He is not a instructor for hire. Is a friend that taught my dad back in the 90's and dad passed away in 1998. I got his plane and it set in my garage until May of 2009 when I decided to learn how to fly. That is when I took plane to instructor and had him check it all out. I got the new servo/radio/reciever and he installed. We flew the old plane 4 or 5 time before it became a problem. We did not start of passing the box, but the instructor is comfortable with me flying once he gets it in the air and trimmed. I do a good job flying once in the air and have had one very successful land on the buddy box with instructor.