I taught a make up ground today. The student missed the first few nights because he had enrolled himself in instrument ground. He has given what I think is an erroneous impression of himself. He is the 19 year old son of a fighter pilot who has recently retired from the airlines. His grandfather was a military pilot and as it turns out has a base named after him ... is that true? I don't care enough to spend a moment researching that. The mom has already called a few times trying to get things on track for this kid. With that background, I'm a bit surprised that his ground school material consists of Cessna Learn to Fly CDs ... I'm not familiar with the actual content and maybe it is complete ... idk.
I met him and was immediately put off by his arrogance and something more but I couldn't put my finger on it. I wasn't looking forward to spending time introducing him to the books and syllabus for this class ... . We started at the top of page one. The class meets every T/Th from 6 to 7:30 I told him. He let me know that the class should really be over at 7:15. Yeah, that's the first time for that one ... I smiled at him and said I don't know why you think that and I don't need to know ... what I do want you to understand from the start is class starts at 6 and finishes when I say we are done ... sometimes that will be later than 7:30 but not often, because I will respect your time and you will learn to respect my time as well ... I won't be wasting time telling y'all about my weekend (Some one actually asked me how my weekend was right after I called roll ... I said if the class really wants to hear about my weekend they can stay late and I will tell them ... then they can share if they are so inclined ... I looked around the room ... no takers I asked with the slightest smile ... no? ... okay then let's start with the aerodynamics of slow flight ... . So now they know. ) and I would like for you to understand before we go any farther - I noticed last night that you were wide awake for the entire class and that's a good thing. (I had spoken to him about that after his nap during the first class he made it to). He smiled and nodded. I also noticed that you spent the entire lecture ... texting? ... playing a game? ... surfing the internet? ... it doesn't matter what you were doing, showing up and staying awake doesn't make you present. After a pause I said I'm not willing to lie for you ... when I sign the sheets I am saying that you were exposed to this specific material ... I'm not saying you understand it or will even remember it, but I am saying I believe you heard it. If you're not going to listen, I need you to put more effort in to at least making me think you might be. To make a long story short (er), I would say that this kid has everything he needs to be extremely successful at this - flying - except he doesn't want to.
He doesn't want to fly. He doesn't know how to tell his family that. He knows exactly what he wants to do - he wants to go to the beach. He told me that. He thinks he needs a year off to figure out what he wants to do with his life and he thinks the beach would be the place to figure that out. He doesn't want to spend his parents money on books, because he's pretty sure he's not going to read them. He feels bad about them paying for flight time when he doesn't really want to fly. He doesn't know what he wants to do, but he does know that it's not fly - and he feels really bad about letting everyone down. Honestly, what do you say to that? He thinks he's got a stage check lined up with my flight instructor ... I don't know if I'd hate to see that or if I'd love to see that. I told him to please not embarrass himself by thinking he can swag his way through that. We talked about him dropping this course ... he's already dropped history and needs to keep at least 12 hours going ... he's already ditched his flight hours saying that he prefers weekends ... he tells me that we're finding him a weekend CFI. I told him that he needs to protect his GPA for later - when he figures this thing out. I'm going to loan him a book (PHAK - he's given me his word that he'll return it). Obviously, I'll need to speak with the FI about this - this is above my pay grade.

ps - I know he may be playing me. I can see that he's kinda playing his folks - He wanted an SEC (party) school, they wanted a flight program ... that's why he's here. The weekend only flying constraint that he requested was specifically intended to limit his training. Every kid that sits in private ground has a story. All I expect from any of them is that they respect the rules and understand the consequences .

As I sat there with him hearing his version of his story I thought about my own story - rather the flying aspects. How many young people are there who wouldn't give anything to be in this kid's shoes, and yet this gift is his burden. I am an older person (meaning - no career path ahead because I too want to go to the beach - but after I do this not before - I would trade the beach for this if it made sense on my timeline), I am experiencing a lot of obstacles to completing my training. Yesterday morning I was whimpering under the load. Sitting there with him I could literally feel the difference between doesn't want to and absolutely has to. Today - I'm back at it. I'm improving my lecture notes on stability ... maneuverability ... and controllability.