First Impressions

Day one, so much to cover so little time. We would start by doing the preflight walk around. I would give him or her the checklist and ask them to read out each item. I would have them follow me and I would show them what I was looking for. The student will check each item with me. I know that they won't remember everything that I say, but at least they will know that the checklist can help take them through the walk around step by step.

We would then get ready to taxi and run up. I would do all the radio calls, but I would ask the student to try to follow along. Before each call I would explain to the student what I am requesting and what the controllers response is. We would do the run up together.

I would have the student on the controls with me for takeoff. Once we are cruising its all him/her. The lesson would be very basic visual maneuvers.

If I took on a student from another instructor I would check their folder for the obvious. The lesson, any repeat lessons, and any ground instruction. Some questions I would ask the student are "Where are you in your flight training?" "What have you gone over with your old instructor?" "What areas do you think are your weakest?" I would want to ask his old instructor what he thought of the student. I would also ask the instructor what they have been doing, but would not necessarily do the same as the old instructor, just incase the instructor is the reason for the switch. To figure out where he is on his ground, I feel the easiest way is to quiz him. Good times to quiz him would be walking to and from the plane, during the preflight, and in flight ops before we go out to the plane.

CFI 1

I can imagine that this would be a hard thing to do. You are paid by the hour and you only have a few students, so you don't want to lose them. To help them over the plateau I would suggest all the techniques that I know. If that doesn't work, I would try sending them with another instructor.
I would notify my supervisor as soon as I was about to send them with another instructor. The reason for this is because I would want to make sure that I am doing everything I can to help this student. Depending upon what my supervisor said, I would have "the talk" if there was no improvement after they flew with the other instructors.

A little place called Assssspen

Well, that sucks. There is no doubt that there was an error chain in this accident. They took off late and rushed to Aspen so "The Boss" could get to his dinner party. Then with snow and low visibility they started to search for the runway.

I know it is hard to tell the person that is paying your company a ton of money to fly them around that they are wrong, but you need to do it. Richy Rich may have flown into Aspen at night before, but he has no idea what a NOTAM is. Once again, I say all this now but I am not the one with my job on the line. There is a reason that you are PIC. It is to get everyone into the air and back on the ground safely. Sometimes it is not where you wanted to go, but that is better than being dead. I would rather be alive than fly a GIII into the ground.

SPIFR

Right now, I would not fly single pilot IFR. I am not proficient (or current, I should get on that.) A few weeks ago Dilpreet had me shoot the ILS into Ogden. Wow, did I suck. If I was proficient I might consider it. If I was solo and the weather looked like it was getting close to minimums, it would be a no go decision.
I really think that another person in the plane would help. You would really have to be careful if the person was not a pilot. I know some people that I would not want sitting next to me at the controls.
One thing that I got from this article was to bring a hand held radio. I don't know if I will ever actually go out and buy one, but it would be nice to get clearance before startup.

Multi Expectations

Blogging is new to me so bear with me.

I expect that the blogging will show that most of the other students in the class are on the same page as me. It may also show that I am behind in studying and that I need to catch up. In regards to the class I am really excited to get my multi. From what I hear, the first flight you end up getting behind the airplane quite a bit. I hope to gain a lot of information from the class and I am expecting to drink a lot of coffee (after all, the class is at 8AM).