It’s true that people that hold a commercial licence or that are accredited CFIs are quite knowledgeable, but I don’t think that the baseline is the same. I hold a B. Eng. in Aeronautical Engineering and an M. Sc. in Aircraft Design and I can tell you for a fact that the things learned in ground school are a world apart from what we’ve learned through aerodynamics textbooks.
Totally agree, as far as Aviation/Aeronautical engineering go. My point was, as much that goes into your flying education from private all the way up through CFI, it seems like there should be a degree related to it, not based on aircraft design, but piloting. The money spent on this training equals that of a at least 4 years. Granted, I don’t think it would have much pull in the job market beyond what they already look for but the point was simply pilots who have acheived the CFI have worked and paid as much as and college degree would require in my opinion.
I don’t want to say that I studied aerodynamic design heavily, I know the basics were taught as pilots but as you mention, everything that goes into it, absolutely not. My reseach and education is mainly in the flying aspect.
I think though ,that as pilots we would have a basic idea of ground effect and that it would not have an impact on an aircraft with a nose down attitude at 400 kts or whatever speed it was travelling at, and that is what I was getting at, not that I know everything about aviation. I can say I have experienced ground effect unlike those who get the term and decided there is some pillow of air that nothing can penetrate unless you have a pilot certificate in your pocket, that’s my point.
CAFlier wrote:
damiross wrote:
pfp217 wrote:
So the short answer would be mostly independently
I think this is the best way to learn, at least in my case. I hate formal classroom settings. I quite often have a tendency to drift away mentally. Learning on my own is great.
I think anyone who learns independently and through experience has better knowledge than one who has a lot of book learning in a formal setting.
I think that is true for some things and not for others. To pick an obvious (and relevant) example, it would be very hard to learn to fly completely independently. you could get a lot of book knowledge about flying, talk to a lot of pilots, search the web, etc. and then jump in a plane, but the outcome would be in doubt. While the internet is a great resource, much of the information that we see on it is misleading, contradictory, partially correct or downright wrong. When someone gets cancer and comes into the doctors office with 6 inches of paper printout from the internet, typically more than 90% of it is dangerously wrong.
Please re-read my 2nd paragraph where I mention experience. I think this is where a CFI in the aircraft would be handy. I don’t consider hands-on experience to be a classroom setting.
You can, or at least I can, learn quite about about the basics of flying in a ground school through independent study, as you mention.
While during the course of gaining experience with a CFI next to me, I would expect her to give me more than just hands-on experience. I would expect her to tell me the “secrets” of flight that she has learned. This wouldn’t be in a classroom sitting where one is lectured to. It would be hands-on experience with someone telling me more than just the basics.
Agreed, there were things I read over and over again, that one time w/ the instructor or ground school or talking w/ a CFI made perfect sense.
In contrast though there were things in ground school or on a lesson I would completely miss, and when I went back and read about it myself it made perfect sense.
Point of the post, there are people making things up about aviation that have no experience or information, they are videotaping conrtrails telling us that they are chemicals (which technically they are they just aren’t the death bringing spy fumes that they say it is), and stealing FA member videos from Youtube for their own propaganda about the conspiracy about 9/11.