Flight Training - June 2013 - 50

INSTRUCTOR REPORT»

As your student gets closer to
checkride day, try behaving more
like an examiner and less like a
flight instructor. Instead of correcting during each maneuver, sit back
and observe your student, allowing
him to make the pilot-in-command
decisions that will be required
when he carries his own pilot
certificate. After the flight, give your
student the chance to evaluate his
or her flight maneuvers in light of
the PTS. When both you and your
student agree that he can consistently perform well within PTS
tolerances, you can be confident in
sending him for the checkride.
The same theory holds true for
the oral portion of the practical test.
If you can ask your students more
practical, real-life questions during
their preparation for the checkride,
they will realize that they need a
more thorough understanding of
the topics than just simple rote
memorization. This will lead to a
stronger oral on checkride day and
a safer pilot in the future.
As the flight instructor, you know
your students’ abilities better than
anyone else and hence carry some
of the responsibility for their ulti-

mate safety as pilots. Your sign-off
in the logbook is not just pledging
that your students are ready to
pass the test, but also that they can
perform safely in each operation
that the certificate will afford them.
By preparing your students for the
real-life challenges they will face
in the air, you are helping to keep
them safe long after they successfully pass the practical test.
One way to simulate the stress of
the practical test is by having your
students go on a mock checkride
with another instructor. If your
students can perform well with
the stress of an unfamiliar flight
instructor next to them, then they
can probably also handle the stress
of being in close quarters with an
examiner. Having your student
ride with another CFI allows for
another pair of eyes to see something you may have missed.
Make sure your student has the
opportunity to meet the examiner
in advance. Having even a little
familiarity can ease a person’s
stress. It gives you a personal rapport with the examiner, and gives
you an idea of what he or she might
expect on the checkride.

Now that you’ve done everything
in your power to ensure your student’s success, you should be able to
rest a little easier, especially considering this fact: The FAA examiner
or designated pilot examiner will
be evaluating the competency
and safety of the applicant as a
whole. No one expects a pilot to be
perfect. As long as your student is
consistently meeting the practical
test standards, minor mistakes and
deviations will be judged in light of
the whole picture—a picture that
you have worked very hard to make
sure is a good one.
If you are worth your salt as an
instructor, you’re going to worry
some about your students because
you care about them and take pride
in your work. But, maybe, the next
time a student of yours is on a
checkride, you can have the peace
of mind to sit calmly and wait for
his or her return, because you know
that any minute the student will
walk through that door smiling—
with certificate in hand.
Natalie Bingham Hoover, ATP/CFII/MEI, has
given more than 3,000 hours of dual instruction. She lives in Germantown, Tennessee.

CREATING GLIDE GURUS

Effective methods for power-off approaches
» By Rod Machado

ONE OF THE most important skills that
any pilot can have is the ability to judge an
airplane’s glide potential. You learn how
to do this by pulling the power back to idle
and observing the results. But if students
are introduced to landings by flying a wide
pattern and a long final approach with the
use of power, there’s no opportunity to
learn about their airplane’s glide potential.
Here’s one way to introduce your students
to landings using the power-off approach
method (and this works even if the traffic
pattern is busy).
During your first introduction to

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landing practice, instruct the student to
pull the throttle back to idle the moment
he or she thinks the airplane can glide
to the runway at the appropriate speed.
That’s right. Let him or her make
that decision (but feel free to cough
or clear your throat as a clue for a
clueless student about when to pull
the throttle aft).
If the student is either lucky or skilled,
he or she will estimate properly and
make the glide to the runway. In the
process, he will learn a little bit more
about how the airplane glides. If, how-

ever, the airplane is going to be either
too high or too low, let the event unfold
until it becomes obvious (to you, at least)
that the landing portion of runway isn’t
within reach.
Feel free to cough once again to help
instigate the student’s application of
power or flaps to properly alter the
glidepath for landing. This training
strategy accomplishes two things. First,
it helps students learn how the airplane
they are flying descends when gliding. Second, it increases your supply of
cough drops.
http://FLIGHTTRAINING.AOPA.ORG
Flight Training - June 2013

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