INSTRUCTOR REPORT A good instructor is always learning INSTRUCTOR REPORT offers insights for students and tips for CFIs. GET INSIDE THE CHECKLIST How to use the preflight checklist as a learning and teaching tool. » By Jeff Panhans I NEVER WANTED A STUDENT TO BLINDLY FOLLOW A CHECKLIST; RATHER, I WANTED A STUDENT TO FULLY UNDERSTAND A CHECKLIST. room, I open my eyes to see the Las Vegas sun shining through a crack in the curtains. As I move to get out of bed on my third day of captain upgrade simulator training, I feel my sore leg muscles. The day before was the first day of V1 cuts; this is when the simulator instructor will fail an engine on rotation and the pilot flying is required to use a fair amount of rudder to counteract the yaw from the operating engine. As a result of the adrenaline suddenly being produced and the fact that I was using muscles in my leg I didn’t even know I had, I seem to always move a bit slower the next day. AS THE PHONE rings in my cookie-cutter hotel My arrival here this morning started several months earlier, when I began to study the 100-plus MD-80 abnormal and emergency checklists for my upgrade training. I used these checklists to review the various systems and gain a better understanding in the simulator. While pulling apart the checklists, I thought back to my flight instructor days, when I would teach through the use of normal and emergency checklists. I never wanted a student to blindly follow a checklist; rather, I wanted a student to fully understand a checklist and try to gain a better understanding of why we are moving switches JULY 2011 FLIGHT TRAINING / 49