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A Need to communicate 2007-10-11
What is the only question an instructor can never answer? It is the unasked question. Many concerns are unspoken. The unspoken fear of every student is what do I do if something happens to the instructor. An instructor who fails to warn the student of changes in sound, thumps and bumps before they happen is creating needless tension. Warn students that crosswind landings are done on one wheel. Flight operations where the ground and speed of the plane are apparent bother some far more than does flight at higher altitudes. Flights in or near clouds give similar effects. The sensations that create pleasure in the instructor can worry the student. Misleading the instructor as to your concerns, fears, preparation or available time is not part of the process. Concerns and fears are normal; expressing them gives you an opportunity to face them down with help from the instructor. Pleasing the instructor is not part of the process. Ask the hard questions for they show a brain at work. A well-directed student question is progress. Being inquisitive and skeptical is desirable The student is encouraged to ask questions. Willingness to ask is more important than the question itself, since it shows the quest for knowledge. Often, the student does not have the background needed to express the question. Give an instructor one key word and he will expound for at least 10 minutes. When the student is expected to pay both for the time to ask the question and for the instructor's time to answer, a powerful dissuasive factor is in force. (For this reason I do not charge for ground time but make up for it with what I charge for flight time.) It is up to the instructor to fill in the voids between the asked and unasked. As often as not, the student cannot remember the question. For this reason, I suggest that the student always carry a question card as a memory aid. The unasked and unanswered question is a tension producer and interferes with learning. The student is not expected to know all the possible causes and effects of what they do. Some things about flying can be learned from books but much of it is experimental to the individual. You try. You try and you try again. You sleep on it. Talk with the instructor about your concerns. Sometimes you go back to review a basic skill that is showing weakness. Then you go and try again. Talent is not a requisite for flying any more than for driving. It takes tenacity to face the frustrations sure to occur as you learn to fly. The pleasures of flying are worth it. The instructor's ability to anticipate problems by discussing them prior to a flight helps the student accept as normal his own difficulties. The unexpected difficulty creates student tension and affects ability to learn. Student concerns that may exist due to the presence of high terrain, bodies of water, or thermal air currents, or lack of preparation should be approached gradually. Several flights may be required to familiarize the student with the fact that mountains can't jump. Water can be overflown at safe gliding altitudes. Turbulence can be gradually introduced by selecting the time of day and where to make flights. Much 'turbulence' is pilot induced by a tight grip and spontaneous reaction. The misconceptions possible in flying never cease to amaze me. The instructor must recognize and train or retrain accordingly. It is far better to be taught correctly in the first place. The repair of instructional damage is both difficult and dangerous because of the potential for reversion. This means that, in an emergency, the student may instinctively revert back to the first instructional procedure no matter how wrong. Misconceptions can be varied as psychological, intellectually misunderstood, educationally missing, or agnosic (oblivious to the obvious). Much of learning to fly is to overcome misconceptions. Early on, I mentioned something about my opinions in regard to flight instruction. Synonymy is the study of degrees of meaning, the fine distinctions between words of similar meanings. Your views of flying and any of its parts may be shaded differently than your opinions. The pilot is always trying to make judgments about the truth of occurrences while flying. My perception and word selection will often be different from yours. What you may see as poorly or well done, I will see as normal. I may require a student to repeat additional maneuvers to make safety related changes or to build habit constants. Ground time may be required to discuss cause and effect or to correct erroneous conceptions. It is important that you, as the student, feel free to discuss with the instructor your understanding of a given situation using your own words. It is not uncommon for a student to be unable to explain a given situation. In this latter case a follow-up phone call may be useful. After giving the same information for several years, instructors tend to become complacent and assume that this present student has the same comprehension as the last student. This assumption may be far from the truth. Failure to lay the ground work, based on a student's background, will reap a terrible harvest. A student should not enter the plane until he knows what he is about to do and why it is required. The why of a given activity includes how much, how far, and why not. A good instructor tries to give the reasons for any instruction. The understanding of the student is confirmed when the student can give the essentials in their own words. Teaching flying is unique in that there are forces acting on the student of which both the student and instructor may be unaware. The inherent fears of man, the pre-conceptions from past exposures, the economic pressures, and social factors all lie in wait to make the teaching/learning process more difficult. 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