Over the air waves
A CFI who recently graduated from a well-known four-year aviation college in the Northeast United States came into my office recently inquiring about a job as a flight instructor. My first question, as in all such such interviews, was, "How much actual instrument time have you logged?" Regrettably, the answer was predictable. "Ah, I'd say less than one, maybe two hours," replied the job candidate. There, in one simple interview response by a CFI job candidate, lies the reason why we continue to experience our unrelenting fatal accident rate! Our nation's leading four-year aviation colleges are churning out instrument rated pilots and certificated flight instructors who lack even rudimentary experience in actual instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). Worse, many of these graduates are certificated to teach instrument flight (CFI-I) who, themselves, have less than an hour or two or maybe no hours in actual instrument conditions!
Back to my interview: I asked this young CFI applicant if he was prepared to take one of our Cessna 172s up into the overcast skies over our airport that day. His reply, "No, I couldn't do that." What would have happened had I hired this recently minted CFI from this well-known four-year aviation college. How would he have imparted the three hours of instrument training required of all private pilots?
Answer: Under the hood, of course! Delving a bit deeper into this CFI's training, I asked why he had received so little instrument training in actual IMC weather. Again, his answer was predictable. He said, "I think it was a matter of liability. My school didn't want us to train in actual instrument conditions," he replied reluctantly. His answer, of course, made absolute sense. This is because the instructors employed by this well-known four year aviation college were, for the most part, last year's graduates . . . who, themselves, had never been in the clouds before.
So where do these graduates go after receiving their training? The majority of these graduates hope to become either airline or corporate pilots. Since additional logbook hours are required to meet airline or corporate hiring requirements, most graduates peddle themselves to flight schools . . . offering to work cheap. Guess what, flight schools hire them simply because they DO work cheap. Others of these graduates are content to be general aviation pilots. They possess the instrument rating but they do not have the requisite skills to fly in actual instrument conditions. And so, our beleaguered flight training industry continues to perpetuate an endless cycle of mediocrity. The net result is our unrelenting fatal accident rate that once was limited to general aviation but is now manifesting itself in the regional airline industry.
Shame on us for allowing this abysmal situation to continue! Who's to blame for this disgraceful form of flight training? Like most faulty systems, there is no one single weak link. Instead, there are several contributing causes to this problem. Here are the big ones:
1. The FAA: 14 CFR Part 61 is the regulation that specifies the training and aeronautical experience required to achieve various pilot ratings and certificates. Nowhere in this regulation does it specify that flight in actual instrument conditions is required to receive an instrument rating or a CFI/CFII certificate. This MUST change.
2. AOPA: These fine folks who claim to speak for the GA community are unabashedly silent on this matter. Instead, they argue that instrument training makes all of us better pilots. They're right, in part. Instrument training, the way it is conducted today, makes us better VFR pilots. Such training, however, does little to prepare us for flight in the clouds. AOPA must end its silence regarding the inadequacy of 14 CFR Part 61 as it pertains to instrument training.
3. The Nation's Flight Schools: Flight schools that employ CFI/CFIIs who have little or no experience in actual instrument conditions perpetuate the problem. By so doing, they create a "blind leading the blind" training environment that damages and endangers the entire pilot community.
4. Recently Trained Instrument Rated Pilots and CFIs/CFIIs: If you are one of those pilots who received an instrument rating with little or no actual instrument flying training or experience, you MUST demand a refund for your incomplete training! It's easy to tell if you qualify for a refund simply by asking yourself if, following the completion of your instrument training, you possess the skills to fly safely and confidently in actual instrument conditions. If the answer is no, you didn't get what you paid for!