As you get to know me, you will understand my passion for aviation and careful flight instruction. I am not building time or moving on to the airlines like many other instructors. I am a full-time career flight instructor. In order to make my schedule and your training work as efficiently as possible, I need the cooperation of all my students to help benefit everyone.
I am an Eagle Scout, and as the Boy Scout Motto goes, "Be prepared". This means that you should plan in advance to arrive at each lesson as well prepared as possible. This includes all flight planning, study and preparation assigned in the previous lesson. If you are unsure about what to study or prepare for, please contact me to find out. Arrive at the flight school well in advance of your scheduled lesson time. This will give you plenty of time to preflight the plane and obtain a weather briefing for the days flight. Your aircraft will almost always be available 20-30 minutes prior to the planned schedule. Allow time for fueling, window cleaning and adding oil if necessary. If at all possible, have the plane ready by the time we have scheduled.
Please come prepared for the associated ground lessons as well. Have your studies completed or be prepared to go over it with me on the ground. I recommend that each student brings all, yes all, of their books to every lesson. As you accumulate many books (and you will), consider having two bags. Keep a flight bag and another for ground school. If the weather does not permit flying, there is almost always a way we can utilize the time doing ground work. If I have to wait for you to prepare we will be wasting your valuable training time.
Any required flight planning can be completed several hours in advance. Try to have what is required completed with an hour or two to spare before the lesson. Flight planning always takes longer than expected. Keep in mind you wil only be asked to do the planning that you are trained to do.
When you make a schedule you are expected to keep it and I will do the same for you. If you need to change or cancel a schedule please give me as much notice as possible. If you cancel a flight with less than 24 hour notice you will be expected to pay a no show charge equal to my hourly rate for the full amount of time we had scheduled. If for any reason I need to cancel on you with less than 24 hours notice I will credit you that amount of time on our next lesson. Please always consider the IMSAFE checklist and be reasonable with cancellations. If you are going to be late please call me and let me know. If I do not see or hear from you 15 minutes after our scheduled lesson begins it will be considered a no show. Finally, if you do need to cancel the only acceptable way to do this is by phone. Do not email or text me, I cannot guarantee I will receive those in a timely manner. I normally work Monday thru Friday and rarely on weekends or holidays. I occasionally make exceptions to this on a case by case basis.
If you are one of my students, you already have both my personal phone number and email address. Emails work great for non-urgent messages and communications. For anything else, please call. If I am unable to answer (I could be up with another student) leave me a detailed message. I cannot take calls or texts on my phone when I am flying so do not expect me to call back if you did not leave a message. Unless it is urgent, please call during normal business hours (Monday ~ Saturday, 9AM to 6PM) and I will extend the same courtesy to you. Lastly, as one of my students, you can always call at any hour if you have a pressing question while out flying. I would much rather have you call at 2 AM with a question, than have the FAA and NTSB calling me at 3 AM.
If you have any questions please contact me.
Sincerely,Rick Sharp