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ADP
Aug 11, 2005 0:41:28 GMT -5
Post by dashtrash400 on Aug 11, 2005 0:41:28 GMT -5
IE Another Dead Pilot, Another Downed Piper, Ari Doesn't Pay, or Air Desert Pacific. It's a SoCal institution, of sorts.
I instructed there over a few years and have some pretty good stories from it. They always treated me well, I have nothing against the place, they just seem to attract some "characters."
Anyone ever do any training there? Instruct there? Fess up!
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yafb
New Member
Posts: 28
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ADP
Aug 17, 2005 12:15:25 GMT -5
Post by yafb on Aug 17, 2005 12:15:25 GMT -5
You can't just leave us hanging like that -- we want stories, dammit!
-- Hamish
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ADP
Aug 23, 2005 11:42:50 GMT -5
Post by dashtrash400 on Aug 23, 2005 11:42:50 GMT -5
Heh, awright, I'll bite. A few stories from my CFI'ing days...
This school used to have a ton of Egyptian students, pre-9/11. You have to understand, the average Egyptian kid does not just up and move to the US to take flight training...these were extremely privledged kids from powerful families. They had attitudes to match. Most were rather arrogant, they didn't study, didn't pay attention to half the stuff their CFI's told them, hated any supervision, and consequently many of them were sub-par pilots. They insisted upon taking their checkrides with one particular examiner, and there were persistent rumors that they were paying him off.
So it's my very first day working at ADP...in fact, my first time ever instructing. Another instructor asked me to fly with his Egyptian student, Said. He was taking his PPL checkride the next day, and the instructor wanted me to take him out and review landings. So we checked out an Archer and headed over to Cable Airport, an uncontrolled field a stone's throw away from Brackett.
We did five or six patterns, and every time Said would start his flare out WAY too high - like 30 or 40 feet. The airspeed would bleed off, he'd start dropping, he'd gun the throttle, and mush halfway down the runway before plopping in. These landings were *way* outside PTS. Each time, I'd explain what was happening, & how he needed to correct, and he'd nod, and then go do the exact same thing over again. I thought maybe he wasn't understanding me, so I had him repeat my instructions.
After five or six landings like this, I'm getting frusterated. I tell Said, "Okay, this time I'm going to fly and show you a proper flareout. I want you to put your hands on the controls and fly with me, and then once we're in the flareout I will let you land." Again, when we get to about 30' he tries to pull the yoke back, but my hands are on it, and I say "No, this is too high, we keep going down, like this..." Together, we flare out at the proper height, and so I say "Okay, this is a good flare, now I'll take my hands off and you land."
No sooner had I taken my hands off the controls than Said jerked back on the yoke, hard. The plane ballooned out to maybe 40', the stall horn blaring, as I yelped "My airplane!" and jammed the throttle forward. I tried to get the nose down but was unable to...then I glanced at Said & discovered why. He was completely frozen on the controls, with the yoke halfway in his gut. I screamed for him to let go of the controls, with no effect. I actually had to hit him to get him to let go of the controls. At this point the airspeed is extremely low and we're starting to sink. There was just enough runway remaining to regain airspeed in ground effect and climb over the brush at the end of the runway. I decided to call it a day, and headed back to Brackett.
I told Said's instructor what happened, but he sent him to the PPL checkride the next day anyways. He passed.
And that was my first hour of dual instruction.
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ADP
Aug 23, 2005 12:38:42 GMT -5
Post by flybarneyjets on Aug 23, 2005 12:38:42 GMT -5
New or not, I would have had that instructor up for a 609 ride in a freakin' heartbeat. After that, I would have quit working there. That's scary, man.
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yafb
New Member
Posts: 28
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ADP
Sept 11, 2005 13:25:33 GMT -5
Post by yafb on Sept 11, 2005 13:25:33 GMT -5
Wow. I'm with G**** (sorry, "Mr flybarneyjets") on that one.... I've not yet flown with any really bad instructors, but I did know one who scared the hell out of almost everyone who flew with him (no names here, for obvious reasons). I'd have called him reckless and potentially dangerous, but not otherwise incompetent (his students generally seemed to fly well, and, strangely, safely). All I can say is that he's probably still out there, scaring students...
I guess my experience with schools and instructors so far has been almost uniformly good -- everyone I mention in my blog and diary (etc.) taught me well. But it's good to hear about the others...
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