Instructors (Read 2,233 times)

I put this in the wrong place and I don't know how to move it.HELP

Bear

After 8 years as an MA-1 techie I was lucky enought to cross train into Flight Simulation. They opened up the field to get some mid range NCO's into field. I was in a class with Dale Vandenboom, also an older MA-1 type. Well we started in basic Electronics at Chanute and said whooa. We know this stuff, so we Profiency Tested through Basic Electronics...10 weeks of 34 week course. Our whole class did. 10 of us took tests and passed. So then we show up at Flight Sim course unexpected and 9 weeks early. They wildly scramable to set up a new class, They started us with Basic Digital Computer classes... So we all Profiency tested out of that 6 weeks as well. Then came Aircraft Forms and Maintenance Principles and Test Equipment...another 6 weeks down for testing. So at that point, base CBPO came into plan and said we couldn't test out of any more classes. They had to go through hoops to get us our assignments. So I got Myrtle Beach and A7D simulator. So I thought. The Simulator School was short of instructors so I got red-lined as Instructor. So I finished up the last 4 weeks of Simulator school which was all hands on training on F-4 Simulators. So our class spent like 10 weeks out of 34 week school before graduating.

The next day I started Technical Instructor Course for 6 weeks. Then I was scheduled to sit through some of the classes I was scheduled to teach. So I was provided the basic Course Materials and showed up to sit through another Instructor and take notes on how to teach subject. But first morning no instructor, just a call into Instructor Supervisors office. Seems the guy had family death and no one else was available to teach class. So fresh out of Instructors Training, I marched on. Taught the two week course by burning candle light night before. So then I was scheduled to follow another instructor for two more weeks and learn another Section of school...No way two emergencies could happen to me, but yes I burnt the candle wax two more weeks of teaching new subjects. So then they said I was doing so well I could teach the forms and test equipment portion as well.

I ended up taking that same class all through the 24 weeks by myself. At that point I was considered fully qualified, was given my 5 level and 7 levels in Flight Simulation and went back on Pro-Pay. So as a present for doing so well they sent me to 6 weeks at gunter AFB AL for Academic Instructor School.

I spent a total of 3 years and 24 days at Chanute as an Instructor before getting my first taste of a real day to day Simulator shop. the F-111E at Upper Heyford UK. Turned out to be my best assignment ever and I ended up spending 6 years of a 3 year assignment there.

And of course the first thing I was told upon arrival was "those that can do, those that can't teach". Wonderful beginning. The shop there was the initial crew that installed the simulator and ran it for 3 years before I arrived. They had their Premadonna's and I was to learn how to work on it under their supervision. We were all SSgt's doing maintenance with me as trainee. Well within the first 6 weeks the main GP-4 computer crashed leaving the simulator dead in the water. As I was allowed to watch their premadonna's "fix" the computer it was obvious to me that they were not very knowlegable on it since it seldom broke. So they were trashing in water and "Aligning" timing on all sytems and subsystems. What a disaster. After watching at arms length for three days I went to Superintendent and asked for permission to fix the damn thing before they had it totally unfixable. He was getting hell from HQ because the F-111E crews were not getting trained. He asked me how I thought I could fix it, so I explained I had been teaching it and fixing it for the last three years on daily a basis in teaching the F-4E Simulator. They both used the same GP-4 computer. So I was allowed to fix it. I started by properly aligning the timing in every system/subsystem. I used an old MA-1 procedure to find when signals were aligned and was pretty fast at it. So after a 12 hour shift of fixing what they had broke we were back in operation. And yes I had to say those that teach can usually fix it better than those who have been out on floor too long.

I can say I enjoyed my time teaching, but if given the chance again I might hesitate.

(edited for readability by Mark O.)

Yes Gary, there are exceptions in everything.... However, in the 50s-60s the adage was if you can't do,perhaps you can teach.................I never experienced an FTD until 1969 (over 17 years). My teacher was the Tec Order and some old TSgt (P-51,T-33, F-86,F-94, F-100 and RF-101). However I made 3 trips to Amarillo, 1 to Shepard and 1 to Chanute..... One of the instructors I had at Amarillo (general jet '52) I had again in '57 for the 102 and again in 59 for the Six.... He was an A1/c in 52 (I was an A/3c), in 57 we were both SSgt, same in 59.... He couldn't get out of ATC, he even volunteered for SAC... He was finally able to get his base of choice by reenlisting for Ernest Harmon...... Don't know if he was a doer, but he wanted out of ATC... I never had a good experience with the FTD instructors I had and it was basically that they had no practical experience. Most had never been out of ATC, SSgt and TSgt with no over seas time and being close to Pheonix and ASU, most of them had a degree of some sort.. None of my people had the time to be able to go to college.. A few years ago, I had a retired MSgt working for me servicing wood stoves, fireplaces and etc............ Right out of Mechanics school, he was assigned to FTD at Ellsworth AFB, then a boom operator for 12 years, the last 4 years he worked in admin of some sort.....He retired a MSgt with 20 years and a MA in management and never served a day in a supervisory position and had 3 days overseas at Yokota!!!! He use to remind me of his degrees til I asked him how many maint people from the line had degrees...... I finally shut him up by reminding him that the degrees didn't make him smart or a manager, it just indicated that he could be taught, didn't indicate he could apply what he had been taught....... Most of my maint supervisory time was 10 plus hours a day (I did the shift overlap, the shift NCOs didn't come in early or stay late).. The only time I ever had 8 hour days was when I was in QC.. Most tire kickers were early on the flight line and late leavers- hence they didn't have time for college... Cushy jobs and homesteading, promotion points for college always bothered me like a big boil on the ass.... One of the reasons I liked augmentee loading, taught the office weenies how to read a PSM6, they learned how to handle the missiles in 30 mph winds on glare ice.. BTW I was demo load team chief for 3 years at Loring while I was PE Branch chief- we demo loaded for every damned ADC wheel that visited Loring......

I hope I didn't push any wrong buttons guys.

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No you did not!
Many folks in here did time in the 50's-60's.
I did mine in the 70's up till 95.
We also have members that are serving now.

Different talks like these lets us see how the USAF has changed for good or bad. In my days the non doers were usually put in the tool cribs and wash rack. I guess these days, with do more with less, they have the QTP System. I don't know what QTP stands for. Should ask my daughter or son-in-law I guess. Would hate to think, that they think, Dad isn't in the know after 24 years service.
So who the hell knows what QTP stands for ?

Human Relatition Class?
Where I was it was called what it was, Race Relations!!!!
All it did was cause conflicts.

You are absolutely right Mark and I agree 100% that it's the career instructors that are what I had a problem with, not all our instructors/trainers. As with Jim I also do not believe in the "Those who can do. Those who can't teach" philosophy. We are all teachers, the higher rank you earn the more 'teaching' we do (should do). Teaching is just another word for training and as we all well know training NEVER stops.

I also would want to point out there are great differences between Tech School type instruction and FTD field instruction.

Tech School instructors are more like High School teachers than instructors. Being selected for and doing Tech School training for a couple of years AFTER you have gotten your feet wet in the field and actually know what the he!! you're doing is great, although not for an extended period of time like 10+ years. The reality is that tech school is not where the latest, greatest, newest technologies, equipment, processes etc take affect. The new 'stuff' is out there in the field, so if you are out of field duty for too long you loose site of the real world. So tech school instructor duty for a few years = great, making it a career = you're not a mechanic anymore so don't call yourself one.

As for FTD instructors that's a different category altogether because typically you won't PCS from one FTD duty assignment to another especially if you're in a Det. And FTD instructors are (used to be) normally interviewed from a list of potential candidates 'from the field' (flightline, docks etc). And while it was considered 'instructor' duty it was actually a more formal 'training' environment for the specific job, unlike the all encompassing "Jet Under Two" general course of tech school. I'm sure many of us here performed this type of training duty during our careers whether it was working in the training section of a unit or FTD and as Jim points out in regards to his own, these are experienced seasoned vets who know their sh!t and probably don't expect to spend the rest of their career doing it... unless you're close the end that is.

So, back you your topic Mark... I agree. Career maintenance instructors are a necessity, but I for one wouldn't want to have one on my crew if they are coming out of a 12 year tech school duty.

AF QTP: Air Force Qualification Training Package

:nono Shame on me.

Well, I sure upset a can of worms. :

One thing I have always told my students/congregations and others: "Be sure you write or say what you mean to say, and make a complete statement, so there is no doubt about what the message says, and says what you intend".

Yep, I really believe that.

However, I seem to, all too often, not get it right in practice.

I do not, in any way, endorse the statement I made in an earlier post: "Those who can do. Those who can't teach".

That statement has been the philosophy of all too many people in education, business , manufacturing and lots of other places.

There is, and has been, a tendency to take someone who is not very capable in the job they have been assigned, and have them teach others.

I fully agree with Jim and MOW, we all teach, if we are truly doing our job.

Seminaries, colleges and universities are the worst at that erroneous philosophy.

They see some young student really struggling and not getting as much as they should out of their major or minor studies. So, what do they do, they steer them to teaching credentials.

I am a big supporter of education, public and private, and have a daughter who is a teacher.

There are many wonderful teachers in our schools, and in the military.

However, there is a small group of teachers, well they are called that, who are totally without the ability to teach, but have a "certificate" that says they can teach.

Like some "pilots" we knew, who knew how to take off and land an airplane, but not much in between.

I have known some of those "teachers".

They are not able to think on their own, but only follow the curriculum that has been handed to them.

If you ask them a question which they don't know the answer, they either ignore you, make you look stupid, accuse you of being disruptive, or tell you to go look it up yourself.

I have seen too many of those "teachers" in the Air Force, in public schools, in colleges and universities, and in churches.

There are many criteria for a good teacher.

One that I find is extremely important; they excite you to learn.

After all, if a teacher doesn't cause you to have a desire to learn, you won't.

As a pastor, my primary job was to teach.

That meant I, first of all, had to have a real desire to convey the teachings of the Bible to others.

I never tried to give people the impression that I was superior to them because I had a "degree" in Biblical Education.

I attempted to convey to them that we are all striving for the same goal, to learn more about God's Word and how it should lead us in our walk of faith.

I had fun doing that, and I had fun when people asked me challenging questions that made me pray,think, study and then relate to them what I had learned.

Sorry for any confusion I may have caused by not reading my posting more carefully.

I pledge not to do it again.

Well, at least until the next time I do it.


Jim Too

:god_bless_usa

A lot of "gomer" jobs are perceived to be mindless. I had an AR section in my branch at Pope (C-130E). The wheel and tire shop fell under AR and the personnel were rotated into and out of wheel and tire. It was hard and dirty work, but not mindless. Sometimes thankless though. Same deal with my AR bunch at Keflavik (F-15C/D).