I think it’s interesting that some flight instructors are exempt from participating in “Continuing Education”, a FIRC.
Doctors, lawyers, educators, real estate salespeople and brokers…nearly every other licensed profession requires that its members attend annual or biennial updating and refreshing. Flight instructors, however, can renew their licenses strictly on the basis of “activity”. In other words, if they are able to show that they have produced 8 PIT (Pilots in Training) out of 10 who pass their FAA ‘Practical Test’ in the first attempt, the FAA will give those flight instructors a new license. Or if they teach in a school or act as a “check airman” for a airline or charter service, they get an automatic renewal.
What this means is that a flight instructor who has taught for 30 or 40 years, may never have to know any more about aviation than the knowledge of the Piper Cub.
Aviation has changed dramatically. The headlines are filled with outrage of pilots who are responsible for loss of life because of poor training. Yet, no one appears to understand the basic truth that it’s the earliest pilot training that is the cause of these accidents.
The “Law of Primacy” says in effect that those things that are first learned are the things best remembered. In aviation this translates into: poor early flight training will create dangerous pilots.
It’s like the “chain whispered story”. The story never looks or sounds the same after ten people. In aviation, the flight instructor who is trained by a weak flight instructor will later train another weak flight instructor and the direction of disaster continues.
The FAA needs to change the laws so that no one who holds a CFI license (Certificated Flight Instructor) is exempt from attending at least a “live”, 16 hour Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC). Without this barest of technique retraining and industry updates can the accident rate be reduced and the public trust in aviation transportation be ensured.
