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Joe Thompson does things a little differently. He slides into the passenger's seat of a two seater Cessna 152. On the pilot's side is a person who has never even been in an airplane~let alone flown one. The pilot is jittery, looking at the maze of dials and gauges in front of him. He is oblivious to the wind direction, unfamiliar with navigation and in fact, he wouldn't know a rudder from an aileron. It's Joe's job to teach him the difference.
Aero Academy in London, Ontario, where Joe works is located in a small building at the edge of the asphalt taxi-ways. The twenty-five year old joined the staff here one week after he got his instructor's rating in June 1979.
"I had four job offers in one week," says Joe with one of his ever present smiles. Canadian Pacific Airlines and Air Canada are hiring away many of the experienced instructors from the flying clubs and schools, so for people like Joe there are plenty of instructor's jobs available.
A certain amount of the job is sales-manship. "When someone comes to the Academy," says Joe, "that person has already decided they want to fly, but many of them aren't sure they're capable." They are already sold on flying, he just has to sell himself as a competent instructor and convince them of their own abilities. People overcome that initial hesitancy by taking one hour lessons in the airplane with Joe and by attending ground school classes one night a week for three hours.
"When my students get to their first solo (first flight without an instructor) you can really see how they have bettered themselves," Joe says proudly. "It's a real achievement for them to handle a machine that weighs over 1600 pounds with a 110 horsepower selves, do the radio work, fly at the proper altitude and bring it back down in a smooth landing. The satisfaction I get out of seeing them do that could never be measured in dollars and cents."
Part of that satisfaction comes from teaching people who are as eager to fly as Joe was himself as a budding pilot. At the age of twelve he lied about his age so he could join the Air Cadet Corp in his hometown of Listowel, Ontario. He was supposed to be thirteen but the opportunity to get near anything and everything to do with airplanes was worth the white lie. The prize for cadet of the month was an airplane ride along the shore of Lake Huron, so Joe made sure he would be the winner. "I'd press the crease into my pants with soap and shine my shoes like plate glass so I could win that ride," he laughs. Apparently it paid off.
At seventeen, the minimum age required to fly privately, Joe got his "wings" through the government sponsored air cadet training in London. After that he worked carrying groceries, painting helicopters, cutting grass air strips and slinging beer to finance his flying. Joe estimates he has invested five thousand dollars to accumulate the flying hours necessary to become an instructor. A princely sum when you consider that beginning flying instructors clear about eight thousand per year. Those jobs have convinced him however, that there's no job comparable to flying by which to earn a living. "I work five days a week, teach a ground school class and get every third weekend off. That beats punching a time clock any day."
Aside from the pure joy of spending his day flying, Joe feels the best part of his job is working with people. "I thought there might be a generation gap between myself and some of my students who are as old as my father, but there hasn't been. They respect the fact that I know what I'm talking about, I guess," he shrugs. He has also taught students as young as fifteen. Although one can't actually hold a private license until age seventeen, Joe recommends young people who are considering a career in aviation take a few flying lessons. On an introductory flight students are allowed to perform simple manoeuvres with the airplane and Joe explains some of the aircraft parts and how they work.
The easygoing pilot dislikes only one thing about the job - bad weather. The weather influences a pilot's job more than just about any other profession. For instance, if visibility is less than three miles, or even if the winds are too high, Joe doesn't fly. Since instructors are paid by the number of hours they actually fly, bad weather puts a damper on the pay check too.
For many instructors teaching people to fly is a stepping stone in their aviation career. Many are really aspiring to airline or corporate jobs, and instructing is a good way to get experience and add to their flying time. "For some instructors this is a disadvantage," Joe says, "because they aren't dedicated to their student, and sometimes they won't tell the student all that he or she needs to know." That dedication and "lots and lots of patience" are the two essential ingredients to being a good instructor according to Joe.
Good health is another prerequisite to an instructor's rating. Joe, like all other instructors under forty, must go through a medical examination every year. 20/20 vision is also a necessary medical requirement, but that can be corrected vision so it does not rule out those who wear glasses or contact lenses.
Developing good judgment is another trick to being a successful instructor. "You must be able to let the students have enough control of the airplane so they can make their mistakes and learn from them. On the other hand, you can never let them get you into a dangerous situation that you can't get out of."
Joe lets his students make their mistakes, which usually turn out to be more embarassing than dangerous. Like the time he took his almost-ready-to-solo student to the airplane and told the student to regard him as a passenger. "If they can fly well on their own and treat me like a passenger, I let them solo."
Since the student neglected to untie the tail of the airplane, he found it more than a little difficult trying to move out to the taxiway. When he realized his mistake he sheepishly climbed out to untie it, leaving the engine running. Naturally, the moment he loosened the tiedown rope, the plane moved forward on its own. Joe quickly abandoned the passenger act to become the instructor. Although the student didn't solo for a few more lessons he was never again guilty of trying to takeoff with the tail tied down.
For many aspiring instructors it requires lots of hard work and studying on the ground. A good grasp of Joe's worst subject, math, is one aspect of flying training that he admits having to "really work at." His highschool guidance counsellor urged him to give up on plans for a flying career. Later he and two hundred and eighty other students were weeded out of Seneca College's Aviation Technology course when they didn't meet the requirements to make the twenty member graduating class. However, those very setbacks helped him as an instructor. He is able to empathize with students who are having problems.
Just because Joe has reached his goal of becoming a flying instructor doesn't mean he's at the end of the line. His next goal is to move from his Class III instructor's rating to a Class II rating. This will allow him to teach people to fly using the instrument panel instead of the ground as a reference. The top instructor's rating is a Class I, something Joe hopes to acquire in a couple of years.
Is instructing a stepping stone for Joe? Something to do while on his way to the pay and prestige of an airline captain? "No," Joe explains, "The airlines offer good jobs but it is very competitive to get in, and the job has a lot of pressure. Right now, I have a chance to fly, I get to meet people and teach them on a one to one basis. I'm one of the small percentage of Canadians who can say I'm really happy with my job, and that's worth a lot to me."
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
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