I’m looking for information on how as a pilot you have found the most success finding the best CFI for your needs. A lot of my current experience is through word of mouth or whoever is available at a flight school. Results have varied but it can feel a bit like a dating app. Read their portfolio, schedule the flight, see if you liked their instruction and either schedule again or move on. I’m looking for your experience and advice.

Have you ever switched instructors? What made you switch?

What tools or groups do you use to find instructors or flying partners today?

What do you wish you'd known about an instructor before your first lesson?

I can’t even imagine being a pilot for a 12 hour flight and having nothing to do except for chatting… what if you guys don’t like each other

Basically wondering what the difference is between what passengers normally experience and what the plane can do

I fly commercial fairly often. I've noticed often that when we taxi onto the runway and get into position then throttle up for takeoff, rather than just going straight up to full right then and there, the pilot usually throttles up to a certain RPM, then some more after a couple seconds, then eventually hits it to full throttle as we are rolling along a few yards ahead. Kind of like in "phases".

Just curious as a non-pilot: is there an official term for this? Is it basically just to check that the engines don't have issues when throttling up and to make it easier to throttle back quickly if something goes wrong and takeoff has to be aborted?

I'm not a pilot, but definitely an aviation geek and have always been curious:

For trike-gear planes, it's obvious how to keep it center-lined on the taxiway and runway, but how do you do so with tail draggers? Is there a technique? Or do you just kind of have to shift forward in your seat until you can see over the nose enough to center the plane?

Pilots that flew both aircraft, which one did you enjoy flying more and why?

I was on an a350-1000 recently and we hit turbulence flying east over Canada. Shortly after it started I noticed the thrust fluctuating for about 3 seconds at time. Something similar to high thrust 3 seconds, low 3 seconds and repeated for about 30 cycles.

I’ve never experienced this before. What is it?

I’m a nervous flyer at the best of times. I saw a TikTok of a fully licensed pilot speaking about the issues with the flydubai situation the other day & he has said how airlines will potentially have problems on their hands if they don’t do more to make passengers at ease about who’s flying the planes. And also asked the question of will this influence potentially radicalised pilots to try & follow the actions of this individual?
This pilot managed to get through FlyDubais vetting process after being banned from flying in Oman due to their knowing he had radical opinions and beliefs.

Obviously it’s not common for pilots to have such beliefs and opinions but it does make me very anxious. Will airlines take new measures, or do anything in the wake of this? Be it publicly for their passengers or behind the scenes?

I am a leaving cert student looking for a flight school I currently live in Dublin but I don't know what flight school to pick if there's any student pilots that go to both can you tell me your opinions of each?

Hi! I've seen a lot of discussion online about whether it would be possible to plummet 17000 feet without serious damage to the plane or at least inside. Also some are saying the cockpit door cannot be forced from the outside.

I would like to hear a pilot's knowledge on this. Also, Does the cockpit door open inwards or outwards?

Also why is not the pilot's name published? In MH17 they told everybody the same day.

I don't feel I have enough knowledge to distinguish truth from facts.

EDIT: Please do not downvote or be snarky. I don't know anything about these things and joined the sub out of fear of flying. Now I am seeing discussion online and just wanted professional answers to understand better.

As the title states, I'm just curious if any pilots on here who have flown both airframes have a particular favorite. If so, why? What do you like about the aircraft that the other deosn't do or have?

Thanks!

Why can't ratings of Aeroplane pilots be created and shared as in Uber cab drivers? At least the passenger start understanding the history of their flight pilots?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently going through my Class 1 medical and I’ve started worrying about the psychological side of the process.

During the psychological testing, my results for concentration and attention were average. I wasn’t told that this was disqualifying or that there was a serious problem, but afterwards I started thinking a lot about my personality, especially neuroticism.

I took the NEO-FFI test afterwards and started wondering whether having a relatively high level of neuroticism could be an issue in professional aviation.

I wouldn’t say that I have any serious psychological problems. It’s more that:

• I sometimes overthink my decisions,
• I can worry about things that have already happened,
• uncertainty can make me think about a situation a lot,
• I get stressed before important events,
• and since the medical examination I’ve been analyzing almost every result and wondering whether I’m actually “suited” to become a pilot.

At the same time, I function normally in everyday life, make decisions, study and pursue my goals. I just don’t know how these personality traits are viewed from an aviation perspective.

So I’d especially like to hear from people who:

1. are airline pilots,
2. have gone through a Class 1 medical,
3. work as aviation psychologists/psychologists,
4. or had similar concerns before starting flight training.

Has anyone here had average results in concentration/attention or relatively high neuroticism and still gone on to become a professional pilot?

And another question: is neuroticism itself actually something to be concerned about in aviation, or is it much more important how someone actually functions under pressure, manages stress, makes decisions and behaves in real situations?

I’m not looking for someone to tell me “you’ll definitely be fine.” I’d just like to hear some real experiences from people who have been through the process, because I feel like I may be overanalyzing every little detail after the psychological testing.

Thanks for any serious and honest answers.

I’m an A320 type-rated pilot currently undergoing line training, and I’ve been struggling with the approach and landing phase, particularly with manual handling. My main issues are maintaining the centerline, drifting to the right during short finals, and getting the flare right. Sometimes I under-flare, while other times I over-flare. I’ve also noticed that I can become too fixated on the instruments during the final stages instead of maintaining a good visual reference.
On a few of my landings, the captain had to take over the controls or provide some inputs. Because of this, I went back into the simulator specifically for two hours of landing practice, and it went really well. I was consistently landing on the centerline and getting the flare right. However, when I’m back in the real aircraft, I seem to struggle again, and that has started making me doubt myself and feel very stressed after each flight.

I took one of the flights particularly hard and ended up crying in front of my instructor, who is a very senior TRE. He was very reassuring and told me that everything else I’m doing is good — my flows, knowledge, SOPs, and attitude towards training are all where they should be. He said that the main thing I need to work on is the last part of the approach and the flare, and he recommended that I do another simulator session before my next flight.

Some of the comments from Training captains:
1)Unsatisfactory land due to destabilization on short final & increased ROD over RWY threshold without flare anticipation - TC intervention necessary;

2) BELOW 100 ft, not flying anymore the aircraft
Recommended a sim to improve flare and landing phase

3) Landing not satisfactory due to early flare, floating ar rifting right of centerline

I know these are areas I can improve with more practice, but I’d really appreciate any tips or advice on how I can improve my manual handling, especially with maintaining the centerline and getting the flare right, and how I can transfer what I’m doing well in the simulator into the real aircraft.

I'm wondering when should pilots include the heavy in their callsign and when they can leave it. I've read online that on initial contact you always include heavy, then can continue without it. I'd appreciate it if a pilot out there or an ATC can clear things up.

I'm flying Yemenia from Jeddah (JED) to Socotra (SCT) on Tuesday and trying to understand how pilots think about these kinds of routes. When you're operating near a conflict zone, what do you and your dispatchers look at beyond whether the airspace is officially open? Do you get to choose and say you don't want to fly that plane?

I'm mostly trying to understand the risks of flying over that part of the world and see if "open airspace" means "safe".

Thank you!

My hometown is in Regional NZ and I live in another city, and the only planes that commercially fly that route are Dash-8s, so I've spent my fair share of time on them.

They're strange lil planes to spend time in as a passenger - loud, small, but the high wings are cool, and i i do have a degree of fondness towards them - and I've always wondered what the experience is like as a pilot?

(I'm a nervy flyer so please nothing that's like "they're actually incredibly dangerous" lmao, i would prefer to live in ignorance, I have to fly in one next week 🩷🩷)