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Failed Teaching 2010-03-18
The most dangerous aspect of flying and flight instruction is that the FAA Part 91 system lets incompetents fly and get sweetheart proficiency checks just by careful selection of instructors. The degree of incompetence will vary from session to session and landing to landing. Proficiency problems require more than one flight to uncover. The failure of an instructor or an examiner to uncover deficiencies will eventually cost lives and money. Under stress the flight weaknesses of pilots will arise to the surface and be apparent. A skill deficit need only appear once to cause a fatal accident. Fact is, an instructor can do little to prevent a pilot from practicing dangerous flight and ground procedures. The maintenance records of many an FBO and flying club are living records of substandard piloting. Many club pilots are low-time or at least low time in type. A club checkout is more likely to provide currency rather than proficiency. Initial currency for a pilot with low hours in type is not enough. The best option is to require additional time in type until an instructor can confirm proficiency to the private pilot level. The pilot who will not limit his flying to the skills he has proficiency in performing. Age has a subtle reduction of information processing ability. Flight instructors and designated examiners are the gatekeepers of aviation safety. Being a 'good-guy' is not being an ethical gatekeeper. The safety of an airplane and its non-pilot passengers rest in the ethical standards of the examiners overseeing flight operations. Pilots who haven't flown for several months or even years should get recurrent training in proportion to their lack of currency. Habits are a large part of learning to fly. As in life, flying habits can be good bad and everything in between. The habits you want are characterized as good and safe. Essential good-safe habit is the use of checklists. A major bad habit of checklists is the acceptance of distractions in the use of the checklist. A good habit is the efficiency with which the checklist sequence is completed. Even, better a way to make sure nothing was skipped or otherwise missed. Beyond the checklist we have radio procedure habits, flight control positions during taxi, weather/wind awareness and regional knowledge. Do not let your awareness of the area be limited by official publications. Finally, always know the next two things you are going to do. Otherwise you will be behind the airplane. The first distraction from a pilot's checklist or flying routine is the first step in the accident chain. A distraction is anything that happens with weather, ATC, aircraft, or person that causes fixation. On fixation you stop thinking beyond the one element to the exclusion of all else. A primary distraction, such as engine failure, sets the stage and process for what comes next. A secondary distraction is usually one of a system. Vacuum failure becomes primary only in IMC conditions. Radio system failure is not a VFR emergency and should considered a nuisance rather than a distraction. The GPS is certain to reduce the 'lost' distraction. Flying a complex unfamiliar aircraft is the ultimate distraction. Familiarity with an aircraft gives intuitive reactions. It only takes one unfamiliar instrument in an aircraft to create distraction. A pilot must not allow any unexpected situation take mind and eye time away from flying the aircraft. When a distraction stops thinking the stopping of the airplane is not far behind. A Need to Communicate 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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