Scudrunners

I started a new thread on the other forum suggesting that tail wheel training should be included in the PPL.

From some of the replies one would think I was suggesting sodomising their mothers, but it is sure fun reading some of the ideas they have about flying skills or lack thereof.

I get the impression that basic aircraft handling skills are unimportant, until they are.

That's when the crying starts, because their feelings are hurt after they've crashed.

Odd how you and I have well over a century of accident-free aviation between us,
but the buttercups seem to have an accident - or two, or three - to talk about, during
the airline interview.

You reap what you sow.

A friend of mine - he has thousands of hours of Pitts/Waco time - flies a Boeing.
They recently got sent for "unusual attitude" training.  Apparently there are three
guys there, that can fly.  Everyone else struggled.

Lazy, stupid people don't learn the basics.  Sooner or later it catches up with them.

Well Andy my intention was to post something that would give me a reason not to post there anymore.

It worked in spades because almost the whole group went out of their way to make my opinion on flying training / safety something to mock and make it look like I am a throwback to pre. neanderthal times.

I sure wish they would come on this site and have a fair one on one discussion about flying and flight training.

Think they will???

OK, let me declare early on, I'm a 150 hour absolute fucking nobody!
But I have an opinion.

I understand the point of initial training on a tailwheel.  I get the
points made at other times about doing initial training on coal fired
instrument panels or on airplanes without electrical systems.

While I want to do all my flying with the little wheel at the back and
a stick between the legs, as God intended, I don't buy the premise.
I believe it's like handing an aspirin to someone with a sucking chest
wound.  Sure it may dull the pain a little bit, but you're not treating
the underlying cause of the symptom.

If you force a new student to fly a tailwheel ab initio, sure you'll
teach some good skills to start, if that student just considers that an
ordeal to get through, and after getting to a nosewheel thankfully figures
they never again have to worry about staying aligned with the runway, or
keeping the ball centered, 'cause now they're flying a REAL plane, what
have you accomplished?

Then again, it's possible to have an ab initio student, having never flown
a tailwheel that has an intense desire to take off and land tracking the
centerline, give passengers the smoothest ride possible, and wants to nail
altitudes and speeds with much smaller margins than the test requires.

Come on, stop laughing, it's entirely possible!  The difference is attitude.
Not the airplane's attitude, but that contained between the ears.  If a
pilot gives a shit, they'll be a good pilot.  It's an unfortunate reflection
of our society.  As an example we keep on requiring safety features on
cars and the advertising has the underlying message "our cars are so safe
you don't have to be a good driver".  In our world, far too many people
think the minimum requirment is ALL that's required.

So how do we instill the attitude of wanting to be the best pilot possible?
I don't have an answer.  I've had the luxury of some pretty good instructors,
but then again, I was probably an unusual student, in debriefs I analysed my
poorer performance and point out things I need to work on myself.  I don't know
how those instructors deal with students that don't recognize thier failings.
I suspect instructing by ridicule, contempt, scorn and mockery won't go far.
There's certainly got to be some mix of support and hard truth, and frankly
the airplane and it's features are much less important to making a good pilot.

Then again, what would I know...

Gerry

Excellent post Gerry you are correct in your opinion.

The biggest problem with flight training is that flight instruction is mostly seen as a way for new commercial pilots just getting started in flying to be able to build time.

The schools can hire them for less than Mac Donald's starting wages.

That situation is because T.C.s standards are set by people who think it is perfectly O.K. to have the most inexperienced people in aviation teachoing others......maybe that is the reason we have so many poorly trained pilots?

There is a poster on Avcanada that works for T.C. and I believe he is in the flight training department, he goes by the handle of Big Pistons Forever.

It would be interesting to hear his opinion on this.