Edmond Fung is short-tempered, mean-spirited, hates women, and is a poor businessman. But I don't care about any of that. He is also a danger to the aviation community and is not willing to create a safe flying environment. He says he wants to create the "best flight school in Indonesia," but his actions don't support that.
I have seen hundreds of flight schools in operation, and all of them have their problems. But if you make safety and optimum leaning conditions your top priority, the other problems can be handled.
If you don't, then eventually someone will make a mistake and lives will be lost. The students at LIFT have gotten by so far because of the help of two specific instructors, Denis and Kwan (who are both leaving soon), and from their own hard work and dedicated study.
Russ Sherwood is only in this for himself. He is not interested in performing the duties required of a Chief Flight Instructor, but only in building time. He doesn't care if the students succeed or fail. His flying habits are atrocious at best. As soon as he finds someone else to hire him, he will be gone. Unfortunately for LIFT, no one wants him.
There are many events that have happened at LIFT during my brief time there that I have not even touched upon. I have mostly documented emails. But there is much more.
LIFT is Edmond's baby, but Russ does not fall far from the tree. Russ has picked up Edmond's habit of yelling and insulting everyone in sight. {Why do they think this is OK?} Edmond defends Russ almost every time, but Russ will talk bad about Edmond when he is not around, then act like nothing happened when Edmond appears. Russ is totally two-faced and will say whatever he thinks will appeal to whoever is in the room at the time. Russ has zero ethics.
They both throw their insults in the presence of other staff, instructors, and students. They make up stuff, such as claiming one instructor's spouse had a "criminal record" (this raises so many questions - if so, why did they hire the guy, why would they do a background check on a spouse, etc).
Edmond has hired some impressive and senior staff members - one who is a retired army general and another who was a pilot for the prime minister. Yet he has told me that these men are "useless" or "worthless". I would guess that they have also approached Edmond about his flight standards and have been rebuked.
Edmond has told me that he yells at people to "build character." It doesn't. It demoralizes people. Why would he hire people who need "character" building? Has he studied up on the best ways to "build character"? Why has he decided it is his mission in life to create more characters rather than create skilled future pilots?
Edmond also has a habit of blaming instructors and students for bad weather. He is in Jakarta and the school is in Lombok, 1300 miles away. Often flights are cancelled because of thunderstorms or high winds. Edmond thinks these are excuses to not fly. The truth is, instructors and students LOVE to fly. That is what they live for. They take every opportunity they can to fly. But they are not suicidal and they should not be expected to put their lives at unnecessary risk. It is not up to Edmond to make those types of calls, and in fact is attributing to the culture of danger there.
Edmond also has taken it upon himself to decide what kind of training the instructors should perform. For example, he has banned stall training until the students are at commercial level. This is bad on so many levels. Landings, approaches, aircraft limitations - this knowledge is all required before solo and requires stall skills.
There is much more. The bottom line is Edmond is not interested in training skilled pilots. I am not sure what he is interested in as he has told me he is not in this to make money. He claims he is dedicated to flight training, but he not been involved in flight training for over 20 years himself and has never done anything to update his knowledge or improve his currency. He is simply taking good money from the student's parents and giving them a minimal education in return.
I have seen hundreds of flight schools in operation, and all of them have their problems. But if you make safety and optimum leaning conditions your top priority, the other problems can be handled.
If you don't, then eventually someone will make a mistake and lives will be lost. The students at LIFT have gotten by so far because of the help of two specific instructors, Denis and Kwan (who are both leaving soon), and from their own hard work and dedicated study.
Russ Sherwood is only in this for himself. He is not interested in performing the duties required of a Chief Flight Instructor, but only in building time. He doesn't care if the students succeed or fail. His flying habits are atrocious at best. As soon as he finds someone else to hire him, he will be gone. Unfortunately for LIFT, no one wants him.
There are many events that have happened at LIFT during my brief time there that I have not even touched upon. I have mostly documented emails. But there is much more.
LIFT is Edmond's baby, but Russ does not fall far from the tree. Russ has picked up Edmond's habit of yelling and insulting everyone in sight. {Why do they think this is OK?} Edmond defends Russ almost every time, but Russ will talk bad about Edmond when he is not around, then act like nothing happened when Edmond appears. Russ is totally two-faced and will say whatever he thinks will appeal to whoever is in the room at the time. Russ has zero ethics.
They both throw their insults in the presence of other staff, instructors, and students. They make up stuff, such as claiming one instructor's spouse had a "criminal record" (this raises so many questions - if so, why did they hire the guy, why would they do a background check on a spouse, etc).
Edmond has hired some impressive and senior staff members - one who is a retired army general and another who was a pilot for the prime minister. Yet he has told me that these men are "useless" or "worthless". I would guess that they have also approached Edmond about his flight standards and have been rebuked.
Edmond has told me that he yells at people to "build character." It doesn't. It demoralizes people. Why would he hire people who need "character" building? Has he studied up on the best ways to "build character"? Why has he decided it is his mission in life to create more characters rather than create skilled future pilots?
Edmond also has a habit of blaming instructors and students for bad weather. He is in Jakarta and the school is in Lombok, 1300 miles away. Often flights are cancelled because of thunderstorms or high winds. Edmond thinks these are excuses to not fly. The truth is, instructors and students LOVE to fly. That is what they live for. They take every opportunity they can to fly. But they are not suicidal and they should not be expected to put their lives at unnecessary risk. It is not up to Edmond to make those types of calls, and in fact is attributing to the culture of danger there.
Edmond also has taken it upon himself to decide what kind of training the instructors should perform. For example, he has banned stall training until the students are at commercial level. This is bad on so many levels. Landings, approaches, aircraft limitations - this knowledge is all required before solo and requires stall skills.
There is much more. The bottom line is Edmond is not interested in training skilled pilots. I am not sure what he is interested in as he has told me he is not in this to make money. He claims he is dedicated to flight training, but he not been involved in flight training for over 20 years himself and has never done anything to update his knowledge or improve his currency. He is simply taking good money from the student's parents and giving them a minimal education in return.
