Teaching people how to fly…

Just been getting settled in and comfortable with my students.  I currently have 4 students that are in various stages of getting their private pilot license.  Two have just done their initial solo (3 laps in the pattern) and 2 are a couple of weeks from their checkride.  

 So far I really like teaching.  It’s neat to help someone that is having trouble with something (steep turns, stalls, etc), help them correct the problem, and then see them perform the manuever to standards. 

My schedule is Sun - Thurs with Fri and Sat off.  I haven’t been flying everyday, a couple of my students have had solo flights scheduled and I don’t fly with them on those days.  When we do fly, flights are 1.5 - 2 hours in length depending on what is being covered by a particular flight.  A typical flight:  takeoff from falcon, fly over apache junction and head to the southeast practice area, do steep turns, stalls, simulated engine failure, ground reference manuevers (flying around a point on the ground or doing ‘S’ turns across a road), head back to falcon field, do 2 or 3 landings then park.  Here’s some pics:

Some of the Diamond DA-20 C1’s (the airplane I fly right now):

Flight Dispatch center:

One of the four classrooms (each named after a different plane manufacturer):

Monday (3/24).  Cool, I’m driving to an airport to get paid to fly.  Coolest thing ever.

First few days involved getting the uniform (white polo, khaki pants;

pics to come), HR paperwork, and getting familiar with the lay of the land.

Also was assigned a senior instructor for ground training to go over

the student syllabus, airplane checklists and flows (memory items).

On day 4 I started flying my new airplane.  It’s a Diamond DA20-C1 (pics to come).  It is a two seat, very sleek little airplane.  It uses a control

stick instead of a yoke which I thought would take some getting use to but ended

up being very comfortable and easy to fly.  It’s definitely fun to fly.  I went up with

a senior instructor who ran me through basic flight manuevers so I could get used

to the airplane and how it handles.  Also had to get comfortable with my new airport,

Falcon Field (FFZ).  It is a neat airport, more general aviation oriented than Williams

Gateway is because of the shorter runways.  Still, there are plenty of neat things to

see since the Confederate Air Force has a base there and regularly flies a B-17 (Sentimental Journey) and a bunch of other neat airplanes.

Next week I take my checkride with the chief pilot.  After successfully completing

that I’ll be assigned my first group of students; probably 3 or 4.  Next post will have some pics.

Well, after getting hired at a large flight school I’m starting to think that soon I’ll be responsible for teaching people who have never flown a plane how to fly safely.  I seriously can’t wait to start!  I’ll be posting here very much how I posted in my ‘Learning to Fly’ blog (azcraigfamily.flyblog.com; link at right).  I anticipate posting several times a week at first and then less frequently as time goes on, we’ll see.  I start on 3/24/08, more to come then - thanks for reading!