Ok if you are on your 5th lesson and you noticed your CFI nodding off during your lesson. Yes this happened to me, yes I handled it with my CFI and it is taken care of. Now to have some fun with it. What would you do, some of my thoughts at the time. 1. Prompt the CFI and ask if they are OK. Repeat as needed while keeping control of the aircraft. Kind of boring but what the hell 2. Say something like “ha CFI you’re making half a buck more an hour then the guy that flipped my burger at lunch and I expect more out of you” 3. Say nothing, then while thinking to your self they must really trust you, fly over to that NFL game or other major sport event that’s going on. The view should be great, if not fly lower. 4. While they are asleep work on those stall and spin things you have been reading about. 5. At about 3000 ft bring the engine to idle, put plane in a dive, and start yelling mayday mayday.
At your next lesson, show up with the largest cup of Starbucks you can buy and give it to him. (You can also decuct the cost of said Starbucks from his fee) And BTW... don't forget to carry a ziplock bag on board with you for the eventual outprocessing of said Starbucks.
Prior to next preflight...... prepare right seat with a fluffy pink pillow, a warm blanket, some furry slippers, and bring some warm milk. ( in case he doesn't fall right off to sleep, ) Place an alarm clock on the glare shield, and ask what time he wants to wake...
When I was receiving instruction they were called instructors. I don't know when or why they became CFI's. Maybe when FBO's appeared. Anyway, I remember an instructor with whom I had an early morning lesson. Halfway through the session he yelled that we had to do a forced landing QUICK. I set it up like a good planning student and as the approach was turning into a landing he said , " Put it on!" which I did. I held the brakes expecting a rough field take off and he said, " Hold it." And jumped out of the aircraft and TOOK A PEE ! He jumped back in and we made a rocky wobbley take off and he admitted that he had a " health habit " of drinking a glass of warm water every morning and it sometimes had to find a way out. I never got another forced landing from him. Switches
My CFI would slide his seat back, open the canopy(Grumman Cheetah; 100 degrees plus ambient), and put his feet up as I would go about my practice. I never had an issue that required his invervention, and that included an inadvertant spin entry at night as I recovered real fast from that. N Dennis
I would of proceeded to practice my Lazy 8's. Actually I would of loved for my CFI to fall asleep so he would stop saying things like "where the hell did you learn to fly!"
Anybody falls asleep in my airplane wakes up weightless on the ceiling (after I carefully unlatch the seat belt). They don't make that mistake again!!
I thought that this was a leg-pulling exercise when I read it but if it happened as stated, and I was in the left seat, that would be the last time that instructor would fly with me. Flying an airplane is all about having the attitude of assuming control over an ever present adversary that wants to kill anything and anyone in the air. If there was ever an example of the " You snooze, you lose" axiom, this was it. I was fortunate to have the instructors that I had when I was a dumb kid. They were dedicated and experienced survivors who exercised a firm and sometimes violent style of instructing but whatever their methods, they were effective and sure as hell never slept when they were instructing.
