Abstract
A good educator can motivate students to succeed when others cannot. They bring intangible qualities to the teaching profession that promote greater achievement in their students. While there has been some research (Reed, 1989; Sutkin et al, 2008) regarding what some of those aspects are that make a “good” teacher, there is very little research related to what qualities makes a “good” flight instructor. It may be that the same qualities that make a good teacher are necessary for a good flight instructor, but flight instruction is more physically demanding and more stressful than classroom teaching and so there may be very important differences. This research will be a qualitative survey of local flight instructors and students to determine what characteristics are necessary for a good flight instructor at a university. Respondents will also be asked to name individual instructors that they feel are “good.” The aggregate training records of those instructors will be compared to those of the flight training program overall to see if there are quantifiable differences in training outcomes. While this will be a snapshot and not generalizable, it will serve as a pilot test for a national survey on flight instructor characteristics and provide some quantitative backing to the larger survey