I think being a good instructor has a lot more to do with having the proper personality rather than greatest amount of experience. We have pilots in our club that can fly the wings off of an airplane, but I wouldnt trust them to teach a newby. On the other hand we have pilots that can't do a great deal of aerobatics, but make great instructors. In my opinion an instructor needs to do just that instruct. They need to TEACH the newby about all aspects of flying including setting up and checking out equipment, field safety, proper etiquette, as well as flying techniques. A good instructor needs to be able to analyze the student so that they can relate to him and teach them in a way that they are learning, but not getting bored or in over their heads.

Are you the type of person that will corral the new pilots enthusiasm and point them in the right direction to help them really learn all aspects of the hobby, or will you just hand them a buddy box take off and then let them figure most of it out on their own.


I did not have the opportunity to be properly trained, and I wish I had been. It would likely have saved me a lot of grief and a good deal of money. After a couple of flights taking off and landing without crashing on a buddy box I was set loose on my own. I was never told anything about safety, ettiquette, inspections, or proper techniques. I just figured it out along the way sometimes by pissing off other pilots and being told about it, sometimes by being lucky when something failed or was done improperly and a lot by watching other pilots as well as asking questions on these forums.

Point is flying ability is a small portion of being a good instructor.