Class 4 Instructor Training

[Slick Goodlin]

HOW:
    using whiteboard drawing and aircraft model, explain to student:

This right here.  If you can't explain it with a model and a blank slate, you don't know it well enough to teach.  This is fine, it's not a permanent barrier to instructing or anything, just go learn it well enough before passing it on.

[Colonel]

One of the most important things about PGI:

Leave out the non-essentials.

I tell class 4 candidates that their PGI must fit
on ONE piece of paper.  Ok, for the really
nasty exercises they can use both sides.

It can be very difficult for the new instructor
to figure out what's really important, and
needs to be in the PGI.

All too often, they construct TC-style PCI
that is (e.g.) 124 pages long for steep turns.

That's not PGI.  That's a complete brain
dump of everything they know on the subject
of steep turns, and there is NO WAY that
any poor student could possibly aborb all
that.

In fact, they obscure and hide the essential
information by including everything and the
kitchen sink.  Complete lack of prioritization.

No theory in PGI.  As soon as you start talking
about Relativistic effects, you are not teaching
PGI any more - you are teaching ground school.

Learning to delineate between:

ground school
PGI
pre-flight briefing

and learning not to blur the three, is very
important to becoming a good instructor.

Good PGI is not 2 hours long.  TC doesn't
value this, but efficient use of time is incredibly
important.  Even if the student has unlimited
time and money to waste (uh huh) his attention
span is not unlimited.

[Colonel]

everyone would just keep getting stupider with each successive generation

[Colonel]

More notes:

To me a good flight instructor is

1) a good pilot
2) a good teacher
3) a master of chickenshit


re: #[b]1[/b]:  A good pilot should be a good stick,
and should have good knowledge of:

a) aerodynamics (often very weak in new CPLs)
b) aircraft systems (ditto above)
c) meteorology

You will likely have to provide some remedial
training, probably in all of the above areas.


re: #[b]2[/b]:  A good teacher needs to start by
reading the first 60 pages of the FIG.  It is
not easy to be a good teacher - at least it
wasn't for me.  I always found it pretty easy
to fly, but teaching did not come naturally to
me and was something I had to really work
at, to do even a passable job at.  A good
teacher needs to learn that everyone is
different.  A class 4 learns a single canned
lesson for each exercise, and if the student
doesn't "get it", the class 4 repeats.  This
is often a waste of everyone's time.  A good
teacher needs to be a closed loop device,
not an open loop device.  I could write a
frikken book about this subject.


re: #[b]3 [/b]chickenshit.  A good flight instructor
needs to be able to find stuff in the CARs,
not ask someone else.  He needs to have
knowledge of CAR 401/421, 405/425,
406/426 and 602 and 605 and 625 for
starters.  Also the flight test guides and
standards (I think now 408/428) - essential
knowledge.  Also FTM.  A flight instructor is
going to work at an FTU for at least a little
while, so he needs to learn about the CFI
and the PRM and the MCM, for starters.

[Colonel]

a lot of new students don't realize this, they are expecting that a license gives them everything

Geez, I would hope that a new PPL with 50TT realizes
that he's going to be a lot different pilot when he is a
PPL with 1000TT.

If nothing else, the fact that some people can fly with
20 knot direct crosswinds, and some can't, should make
him think a bit.




People are not born with that skill, regardless of what
nonsense they try to pass on to you.

A new PPL is NOT required to be able to fly in a
strong, gusty crosswind.  In fact, to reduce accidents
and insurance premiums, many schools explicitly have
their students avoid attempting difficult exercises,
and prefer that the students simply get the paper and
head out the door.

Which reinforces the argument that pilots continue
to learn on the trip from 50TT to 1000TT.

Similarly, I might point out that a new ATPL with 1500TT
is going to learn a lot on the road to 15,000TT.

And even the 15k TT ATPL, while he might be an expert
at what he does, is NOT an expert at what he doesn't do.

This eludes many.

[Colonel]

Paper, paper, paper ...

Pop Quiz Time.

Whom do you think is likely to be a more capable
pilot:  a PPL with 1000TT and a group 3 IFR, or a
new VFR-only CPL with 200TT?

The answer is obvious.

Please don't assume that paper and ability are
tightly coupled.  Both of the following are NOT
always true:

CPL > PPL
ATP > CPL

Even though this might be blatant heresy, it is
a fact that some of the best pilots I know, have
no paper.  And some pilots I know, with plenty
of paper, I would not let push my lawnmower.

Paper is nice, don't get me wrong.  Just don't
assume that it implies anything.

This doesn't just apply to pilots.

"Fresh annual", anyone?

[Rookie Pilot]

Answer:  The brand new class 4 knows far far more. 


The class 1's and 2's, on the other hand, think they are far superior sticks to my a few of my friends - like those  I know with 20K hours flying in Africa and the jungle, we are talking dirt / grass, short,  one way, 20 degree sloped, no go around strips with a big mountain off one end.  Routine for them.


Make a mistake, though, poof.


But yeah the class 2's are far better....TOP GUN mentality....all with 2000 hrs in the circuit.

[CpnCrunch]

Answer:  The brand new class 4 knows far far more. 

I'm not sure that's even true. A lot of instructors are woefully ignorant of the CARs. The only exceptions seem to be the instructors who hang out here and on avcanada. You can test your favourite instructor with gems like:


- is it legal to do a straight-in approach at an ATF?
- can the 40 hours of instrument time for the instrument rating include time that you flew under the hood with a PPL safety pilot?
- do you need to bring the journey log if you're flying more than 25nm and landing at the same airport you departed from?


Even TC has trouble with the first two questions on that list.