Learning Factors for Students

[Slick Goodlin]

Other instructors will know what I’m talking about when I mention learning factors, for those who don’t know they come from one of my favourite books:

https://tc.canada.ca/sites/default/file ... tp975e.pdf

I actually mean that. Part 1 of the Instructor Guide is probably the most influential thing I’ve ever read. It explained how I accidentally faked being smart in college and validated why I should keep up the habits I forced on myself, but I’m getting ahead of myself here. What I want to talk about is learning factors but not how your instructor would apply them, instead how you can structure your own learning for maximum effect. After all, “No one ever learns except through their own activity and there is, strictly speaking, no such art as teaching, only the art of helping people to learn” (Flight Instructor Guide, Part 1, paragraph 6 - told you I like that book).

Here’s what your instructor should consider:
(a) READINESS — Ensure students are mentally, physically and emotionally ready to learn.
(b) PRIMACY — Present new knowledge or skills correctly the first time. (Teach it right the first time.)
(c) RELATIONSHIP — Present lessons in the logical sequence of known to unknown, simple to complex, easy to difficult.
(d) EXERCISE — Ensure students are engaged in meaningful activity.
(e) INTENSITY — Use dramatic, realistic or unexpected things, as they are long
remembered.
(f) EFFECT — Ensure students gain a feeling of satisfaction from having taken part in a lesson.
(g) RECENCY — Summarize and practise the important points at the end of each lesson, as last things learned and practised will be remembered longest.

And here’s how to turn those things inward on yourself:
(a) READINESS — This one is easy enough to figure out. Be well rested and well read before the lesson. I like reading the relevant stuff before the lesson and having questions ready for the instructor, then the lesson is largely review with some filling in remaining blanks and firming up the important stuff. Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance, People.
(b) PRIMACY — Maybe a little harder to imagine how to set yourself up in this one but basically don’t try to learn new things from sketchy sources. New concepts are to come from recognized authorities on the subject only. Once you have a basic understanding of something new then you’re better equipped to take in information from a wide variety of sources because you’ll be better able to understand something poorly explained or to reject things that are simply wrong.
(c) RELATIONSHIP — Learn first principles and build up from there. Believe it or not every flight you ever do will rely on the first lesson you ever took. There’s an order to it all and the ‘easy’ stuff you start with is important too. Probably the most important.
(d) EXERCISE — Everything is practice, hold yourself to a standard. Don’t plan to just ‘turn it on’ for the flight test. Instead look at your flight test as a sampling of what you regularly do and try to stay good enough that you could take a flight test cold at any time and still pass. Aim for that level and practice accordingly.
(e) INTENSITY — This one’s kind of anomalous on my list in the list but I guess just pay attention to the things that happen.
(f) EFFECT — Find a way to be satisfied with your training. Don’t focus on the bad stuff, focus on how you can improve it. Don’t forget to consider all the things that are going well. Have an instructor you don’t dread.
(g) RECENCY — Review new things, you have about 48 hours after a lesson to go back over it and really lock things into your mind. Sooner is better. Also fly lots because having to review things in the airplane before moving ahead is very expensive.

This doesn’t just apply to airplanes either, use this stuff to do all sorts of things while making the best of your time. That way you can waste time on more fun stuff than studying!

[Colonel]

This doesn’t just apply to airplanes either

Indeed. People I know ask about learning to ride a motorcycle. I
reply that while where I live is a great place to ride, it is a horrible
place to learn to ride.

When you first ride a motorcycle, 95% of your brain will be required
to operate it, leaving 5% of your brain for situational awareness and
threat analysis. That is fatal around here.

After you have been riding for enough years, only 5% of your brain
will be required to operate the vehicle, leaving you to spend 95%
of your brain, looking for (and evaluating) traffic.

My son rode a dirt bike for almost 10 years before he started
legally riding on the road. I have no worries about him lane splitting
on his liter bike here, at speeds that would blow your mind. Here
he is, having fun with the Masons, who may not be very cool by
Canadian standards, but they taught Steve McQueen to fly:



Back in the day, most pilots rode motorcycles because of the similar
skills. That is not the case today.

No one remember this thing called World War One, but pilots flew
really horrible biplanes in it. They either died quickly, or survived
a long time. Ever wonder why?

The Egalitarians disagree, but a competent pilot ought to be able
to fly an airplane using 5% of his brain capability. This leaves 95%
left over for things that are not considered important by many,
such as weather, traffic, mechanical, changing circumstances, etc.

When you watch a bunch of guys play poker, they never spend any
time looking at their own cards. They spend all their time, trying
to figure out what's going on with the other guys at the table.

A checklist pilot is like a poker player that spends all his time, looking
at his own cards. You know. Roadkill.

A while back, NASA did a study on airline pilots and accidents. No
one cares about what they concluded, but it's pretty interesting.

[Colonel]

On the subject of learning to operate a technique-intensive motorized
vehicle ... this is a bunch of guys riding from Saratoga to Alice's Restaurant,
a typical day.



A while back, my wife and I were having Sunday breakfast in Saratoga,
and she pointed out Steve Wozniak sitting at the next table - I didn't
recognize him.

He doesn't have much virtue compared to a Canadian, I suppose, but I
liked the custom tag on his Tesla.

[The Usual Suspects]

A checklist pilot is like a poker player that spends all his time, looking
at his own cards. You know. Roadkill.

Prophetic. In the news this morning:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/alaska-midai ... r-6-others

Seven people, including an Alaska state lawmaker, died Friday when two small airplanes collided in midair near the airport in Soldotna, a small community on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula.

LOOK OUTSIDE

[Keyser Soze]

The Egalitarians disagree, but a competent pilot ought to be able
to fly an airplane using 5% of his brain capability. This leaves 95%
left over for things that are not considered important by many,
such as weather, traffic, mechanical, changing circumstances, etc.

I wonder sometimes. I know politics is nice and everything, but are
people totally comfortable with intentionally choosing a violent death
for themselves and their passengers, through their own long-predicted
choice of incompetence?

[David MacRay]

We were doing circuits at Olds/Didsbury and it was time to arguably fly cross country back to YBW Springbank. Covid-19 isolation has loosened up so more guys are flying, but not enough for all the controllers to come back to work, so no circuits there.

I digress. As I'm turning right to depart the circuit my instructor gets rather excited and says, "What's that guy doing there?"

Not far south of the airport a light single is going west nice and low. If they were not nordo they were either on a frequency we were not on, or just not into chatting and asking, "Any conflicting traffic please advise."

I like to think they knew where the airport was and figured they would skim under any traffic but I don't know. My instructor was not loving it.

On one hand it was nice to have a second competent person looking outside to spot that. In a way maybe since there was no conflict. We would have been better off not knowing they were there.

[Roger Kint]

We would have been better off not knowing they were there.

That sort of thinking gave you Trudeau.

[Liquid_Charlie]

_{LOOK OUTSIDE}

Can 't be sure why but another midair in Alaska, VFR and again people need to get the rubber necks going and not just trust a radio and traffic advisories. Damn it is frustrating to see this shit.

[David MacRay]

We would have been better off not knowing they were there.

That sort of thinking gave you Trudeau.

Maybe, but I thought the voters in Quebec who were finished punishing the liberal party by voting NDP the election before gave us Justine.

Anyways, that other plane was way past and below our path, so even though one of us on board got excited and called it out on the Old/Didsbury frequency as potentially conflicting traffic.

I carried on flying back to base. Moving on from where we were, looking around the area where we were going.

[Scudrunner]

When I ferried the Pitts 1800nm across the country during Covid it was such a pleasure to shut the radio off to conserve battery power.

Head looking around at the changing country side, when I would approach higher traffic areas Switch the radio on to find nothing going on even at St Andrews and eventually Calgary.

What a contrast to ripping around in my friends arrow a year ago. English language proficient exam passed students would literally repeat the same thing over again like mindless drones not actually comprehending why they where saying it.

“Let’s go over here for awhile” John and I would agree.
“Give this one a wide berth”