The hundred hour student

[Colonel]

Everything you need to know how to maneuver an airplane you learn in the PPL presolo initial exercises 5 to 9 (attitudes and movements, straight and level, climbs, descents and turns)

The problem is ex 5 to 9 is rather tedious to teach and sadly many instructors are not particularly good at a perfect demonstration of these maneuvers.

I agree with you that the fundamentals are hurried through, and people want to start
pounding (literally) landings far too soon.

Not sure I agree that instructor demonstration is the problem here. Rather, the student
just needs to get some stick time, manuevering the aircraft. And while it is good to start
in the practice area at 3000 feet, I worry that it becomes an IFR exercise, with the student
being urged to look inside at the altimeter and heading indicator, when they should be
looking outside.

Once a student can turn/climb/descend at 3000 feet in the practice area, before you jump
into the circuit, why not take them down to 1000 AGL (downwind altitude) and have them
drive the aircaft around, looking outside. Take him to a town, and ask him to follow a river
at 1000 AGL to another town. You know. Look outside.

And though we are discussing pre-solo VFR students ... exactly the same concerns apply
to IFR training. Everyone wants to shoot the ILS, but you need to spend some time - probably
more than the student wants - with the hood on, practicing turns/climbs/descents. Preferably
at night, so they can't see anything out the side. I love night hood time. Keeps you honest.

And just like a pre-solo student, get the IFR newbie comfortable holding and transitioning
to any heading or altitude. I've always been really big on the attitude indicator. People have
these bizarre scans and I've never understood them. I want an AI the size of a pie plate in
front of me. Sure, I'll glance at the altitude and heading, and make small changes as required,
but the AI is king. If the power is set correctly, the airspeed will follow. And if the pitch attitude
is set correctly, the VSI should take care of itself.

Once the student can fly any heading and altitude without looking outside, next up is visualization,
which moving maps are a godsend for. There's the picture. Add the wind to it, and you're going
to do a pretty good job.

Then onto procedures. Normal and emergency. And then of course, programming the
goddamned autopilot. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. All I really want is
heading and altitude hold. Ok, it would be nice to dial in a climb or descent, too. Generally
I can figure out what heading I want to fly - I don't need to tell the autopilot to do that. And
while it's nice to have the autopilot fly the ILS, I feel a bit sad when I do that. Like hiring a
pool boy to service your wife, and you don't even have a pool. I know four bars like to contract
that kind of work out, but I prefer to do it myself. Hands on, so to speak.

[Colonel]

And onto two of my favorite "stick & rudder" exercises:

1) Roll Around A Point. I lie. You aren't going to roll, but hey, that's
what everyone else calls it, so .... it's important to realize that pilots
don't like adverse yaw, so aircraft designers try to hide it, and they're
pretty successful when there's lots of air going over the flight controls.

But when you slow down, adverse yaw becomes significant. If you slow
down enough - eg taxi - the ailerons don't do a goddamned thing, and
you have to use your feet to control the direction of the airplane.

Same with "rolls around a point". At 3000 feet (or whatever) slow the
aircraft down to perhaps approach speed and 20 flaps and enough
power to try to maintain altitude without getting the nose 'way up
into the air, which defeats the purpose - the student has to see over
the nose of the aircraft.

So with the aircraft at approach speed, wiggle the ailerons full from
side to side. Adverse yaw will cause the nose to yaw the opposite
way. Point this out to the student. Show them that you must use
rudder and aileron together, to keep the nose from yawing from side
to side as you transition from say a 30 degree bank left to 30 degree
bank right.

Have the student look outside - I like to draw lines on the top of the
white cowl and try to keep a rivet or something on a distant object.

After a while, point out the ball - with rudder, it isn't slopping from
side to side, either.

Anyways, nobody teaches this exercise, but it's wonderful for developing
student co-ordination of the flight controls.

[Big Pistons Forever]

Everything you need to know how to maneuver an airplane you learn in the PPL presolo initial exercises 5 to 9 (attitudes and movements, straight and level, climbs, descents and turns)

The problem is ex 5 to 9 is rather tedious to teach and sadly many instructors are not particularly good at a perfect demonstration of these maneuvers.

I agree with you that the fundamentals are hurried through, and people want to start
pounding (literally) landings far too soon.

Not sure I agree that instructor demonstration is the problem here. Rather, the student
just needs to get some stick time, manuevering the aircraft. And while it is good to start
in the practice area at 3000 feet, I worry that it becomes an IFR exercise, with the student
being urged to look inside at the altimeter and heading indicator, when they should be
looking outside.

The number one in flight instructional aid, IMHO, is a pad of post it notes. In the lesson plan 2 exercises I cover up the instruments that I don’t want the students looking at, which is pretty much all of them at first. As they get better I cover and uncover them as appropriate. However the AI and DI don’t exist in my world before post solo. Everything you need to know about the attitude and direction of the airplane is available in full colour IMAX level of splendour by looking out the windshield.

re the instrument scan. Funny how no one ever mentions the instructor instrument scan:

AI, HOBBS, DI, HOBBS, ALTIMETER HOBBS ….

[Big Pistons Forever]

And onto two of my favorite "stick & rudder" exercises:


Anyways, nobody teaches this exercise, but it's wonderful for developing
student co-ordination of the flight controls.

All my students practiced those, and it was the first exercise I asked for when asked to evaluate a person’s flying skills.

[Colonel]

a pad of post it notes ... the AI and DI don’t exist in my world before post solo.

Looking outside is a lost skill. One trick I liked to play on (post-solo) students
when I flew with them, was to bring a couple 8.5x11 pieces of paper, and use
them to entirely cover the dashboard. No instruments at all.

The poor students were terrified, but hey, at least it got them

LOOKING OUTSIDE

We would start, taxi, take off and climb out to the practice area, with absolutely
no flight instruments. We would review

ATTITUDE + POWER = PERFORMANCE

Set the pitch attitude and the power, and the aircraft is going to do pretty much
the same thing, every time.

The flight back to the airport with no instrument was weird for them. We could
guess the circuit height, and on approach, they all flew too fast. I knew that
without looking at the ASI, because the nose was tucked down too far, but
just let them do it.

We would land fast and long, but it was a really worthwhile exercise for the
student - he learned that you could fly an airplane by

LOOKING OUTSIDE

and you really didn't need all that crap inside the airplane.

I think I've mentioned before that I've done lots of instruction on homebuilts,
because I was dropped on my head as a small child.

I remember a couple of rusty PPL's bought a really nice RV-6. Or 7. I don't
recall. It had no steam gauges, just these big black-framed color displays
which were fucking gorgeous. One for flight instruments, one for engine,
IIRC.

One of the owners said that he expected to die if they failed.

There is so much wrong with that, but ....

I laughed, pulled the breakers on both displays and we started up, took
off and went flying. Again, his landing was fast. They always are, with
no ASI.

The owner was simply amazed that you could fly an aircraft by

LOOKING OUTSIDE

and you didn't need to look at the stupid fucking panel.

I know I'm a dinosaur from the 20th century, but my idea of aviation is
to be the only one in the airplane, sitting in the center, with a bubble canopy
over and behind me, a stick in my right hand, throttle in the left, my feet on
the rudder pedals and the radio

TURNED OFF

I hate the fucking radio. Totally spoils the experience of me and the
airplane, but I have come to realize that aviation for me is completely
different than it is for millions of PPLs out there, that want to spend the
entire flight staring at 10 square yards of colored glass in the panel in
front of them, never look outside and talk fucking continuously on the
fucking radio because they think it makes them sound like a fucking
four bar. Barf.

Sigh. Why not just stay at home and fly a flight simulator with their
internet geek buddies? Costs a lot less, and saves wear and tear on
the airplane.

Sometime, fly a biplane to Key West at 500 AGL. Marvellous.