PILOTS NEED TO FOLLOW INSTRUCTIONS

"Write this down," said the instructor of the private pilot ground school, writing the FAA's five hazardous attitudes on the classroom white board. "We are about to talk about these."

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There were six learners in the class. Five of them followed the instructions. No. 6, a 17-year-old boy ignored the instructions and instead took out his smartphone to take a picture of the board.

"The instructions are to write it down," said the CFI.

"This is easier," he said with a grin.

"The instructions were to write them down," the CFI politely but sternly repeated, "please write them down." "This is easier," the learner repeated, still grinning.

It didn't take long for him to fall behind in the class.

The learner's unwillingness or inability to follow instructions carried into the airplane. He did not listen to his instructors and there were four who tried to teach him. His failure to adjust power and trim when told to do so, to look before doing clearing turns, to use the checklist and the big Kahuna, to hold short of the runway for landing traffic made him "The learner no one wants to fly with." The final straw was when the self-proclaimed time builder who flew seven days a week trying to reach 1,500 hours total time before his 23rd birthday, refused to fly with him.

The learner was asked to leave. As far as I know, the teen never became a pilot for one simple reason: he simply could not or would not follow instructions.

Why people fail to follow instructions