Flight Training - March 2012 - 52

INSTRUCTOR REPORT»

him I found myself in the rare position of saying, “Your CFI shouldn’t have taught you that way.” So step one in Ralph’s rehabilitation was to not blame the victim. Ralph didn’t choose to learn bad habits—they were given to him and he did exactly as he was told.

In my previous career as a teacher, I was taught there are three basic ways for an educator to do a disservice to his or her students: Attempting to teach correctly, but failing to do so. Ralph had been taught to keep his hand on the throttle at all times. That’s a good practice during taxi, takeoff,

and landing, but not if you are trying to write down instructions from the tower when the airplane is sitting still. Or (see below) when trimming the airplane. His iron grip on the throttle also led to rough and abrupt power changes. Omitting important items. Ralph was never taught to trim the airplane. I found it startling that something so basic had been neglected, and it took some time for Ralph to adjust to the routine of frequent trimming. It seemed like extra work and a distraction until he realized how much easier it was to fly the airplane when it was properly trimmed. He also had never flown from his home base to another airport. Teaching something that is factually incorrect. Ralph was taught that he had to hold altitude within 50 feet. This is just plain wrong, according to the Private Pilot Practical Test Standards, which specify altitude to be held plus or minus 100 feet. While holding students to a high standard is generally a good idea, the unwavering demand that he fly to this tolerance clearly worked against Ralph. He was primed to think about nothing but maintaining altitude (without

trimming, remember!), and all other cockpit tasks suffered for it. Ralph was so busy watching the altimeter that he rarely performed a traffic scan, had little idea of the geographical area over which he flew, and failed to notice the airplane was drifting in wind during landing patterns. After a few more flights we had identified the deficiencies, and I did my best to communicate exactly what I expected of him going forward. We frequently referred to the PTS, and I made an effort to describe some of the less cut-and-dried behaviors I wanted to see. For example, Ralph appeared very tense in the aircraft, and this caused some difficulties with prioritization. I told him, “On a scale of one to 10 in tension, you’re at about 11. I’d like to see that come down to a two or three.” I also listened. Ralph mentioned that fatigue was a factor for him. I tended to fly longer lessons of up to one and a half hours. I started paying attention to this, and was more gradual about working him up to longer flights. We isolated some tasks to allow for more targeted practice. During steep turns I might say,

Make sure you and your student are on the same page
» By Rod Machado

IT’S NOT ONLY ABOUT YOU
elects to become a private pilot, should we expect that person to be capable of flying an instrument approach or performing a lazy eight? The FAA certainly doesn’t think so. Why should you? No doubt some instructors can teach their students more in a given amount of time than other instructors. Some instructors, however, can only teach skills above and beyond those required of a private pilot by unreasonably extending a student’s training time—which results in increased cost and, often, in diminished student enthusiasm. Anyone training for his or her private pilot certificate should at least be trained to the performance level established by the FAA. That goes without saying. If an instructor has higher ambitions involving more time (and thus more expense for the student), it must be with the student’s knowledge and consent.

SOMETIMES A FLIGHT instructor’s ambitions for a student border on the unreasonable. For instance, one instructor I know wants to only produce private pilots having skill levels comparable to those of commercially rated pilots. That’s a noble ambition, but is it a fair one? I don’t think so. Based on years of experience, the FAA has established a set of fair performance standards expected of anyone working on a private pilot certificate. If someone

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Flight Training - March 2012

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