Flight Training - January/February 2021 - 48

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up the airplane for trimmed, straight-andlevel cruise flight, then put on the Figgles.
Instantly, the instruments disappear and,
amazingly, the airplane doesn't fall out
of the sky. Once the student has become
comfortable with this experience, I call
their attention to the sound of the engine
and then don't say anything for several
seconds. I encourage them to really listen
to the engine and to try to fix that sound in
their memory. After several more seconds,
I call their attention to the sound of the
wind flowing over the windscreen and the
wings and ask them to fix that sound in
their memory, as well. Surprisingly, some
students had never really heard the wind
before; it was crowded out by the sound of
the engine and all the other inputs.
Just like a blind person learns to
heighten the use of their other senses,
depriving a pilot of instruments helps
them sense things they might not have
noticed before. Once those things are fixed
in mind, we note the distance of the nose
below the horizon. By fixing the pitch
attitude, engine sound, and wind sound
in their memory, we set a picture of what
cruise should look and sound like.
Once the pilot has had a few minutes
to get used to this new environment, we
reduce power to a point just enough to
keep the airplane in straight-and-level
flight at the typical approach speed. For
this first change, I talk them through
setting the power and pitch until we are in
stable, level flight. Once again, we spend
several moments listening to the sound of
the engine, listening to the wind, and looking at the position of the nose relative to
the horizon. This is a good demonstration
of " pitch plus power equals performance, "
but without any instruments.
From this stage, I ask them to take
their time, return to cruise flight, and tell
me when we get there. I fold my arms, shut
my mouth, and wait. It is not uncommon
for the student to get within 5 knots and
100 rpm of the previous cruise settings. We
then go through a couple of cycles between
approach and cruise speeds, all the while
maintaining a (relatively) constant altitude.
TURNS AND COORDINATION
Once the student is comfortable with
straight-and-level flight sans instruments,
and in changing from cruise to approach
and back again, we introduce turns. Nothing steep yet; I just ask them to identify
something on the horizon and then to
48

FLIGHT TRAINING JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2021

make a gentle 360-degree turn left or
right until they get back to their starting
point. Beginning with a coordinated turn
(which may take some verbal coaching),
I will gently press on one of the rudder
pedals so as to create about half a ball
deflection, while asking them to concentrate on how their weight is distributed
on their bodies, and especially how their
shoulders might be leaning left or right.
Most students immediately recognize
even this slight deflection and often
express surprise at how they have never
noticed their shoulders leaning during
an uncoordinated turn. I then encourage
them to play with the rudder pedals to
see how sensitive they can get to lack of
coordination. While they are doing this,
I call out the ball position, to give them a
measure as to how coordinated or uncoordinated their turn is.
Once the coordinated turn is nailed,
we step up the game. I verbally coach
them through the necessary angle of bank
and pitch to hold a level steep turn, then
ask them to fix in their memory what the
sight picture looks like out the window. Of
course, they have been looking only at this
the whole time, so all they have to do is
memorize what they are seeing. Once we
have this in one direction, we try it in the
other direction. With side-by-side seating,
the sight picture will be a little different.
Once they have established this, I then
ask them to do steep turns left and right.
Amazingly, many students will immediately complete both left and right steep
turns while remaining within private/
commercial checkride standards. In many
cases their turns will be to tighter bank,
altitude, and heading tolerances than they
ever did before, even though they are now
wearing the Figgles and can't see any of
the instruments.
We then remove the Figgles and the
student does a few more steep turns, again
concentrating on looking outside the airplane. Often, they revert to focusing mostly
on the instruments. As soon as they do,
their performance suffers, and they see it.
This encourages them to move their focus
back outside the airplane and just steal an
occasional glance at the instruments to
ensure everything is where it should be.
LOOKING LEFT AND RIGHT
Learning to fly the airplane visually doesn't
involve just looking out the windshield
to determine pitch and roll. With the
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Flight Training - January/February 2021

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