The Importance of Finding the Right Flight Instructor

You probably remember your favorite teachers—they inspired, they challenged, they molded you into the person you are today. When one of your teachers passes away you can’t help but feel nostalgic.

There is a difference between checking the experience boxes on a syllabus and creating a pilot. Some flight instructors do the latter better than others. 

One of the better CFIs I had the privilege to train with was Spence Campbell from Seattle. 

When he went West last week at the ripe old age of 88, he was still instructing on a freelance basis. He had decades of experience as a pilot and an educator. He was like an action hero come to life. In addition to flying, he trained dock dogs and taught professional scuba diving. He also had been an FAA safety counselor back in the day. 

Campbell was the acknowledged instrument specialist in the Seattle area. With his wife, Marie, they operated Aviation Training Center at Boeing Field (KBFI) and then later at Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT). The business offered ground schools, knowledge tests, flight training, and airline interview preparation. They had several advanced aviation training devices (AATDs) that were used for instrument training and to help airline candidates practice for the simulator evaluation that was part of their airline interviews.

Marie, who preceded her husband in death, helped the airline applicants polish their résumés and interview presentation. “Don’t wear white socks with your black suit," she warned them. Between the two of them they worked with hundreds of pilots for virtually every airline in existence, especially the locally based ones. You’d be hard pressed to find a pilot at Horizon Air or Alaska Airlines who didn’t have some contact with them.

I met the Campbells in the early 2000s. I was a reporter for another aviation magazine and was working on a story about instrument training when I had the opportunity to do a simulator session with Spence. He came highly recommended. I was a freshly minted instrument pilot and so impressed that I made it a point to do an instrument session with him at least once a month. This was back when the rules for instrument pilot currency were six hours and six approaches in six months. I exceeded that on a regular basis. We also worked on multiengine procedures. I was writing a lot of accident reports involving multiengine aircraft and wanted to better understand what the pilots were expected to do when there was an uncommanded loss of engine power.

By 2004, I was a CFI working part time at a KBFI flight school and pursuing my instrument instructor rating. The flight school paired me up with a coworker, a CFII with the most open schedule. It was a bad fit. She was a time builder who resented "still having to instruct." She didn’t like doing ground sessions because that time wouldn't get her to the airlines. She had a persecutory attitude and thought mistakes in the aircraft were intentional and repeating something louder and slower was teaching. Wrong on both counts. We flew together for just over 11 hours. That was enough. The only thing I learned from her was what not to do as a CFII.

I took myself off her schedule in favor of flying with the more experienced CFIIs at the school and doing ground and AATD sessions with Campbell. I had to rearrange my magazine schedule to do this, but it was worth it.

Campbell taught me how to be a better ground instructor and the most effective use of the AATD. It’s not a glorified video game, and there is a fine balance between allowing the learner to make a mistake and letting it go for a bit before hitting pause and making a prompt correction to avoid creating a bad habit.

He understood that mistakes were part of the learning process. If you didn’t understand something, he would ask more questions until he figured out where you were getting tripped up and the right approach to teach you. He didn’t take it personally if you made a mistake or didn’t understand something. He helped you learn from your mistakes and develop good habits. That is what a teacher is supposed to do. 

He was calm and patient even when the spam was hitting the fan. A friend tells the story of the time they were shooting an instrument approach to Runway 35 at Olympia Regional Airport (KOLM) when a control tower operator new to the area cleared a jet to takeoff from Runway 17. The IFR aircraft had reported over a fix that defined the approach to Runway 35, and the controller mistakenly thought the fix was north of the airport, not south. Campbell took the controls, avoided a midair, and educated the controller. Learning took place. 

To this day I use the techniques he taught me when I am flying with instrument candidates, specifically, a technique he called “procedural holds." I am not one of those pilots who can draw the hold on paper and figure out the entry. I can, however, put my hand in the German Three posture (make a peace sign and extend your thumb) on the heading indicator and determine what the hold entry should be. 

I can still hear him coaching me, saying, “If it is a parallel entry, the first two turns are opposite the direction of turns in the hold.” 

I am not the only one he reached. There have been a few times when I was flying with a more seasoned pilot when I used this technique, and the other pilot responded with a grin: “You got that from Spence!”

You better believe it.