Student Pilot Goes Solo

[The Dread Pilot Roberts]

Wow the patience’s of the tower guy with this student.

Legend has it she found a way to navigate by altimeter settings

[Colonel]

Anyone remember a couple years back - I think it was in AB - a student pilot
didn't follow ATC instructions (there's a surprise) and TC charged their instructor
with the violation?

[TwinOtterFan]

I almost don't blame them, I know you are not a fan of TC, but I do think that the student should not have been released and that solely falls on the person that signed the release doesn't it?

[Slick Goodlin]

Anyone remember a couple years back - I think it was in AB - a student pilot
didn't follow ATC instructions (there's a surprise) and TC charged their instructor
with the violation?

Could be worse - remember the time the FAA pinned a Navajo accident on a passenger in the back because they had their instructor rating and thus were theoretically the highest ranking pilot on board?

[Big Pistons Forever]

I had an Air Cadet student once. She was doing quite well and was definitely not riven with self doubt

While doing solo circuits the guy in the tower got the airplanes mixed up. There was a bit of confusion until he got it sorted but then realized he was missing an airplane, the one my student was in. The following exchange then occurred

Tower : ABC where are you ?

ABC: Downwind for runway 09 East of XXX.

Tower: That is a long way out, why haven’t you turned base ?

ABC: I wasn’t going to turn base until you got your Shit together !

Tower: Ummm Ahhh ABC please turn base now ( loud laughing heard in the background from the other guy in the tower)

[Colonel]

That was something I didn't expect to learn as an instructor: how different students were.

Some students had a severe lack of confidence (for their skill and knowledge level) and
really need a LOT of pushing to get them out to the airplane on a beautiful day.

Other students, it would be 200 and a half and they were ready to take off VFR for a cross
country. You had to hold them back, if you wanted to stop them from committing suicide.

You need to have confidence appropriate to your current level of knowledge and skill.

If you don't have enough confidence (for your skill and knowledge) you're never going to do
anything.

If you have too much confidence in your meagre level of skill and knowledge, I can only ask
how the view is from "Mount Stupid" as Dunning-Kruger put it in their research into this:



The above is extremely applicable to pilot training, I found. I learned an awful lot from instructing.
Some of it was about airplanes, but not really very much. It was all about the most important
component in an airplane - that thing between the pilot's ears.

See, everything else can break on an airplane, but as long as the thing between the pilot's ears is
humming away, it's going to work out ok. The great ones always figure out a way to survive.

If you're a good enough pilot, you can even have large parts fall off and still fly home and land.



That dude touched down at 250 knots, even though that's not the checklist approach speed.


This guy was going a little slower. But he was still flying without any wings providing lift.



It's that thing between your ears that makes an airplane fly. Not that book you're clutching
in your hands in the cockpit like rosary beads.

[Colonel]

I should let this slide, but I never miss a chance to make a fool of myself:

the student should not have been released and that solely falls on the person that signed the release doesn't it?

Right. When a student fucks up, instead of directly charging the instructor
with the contravention that the student committed - legally that's a farce
and easily overturned in Federal Court - perhaps instead the local TC Inspector
in charge of flight training might have a coffee with the supervising (and
certainly chagrined) flight instructor?

Most flight instructors are terrified of losing their instructor rating - they live in
perpetual fear of an "unsatisfactory flight test record" - and most of the time
instead of ascribing to malice, you can generally attribute to incompetence.

I really doubt that flight instructor wanted his student to get CADORs filed.

It's important to realize that most flight instructors were in high school (and student
pilots) only a year or two ago. They are very much still learning about aviation
and leadership. Hence the class four/three/two/one hierarchy.

Took me 10 years and an ATPL to get my first class one instructor rating, but people
think I'm a slow learner.

[Squaretail]

That was something I didn't expect to learn as an instructor: how different students were.

Understatement of the year. I remember when I started instructing, my first few were easy. They studied, caught on quick and the whole thing seemed like a breeze. I show them something, they do it, next exercise. Then I got my first problem students...

Some students had a severe lack of confidence (for their skill and knowledge level) and
really need a LOT of pushing to get them out to the airplane on a beautiful day.

Other students, it would be 200 and a half and they were ready to take off VFR for a cross
country. You had to hold them back, if you wanted to stop them from committing suicide.

Fortunately the former are more common than the latter. The Former were often overly cautious, and were better than they thought they were, and you didn't have to worry about them. They weren't going to get into trouble. it was irritating sometimes pushing them out the door to go flying, but that was generally the worst of it. Many of those took longer to get their license because they wanted to.

The latter unfortunately you would get into fights over the weather with. I remember one fellow who was badgering me if he could do some circuits while I was trying to in vain keep the runway clear of a heavy snow fall in progress. My God man, go stay warm somewhere! Soon as they were licensed, they were going to start running. I recall one guy, who his first flight, minutes after his license was signed, decided he needed to try some loops, promptly his carb float stuck, and he ended up in a field. Fortunately since he wasn't poorly trained, all that was hurt was a lot of pride. When I saw him later I asked him if he could at least wait until the ink was dry before doing more stupid stuff. TC had lots of questions about that.

Anyone remember a couple years back - I think it was in AB - a student pilot
didn't follow ATC instructions (there's a surprise) and TC charged their instructor
with the violation?

There was a while where if a student did anything wrong, they were on you like shit on a blanket. Its swung completely the other way where they don't leave the office anymore. Be nice if there was a happy middle, there's a lot of schools out there who could use some encouragement to shine the hell up.

[Scudrunner]

Could be worse - remember the time the FAA pinned a Navajo accident on a passenger in the back because they had their instructor rating and thus were theoretically the highest ranking pilot on board?

Say whut?

[Colonel]

I remember a similar situation ... after an accident, the FAA held an ATP in the back seat responsible.

Maybe Nark could elaborate? PIC is wildly different, and I understand the most experienced pilot
in the airplane is responsible, even if he never had access to any flight controls during the flight.