Nice. You sound like the guy that taught me to fly. Very different from a "school" setting.
I've been teaching people to fly for a very long time now. I limit myself to training primary students. I also Loved teaching people how to fly. My days of building time are long since over. I can honestly say I was never a time builder. I've towed banners, towed gliders. Before, during and after my airline days. Type rating on a 727, 4 sucky years with the wings of man (Eastern) before being furloughed during that oil embargo early 70's. My route consisted of Newark to Washington, Washington to Newark, Newark to Boston, Boston to Newark, Sometimes Newark to Miami, Miami to Newark. My wife wanted to continue to eat, pay rent and have some kind of a life so after the year and a half furlough, when Eastern crew scheduling called to get me back on a training schedule, I opted not to return. I had been taking computer courses and had landed a pretty good job with a consulting firm. Because of my aviation background I worked with a few corporate aviation departments. computerizing their record keeping and reviewing their training records and cockpit procedures. It was better than an Airline job , I was home every night. I was still getting paid to fly and I was able to continue teaching at several levels.
But my real pleasure was teaching primary students. I flew for years out of a grass airport , 2000 ft with a 1400 ft. cross runway. Colts Neck, NJ, it's no longer there. Golf Course and homes now. My Dad was my primary instructor, He flew P47's and later P51's for the US Army 1941 - 1945. He taught me to fly in a 1946 J3 Cub that he and his wingman bought surplus after the war. Dad didn't have a instructor's rating so when I turned 17, in 1965 he paid a CFI to fly with me and sign me off for Solo flight in our Cub. I flew with that instructor and later got my Commercial and went to one of those Instrument in a week schools in Daytona. After Vietnam, my Dad hooked me up with another WWII buddy of his and got me an interview with Eastern. My Dad also hooked me up with a guy that had an interest in a War Bird collection and needed pilots to ferry the aircraft to airshows on the East Coast. I have over a 1000 hours in T6, P40, F4U and B25.
I've flown for Grass roots air operations, Part 141 operations and Corporate air carriers Part 121 and 135. I still hear my Dad telling me to "don't just sit there, fly the plane, don't just look out the window, you need to really see it, fly the plane, now look at the map, Heading, Airspeed, Altitude, do you see it, the river, the bridge across the river, fly the plane, the town next to the bridge, see it on the map, see it out the window and fly the plane, find the road and take me to the next town".
