Originally Posted by robertbb99

I am 54 and I wanted to learn to fly. I hung around the local public field and saw flyers from guys that offered lessons. I asked around about these guys but found out they were crummy teachers. They showed you how to get up in the air but did not teach the students about the WHY of what control inputs you used, luckily I understand the theory of flight and what the control surfaces do. I was also told that these self promoted instructors crash a lot of the newbies planes and conveniently blame the new pilot.

I asked at a LHS and was told to join a club and they usually will teach you how to fly. I joined the biggest club in my area. I asked the guy in charge of training if he could schedule me for lessons. I was told show up at the field about 11 am, first come first serve. I was there at 8 am to watch people fly and to make sure I was first. Of course the guy did not seem real enthusiastic, but when some junior members showed up, he came to life and basically "bumped" me and took the kids up. After a few weekends of this I gave up. It seems that if a kid shows up at the field, people trip over each other to get the job of teaching the kid to fly (even more so for the female members we have), but have no time for me. I have other hobbies but unfortunately I have never met so many grumpy and cliquish people in my life.

I understand that many of the guys at the field and in the club have known and flown with each other for 30 or more years but jeeze, when I was a kid and wanted to get into the hobby I did not have any money and my parents were lucky to feed us let alone buy hobby supplies. Now as an adult who can afford the hobby, I can't get the time of day from my own club members and guys who call themselves "flight instructors" for hire are some of the worst pilots I have seen so far. No wonder this hobby is dying. I tried to teach myself with a real cheap park flyer in a warehouse but I know taking off with one of these tiny things is much different than say a .40 trainer. I assume that there is more to it than throttle and elevator but I don't want to risk injuring someone if I lose control or be the guy who takes off long enough to get high enough to nose dive into the ground. I guess I will have to go back to my trains and sail boats.