Flight Training - December 2014 - 57

INSTRUCTOR REPORT

Keep it simple

Back to basics for recreational pilots
» By Rod Machado

A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR wrote to tell
me about a middle-aged student
(whom we'll call Ken) he adopted
from another instructor. Ken had
nearly 50 hours of dual and hadn't
soloed. It turns out that Ken's previous instructor (whom we'll call Bill)
began Ken's ab initio training in the
traffic pattern. Ken was expected
to master the basics of ﬂight while
making pattern circuits while he
was simultaneously taught how to
land an airplane. Really? Yes, really.
Poor Ken? I'd say so.
Incompetent Bill? Not necessarily. Most likely, Bill didn't know any
better. He was simply teaching the
way he was taught.
Bill had recently graduated
from an aviation institution that
preps students for airline careers.
Some of these institutions now use
a combined private/instrument
ﬂight training syllabus in their
ab initio ﬂight training programs.
One version of this nontraditional
syllabus has presolo students ﬂying instrument approaches on the
ﬁfth or sixth lesson. By deﬁnition,
these syllabi place relatively little
emphasis on learning the basic
fundamentals of ﬂight in the early
phases of ﬂight training. After all,
introducing presolo students to
instrument approaches means that
instructors must spend less time
introducing them to slow ﬂight
early in their training. Keep in mind
that these combined private/instrument syllabi are structured toward
an end game of placing a young person in the right seat of an airliner.
Whether these syllabi are effective for students in the airline prep
environment is a question that's
open for debate. What should be
clear, however, is that a combined
private/instrument syllabus isn't a

practical teaching guide for those
whose aviation ambition is to ﬂy
recreationally.
It should be clear that Bill didn't
think that spending time in the
practice area, helping his student
isolate and master basic ﬂying skills,
was important. How could he if
Ken's ﬁrst lesson began with landing practice? How did he come to
believe this idea?
Given that the FAA sanctions
the use of a combined private/
instrument training program (and
it does), isn't the agency implicitly
supporting the idea that mixing

The question is this: Is there a
more practical and effective way
to teach nonairline aspirants (or
anyone, regardless of their career
ambitions) to ﬂy? I believe there is.
My recommendation is to use a
ﬂight training syllabus that supports
using the building block principle of
learning to teach the basic fundamentals of ﬂight.
Consider using the FAA's own
primary ﬂight training syllabus
located at the back of the 1971 Flight
Instructor Handbook. This syllabus
is from a time when the FAA (and
the aviation industry as a whole)

USE A FLIGHT TRAINING SYLLABUS THAT SUPPORTS
USING THE BUILDING BLOCK PRINCIPLE OF LEARNING
TO TEACH THE BASIC FUNDAMENTALS OF FLIGHT.
advanced training with basic training is both proper and desirable?
If so, then why shouldn't Bill feel
justiﬁed in avoiding the traditional
practice area as he simultaneously
teaches ﬂying fundamentals and
landing skills in the traffic pattern?
Combining fundamentals with
advanced training must be good for
the student, right? No, it's not. It's in
complete contradiction to the building block principle of learning.
It seems clear that the FAA no
longer feels it's necessary to master
basic ﬂying fundamentals before
moving on to advanced ﬂying
skills. If you need to be convinced,
read the FAA's 2007 Introduction
to Scenario-Based Training booklet. The FAA recommends that
presolo students learn basic ﬂying
skills while they simultaneously
learn navigation skills during short
cross-country ﬂights. The booklet
tells instructors and their presolo
students to "ﬂy to a nearby airport
(no more 'practice area')."

emphasized the value of stick-andrudder ﬂying skills over all else. You
can ﬁnd it by visiting the blog area
of my website (www.rodmachado.
com).
This bare-bones syllabus provides you with the minimal content
necessary for student training. It
also shows you how to apply this
training in a logical sequence. Of
course, you should add the additional training as necessary to meet
the requirements of today's FARs.
That said, you should avoid adding
any training that distracts from the
initial goal of teaching your student
to solo safely.
As Albert Einstein once suggested, "Everything should be
made as simple as possible, but not
simpler." That seems like a good
rule for any ﬂight training syllabus,
too.
Rod Machado is a ﬂight instructor, author,
educator, and speaker.
Visit his blog (www.rodmachado.com).

DECEMBER 2014 FLIGHT TRAINING

/ 57
http://www.rodmachado.com http://www.rodmachado.com http://www.rodmachado.com
Flight Training - December 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Flight Training - December 2014
