The position of Instructor is the most important position in the club.  

 He is the first person to take a new member under his wing, to mentor and train the new pilot in theways of the club, to provide “uplift” on those “down” days of early Flight Training, to help with reconstruction when an “oops” occurs, to ensure that the early period of Club Membership/Training is apleasurable one. 

The reward is a great feeling of satisfaction when your Student finally passes his wings and becomes anactive member of the Club. It is a duty of a Flight Instructor that not only new members/pilots become fully proficient but thatestablished members/pilots are assisted at times when they may be in a little trouble with say a newairplane or equipment, or need help in new manoeuvres . A kindly word over the shoulder goes a longway to making a member feel more comfortable, this is not an intrusion, it is the responsible way ofensuring safety and comfort of the pilot, the security of people around and the protection of theboundaries and rules. 

An Instructor does not have to be a “hotshot” pilot what is more important is the ability to control themodel in all aspects of flight in a smooth and stable manner in any fight pattern.

An Instructor must be able to demonstrate and clearly describe each flight pattern in the trainingmanual to the new pilot and hve patience to allow the student time to follw thruogh and gain hisconfidence before proceding with the next pattern.

Students must be allowed to make errors at a safe height to enable them to learn how to recover fromthem, an explanation and or demonstration of “cause and Effect” is required to a help the student gainconfidence and mature. 

The most important attribute of the Instructor is a “calm and patient approach” to allow the student torelax and enjoy his training.

Finally, the Flight Training manual is an excellent document and should be adhered to in all aspects, inthis way it will improve the general standard and consistency club of flying. 

Norman HarrisMarch 2011