Page 6.55 ( 13104)
Thirteen
More Training Articles
Return to whittsflying
Home Page
Training
Program Features;
Little
Things that Make a Better Pilot;
Why
Airplane Pilots Sit on the Left Side;...Student
and Instructor Samples; ...Spins
are a Stall Fear Cure;....Pattern
Spins; ...The Value of a Failure;
...Checkouts;
Acquiring
the Joys of Practice; ...The Joy
of Practice; ... Looking
at Problems
Safety is
Made of Little Things;
Gadgets
Need Not Be Expensive;
The Economics of
Emotions; ...Altitude; ...
Training Program
Features
I make a practice of having prospective students come to
my home (office) for a couple of hours to discuss flying. I request that a student arrive on time with a tape recorder.
Few people today are being taught that being late for an appointment is a sign
of disrespect. Too much information is covered to be remembered, otherwise.
We begin by discussing their needs, motivation, prior experience,
requirements, and background. Sometimes, the specific future flying plans of the a student
requires somewhat different instruction. I advise getting
any insurance and appropriate flight medical before beginning
training or making any purchases.
A student is not expected to know much in the beginning. Often
a little bit of knowledge can make the situation more difficult.
As an instructor, I will ask many questions. It is not my intention
to demean the student. I need to find out the student's limits
of knowledge. I need to know what you don't know. When I get
a wrong answer, it probably means that I asked the wrong question. A major part of teaching is
knowing the question to ask that will enable the student
to identify the upper limit of his knowledge. The correct question
and answer combination leaves the student with a
sense of accomplishment. It allows the instructor room for further
extension of that knowledge. Questions are a learning/teaching
tool.
The study process is just beginning with the completion of traditional
ground and flight readings. The initial information package is
just the foundation upon which to build. I set up a flight and
study program according to the situation as I
see it. I explain how the success of any teaching I may do depends
on their background. The better the student understands the value
and necessity of the study program, the more likely I will find
a well-prepared student for
each flight.
Thanks to the use of the tape recorder much greater instructional
efficiency can be obtained. More time can be spent
on the ground both in preparation for the flight and in flight
review. The student knows that the information is available
for review. The tape recorder in the air gives the student an
opportunity to re-fly the exercise. The student will hear directions
over the intercom system that he responded to without thinking.
Things will be said on the radio tape that
never reached his consciousness during the actual flight. It
is suggested that the student playback the tapes initially while
driving and then during study periods where notes and outlines
of information should be compiled on 4 x 6 cards or a computer
file. This information can be a valuable review program later.
Just because information is on the tape does
not mean that the instructor can assume it is understood and
capable of being applied.
I am now (2004) using a digital recorder to record all ground and flight instruction. This allows me to play the voice back on my computer while I take notes to see what I think I taught. I ask the student to do the same so we can compare what he thought he learned with what I thought I taught. Interesting results.
The best time to begin flying lessons is in the late fall. This
is the time of the year when weather will allow development
of go/no-go judgment in the student. It also allows the exposure
of the student to SVFR (Special Visual Flight Rules)
and other adverse weather under the guidance of the instructor.
Weather will help determine the spacing of instruction. Cross
country flight conditions will provide a desirable mix of winds
and weather. Night flight requirements can be met well before
midnight. By late spring the student should finish his requirements
and complete the flight test just in time for the good weather
of summer. The summer is used to develop hours and experience.
By winter, selective flying can continue secured by the knowledge
acquired the previous year. Too many students give up flying
when faced with
winter weather unlike any they experienced during a summer of
instruction.
In recent years the "total immersion" method of flight
instruction has come into vogue as an efficiency/cost saving
mechanism. It works, at a cost in experience. A certain amount
of seasoning experience that is acquired by
extending the instruction over varying weather conditions is
lost by such concentration.
Compressed training both
in ground and flight training makes it possible to produce an
educated fool who flies. I would like my students to
grow in experience by enjoying flying. As a pilot advances up
the flying ladder, he will find that ratings and knowledge
are expected but experience is preferred. Experience is an unpleasant
teacher since it gives the test first and the lesson afterwards.
The ideal is any teaching program is a plan that gives maximum
positive transfer of a selected learning skill to a progression
of tasks with a minimum of interference between skills learned
in separate tasks. What this means is
that the making of 30-degree banks in basic flight maneuvers in level,
climbing, and descent will be applied to the traffic
pattern as they are performed with variations in flap configuration.
This is a complex process where the instructor
and student are seeking consistency, smoothness, anticipation,
and safety awareness.
Instructors begin to customize of their training program before
the first flight. For the individual's motivation,
background and time the instructor must invent different way
to present ground, flight and post flight instruction.
The instructor's program should expose the student with the full
field of required knowledge but familiarize him
with the local situation. The very first flight lesson must have
planned objectives both immediate and of longer
range. The student must be aware of the immediate and perhaps
of the longer range ones as well. The best way
to waste the time and money devoted to flying is to not know
what is to be accomplished. Every lesson has stated
or written objectives and measurable results. A properly integrated
flight/ground program will bring the student to
the airplane prepared for that lesson, expectant of a partial
review and eager to be prepared for the next flight.
I often believe I became a flight instructor to get even. Much
of my own instruction was excessively wasteful of time
and money. A student is under considerable physical and emotional
stress when learning to fly. If cost is contributing
to the student's stress, it would be best to stop flying until
funds are acquired. Learning to fly is expensive, and no
amount of anxiety is going to change the cost. Don't waste time
trying to change things that can't be changed. Use
of the correct terminology is an essential part of flying. Vocabulary
development is a must. An instructor must be a
good at making any explanation fit into the student's level of
comprehension. The best explanations take place on the ground;
the best demonstrations take place in the air.
There are only two types of flight instructors; those who are
trying to get out of instructing and those who are trying
to stay in instructing. I am trying to remain an instructor because
I see a need. The treasure of valuable experience, required of
an instructor, can only be built up by operational time. Unfortunately,
it is time that causes a reduction in experienced instructors.
Little Things
That Make a Better Pilot
Preflight:
Opening both doors to the aircraft. Drain the left wing sump
and put cup and oil rag on seat so that it will be available
when you get to the other side. You don't need to carry them
all around the aircraft.
Don't pour the gasoline in one spot on the tarmac. By giving
it a flip downwind it will evaporate in seconds.
Note setting of trim wheel and then trim tab. Discuss the effect
that the trim setting could have had on the resulting
landing. For a C-172 the trim setting tells a great deal about
the aircraft loading during the last landing.
Avoid being all ready to start the airplane, only to find that
the key cannot be retrieved from the front pocket without getting
out of the plane. Put key on floor in front of seat.
Preset seat and block into position to protect against unexpected
seat movement.
Carry your pre-flight checklist hanging from the bottom on a
necklace. It allows you to have both hand free
and is readily available just by looking down.
Break oil cap loose with left hand but remove with your right.
If you clean off oil between thumb and forefinger of
the left hand you can wash oil off when you pull engine sump
strainer. Propeller makes nice place to hang dip-stick
while adding oil. Be careful.
Discover the reality of P-factor by noting the horizontal propeller
blade angles as tail is lowered to the ground. It
makes clear the different control inputs required for left and
right climbing turns.
Rolling the tires 30-40 inches is a required procedure in preflight.
Bald is beautiful only on flight instructors. At what
point is a tire unsafe for flight? Get tires across cable, if
any, to reduce initial rolling power required to taxi.
Use overflow tube to demonstrate the wastefulness of having full
fuel tanks in an airplane that is going to sit in the sun. Present
real time airborne vs. POH figures.
Starting and taxiing
Verbalize all clearing as well as a swivel neck on the ground
and in the air. The life you save may be your own.
Make all yoke movements using one finger and the thumb. If you
need more than two fingers you're doing something wrong. Remember,
the yoke moves both back and up.
Make learning to taxi a priority. Begin by explaining/knowing
how rudder/nose gear geometry is configured. No
brakes except for sharp turns and stopping. Make some 360s to
headings then add yoke positions 90 degrees at
a time. The first clue to a competent pilot is the way he taxies
Control check uses 'thumbs up'. Thumb always points to up-aileron.
Turn head to check that other aileron is down
before reversing control.
Teach/make throttle control movements with forefinger as a measure.
From 800 rpm to 1700 rpm is one fingernail
length. Practice until you can do it every time without looking.
Learn the sound and feel of every power setting.
It is not enough to clear final going from the runup area to
the runway. Turn enough to protect yourself from an
aircraft on close-in base.
When taxiing on a runway, always taxi far to one side. This makes
the runway still useable by and aircraft having an emergency.
Takeoff and Climb
Except for x-winds, get the nose wheel off the ground and let
the airplane fly itself off the runway. Don't force a
takeoff. Note the nose attitude that gets you airborne at 60
knots will just touch the end of the runway. Pre-plan
heading to be used for any x-wind runway alignment and options
selected for engine failure on takeoff.
Look back at runway above 300' to confirm that you are aligned
and not drifting over adjacent runway. Make ten-degree cut away from adjacent runways at the departure end of
the runway.
Trim for hands-off climb, not within the range of speeds given
in the POH, but on an exact Va speed. Practice
holding that speed while moving the trim through its full range
of movement. Lock your elbow against the door
panel to do this. If you ever fly with some out-of-trim yoke
pressure a distraction will create a problem.
Use climb-out as practice time for Dutch rolls. It helps you
clear the flight path and gives x-wind skills you will need
for landing.
Always make your first airwork turn to the left. Any following
traffic should be passing to your right. Fly at altitudes
other than even thousands or five-hundreds when within 3000'
of the ground. Select your area to be clear of
common air routes and airways.
Practice left/right climbing turns only at 30 degree bank. Take
feet off rudder during entry and while in left climbing
turns. Note that ball stays centered. P-factor. Practice using
the right rudder to come out of a left turn with very little
aileron. Practice making right climbing turns using right rudder
for your entry. Note that at 30 degrees of right bank
your yoke is held as though in a left turn. To level wings from
a right climbing turn relax on the right rudder and use
the aileron.
Level Flight
While the initial standard may be lower, you should perform all
maneuvers toward a student goal of 5-5-50. This
means within five degrees of heading, five knots of airspeed
and fifty feet of altitude. Pilots 2-2-20
Level aircraft using wingtip and horizon then hold nose in position
while trimming. Don't reduce power until you have reached level
cruise speed. Let go of yoke and watch the nose. Any rise or
fall of the nose is indicative of improper
trim setting. Position nose again and re-trim until nose holds
level flight. Put hands up by windshield. Nose should go down.
Place hands overhead behind you. Nose should go up. Only way
to fly.
Put aircraft into 30 degree bank and trim nose-up half a turn.
Let go yoke and use rudder to keep angle of bank. Aircraft should be able to maintain altitude and bank without
your touching yoke. Left or right no difference. This
ability is designed into the aircraft. Aircraft will attempt
to level itself at less than 30- degrees of bank. Aircraft will
attempt to roll on over at more than 30 degrees of bank. Knowing
the how to use the inherent stability of the aircraft makes flying
safer. Practice.
Work on 30 degree banks with 90 degree turns continuously alternating
from left to right. Always clear when the
wing is above the horizon. Lead recovery by 15 degrees and try
to get bank reversals to occur on selected headings.
Work on leaning procedure every time you level off. It should
be done at any level flight altitude. Make use of
mixture as common as use of carburetor heat. Just don't get the
two crossed up.
Make going to slow-flight a matter of time. Learn to have the
aircraft transition from level cruise to hands-off slow-flight in a matter of seconds. Any such transition can be done
in half the normal time you usually take with practice.
Time how long it takes you. Now, work to cut it in half. Works.
Apply flaps without looking at flap indicator. Use 3-4 count
for every ten degrees of extension. Air loads speed up retraction
so use different count. Practice milking up flaps on ground before
doing so in the air.
At altitude, make opportunities to fly minimum controllable.
The true test of flying skill is finding your own lower speed
limits and knowing what it takes to maneuver when there.
Why
Airplane Pilots Sit on the Left Side
Does not explain why students land on the left side. Students land on the
left side
because they fail to add right rudder as they raise the nose in the round-out
and flare. (Finally recognized in 2001 while flying a Beech Skipper.)
Behind many of the things we do in flying lies a long history.
This often dates well before flying. Have you ever
wondered why left patterns are standard? Before airplanes and
cars, men rode horses. Most people are right
handed. As a matter of good practice weapons were carried on
the right side and kept available to the right hand.
Since it was always desirable to keep the right hand and weapon
available, horses were mounted from the left side
using the left hand for lift by pulling on the saddle horn. To
keep the right hand free from attack on the narrow roads
of England they rode on the left side of the track. This forced
brigands to cross an open space. This also kept the
right hand available for for attack or defense against oncoming
travelers. I have not yet found the logic for why the Americans
drive on the right side.
By happenstance, the military cavalry was the least dogmatic
of the services in all countries. When the military adopted
the airplane, the cavalry was the natural choice for pilot selection.
The cavalry looked upon the airplane as another
mode of transportation like the horse. Best to be mounted from
the left as by habit. Early cavalrymen nee' pilots were even
required to wear spurs while flying. Did I really say the least dogmatic of
the services?
You will need to search old film very hard to see an old time
aircraft being mounted from the right by the pilot. I have never
seen such. In fact, most passengers mounted from the left. When
aircraft were designed for side by side seating,
the pilot in command (captain) sat on the left. The preferred
pattern direction was left because that gave the pilot better
visibility. By convention the standard traffic pattern is now
to the left.
Student and
Instructor Samples
The nature of certainty
In my careers as a school teacher and flight instructor I have
discerned some student classifications that appear
universal. There are students who make things happen; there are
students who watch things happen; and, there are students who
wonder what happened.
Flying is not a good place for the last category student. To
the extent that a student is not self-prepared or tutored
into a lesson or maneuver it will be a constant state of wonderment.
It is a fortunate student who has sufficient
awareness to recognize his state of wonderment as a requirement
for a series of questions. The wondering student
needs to study learn and question his way out of that wondering
state. This can best be done by having comprehensive study materials
and a question/answer forum such as recreation.aviation.student
on the internet. Just studying for
the test is NOT the way to go.
In some flight situation there is value in watching, but only
if you are knowing what to watch. In making turns, you are watching
the horizon and the nose relationship. In fact, most maneuvers
require that you watch what is happening to
the nose in relation to the horizon. The sooner these relationships
are imprinted in your visual perception the better. Keeping it
there is the next step of the watching process. The ingrained
desire to 'see' below the nose must be
overcome if the 'watching' student expects to benefit when he
moves into the 'makes things happen' phase.
The best phase of learning and instruction in flying is the process
of making things happen. This 'making' includes
mistakes. The opportunity to make your own mistakes is of major
importance. The opportunity to do something
correctly is nice but the making of a mistake is a learning experience
of unequaled value. Recognition of a mistake
is part of the learning experience. A spiral descent is an example
as is a wing drop during a stall. The process of
making things happen either correctly or incorrectly is not totally
up to the student. The instructor creates situations
as learning experiences. Distractions for example. The instructor
who allows a student to perpetuate an unsafe
procedure is incompetent at least in that area.
There are teacher (instructors) who from even limited experience
seem to be all-knowing about all things. There is considerably
more to instructing than just being able to fly the plane through
a particular maneuver. The 'watching'
student will partially benefit but the instructions must include
where to look and for what. If this where to look and
for what was not included in the pre-lesson overview then it
occurs in the cockpit. The cockpit is a relatively poor
place to provide instruction. The poorest examples of such instruction
I have noted over the years is when the
instructor accepts and perpetuates a student's perception of
safety when it is less than the optimum. An example is
when a recent private pilot flew me four miles from takeoff before
reaching 1000' AGL. She wanted to see where
she was going. All turns were at 15 degree banks or less so she
could see under the wing better. (C-150) We only
made one flight. She went with an instructor who accepted her
way of doing things. Not the first time for me nor
the last.
Poor instruction is perpetuated but so is good instruction. The
normal tendency is for the instructor to teach the way
he was taught. I once knew a flight instructor who perpetuated
three 'generations' of flight instructors whose students consistently
failed to flare to keep the nose wheel from making initial contact.
Numerous collapsed nose struts and propeller strikes were the
result of this one 'old-timer'. The students loved these instructors
because they could always
see the runway on landing. The maintenance shops always recommended
these instructors. The more the teacher (instructor) knows the
less certain he is that there is only one 'correct' (profitable)
solution for any performance.
Advice can be right, wrong, conditional, dangerous, incomplete,
misleading, universal, or limited in scope and
application. Giving dangerous advice, even with a disclaimer
is quite hazardous when the recipient has no way to discriminate
or associate the advice in a meaningful context. Giving wrong
advice can lead to fatal results when
associated with flying. If in the giving of advice, you must
include a disclaimer of any sort, it is better to refrain or
at least to pose it as a question.
As a teacher, I was not given to meaningless praise or reward.
As a flight instructor, I judge the lesson by knowledge applied,
improvement observed, and satisfaction achieved. The achievement
of normal expectations is viewed as acceptable but not deserving
of profuse adulation. Only when my retarded students did beyond
the usual were they praised. Praise, thus achieved value by not
being a throw-away for everyone. My gifted students were always
faced
with ever higher expectations. My standards were once compared
with an ever extending extension ladder. One of
my many weaknesses as a flight instructor is an unwillingness
to accept from a pilot or a student less than their highest
level of performance. Close is accepted only when accompanied
by significant improvement. It is a poor student that
does not exceed his teacher.
Once read, that every advance by mankind has been achieved by
laziness. I hate to see students preflighting
inefficiently. I believe that flying correctly is the easiest
way to fly. Every maneuver can be either easy or hard
depending on how 'lazy' the pilot has been in knowing how to
make it 'easy'. I cringe when a pilot works too
hard at flying. Flying is easy only when it is efficient and
I don't mean using an autopilot.
If you are a student who has a death-grip on the yoke, you are
working too hard. You will fly better by learning to
trim and let go. Most any airplane can be flown quite well without
touching the yoke. Use the rudder. A well trimmed plane can be
made to climb or descend slightly, just by nodding the head.
try it. I used to call trim the power steering
of flight. I was corrected in r.a.s. into calling it cruise control.
Knowing what to do and when to do it allows the
lightness on the controls that makes flying easy. Even talking
on the radio can be made easy. To talk effectively, you
must know where you are or will be when you plan to talk. You
will give your altitude as an additional warning to
other aircraft. You will rehearse to eliminate unnecessary verbiage
and eliminate pauses and punctuation. All the
rest is 'canned', in the same informational sequence for every
ATC situation. Additional information by the pilot
beyond the minimum shows the extent to which the assertive pilot
is in command. You must know enough to protect yourself from
ATC mistakes.
Do you think that many people of this type of ability stick out
the 'failing to achieve' that must come to them with
flight training? That makes me wonder about your '250 feet per
mile, ROC' student. First, I am worried that this
girl could ever have been certified (to fly, that is!). Secondly,
I wonder if there is not a method that you have found
in your years teaching, to show people who think they are doing
OK, that there is a better or safer way? Did this
person present a rational argument for what she was doing? I
assume if "seeing where she was going" was it, that
SHOULDN'T be too difficult to talk her out of, on the ground,
even!?!? Or would she just not accept information
from you? that WOULD be a problem, for all pilots, not only you
as the instructor.
Gene's response:
"Pupils don't fail, instructors do."
--As for poor instruction being perpetuated, I have seen the
same thing happen.....to the point where I lost a friend,
and he took a student with him while trying to perform an aerobatic
show for his visiting parents. My question
though, relates to the story of yours, and to the second "type
3" student I mentioned earlier. She was on her first
solo cross-country, she got 'kinda' lost and upon her return
to the field, (a 2000' strip) made a particularly bad
landing and porpoised the nose-wheel into a "STAR".
She quit flying that day. Do people not lose confidence,
maybe to the point of quitting, when they continually screw something
up? When people become more experienced,
theirs skills more finely tuned....do they not understand from
the A&P's bills, if nothing else that they are messing up?
or is this a type 3 that wouldn't realize?
Gene's response:
"Another instructor problem".
--You also mention the exchange of advice/ information, particularly
in a forum such as rec. aviation.student. I have
made several posts in the group (not many as my time is very
limited) in response to questions/ comments posed
by others. On one occasion, it turned out that I had given information
that had actually been superseded. Now, I
always give the best advice I can, if that is what is asked for.
I say that it is 'advice' or 'my opinion' as in the recent
debate I had with several people from the group on the subject
of 'prop-stopped' forced landings to the ground. I
still believe that this practice holds far too much "unnecessary
risk" and would never teach that to a student pilot.
That is not to say that, with the circumstances the other person
gave, I would not try it, but I have never felt the
need or had the will to try it, as yet. If I give 'information'
as was the case I mentioned earlier, then I say that's
what it is and include no disclaimer. My question here would
be, is it not better that I posted a response to be
corrected by somebody with more recent information, than to ignore
the subject? If I had not posted, *I* would
not know any better,"
Gene's response:
"Would not a personal response rather than a posting avoid the
problem?"
--I am not a student pilot, but will always be a student. I learned
something, too! That brings me quite neatly to the
one thing you said that I must disagree with. "It is a poor
student that does not exceed his teacher." I have an 'old'
friend who is the most experienced all-round pilot I have ever
met (or even heard about), and I used to enjoy sitting around
'hangar flying' during my CFI prep. One of the things we agreed
on was that the day you fly and do not learn something about
flying, you should quit. In short, the same applies, the day
I learn nothing will be the day I die. That
is why I have to say, Gene, I think more appropriately, I believe
it would be a poor instructor that allows his student
to surpass, or exceed him.
Gene's response:
"The comment is a tongue-in-cheek statement with enough truth
in it to defend. The highest level of learning is to benefit
from the mistakes of those who have gone before. The increased
safety of flying is a statement to the fact that today's students
and pilots are better."
--I agree whole-heartedly with your views on praise and over-praising.
The extending ladder is a nice way to look
at it! Unfortunately, I think that one of my own major faults
is laziness. I agree that doing things 'right' is the easiest
way, but I personally, find myself doing only what needs to be
done to achieve a particular standard as opposed to
doing everything to my best ability, all the time. This particularly
aggravates me about myself, yet I still do not change,
I think out of laziness????
Gene's response:
"Old age is still another excuse for laziness."
--To add to your last paragraph about 'ease of doing right',
for example, talking on the radio. Obviously one must
know what to say and when to say it, this we can teach. What
we cannot teach, unfortunately, is the confidence one
gains from 'getting it right'. In my experience, this confidence
has helped me improve in other areas even more than continual
input from another would have. What does this mean????? ;0)
Gene's response:
"The educational law of primacy rules."
Spins
are a Stall-Fear Cure
SPINS WERE A ONE TIME THING IN 1914
An unheralded aviation pioneer is, British scientist, F. A. Lindemann.
"The Prof", as he was known, led a very
checkered scientific and social career from early WWI through
WWII. He was an "idea man" and advisor to
Churchill for thirty years. He was a social butterfly and a boastful
scientific gadfly in the opinion of more capable
scientists. However, his place in history could well lie in aviation
and you never heard of him?
Born of German/American parents, he spoke heavily accented mumbled
English. He knew all the "right" British nobility and
used their influence to gain both position and prestige. In 1914
he attempted, but failed because of eyesight, to join the Royal
Flying Corps. He then used influence to join the scientific staff
of the Royal Aircraft Factory.
In 1914 the "spin" was the most dreaded unintentional
flight occurrence which resulted in accidents. More to be feared
than the more frequent landing accidents. At least, landing accidents
could be explained. Once an aircraft was in a spin there was
no way out of it. The spin turns would increase in speed until
the ultimate crash. All flight instructors warned, "Get
into a spin; get killed". Lindemann initiated a study of
the instrument readings and pilot procedures that seemed to cause
the stall/spins occurring during turns.
A letter to his father said, "Nobody can make out quite
what happened." Lindemann could find no apparent pattern
as to when a stall or a resulting spin might occur. A British
naval pilot was said to have recovered from a spin. If not known
if Lindemann used this event to develop an explanation, a theory,
about spins. While never publishing his study results, Lindemann
gave many oral accounts of his findings.
The spin frequently occurred when the aircraft stalled in other
than an absolutely level condition. If one wing dropped
any effort to raise it would cause the other wing to flip over
uncontrollably. Even at high speeds, a tight turn might
cause one wing to flip over and cause a spin. Without any flight
skills, Lindemann had worked out in theory the
probable forces which caused and existed in a spin. He also figured
out, in theory, the control movements required
to counteract these forces.
His study showed that any instinctive response would not work.
The rudder must beheld fully against the spin while
the nose was kept pointed toward the ground. You could not pull
back on the stick until the spin stopped and flying
speed was gained. His theory also seemed to indicate that during
the recovery the wings of the plane could be pulled
off. The way Lindemann used to test his theories was somewhat
akin to a medical researcher doing a self inoculation
for a deadly disease.
He insisted that further study to prove the theory required that
scientists fly. He worked through and around the bureaucracy,
used influence, memorized the eye chart for his "blind"
eye and learned to fly "poorly". One 1914 flight of
uncertain date justifies Lindemann's place in history. One Fall
day, he discussed his theories on spin recovery and the planned
experiment with observers at Farnborough Aerodrome. He would
be using a B.E.2 aircraft of most uncertain flight characteristics.
The fragile airframe was held together by a maze of wires and
struts that maximized a power off vertical speed of about 90
mph. He told them he would deliberately do a stall spin. He certainly
must have said his good-byes. He departed and climbed for many
minutes. Far below, the observers saw him reach what must have
been the B.E 2's service ceiling of 14,000 feet. They saw the
spin well before they heard the cessation of engine noise.
Lindemann now began to test his theory. He pulled the power,
slowed the plane and entered into a stall. He held the
stall until the left wing dipped and the right wing flipped up
for the spin entry. A deliberate entry into a maneuver from which
no one had previously recovered and few had survived. A maximum
test of accountability and courage.
Lindemann held the spin, intentionally or otherwise, until it
was fully established and then he initiated his unique
recovery. A planned application of control forces never before
applied. He put in full opposite rudder. Nothing
happened. He waited. Still nothing happened. He applied forward
control pressure. He had already fallen thousands
of feet with no control effect discernible. Was his theory going
to fail at this critical moment? But the rudder was
starting to have an effect. The spin was slowing and finally
stopped. From the vertical, but without the spin Lindemann now
had to complete a recovery. Survival demanded that the pull out
would not remove the wings from the fuselage. Slowly, carefully
the nose rose and as it rose the aircraft slowed thus easing
the stress on its components. The first intentional spin and
recovery. All that and survival. Enough?
One such experiment and proof would have satisfied most people,
but not Lindemann. He climbed back up to
altitude and did the spin and recovery in the other direction.
A theory twice applied and proven to be a life saver. From that day on, a pilot's education has not been deemed complete
without spin training. (Except, of course, in
the U.S. by the FAA).
The British had a military secret. It combined two of the very
best qualities of military combat. Deception and
survival. A British pilot, when out-numbered or fearing for his
life, could deliberately enter a spin. To the enemy
such a maneuver was not survivable. The Germans would circle
and wait for the inevitable crash of their 'kill'.
Imagine their chagrin, when the British plane would level out
close to the ground and scoot to safety. Indeed, the
spin was often used in WWI as a deliberate escape maneuver. I
wasn't long before the Germans discovered the deception and began
to follow spinning planes all the way to the ground. It is not
known how the Germans gained
the secret of spin recovery. Pilots are known to brag about their
flying exploits while talking flying with other pilots.
Most great aircraft flights recorded in aviation history are
about distances, speeds and kills. Why not a special "save"
category for Lindemann along with Immelman? But again, wouldn't
your entering his name into your memory and
applying his theory and practice to your own "Lindemann"
spin recovery be sufficient.
An aside: In WWII Lindemann served as Churchhill's scientific
advisor. He stood alone against all other British
scientists in his contention that the greater military potential
lay in infra-red than in radar. He lost the contest in
WWII and radar saved Britain. In 1990, Lindeman was partially
vindicated. Desert Storm would not have been
possible without infra-red. A little known man of his time and
ahead of his time.
Pattern
Spins
The main reason the FAA no longer requires spin training is because
the base to final turn is too low to make a spin recovery. The
cure is in learning to do ground reference. In ground reference
you learn to adjust your ground track
to the wind conditions.
The hazard of the base to final turn occurs when the wind is
blowing across the runway in a direction that makes you
have a tail wind on base. Drawing it out is the best way to see
what occurs.
If the pilot fails to adjust the downwind leg wider for this
crosswind and flies a normal pattern he is getting into trouble.
Most pilots do not realize the amount of information they get
from their peripheral vision. A pilot who has not flown a wider
downwind then makes a normal turn to base 30 degrees and 70 knots
is ripe for trouble. While in the turn to
base, the peripheral vision gives the sense of a significant
increase in ground speed due to the tail wind. The pilot
raises the nose to slow up. This can greatly reduce the airspeed
say as much as 20 knots.
Now, because of the closer downwind pattern, the tail wind has
made the base leg significantly shorter in time. Fearing that
he/she may overshoot the runway (worse if parallel runways) the
base to final turn is made with greater bank. This turn is often
made with excess rudder to get the nose around more quickly.
The triple combination of a relatively slow airspeed, steep bank,
and excess rudder is all it takes to initiate a spin.
Again, the root solution lies in referencing your downwind ground
track far enough from the runway to allow a longer
base leg with more time to lead the turn to final.
The
Value of a Failure
I was prompted to write the following by the ras group. I
will include it in my web site. Failure is the negative side of success. The very important lessons
of disappointment and failure while learning to fly
need not be destructive of one's ego and desire. The climate
of aviation-life focuses on success and achievement.
We are fortunate to have a -rec.aviaiton student- news group
that spends considerable time on productive analysis
of past failures. The group contains recounts of personal obstacles,
disappointments and potholes in their training and
flight experiences.
In my opinion, the way you learn to fly the airways toward becoming
a pilot is just as important getting there. Failure
is an important teacher. Taking the easy way will not build the
pilot character needed to overcome obstacles. The
'no trim' Cessna way of learning to fly is a case in point. The
lessons learned in overcoming obstacles are those best remembered.
The conquering of numerous failures as we all have done in learning
landings is an attitude and character builder. Failures contain
their own destruction by offering us opportunities. We do not
need to avoid the making of a mistake so much as we do to avoid
making the same mistake over again.
Flying lessons are expensive. Those who read the advice offered
in -rec.aviation student- are finding that one way to
learn best how to overcome expensive difficulties is from the
sharing of experiences. I have recently read as many as
ten or twelve different opinions offered a student about overcoming
a problem. I disagreed with a good number of
those opinions. I refrained from entering the fray because I
am becoming more accepting of giving the student other optional
routes to try. As I learned when I failed that CFI employment
checkride, there is a way to fly without using
trim.
In flying, it is too expensive to learn your skills by making
every possible mistake for yourself. This is the longest and
hardest path to learn. You can overcome the paralyzing effects
of a failure by turning the existing uncertainty into an opportunity.
Learning to fly is not a very long straight line of progress.
There are pauses, regressions, and sidesteps. Do not enter into
flying with the expectation that you will not experience failure.
You will!
There are very few risk free decisions in learning to fly. Along
with every risk is an opportunity. Learning to fly is a massive
life-style change. You are positioning yourself to be vulnerable
to the performance of mistakes. Participation in -rec.aviation.student-
will help you accept and understand how others have dealt with
their vulnerability. Knowing that others have experienced failure
will make you more accepting of your own mistakes.
By maintaining your desire and interest you will embrace and
appreciate the learning opportunities ahead. Working through
mistakes while learning to fly makes what you achieve acquire
more value. You will learn to look beyond past bad experiences
but even more you will look for things to learn from this dark
side. Thus, your failures give you the character qualities that
let you function through and beyond them. As I recently told
a young man who had just lost his girlfriend, "Look at it
as an opportunity." He did.
Checkouts
What the airlines call transition training, General aviation
calls a checkout. It is unfortunate that all the lesson learned
by the airlines and the military in training pilots to fly different
aircraft has not carried over into G.A. What is involved
is using previous basic skills of flying in one type of aircraft,
a trainer, and fitting those skills and habits into a different
aircraft.
The transition of habits and skills from one aircraft to another
is not as straight forward as it might seem. To some
degree it is similar to transferring your driving skills from
one car to another of different manufacture, size, and performance.
You are going to need to blend existing habits into a new and
somewhat different sequence. You are
going to need to learn the sounds, the controls and aircraft
sensitivity. Some planes are quicker than others; not necessarily
faster just more sensitive and slicker. How much you anticipate
what comes next will require a change in perception, timing.
and even personality.
It has always been my objective in transitional training to train
my pilots to utilize the best performance capabilities of
the aircraft. I cannot accept a pilot who habitually slows a
Bonanza to C-172 speeds for airport arrivals. This is a
tragic waste of performance capability. The basic proficiency
level acquired in a trainer will no longer satisfy the
needs of the next level aircraft. Not only do things happen faster,
they happen differently. The acceleration time from
climb to cruise changes. The number of cockpit adjustments change
for each configuration change. You have more
things to do and less time to do it in.
When you first see a new aircraft type you have enhanced expectations
and apprehensions. Initially, your confidence
level will need readjustment. What you know and what you think
you know are going to be recycled into a new
learning curve. You must enter into a transition with the expectation
that the making of mistakes. Initially, you will
make mistakes but with frequency of practice your ability to
anticipate will improve and eliminate them. How well
you perform IS related to your basic training and the skills
acquired.
The pilot who's basic training included the entire gamut from
throttle control, taxi skill, yoke finger touch, radio use, situational
awareness, and care of the aircraft is going to transition sooner
and better. All of these factors will need
further refinement and development to best fit into the requirements
of the new aircraft.
How well you fly a new aircraft will depend upon your existing
level of training and skill, your level of information
retention and how well you reactivate prior instruction. Under
stress every pilot can be expected to revert back to
first learned techniques. Ideally, there will be sufficient similarity
between what you are doing and are expected to
do that there will be no conflict of old habits and new training.
One should complement the other. Otherwise,
considerable unlearning and relearning conflict will exist. The
best course, although not always the most practical,
is to make a clean break from the old to the new. This will minimize
any reversion back to old habits. Experience is
not always an advantage.
The first ten hours in type are the most hazardous. It has always
been my desire to have my pilots get those first ten
hours as quickly and possible. Good checkout/transitional training
will expose the trainee to a full gamut of airports,
winds, and terrain. The rudimentary 'one flight checkout' will
not suffice in today's complex aviation environment. Poor checkouts
cause aircraft damage and potentially accidents. Instructors
should be accountable for those they 'checkout'.
Acquiring
the Joys of Practice
The human brain is a bio-computer that has a variety of learning
and memory processes. The biology of the brain in
data recognition and recall present a very close similarity to
computer activity. The new science of computer learning
has found more effective ways of learning, improving and mastering
complex activities such as flying. Even the old
pilot can benefit by acquiring new and effective ways to fly.
We can all improve our practice activities in such a way
to learn better and fly more efficiently while learning. If you
have ever watched the aerobatic pilots walk and turn with arms
as wings as they rehearse, visualize and practice their routine
you will understand what I mean.
Before you go out to practice do some light aerobics that will
get the juices flowing. Walk briskly through the maneuvers you
are about to perform. The small muscles of the body need warming
up just as much as do the large ones. I suggest that you talk
to every old pilot that you can. Ask them what they would have
done differently to assure their physical well being.
Some of the more difficult flight maneuvers that become repetitious
or boring should be limited to ten minute sessions
or four repeats. To do otherwise puts the practice into the realm
where the student's subconscious will be activated
into resistance. The more disturbing the maneuver the more limited
should be the practice time. I limit beginning Dutch
roll practice to about two minutes during climbout. Usually,
by five such sessions the Dutch roll falls into place.
Effective flying practice or study is going to be seriously affected
if you are tired, upset, distracted or angry. Studies
have shown that you lose 30% of your reasoning ability when suffering
from any of these. Flying is too expensive to
fly under these conditions. Time spent studying is mostly wasted.
Find something else to do. Don't even fly. Find something to
do that will bring the negative condition(s) under control. Cut
the session in half if there is no alternative.
Five minutes per activity and then a break.
The physical and emotional well being of the practicing pilot
is of greater importance than the condition of the aircraft
and weather. Pilot ability to make safe judgmental decisions
determines the successful outcome of a maneuver. The
effects of distractions in study or flying practice are easily
amplified by emotional and physical conditions. An angry or depressed
pilot is not going to perform well. Being upset lowers your intelligence
level. Behavior becomes emotional rather than rational. Don't
fly if you have something else on your mind.
Education, or more accurately the application of learning theory,
has shown that the two brain hemispheres have distinct functions
in our lives. The left brain side would have everything in an
orderly row, without emotion, the source of logic, and broad
knowledge. This is where we do our reading, rehearsing, and repetitive
exercises. On the other side, the right side, we have our feelings,
our intuition, our creativity and spontaneity. We use the right
side as our memory bank and source of originality.
Flying is primarily a left brain situation. Maneuvers, and basic
skills are primarily referenced by what we see. Effective practice
doing any complex skill requires that we have brief periods of
alternation between the brain halves. While the doing of a maneuver
is left brain, the preparation and analysis is a right brain
thing. Doing this alleviates fatigue and will dramatically improve
learning. Properly organized, alternating the brain sides will
increase enjoyment, comprehension,
and performance. There will be less time for boredom or wasted
time.
You should always prepare for your flight at home and still again
before you get into the cockpit. Inside the cockpit
you should brief aloud, by walking through or drawing the more
difficult maneuvers or operations that you expect to perform.
IFR activities are done for courses, altitudes, radios, radio
communications procedures and sequences as
they supposed to occur. Highlight the charts if applicable.
When you fly a maneuver it is assumed that memorization has a
part in how you do it. Memorization has to do with
the way you use the yoke, apply power, and watch the instruments.
One way to heighten your sensitivity to a
maneuver is to do it with your eyes closed. (With a safety pilot,
of course)
Closing your eyes increases the acuteness of your hearing, sensitizes
your touch and you have
given your right brain hemisphere dominance. By shutting down
the major left brain visual information source the right brain
compensates by improving the other senses. When you want to improve
your overall visualization of a maneuver close your eyes and
you will hear and feel more than you believe possible. What you
see during a maneuver is of major importance but there are other
senses waiting in the wings.
Alternating the activity between the right/left brain allows
you to shift intensity and review several times during a flight
lesson. It is expected that you will repeat a specific activity
up to three times during a session but then break off to
another activity. Repeat these changes as planned for the most
efficient use of allotted time. Should time run short,
cover everything planned only for less time. Pick up the missed
time at the next flight.
It will help both your studying and flying if you find out if
your body temperature is highest at a particular time of the
day. This high temperature period of about four hours is the
best time for you to study and fly. Your learning and remembering
will be twice as effective during these times as during other
periods. It can be just as useful to learn
when your temperature is lowest.
Every training flight must be balanced between flying and practice
and right brain or left brain activities. The entire ground/flight
session should comprehensively include the following:
1. Briefing of the session for a minimum of 10 minutes for the
right brain.
2. A walk-through for 20 minutes of headings, altitudes, and
changes for the left brain.
3. A departure to the practice area and getting into position
for the right brain.
4. Begin the practice of flight maneuvers for 20 minutes for
the left brain.
5. Take a break and do flight maneuvers for 10 minutes for the
right brain.
6. Hit the intense practice again for 10 minutes for the left
brain.
7. Head for home for 10 minutes of right-brain review of skills.
Every pilot preparing for a checkride knows that there is a marked
difference in stress, preparation and attitude
from other lessons. A form of stage fright or other sensitivity
related stress will affect your approach to a checkride. The underlying situation is you become more concerned with what
the DE thinks of you as opposed to what he
may think of your flying. Fact is,
the DE is looking at your flying and how you use your flying
skills to solve the
situations that arise. The pilot is the agent but the DE is observing
the outcome. The pilot is communicating to the
DE via performance. However, you
will do much better in your performance emotionally and technically
if you do
what you do to your own satisfaction. The better you please yourself
the better will the DE be pleased. By using
creative imagery during the weeks of practice before the checkride
you can simulate flight situations you can expect
to come during the ride. Don't waste
time 'flying' that should be spent practicing. Arrange to fly
with pilots who
simulate DE behavior.
When you go on a flight to practice you should have available
a 'Practice Checklist'. Any session not covering these questions
falls short of being a desirable practice.
1. I want to be smooth and patient on maneuver entry.
2. I have timed the elements of a maneuver in sequence?
3. I am established on heading and altitude for my maneuver entry?
4. I have really briefed the steps in the maneuver?
5. I have arranged my practice to vary right and left brain elements?
6. I have briefed the most difficult elements of each maneuver?
7. The flight lesson is a balance between flying review and concentrated
practice?
8. No maneuver series should be over 20 minutes.
9. The practice part of the lesson IS going to be enjoyable?
10. I have written down my attainable flight parameters?
11. I have sorted out the parts that need more work than others?
12. I have visualized and walked through what I am going to do?
13. I have reviewed any mental or emotional blocks?
14. I AM going to enjoy the flight lesson practice anyway?
A serious flying student must be able to allocate a study time
and situation that is removed from distraction and interference.
You cannot study with TV or radio on no matter what you may think.
Study space temperature should
be on the cool side with fresh air flowing.
The Joy
of Practice
All of our lives we have been told to practice. This tome presumes
to show how to practice. Though teaching has not changed much
in thousands of years, just recently we have found ways to learn
faster, easier and more permanently
than in the past 100 years. The brain is the model for the computer.
We can impart humanity into our computers by knowing how the
brain functions. Computer scientists, educators and others have
been using recent studies on the
brain for new ideas for improving learning. Our bio-computer
works like any other computer. The more we know
about how human learning takes place, the better we can organize
our flying sessions. Flying sessions usually consist,
to a considerable extent of practice or practicing.
This subject of how to practice cuts across all styles of flying,
levels of experience and ability, as well as age, sex and race.
Practice requires careful planning to make use of the new and
effective ways to improve your chances of success and professional
opportunities in today's world of flying, regardless of the type
of flying you do. Already our world is seeing the results of
some of this new wave of young, precocious flyers, performing
way beyond their years.
As an older pilot who is also a teacher the new technology has
proven that you can teach old dogs new tricks. If the
older pilot is willing to adapt the new to change the old then
remarkable progress is possible. Many newer discoveries regarding
aging and the brain have also been replacing past presumptions
that the old are incapable. As an older
instructor I find that my services are much in demand. The airlines
are finding that the age 60 ceiling is becoming a blockage of
the smooth transferal of flying knowledge. We have a generation
of new pilots who have not been
seasoned well nor acquainted with the tradition of practice as
it has existed in the past history of aviation.
Practice has almost never been considered as an essential learning/teaching
element of one's flying education. Yet, if
a student does not get the opportunity, for whatever reason,
to practice in the most efficient and effective manner he
will fail. One of the primary keys to flying success is knowing
how to practice. Curiously, there are few books on the subject
of practice. Most failures are blamed upon time, finances, circumstances
or you name it. Fortunately today,
as a by result of extensive brain research, we have acquired
new knowledge on memory, motivation, concentration, memory, muscle
memory, and other subjects related to successful practice and
practicing techniques.
As a professional, constantly searching for new and better ways
to improve my own flying skills, as well as improving
my teaching abilities, I soon discovered that I and my students
knew very little about how to practice. Until now, those
of us who are successful in teaching flying have intuitively
or accidentally stumbled into good practice habits. Those
who failed to do so, in spite of their innate sensory skills
or conscious motivation to succeed, eventually quit or failed
to reach their true potential.
I soon learned that teaching myself and my students how to practice
had become the number one priority. In fact,
one could go so far as to say that unless a pilot learns not
only how to practice, but to actually love practicing, their
odds of success in this business are minimal. The best pilots
get so enthused with practicing that they constantly
misname it by calling it 'flying'
To the true aviator, practicing is like a cook seeking to perfect
a new recipe in his kitchen. The best pilot is driven
far beyond the norm in seeking a new level breakthrough that
propels him to a new and higher level of performance.
Even after flying the Atlantic, Lindbergh was not satisfied and
went on to other significant accomplishments. Jimmy Doolittle
was a driving force in the development of the ILS and 100-octane
fuel. The best current example of an
achieving practitioner of practice is Tiger Woods. He still practices
hours a day with his coach even as the greatest
golfer in history. With his standards, he should be seeing a
little progress. Wood's practice regimen has turned golf
into a new and higher level for all players.
The pilot who is to do well must not think of getting into the
airplane as 'going flying'. Rather it must be thought of as practicing.
You may now say you love flying, more correctly you should say
you love practicing. Practice should be
the first commandment of flight training. Practice is usually
associated scholastic punishment and painful memories, particularly
as a child. My memory is of writing as a punishment; your similar
memory exists. To be a good pilot you
must learn to look forward to practicing. Practicing flying must
become an indispensable part of your life.
Name any famous pilot of the past and read some of his writings.
Ask what it was that caused him to devote his life
to flying. His most likely answer will be that he discovered
that a day of not flying it actually affected his physical
well being. It was called flying but today we have every reason
to believe it was not flying but practice. He missed
the practice that was needed to drive him to the flying perfection
that always seemed to escape. If you, as a pilot,
are finding a mental or emotional resistance to practice and
unable to determine why. It may well be because of
practice being used as punishment or in some way associated with
former unpleasantness. You may find yourself
resisting the act of practicing and not knowing why. This is
natural. The unconscious mind in us all tries to protect us
from past unpleasant experiences by suppressing them and will
go to great lengths to do so.
Studies have proven that the unconscious mind has no sense of
time. When I take a nap in a dark room I have no
idea of how long I have slept. If you repeat an action in flying
that is associated with earlier unpleasant flying
experience; you will call up the feelings associated with those
previous unpleasant experiences. You may consciously
want to practice a stall, but you may be fighting unconscious
resistance due to previous unpleasant experiences
associated with practicing other stalls. The most difficult part
of learning to fly remains unlearning early unpleasant experiences.
The student needs to be an active and honest participant in locating,
isolating, analyzing and replacing these unconscious perceptions. There are instructional techniques
that allow us to do that today.
An instructor can apply the following for immediate results in
improved flying practice techniques. The instructor should set
up the lesson to learn and practice in short, but highly concentrated
periods of no longer than fifteen minutes at a
time. Then take a short break (10 to 15 minutes). Fly to another
practice point, takeoff or put on the hood or do
some lazy-eights just for fun. Then return to your practice exercise.
Recent studies reveal that the average adult concentration span
is less than the time required for three holding patterns or
twelve minutes. Pushing an intensive
lesson past this time is counter-productive to long-term learning
and results in subconscious resistance to learning. There will be a dramatic drop in concentration after any extension
of this time especially if the exercise is all-new.
In the case of extremely difficult flying maneuvers or boring,
repetitious exercises like holding patterns, cut it to ten minutes.
By limiting the time, you slide through the subconscious negative
sensations that create resistance to learning. The intent is to make this otherwise boring, dull, depressing
flying activity incapable of activating resistance to further
study. Known painful or resistant practice exercises like steep
turns or stalls should be restricted to five consecutive minutes,
no more. Those five painful minutes can be repeated at intervals,
two to three times a flight.
Don't expect to fly well when emotionally or physically stressed,
or when you are distracted by personal or other concerns. By
keeping your intense practice sequences to five minutes or less
you reduce the probability of lasting subconscious negative resistance.
When you find your concentration wandering, let the instructor
know, ask for a for a minute or two break doing recreational
flying of your own choice. Take deep breaths when you fell the
stress and
fatigue building. It is important that you build your skill endurance
time beyond that of your practice sessions. Review,in your mind, previous flying triumphs and exciting flight experiences
that have been augmented by prior practice. Just
as you love flying, you should love practice.
I have flown several twelve hour cross-country flights and found
that fuel stops must be used to stimulate circulation
in the active body areas through massage and stretching exercises.
Never return to the aircraft without getting your
blood circulating. Most pilots will feel a lack of muscle tone
before the internal organs begin to fail. The older you are
the more important the exercises become.
A lack of proper circulation in the area of the lower body can
make getting into the aircraft and up to the fuel tanks difficult.
The whole body needs to be exercised and the tendons need to
be loosened by stretching exercises. Although the muscles and
tendons used in flying an airplane or using the radios are smaller,
they are still subject to the problems professional athletes'
face. Failure to build physical warm-ups into the beginning of
your daily practice routine could shorten your flying career.
Today, many students, instructors, DEs, and those that fly other
aircraft types, have had their professional careers cut short
because of heart, hearing, and other physiological conditions.
In most instances, these physiological, career-ending problems could have been avoided. Every young pilot should
make a point to discuss with an older pilot who
has lost his medical about what he would have done differently
if only he had known.
One of the most significant discoveries about the new learning
has been that the hemispheres of the brain function and affect
flying differently. The left hemisphere (which controls the right
side of the body) organizes thoughts in a line, unemotionally,
logically and inclusively. This is the hemisphere we rely on
most when flying or reading a map, or doing repetitive drills
and/or training exercises. The right hemisphere (which controls
the left side of the body) is emotional sensitive, reacts intuitively
and is spontaneously creative and disorganized in function. It
is this hemisphere we most rely
on when flying from memory, improvising or flying "by the
seat of our pants".
Learn to alternate left-brain skills, such as organizing ground
reference drills, planning a tracking procedure to a VOR
or flight planning a difficult weather situation with right-brain
skills, like flying by sound, by memory or improvising for
a failed instrument. For instance, do 10 to 15 minutes of simulated
chart procedures with all radio frequencies written, OBS settings,
and headings walked using the right brain. Then run through the
missed procedures using a single VOR.
By briefing the approach variations with the left brain, you
will discover that fatigue will disappear and learning will dramatically
increase. You will also enjoy flying the approach more. Inability
to teach or learn flying by alternating the hemispheres in practice
is one of the primary culprits in a student becoming bored or
feeling that you are wasting your time.
Many pilots "fly" and call it practice. We need to
do both. However, we should know the difference between the two.
Flying is reviewing something you already know, polishing up
the details. Practice is digging in, recognizing, marking, isolating
and drilling on the most difficult aspects until they fit along
with the rest of the maneuver. Flying should be a reward for
spending a few minutes of highly intensive, concentrated practice
time. You can fly for much greater lengths
of time without suffering negative feedback than you can when
practicing. Practice segments should be short, intense
and separated by rest and joy riding.
As a student, before each lesson you should have done your mental
planing, maneuver walk-throughs and technical reviews the best
ways to operate the radios and OBS. A very common radio situation
failure is recognizing that any
time you reverse direction for the first time you must reverse
the OBS at some point. Then go to the most difficult operational
sequence you are working on. Changing airspeed, aircraft conformation,
and interception of course and
slope. Highlight the most difficult precision requirements. Go
immediately to these highlighted places. Review the
sequence of headings or altitudes five to ten times, slowly and
smoothly (like slow motion) write them out. Make
sure that the sequence of altitude and airspeeds are correct.
Do this several times as a study, once again before going
to the airport, again when in the cockpit and finally as a pre-approach
briefing. Pay particular attention to the missed approach procedure.
After a few flights on other routes, practice flying the difficult
routes slowly with preparation and then again with
minimal preparation but always with a pre-approach briefing and
preview of the missed procedure. Never fly any maneuver unprepared
for the sequence of parts clearly in mind. You can keep the sequence
of headings and altitudes correct and smooth. This is called
flying "drill." Drill will do wonders in helping you
master difficult maneuvers.
At altitude you should go immediately to the most difficult maneuver sequence you are working on and drill initially on the most difficult maneuver elements then tie them together. Difficult maneuvers should be no more than four complete series in length. If the maneuver is longer, break it into two or more shorter sections. For example, a complete high altitude practice airport pattern could be so divided. Remember that practice takes more concentration. Keep practice (drill) segments short, no longer than five minutes. Always reward yourself for having the discipline to drill by flying a familiar maneuver tune or part of a procedure that you particularly like.
Flying assumes a certain amount of memorization and/or learning
by practice. The most common memorized parts
of a flight are first frequencies, headings and altitudes. All
flying should be done with your eyes open in anticipation
of what comes next. However, when you could close your eyes,
as with a safety pilot, several positive things happen,
your sense of hearing becomes more acute (sensitive). If you
want to pick up the first engine change while leaning, momentarily
close your eyes. Eyes closed, your sense of touch is heightened,
and you have transferred the primary
brain activity from the left to the right hemisphere. The brain
automatically increases sensory stimulation in other areas when
one sensory input is cut off. When you close your eyes, your
sense of hearing and touch are greatly increased,
as compensating factors.
As aviators, we can take advantage of
this brain capability by practicing as much as possible with
our eyes closed. Just as a blindfold cockpit check can greatly
improve your ability to use touch to locate switches and controls,
so can the same process improve a pilot's operational efficiency.
The eyes are the only sense that you
can easily cut off. Learn to hear and feel your power settings,
airspeeds, and coordination wind sounds. Fly with your eyes open
only when you need to see.
Most basic flying mistakes are either a result of a wrong visualization, an incorrect application of control pressures, or a misapplication of power. Other considerations are fatigue, diet and preparation.
Analyze your mistakes. Use a tape recorder and record at least one walk-through of a maneuver a day and play it back for self-analysis. This is a difficult thing to do. Most of us have a hard time thinking that critically of our own flying. Learning to critically but objectively critique ourselves is one of the most important skills we can develop as pilots.
Never practice flying when you are emotionally upset, tired,
irritated or distracted. Stop immediately. When you find
your mind wandering while practicing, do something else. Return
to practice when you are more composed. Fly maneuvers or exercises
that are calming, inspiring or exciting to you until you have
your negative emotions under
control. If you must practice flying when tired, cut practice
segments in half. Nothing should be longer than five
minutes without a break. Land and take a brisk walk or find something
exciting and distracting to do between flights. A recent study of brain function has shown that a person reacting
in rage has at least a 30% decrease in reasoning function.
One of the most exciting discoveries in learning is that our
basic metabolism reveals whether or not we are morning, afternoon,
evening or late-evening people. By taking our temperature with
a good thermometer every hour (except
when asleep) for two to three days and then noting when it is
consistently the highest, should reveal our metabolic preference
for flying or study.
Once you discover which category you fit into, try to arrange
it so your most creative and concentrated flying work
is done during those times. This includes lessons, practice,
cross-country, and staying home. The brain can actually
learn twice as fast during these peak periods, which generally
last one to four hours. If you haven't discovered
whether you are a morning, afternoon or evening pilot, do it
as soon as possible. It's critical to your future success.
Pre-plan your flying and flying study time so that family members
or friends will know to avoid these times. All
distractions must be eliminated from your flying environment
or you will have to find somewhere else to study.
Electronic flight simulators can help students 'fly' without
disturbing others. I would highly recommend the use of a simulator
for IFR approach procedures. Some students claim they can study
better with the radio and/or television
on. They are under the same illusion that pilots who drink or
use drugs fall under. You only think you do better, you actually
do much worse. There is research to support this statement. Room
temperature should be on the cool side. A warm room is not conducive to the concentration and high energy
you need to study. Lack of oxygen will dull the
brain and make concentration that much harder. Drink water.
Today we hear a lot about a "balanced diet." We must
learn to balance our practice diet when we fly as well. Check
off the following areas in your flying practice. Don't skip any
of them. They are necessary for good flying health and creative
growth:
Holding altitude and headings (5-10 minutes/right brain)
Steep turns (10-20 minutes/left brain)
Flying without instruments (5-10 minutes/right brain)
Review of known maneuvers (20-30 minutes/left brain)
Flying for fun (5-10 minutes/right brain)
Tracking a localizer (5-10 minutes/left brain)
Recall of radio frequencies (5-10 minutes/right brain)
Note that the left brain flying activity is alternated with right
brain activity. Keep your practice segments to no more
than 15 to 20 minutes. If you do not complete a maneuver series,
do the rest after a break. Repeat this practice maneuver series
at least twice before going on to something else. Try to complete
one complete exercise series at
least once each flight, even if you can only spend one to three
minutes in each practice exercise. Overtime you go
left, plan to do one to the right. You will always have your
own preferred dire ction but this is a heads-up that you
will need more practice the other way.
Know your flying strengths and weaknesses. If you are uncertain
of your weaknesses go up with a competent CFI
for a flight analysis. Review your strengths, but concentrate
on improving your weaknesses. Practice is working on
your weaknesses. Flying is reviewing your strengths. Both should
be part of your practice routine, but emphasize
practice over flying.
Self-evaluation takes courage. Use a tape recorder, ask a knowledgeable
friend to listen and compare what you say
you do with other pilots. Any pilot who cannot identify his or
her flying strengths and weaknesses in a couple of
sentences has an unrealistic image of what is going on. Self-evaluation
will be too high or too low. One of the
greatest motivations to practice more is to see your weaknesses
gradually disappear through identification, isolation, analysis
and drill. What a thrill!
If you have any trouble with air-sickness or any other hang-ups
about performing during a checkride, you must work
on it regularly. Pre-checkride stress is a form of stage fright.
Stage fright is an extreme form of self-centeredness.
You are more interested in what the examiner thinks of you than
what he thinks of your flying. Remember that you
are there to fly, and the examiner is there to see your flying,
not to see you. You are just an intermediary between the mistakes
of your flying and the requirements of the PTS.
Be less concerned with how the examiner reacts to you than how
he reacts to your flying. Always perform for one
person only. That one person is you. Allow the examiner to sit
in on your performance to yourself. Simulate
performance situations often through creative imagery every time
you fly. Each day of practice should be flown as
though the DE was in the back seat. Because of the intensity
and focus of attention required during practice, it is
important that you go with a safety pilot. To attempt to both
do concentrated practice and watch for traffic is foolishly dangerous.
Practice of itself does not make perfect. Only practice of the
right kind leads to perfection. Flying progress is not
even, smooth, nor fair. Sometimes it seems we are stuck at a
level without progress. When that happens, analyze
your practice-flying habits with your instructor. You are either
doing something wrong, trying too hard, or you have
some subconscious attitudinal block. Such blocks can usually
be traced back to an early, unpleasant flying experience associated
with learning, practicing or performing. Through the latest creative
visualization techniques, we can go
back into our subconscious minds and unravel these locks through
repetitive visualization of positive and pleasant experiences.
Always end each flying session with something you really enjoy
doing like a Dutch roll. It's important that you reward yourself
for doing well. The more pleased you are with yourself at the
end, of a flight the more ready r you will be to
begin practice on the next flight.. Flying is a wonderful gift
you have been given the rare privilege of enjoying and
sharing with others. Share the gift with every opportunity
Ask yourself the following questions after a practice session.
Work hard toward being able to answer all of them
quickly and correctly.
Am I practicing the right way?
Am I preparing for the lesson?
Do I have the required basic skills?
Have I warmed up properly?
Am I alternating left brain and right brain activities?
Have I identified, marked and drilled the difficult maneuver
elements?
Am I practicing a balanced program of the old and new?
Am I keeping my practice of one thing to no more than 15 to 20
minutes?
Do I look forward to practicing? If not, why (analyze)?
Do I have specific goals in mind when I practice?
Do I know my flying strengths and weaknesses?
Do I know how to use creative visualization to correct emotional
blocks?
Do I see myself as bringing the wonderful gift of flying to my
passengers?
Choose realistic and attainable goals. You will get and sense
progress when the improvement is easily apparent. Be patient
with yourself. The setting of impossible goals is self-defeating.
Aviators who try to meet unrealistic goals almost always give
up in frustration. Your most important skill is learning to enjoy
flying and most importantly, the enjoyment
of practicing. Making your flying better and safer is the ultimate
purpose of all practice.
Learning to fly well teaches humility, patience, obedience
and discipline. All are necessary attributes for success in life
and building character. Flying talent is a gift. Be grateful
for your gift and treat it with respect. Use it to bring joy,
peace and happiness to others, as well as yourself! Those who
claim that they too could have been a successful pilot but
chose other opportunities in life, never learned to enjoy practicing.
A teacher once told me that you always have time
to do the things you enjoy. Finally, if you learn to enjoy practicing,
you will stay with it and make progress. It's that
simple. So learn how to practice for fun first.
Looking
at Problems
We all have a couple of problems that never leave us. These
chronic problems that never can be resolved or put aside
for long. They may fade into the background when replaced by
more acute problems but they are always there waiting a chance
opening to come back. These problems have some basic reason for
existence that are as much a part of our existence as are we.
In our unique part of the world we have defined the situations
significant enough to be called problems. These problems define
our personality, our values, our needs and our sensitivity. Our
problems are uniquely our own and make us what we are to others.
It is the chronic problems that do the most to define how we will behave, prepare, react and plan. In many cases it is the nature of the individual to lose sight of the real problem in an effort to place responsibility, blame or to seek help. It is emotionally easier to become totally focused on some minor target to one side of the major problem. We can react with anger, resentment, aggression and mental or real tears. With a serious chronic problem we feel frustration and will react to this feeling as we first learned as a child. The rules of learning and behavior are basic and inviolate. We are what we are and in dealing with our problems we must make do with what we are. The people closest to the person with a problem must realize that many of the actions against them are really directed at the problem or some part of it. They are not the target.
A very common behavior is to just try harder to do what we
seem unable to do. We will work hardest on those chronic problems
about which we can do nothing. It is most difficult of all for
those who have succeeded in surmounting an entire life of problems
only to find a problem about which they can do nothing. Instead
of trying harder to do the impossible, one should take the difficult
path of backing off and take a look at the big picture. We must
try to put ourselves into that big picture not with the idea
of changing the unchangeable, but with the intent of learning
how we can adapt ourselves to live within the situation so as
not to make it worse."
We will not be seeking a breakthrough; rather we want to adapt
ourselves to be different so as to approach the
problem in a different manner. The sharing of successful experiences
from those close but not too close to the situation, is the most
likely to be helpful
All of this writes easily but the doing requires an emotional surrender as to what constitutes success. You begin by dissecting the problem into its type and parts as best you can. All problems differ but there are four different classifications, which will provide room for all problems. First you find the type of problem you have and then you study how you can use your understanding of its type to come to a resolution if not solution.
As a flight instructor, I am usually most interested in skill
related problems. This is the first type of problems. The person with a skill problem must be diagnosed as to probable
cause. In flying it is usually a perception or knowledge error
or deficiency. Not uncommon is that the first learning experience
failed to provide the correct
understanding and performance parameters for the phase of learning
involved. Even the simplest maneuver has
a collection basics that must be performed in sequence for a
given level of precision. The takeoff and landing
pattern is a complex assortment of parts requiring mental and
physical skills any one of which can present a
problem to a student pilot.
The nice thing about a flying problem is that the relative motivation for the solution of the problem is extremely high. A student pilot is trying his best to do well and it is the rarest of student who has not experienced the frustration, anger, fear and anxiety caused by one phase of flight instruction or another. Just as students are not perfect, neither are instructors. No matter when or where a problem is likely to exist the instructor must anticipate how to present his lessons in sequence and combination so that the student will not face anything more than a brief difficulty. When a student's efforts do not produce the desired results, the instructor must fill in the missing parts. This is difficult if the student is not a cooperative partner to the process. The process is not one where a power struggle can force the desired result. When it comes to skills the student must get and apply the information required to perform successfully. Since the original presentation of required information failed to produce the desired result, it is up to the instructor to look for creative solutions.
The second type of problems is related to stress. Stress is a necessary aspect of living. A certain amount of stress is required in every learning process, even flying. The good aspect of stress is as the source of motivation to do well and please yourself and others. You want to get value for effort rendered. The bad aspect of stress is when it is caused by unfairness. In our culture we become very sensitive to real or perceived unfairness. When and where unfairness exists we experience stress of the worst kind. There are two sources of stress, external and internal. When events occur outside our realm of control and change our lives indirectly or directly, we react to the events with degrees of anger, resentment and discomfort for the problems created for us. External chronic problems in flying revolve around weather, FAA, maintenance and scheduling. It is important that we see these problems as origin sources for any internal stress reactions we may feel. There are events in this world over which we have no control. The manner in which we accept such events, view them as a personal affront or accept them as being beyond our influence is what we will feel as internal stress. We all have internal stress signals that we have acquired that rise to surface behavior when our stress reaches a critical angle of attack, as does a wing at stall.
Like a wing stall this stress break can occur at any time and for most any reason. We can learn to recognize this event as it has occurred in the past and will occur in the future. The reaction we have may be physical, emotional or a combination. Reactions will vary but consist of craving for the comfort of food, liquor, a smoke, a walk or a conversation. The list goes on and on. Stress derived from external sources will drive our internal stress mechanism to the breakout point and will continue as a drain on wellbeing until it fades much as does a thunderstorm. If the stress factors are on going or repetitive the process will go up and down and wear you down physically and emotionally.
What we need to look for is a stress reliever that can divert
our physical energy, and focus our mental and emotional energy
into another direction. Everybody needs an outlet activity that
will allow stress pressures to
recede if only for a while. When your stress is reduced the problem
can be set aside if only for a while. Many pilots have found
that there comes a break-through in flying where it ceases to
be a source of stress and becomes a source of relief from other
stress sources. You can learn to take a stress break, if not
by flying, by some other activity. When problems become overwhelming
we must have a source of relief.
When it comes to flying I believe that there are several stress
areas for students that are preventable from the outset. First
stress preventative is financial. Don't get into flying without
sufficient money to get you off to a no stress start. Flying
eats money like kids eat candy. Secondly, make sure that you
have the time to fly at least twice a week and better three times.
Third, you must have an instructor and airplanes that will meet
your schedule. There is nothing so discouraging as an instructor
who does not make himself available when you need him unless
it is an airplane out for an annual or engine replacement. Lastly,
learn to fly when the weather
seems to keep others on the ground. You will learn more about
judgment decisions, living with delay, your personal limits and
the aircraft safety margins by flying in marginal conditions.
Knowing these problems are
certain to exist and learning to accommodate to them will help
you accept things that cannot be changed.
Another kind of problem type is dissatisfaction. Unlike a
skill problem, dissatisfaction has obvious and known causes.
The sources of dissatisfaction are a constant area of complaint.
The complainer readily acknowledges the existence of the problem
but is unwilling to take the time and effort to do anything about
it. Over time the problem becomes familiar and accepted as a
to be lived with chronic problem.
In the internet news groups common student complaints seem to
center about the finding and changing of instructors/FBOs, the
weather, fears and landing difficulties. The last tends to be
a skill problem but stress related to costs due to lack of progress
are certainly involved. Everyone in any occupation depending
on good conditions in the outdoors will complain about the weather
so there is nothing new about a student having a problem there.
No end to problems with instructors and FBOs, costs too high,
poor maintenance, scheduling,
reliability and permanence. Fears offer a smorgasbord of flying
related chronic problems that are innate to humans or acquired
as phobias. Comes to mind are such things as flying, falling,
heights, enclosure, noise, silence, turbulence, weather, clouds,
midairs, crosswinds, discomfort, fire, accident, solo, cross-country,
lost, night, progress, debt engine failure, family opposition
and more. Any one of these or a combination can be or has been
used as a chronic problem expressed as dissatisfaction sufficient
to keep a person out of an airplane directly in the face of good
advice and solutions. Fears have little to do with facts they
are mental and emotional.
My messy garage is a good example of such an emotional garbage can. My wife can vent her frustration from other less obvious problems on to the garage. The positive benefits the garage problem has in offsetting the negatives of other honey-do problems makes it worth keeping as it is. I'm sure that I have other such problems because our associates most easily detect our chronic dissatisfaction problems. They are there to hear the complaining, offer suggestions and solutions that I choose to ignore because I 'know' where things are.
The most difficult chronic problems are the quality of life problems. These problems are a part of our social fabric, job, home, family, location, change and situation. These are the huge 'What IF's of our lives. These chronic problems have an ebb and flow of enthusiasm and disappointment. Over than over things do not turn out as planned. God, fate, circumstance always seems to doom our most careful movements to failure. These problems are the BIG ones that are positioned by our survival needs. What we do is based upon root fears of childhood and define our concept of self-image and aspirations. The pattern of life will repeat over and over for the individual. Multiple jobs, homes, and relationships will pass behind. Hopefully, we use hindsight to better cope successfully with the next event. Some do; some don't.
The process of classifying these types of problems have opened more 'question' doors than 'answer' doors. Those with chronic skill problems require a great desire to achieve satisfaction. Competence is not perfection. Those of you seeking perfection will find that your flying will remain a frustrating chronic problem. Learning to live comfortably with the imperfections of flying usually becomes a way of life. Accept the fact that there is a full range of skill-level in all of us. We will learn and do better when we lean on the knowledge and experience of others.
The stress we feel has mostly to do with how well we feel
about ourselves. A young person does not consider health as a
stress factor as does those fortunate enough to become aged.
Problems exist as stress points in our lives depending very much
on our mental and emotional health. We must be confident and
optimistic about where we are heading in life. Life is far to
short not to enjoy what remains of it. In a life-limited situation
we
must live to the fullest every day. The everyday stress points
of living are not nearly so important as we would
try to make them. Do something every day that will make a lasting
difference. Teach a child. Plant a tree. Kick a stone. We can
affect the future though we are captive in the present.
Do not live in a life filled with chronic dissatisfactions. Clean the garage, fix the gate and dig the ditch. Start out taking care of your local dissatisfactions; join with others in the neighborhood, community, county, state and country to eliminate dissatisfaction as a way of life. Solutions to problems will not work unless you do. Work alone is not enough. Work will soon run out of desire unless accompanied observable achievement. The more your life is filled with satisfaction, the more you will accomplish. Life is too short not to seek maximum satisfaction.
The chronic quality of life problem is a series of furtherances
and hinderances like a western movie. You must be able to answer
some pertinent questions quickly and briefly.
--What is the worst short-term problem?
--What is the worst long-term scenario?
--What are you looking for but can't find?
--What is it that you want that always evades your reach?
--How would you describe the 'pattern' of your life?
--Where do you want to wind up?
--Where do you expect to wind up?
--How has fear kept you from
?
--How has your desires helped you?
--How have your concerns held you back?
--How do people treat you?
--What do you need from others that they never give you?
Using Your Answers
--Your answers will help you see your problems.
--If the problem shows up in a new way, use a new way to resolve
it.
--Make a list of your stress symptoms.
--Look for those activities that release stress and make a list.
--Make a matching list of stress vs. release to help you plan
both prevention and recovery processes.
--Reduce dependence on a dissatisfaction problem as an emotional
outlet.
--Solving the problem is a good place to start.
--Start watching others and your feelings toward them.
--Your feelings may show a chronic problem area.
--Take a life changing risk and talk to 'that' someone about
your feelings and concerns.
--A dissatisfaction problem is easier to resolve once it has
been fully exposed.
--Try talking to someone about your wants and needs and the behavior
patterns they cause.
-- Recognition of a behavior pattern is the first step in making
a change.
--With every change you make, your confidence will increase and
make other changes easier.
--Feelings of embarrassment and discomfort while making changes
is normal and a good sign that change exists.
Everyone seems to have at least one chronic problem that has
been a life-long albatross. Changes can be made
in even the oldest of behavior patterns. We can learn and behave
in a new and different manner. We can master a new skill. We
can stop stress before it affects our behavior. We need not be
concerned about past
defeats. We can be assertive, self-confident and get what we
want from life.
Just today I came up with a new, for me, problem. I have been
diagnosed to have a tendon problem in the ring finger of my right
hand. For the last few months I have had a 'l' keep coming up
in my typing. I type about 40-wpm as it is and have found the
problem with the 'l' both annoying and time consuming.
Problem is called "dupuytren contractrue" which
is a painless and progressive callous on the palm of the hand
caused the finger ligament sheath's reaction to scar tissue.
Cause is unknown but it affects men over 40 and may be hereditary.
The finger will gradually contract inward (hence all the unwanted
'l's.) and be difficult to extend. Problem can be surgically
treated by removal of excess tissue. Chances of success are uncertain
since more damaged tissue may cause problem to reoccur. I intend
to live with problem so long as I can type with my other fingers
and use spell checker to take the 'l's out of it.
Safety
is made of little things
Safety in flying is made up of many aspects large and small.
It is the small aspects that reoccur most often and have the
greatest probability of not being in a pilots repertoire. What
follows is a collection of small things that I do and teach because
I have found them of safety value. Where a reason or justification
may be required I will explain.
Except for the fortunate few, the cost of flying is a major deterrent. If money becomes part of the problem the potential pilot has compounded his learning difficulty. Even the most economical of flying clubs will take money like a sausage grinder. If you are not resigned to this expense and flow, wait. Have the funds set aside and readily available. After money, the student pilot must have time. You will learn faster and safer if you fly frequently. Daily is best only if you have sufficient time to keep the book work caught up. Minimum flights can vary from two to three according to the phase. Any less frequently will limit the efficiency of the process.
Get on the government mailing list. Their advisory circulars are mostly free as is the NASA callback. Addresses on the internet. FAAviation News at $16 is a good buy as is Flight Training (6 months free to students), Get all the back issues you can. Many government texts related to flying can be obtained at the public library.
Begin your flight training in the Fall. Weather problems will help you develop awareness of the local conditions that both affect your ability to fly well and determine whether you should fly at all. By beginning now you will develop the experience and judgment to make safe decisions. By the time such weather next comes around you will have had an extended period of good weather to improve your flight proficiency.
Use a full size cassette tape recorder with a patch cord into the intercom to record all your ground instruction, radio procedure practice, ATC radio communications, and the flight instruction as it occurs in the cockpit. Such a system eliminates engine noise. As a student you will be surprised at how much communication occurs without your being aware of what is said and especially its significance. It is equally important that a pilot know where other aircraft is in relationship to his aircraft as it is to know where he is.
You will improve your awareness by plotting your flight on to an airport and then locating the position and arrival direction of incoming aircraft. Departing aircraft can be plotted as well. This three dimensional chess game is played by ATC and pilots must learn to play the game as well. The sooner you start using the radio, the better.
On arrival at the airport I feel the wind, look at the flags and windsock. I want to develop my skill in judging winds where the ATIS or AWOS provides a reference check. I may need that skill where no references are available. By waiting to copy the ATIS/AWOS until the engine is started you will learn to copy it under adverse conditions such as will be required on your return. Nothing focuses the attention as well as something costing you money.
On preflight besides the things usually on the aircraft checklist I always roll the tires because the cord may be showing on the bottom. One cord layer missing uses up a lot of safety. Additionally, you have learned that a tire of improper inflation is deemed unairworthy by the FAA. A tire gauge is part of your flight kit. If in the starting process a student fails to check the belt attachments of the instructor, at some point during the takeoff the door seems to open.
Taxiing on the line gives me the greatest margin of clearance. I am considerate of other pilots by taking the smallest space in the runup areas that I can. During taxi and run-up I have my mixture leaned since it is a little known manufacturers recommendation. After runup, I position my aircraft to see both the approach and base legs prior to taking the runway.
I climb at trimmed Vy and at 300 AGL I check for runway alignment by letting go of the yoke and turning my head. Above 300 I do shallow banked 30 degree turns or Dutch rolls both to help seeing and being seen. Above the pattern altitude I enter a cruise climb when I plan to climb above 3000 AGL for improved cooling and visibility. Any lower flights are always flown to one side or the other of even 500s and 1000s which makes it possible to see and avoid. Once you start doing this you will soon realize the advantages along the busy flyways. Make a practice of flying to the right side of roads and valleys. Avoid VORs and other navigational aids, especially those that are part of IFR approaches. The lower the visibility the more important this last becomes.
The making of turns is one of the first four basics a pilot learns. Small safety factors that exist in this basic should be as much a feature of the performance as the turn itself. When making a series of turns, make the first turn to the left. Why? Because any passing traffic from your vulnerable rear is supposed to be passing on your right. Make a practice of saying, "clear right/left; turn right/left" when you first learn and continue the practice for you flying life. Those with you have a right to know your safety practices are in place.
When you depart home field VFR you never have absolute assurance that you will be able to return VFR. Make a practice of seeking out the minimum safe altitudes that can be flown from any direction. You must know where the power lines are, where the roads lead, where the antenna are, and all the major identifiable points within 15 miles of home field. And when you cant sneak in SVFR, know where the large airport with radar assistance lies as well as the best small airport may be.
When you have a problem, call for the first help you can declaring an emergency too early is less likely to get you into FAA type trouble than doing it too late. Given enough time ATC can find you, guide you, and in some instances land you. Your responsibility is to provide the required time.
Gadgets
Need Not Be Expensive
Keep a supply of "post-its" of different sizes in your
flight kit. Make a frequency list on a longer one for what you
expect to need on a given leg. Use small one to diagram destination
runway and reference points for anticipated arrival or 45 entry.
Never fly IFR without a ready supply of large post-its to cover
failed instruments.
Don't spend any money for overpriced devices from the local FBO (Fixed Base Operator) or "Sporty's." The following suggestions work just as well for a lot less money.
A COUPLE of heavy rubber bands with a paper clip will wrap around your leg and make a good device to hold small note pads. You can walk with it on.
WEST BEND makes a series of kitchen timers and stop watches that can be bought at flea markets for as little as $8. These can be fastened to broom clips that will hold to the yoke. FBO's sell less capable timers for about $30.
A BROOM clip can be screwed to a spring paper clip with a 1-2 inch screw to hold checklists to yoke. A small plastic rectangle will hold approach plates or writing pad. by making slots into the sides of the plastic you can insert banker's clips (Office Max) that make it possible to change papers with one hand rather than with two hands for ordinary clips. Try to make it possible to do all paper work with one hand.
Keep your ground checklist on a piece of cardboard hung by string around your neck. This should include preflight, pre-start, start, taxi, run-up, and pre-takeoff in one series. A second series should be post landing, taxi, shutdown, and tie-down. The back side of the card should be outlined in red with emergency procedures.
THE ASH tray makes a good pen holder. Fasten a pen or pencil to your clip board with a string long enough to make it useful. Hang a pen or pencil with a couple of rubber bands from the yoke as an emergency scribble digit. Always carry an extra supply of rubber bands.
TAKE TWO old sectionals and cut out a circle 10-12 inches in radius centered on your home airport. Take an old record album cover and cut a circle to maximum size. Center the cardboard and your home airport. Glue the sectional to the cardboard and trim to size. Get a piece of fairly stiff wire or a rubber band. Bend the wire so that it goes through the center of the circle and the other end so that it folds under the circumference. The rubber band must threaded through the center and the ends held with a paper clip. Mark the outer edge of the sectional in 10 degree marks and 30 degree numbers as though it were a VORs. These marks should be magnetic courses centered on your home field. If your home field is near the edge of a sectional this card will make it very easy to plan local flights as well as courses requiring both sides of the sectional. Just slide the wire to the desired course. Crease the circle so it will fold for easy storage. The backside makes a good place for emergency checklists, etc. Backside print-out of radio procedures is part of radio material. Design radio callups, reporting points, and runway expectations so that when looking at the chart on one side, you can flip it over and read the appropriate radio material.
A BASEBALL type cap is invaluable when the sun is low on the horizon. It serves well as a barf bag if not ventilated. A bee in the cockpit is a problem best solved with a cap.
A THIN tube of plastic about 15" long serves well as a fuel gauge. Be sure the plastic is fuel resistant. Hold your finger over the end to hold fuel in tube for measuring. Mark the tube at different levels to get accurate time/fuel/flight conditions consumption. Take fuel measurements before and after each flight until you learn to estimate fuel consumption accurately for the flying you do.
SILICA GEL can be purchased with a plastic basket at Motor Home Suppliers. This will absorb cockpit moisture and protect the interior of an aircraft.
LOSING fuel out of the overflow tube can be fixed by raising that side of the plane on a 1x12 or 1x12 ramp for the low wheel.
A long CLIP BOARD can be cut so as to be 2" narrower and then used sideways. Keep permanent checklist data and flight information such as clearance sequence, rate of climb per mile, time over 5, 10 mile distances, on one side. Have a supply of extra clips to hold notes, etc. Wide clip boards interfere with the yoke.
SUN GLASSES
Sunglasses that pass less than 15% light will reduce acuity.
Photochromic lenses may not work well with aircraft windshields.
These glasses may not change rapidly enough for certain mountain
conditions. Polarized sunglasses should not be used through a
laminated windshield. Many glass cockpit aids cannot be read
with polarized glasses. Wearing sunglasses will protect the eyes
and reduce visual fatigue. Get the best 'blue-blockers' you can
afford.
Keep a partial roll of duct-tape and electrical tape in your flight kit. Carry a "Leatherman" knife, tire pressure gauge, and cellular phone. Wear walking shoes. Have an extra pack of velcro to replace where needed in the cockpit.
Use a 'Fanny-pack' to keep your preflight gloves, rags, sump-cup and other things in. Put it on for the preflight and take it off when you are about to get in the plane. Cleaning materials are nice to have available.
The Economics of Emotions
Taking a bad mood or feeling into a flying lesson is going to interfere
with your attitude toward the lesson, the instructor and flying itself.
Scientific studies have found that discontent, frustration and unstated
concerns will drive down initiative, preparation and expectations of success
or even improvement. There is a direct relationship between your attitude and
your chances of success. The television program you see the night before
can influence your mood before a flying lesson.
Your willingness to study or prepare for the lesson is reflected in your
attitude. The progress of your fellow students can serve as a source of your
frustration and discontent. Any amount of depression can and will be reflected
in your reaction to whatever occurs before, during and after the lesson. If
you are looking for and expecting failure, you will find it. Your learning,
which is dependent upon your reaction to how the lesson is presented, can be
made to be a failure just by your claiming that you won’t be able to
remember it anyway. One form of this depression is failing to do the
appropriate reading and preparation.
This means that the failure of the lesson will be a self full-filling prophecy. The student then can claim success in showing that the material cannot be taught nor learned. The problem is exacerbated if the student knowingly spreads the lessons out so that the average is about one lesson a week or less. This is done regardless of repeated efforts by the instructor to get more frequent lessons to improve retention.
His logbook shows that on average he has had only one lesson a week. The cost has been great in terms of the little and poor progress he has shown. At my insistence he has had a couple of weeks with two and three lessons. He made good progress and I was looking forward to solo. I began working him on the pre-solo written test and he immediately dropped off to less than once a week lessons. Progress ceased and he was regressing back to his previously learned flight practices or lack of them. This reinforces my fears that under stress he may revert back to first taught/learned procedures.
Over a number of flights I have learned much of what his initial instruction did to make my teaching so much more difficult than it should be. Apparently he has only recently overcome his fears of being in the aircraft. During the week when we flew three times he admitted to me that the flight was the first time he had not been frightened. It never entered my mind that such would be the case. At various times he has
said that he was never advised as to how to use the rudder during turns. Even today his rudder use comes as an afterthought and not in anticipation. Airspeed had never been a factor in climbs or descents with ten-knot variations never mentioned or criticized. Trim was flipped one way or another with no specific hands-off airspeed ever sought or achieved. He had never been taught the Dutch roll, a constant airspeed in climb and climbing turns, a leveling off process that involved allowing the aircraft to accelerate. His version of leveling off was by reducing the power. This greatly increased his cost of flight operations in the pattern and most anywhere else. My teaching had to overcome his ‘first learned technique’ by flying a constant climb speed in even in turns and trimming for level while lowering the nose and allowing the aircraft to accelerate to hands-off level flight before making a throttle setting for cruise flight.
The most significant areas of difficulty were his ground orientation, interpretation of ATC instructions and misuse of rudder input and braking while taxiing. The student has found that spreading out the lessons again to once a week is self-defeating. He has agreed to have a go at more frequent lessons and has even asked about what he should read. He needs to complete my 5-6 page pre-solo questions with answers so we can go over them. He needs to make useable checklists for all phases of ground and flight operations. For insurance savings where we fly has instituted phase-checks. He is now faced with that as an additional hurdle as do I.
In the beginning he persisted on using the C-152 checklist where we were flying a C-150. His argument against the making of a checklist consists of two approaches. First, he says that he knows what to do and doesn’t need the list even though I have repeatedly told him to make one. When he does it is right out of the POH. I have even made an aircraft and situational precise pre-flight list for him and he has entered several changes but has yet to make a new list. Often he has the list in front of him but open to a different area than what he is doing.
His argument for not making revisions is that it is unnecessary because he will probably never get to use it by himself. What we have here is the need of me, as the instructor, to understand the relationship between his emotional states and his perception of value. With the number of hours he has had over a year’s time he has reason to question the need and value of further time spent exercising his checklist skills. With such a background of failure or lack of progress I have had to exercise some negotiating and marketing devices to try and rebuild his desire and initiative.
I have giving him a sunset to dusk night familiarization flight even though
he was too unhappy to read the material on night flights as I suggested.
Before we flew I spent an hour explaining how the differences in pre-flight
and power control that were specific to night landings. Then I gave him a
C-172 familiarization flight when the C-150 was down for maintenance. His
objections were about the higher cost and that such a flight would interfere
with his learning the C-150. In this case he did do the suggested reading and
performed reasonably well with the souped-up 180 h.p. C-172. My intent was to
show him where I was taking him. He indicated pleasure with the lesson even
though the speed of the plane required him to speed up his procedures when
compared to the C-150. The similarities may have given him new hope.
If the student drives to the airport upset about his lack of progress, the
coming lesson is already working under a handicap. On several occasions when
the student told me of his negative feelings about his situation I have urged
him to cancel the lesson and call me before the lesson if he foresees
problems. He always waits until we are both there. He has seldom been late but
almost never does he get there early so that he can do the aircraft pre-flight
before I arrive. Seems he is concerned that I will make the flight too long
and expensive by flying longer. He knows I will spend at least a half-hour
going over what we will do on the flight and even longer if it involves
unfamiliar radio work.
At the present time I am teaching such a student. Perhaps better stated would be that I am trying to teach this student. He has fifty some instructional hours for a total cost of over $7,000. Before coming to me as an instructor he had nearly 25 hours of flight time and at least that much ground instruction. The instructor was a personal friend of the same ethnic background
What I found from initial flights with my new student was that his
instruction consisted of absolutely no area familiarization, control of
airspeed, radio procedure instruction, rudder awareness, throttle control,
taxiing skills, and use of the heading indicator for orientation. He had
a checklist but never used it once he thought he knew what to do.
A practice I have repeatedly exposed to his making errors in
procedure.
My older son once gave me a definition of insanity that certainly applies to
this student. Insanity consists of doing the same thing over and over
with the expectation that the results will be different.
Email to Gerald,
Altitude
There are several different kinds of altitude used by aircraft. The
altimeter of the aircraft is usually set barometrical by weighing the air
pressure on the earth. This air also presses on the oceans, which vary in high
tides to low tides twice a day. The average height of these tides are actually
below the land level even at the beach. This average is called mean sea level
or MSL.
MSL is the height used by aircraft in most situations. The purpose of
broadcasting on weather and ATIS transmissions is to assure than all aircraft
have the same setting on their altimeter. This means that they can use
their altimeter as another means to avoid hitting each other.
Another altitude is called AGL or above ground level. This is the altitude
you often see in parentheses on charted towers or obstructions. There is also
a radar altimeter which gives continuous AGL readings called absolute
altitudes. GPS is also able to give an altitude reading. This reading is
rarely the same as any of the other altitudes.
I have a suggestion about your concerns with altitude. Make a practice of
flying during good weather to fly above obstructions, hills, etc. and get an
idea of how low you can go safely. Then at night or in bad weather you
can use your knowledge to fly at safe altitudes.
Additionally, I would suggest that when flying within 3000 feet of the
ground that you never fly at even thousands or five-hundreds. Make it a
practice of flying 2300 or 2700 altitudes going eastward and 2400 or 2800
going westward. You will be surprised by the number of aircraft
that are flying over or under these altitudes. Just another form of collision
avoidance.
Return to whittsflying
Home Page
Continued on 6.56 More
Articles