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Selecting an Instructor
Flight training is a very personalized
process. Usually an instructor flies with an individual
student in a one on one teaching situation. Because
of this, we recommend that a student give careful consideration
to his/her choice of instructors. It is important that
your instructor's personality mesh well with yours.
It is obviously also important that your instructor
be a safe, skillfull, conscientious pilot. Likewise,
it is critical that your instructor be able and willing
to teach. One can be a skillful pilot without being
a good teacher. Many balloonists do not consider themselves
flight instructors, so you may need to ask around your
local balloon community to find those who do offer instruction.
We offer
two guidelines for your search:
1) A good instructor is cheap at any price. A bad instructor
is expensive (exhorbitantly so!) at any price. When
you find a good one, don't quibble on price. Spend as
much as it takes (not only in dollars, but also in time,
attention and effort) to absorb as much as you can from
him or her.
2) No pilot knows it all. No instructor can teach it
all. Look for opportunties to fly with different instructors.
Take the best from each and build that into your own
technique.
Topics covered
in training
The specific details about what should be taught, and
about what a student balloonist should learn and be
able to do, are found primarily in two places: Part
61 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) and
in the Practical Test
Standards. Be sure to have your own copy of each,
and familiarize yourself with them.
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