Instruction shouldn’t end when you switch the master to “off” – this is a tricky one. Instructors get paid for the amount of time they spend instructing, an hourly rate when you are in the plane (pro-rated for fractions) and a rate for ground briefings. I know how much I pay per hour for an instructor. I have a good suspicion of what percentage of that might actually make it to an instructor’s pocket*.  Well let’s put it this way I don’t think the minimum wage staff at the local McDonalds are going to be considering a career change any time soon. Add to that the not inconsiderable cost of getting your Flight instructor rating in the first place. I can understand why instructors might want to make the most efficient use of their time as possible. I also have a horrible suspicion that if I'm doing solo time, my instructor has to be there to "supervise" but doesn't get paid for the time. Noone expects anything for free but there is an aspect to this that has to happen outside the plane

·         Enthusiasm – I keep my motivation through the bad times by scoring aviation websites, forums, magazines, books, anything I can get my hands on. You need to see beyond the end of the runway and yet another touch and go, immerse yourself in aviation. Invest the time as well as the money. 

So that concludes the “rant” part of my post. The above points upset me. I really think that by truthfully pointing out that the person didn’t seem to be getting through the stuff at a pace that would allow them to get their PPL in the timeframe they wanted, I've hindered rather than helped. I don’t want to be a dream killer, really I don't, but I can't lie either.

Especially as I am SO lucky, I have a great understanding of what’s involved courtesy of both Bob and RTH. I have firsthand experience of what it actually takes to get a PPL thanks to RTH. I have a plan of action and a flexible instructor who is willing to adapt his plans to accommodate my neuroses/boredom/frustration. I know exactly where I am, how I’m doing and what I need to do next. I don’t hour count because I know firsthand that hours are largely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things.  I have an instructor who goes above and beyond the call of duty. He’s always just the other end of a text message, email or phone call.  If I’ve had a bad flight or experience, he doesn’t let it go until he’s sure that I’m Ok with the situation (he also knows enough to realise that directly after the incident isn’t actually the time I want to discuss it. I need time to sort my head out).  As I said before the instruction doesn’t end when the Hobbs meter stops. I also have access to a plethora of aviation related reading material that just happens to be kicking around the place a la RTH. Finally I have someone on hand pretty much 24-7 to talk flying with, someone to share the questions, frustrations and joy with.

Thank you all, I appreciate it a great deal, but honestly given my position and wanting to help my friend, what would you do?

 

 

* when I looked into private tutoring for physics, the agency would charge $45 an hour to the client, of which I would see approx. $18-25. That should give you an idea of the percentages involved here.