Hi Gary! You DO talk to your customers after all. Twice now I've asked to talk with you in person and twice your employees have declined. Yes, I was a rusty pilot. Do you understand that's why I came to your flight school?
Lets review:
1st Visit to SFC- 2 hour round trip wasted drive for me because SFC messed up the scheduling.
(Went to another FBO and got my Flight Review)
2nd Visit to SFC- Given the "Good to go!" in your 182 after a very brief checkout by your instructor (which included zero ground instruction).
3rd Visit - With my cross country to Lodi pending and knowing I have received two marginal "check rides" I head back to Southwest Flight Center for more ground work on the things that have changed since my last cross country in 2005, as well as to plot the route and practice on Foreflight. Upon my first question to the same instructor who checked me out he basically states I'm un-airworthy and leaves the room (apparently to tell on me). After much back and forth with your office manager (nice lady) It's decided I will sit down with an instructor to get me up to speed. I do 1.5 hours of ground review with instructor #2 and he says that he's very comfortable with my knowledge and the route of flight he and I had worked out for my cross country. I also took your written test and he said I did well and he says I'm good to go. I leave SFC confident in my refreshed knowledge only to receive a call from yet a third instructor hours later (who had participated in none of my training) and he tells me I'll need "a couple more days" of ground work. Yes, clearly it is your flight schools commitment to safety that drove me away.
Gary - You and I are clearly never going to listen to each other and the truth has already taken a pretty big hit in this event, but I think if we put away our egos and maybe zip up (and get off of Yelp) we could make this a learning experience. I don't know if your flight instructor issue is a brother-in-law thing or something like that. If so, I completely understand, but some people are not cut out for teaching. If you don't want to dig into this event from a customer experience point of view, how about from a safety and liability point of view? What if I told you your instructor checked me out and gave me the keys to your 182 after just 1 hour of dual with no ground school? AND THAT HE ENDORSED MY LOGBOOK AS CHECKED OUT EVEN THOUGH THAT VERY LOGBOOK SHOWED I HADN'T FLOWN IN OVER 30 YEARS NOR DID I HAVE A CURRENT BFR? He never once looked through my logbook! Would that pique you interest? Again, I think this is a serious deal and we should take it off line. You have my phone number.
Kirk Rogers
Comm CFI, Inst, Multi