What makes a good flight instructor?
Patience, the desire to teach, and being able to use the tools of psychology. You have to know when to say things and how to say them. If you don’t have compassion and patience and an interest in people it’s unlikely that you’ll be a success at flight instructing. I’ve met students who have been through six or seven flight instructors. Sometimes their instructors leave and move on to different jobs — I won’t say “better jobs” because sometimes other jobs are not better than flight instructing — but in some cases students and flight instructors are not compatible. Students who feel like they have to stay with an instructor they’re not compatible with should furlough that instructor and find a new one. Students are consumers and, as such, should pick and choose who they want to learn from. I was fortunate to get the right guy at the right time and that made all the difference. Bill was the best. For instance, if he told me to put it on the numbers and I overshot, he’d say something like
