The one-and-one is the minimum required per FAR 61.56, and when you add in the time for brief, debrief, and logbook endorsement, you often go beyond an hour, which makes the CFI late for their next client. It is much better to set aside three hours so you aren’t late—and more importantly—aren’t rushed.

• READ MORE: The One-Time Water Landing

Yet many pilots insist that one hour on the ground and one in the air is all they need, or are willing to pay for. Some pilots expect to be automatically signed off for the flight review, even if they don’t demonstrate the requisite knowledge or fly to the level of their certificate.

It doesn’t work that way. Find a CFI who is up-front about this as the Airman Certification Standards for the certificate you hold are what you should be using.

This particular client had held a private pilot certificate for more than 20 years and flew several times a month. Over the years, he had owned airplanes, but at that time, his aircraft was down for its annual, so he was renting a Cessna 172. He didn’t want to rush the flight review. As he put it, he often flew with his grandchildren and was adamant to take his time in the name of safety.

He was more than 25 minutes late. He apologized—traffic was worse than expected when he left work. As we settled into the classroom for the ground portion of the flight review, he discovered he had left his headset at home. He put new ear seals on it the night before and had left it on the kitchen table.

• READ MORE: The Importance of Following Checklists

I offered to let him borrow a spare headset. Instead, he looked at me apologetically and asked if we could stay on the ground rather than fly because his brain, he said, would not be in the airplane. 

He then told me about a rule he had for himself—the rule of three. If three things delaying the flight were distractions, he made it a rule to cancel. I have heard this so-called rule from many other pilots. Three is a cosmic number, one told me, adding that “things happen in threes” is a cliche for a reason. 

I am a student of the accident reports published by the National Transportation Safety Board. When you read them, the bad decisions are clear as day. Often the pilot is rushed or distracted.  Accidents, especially the fatalities, are often a chain of poor decisions.

Distracted = Dangerous

Flying is one of those things that demands our undivided attention. Any distraction can be detrimental to safety. When and if you are in the cockpit of a jet getting paid the big bucks, we hope you’ve learned how to compartmentalize or recognize your own limitations. There will be some days when you are too distracted to fly.

When you fly as a hobby, the stakes aren’t as high. This is not the last chopper out of Saigon, as my first CFI used to remind me. Yet even student pilots can face a lot of pressure to fly, and it comes from all directions. 

It can be a challenge for a student pilot to cancel a flight, especially when the CFI is pressing for it to happen. As a commercial candidate, I encountered a CFI who argued we could “dodge” the thunderstorms that were approaching the airport. The commercial certificate requires more knowledge of weather than the private certificate, and I had embraced this with gusto. The idea of dodging anything didn’t sit well with me.

• READ MORE: What You Need to Know About Tires When Learning to Fly

I had obtained three weather briefings—one the night before, the morning of the flight, and the last one an hour prior to the flight. On that last one the briefer remarked the cold front that was bringing the storms had “moved much faster” than the weather models had anticipated. Based on this available information, I canceled the flight. 

Dark clouds were approaching from the southwest while the CFI somewhat grudgingly helped me put the cover back on the airplane. As we were draping the cover over the fuselage the temperature dropped like someone had opened a window on a cold day. It started to hail. It came down so hard and fast a line boy ran onto the ramp to help us. I felt good about my decision.

Make It Fair

At all times it should be remembered that flight instruction is not compulsory education, but it is a business. For this reason many schools and independent CFIs have a no-show or late cancellation penalty.

This usually takes the form of a signed contract between the school, or CFI and the learner. This policy should be discussed at the first meeting and expectations established. There is often one “free pass” then after that a penalty is levied, such as the cost of one hour of aircraft rental or an hour of the instructor’s time. If the CFI does not show or is late, they owe the flight student a free hour of instruction.

• READ MORE: Don’t Skimp on Ground Instruction in Flight Training

If the learner at least makes an effort to let the CFI or school know they can’t make it, that goes a long way. One of my mentors who ran a flying club for many years took a very hard stance on this, saying if the learner was not responsible enough to make a phone call or at least send a text letting us know they were going to be late, or were not going to be there at all, they were not responsible enough to be a pilot.

When late cancellations or no-shows become a habit, the CFI and/or the flight school may stop scheduling the student altogether. If you have to consistently cancel lessons, perhaps this is not the time for you to pursue flight training.

You are paying a lot of money and investing a lot of energy in your aviation education, so do your best not to get in your own way. If the deck appears to be stacked against you, such as in the form of “the rule of three,” ask yourself if this is the day for you to be in the air.

As for the client who was there for the flight review, a quick text canceled the aircraft reservation. I assured him I was not angry with his decision not to fly, because when a pilot demonstrates good aeronautical decision making—such as recognizing that their head won’t be in the game —I say learning has taken place.  

The post Do You Have the Rule for a No-Go? appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Three miles out from the airport, the pilot of the C-340A announced he was doing a straight-in. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the larger, faster airplane was not configured for landing as its approach speed was 180 knots. The published flap extension speed for the C-340A is 160 knots, and the landing gear extension speed is 140 knots.

Muscle memory, checklist use, and procedures often go hand in hand. Had the pilot of the C-340A flown the traffic pattern for the airport beginning with maneuvering for 45-degree angle entry on to the downwind at midfield, he might have remembered to slow down the airplane and configure it for landing.

NTSB reports are full of similar but thankfully mostly non-fatal events that can occur when the pilot on a straight-in forgets the landing gear—often at a non-towered airport. 

At a towered airport, the controllers often contact the pilot and advise them that their gear is not down with a simple “check gear” query. NTSB investigations into gear-up landings often include a statement from the pilot, who note that the straight-in, devoid of the usual cues such as turning on to the 45 or downwind, resulted in forgetting to run the checklist, which included the action of lowering the landing gear with the phrase “gear down and locked.”

Many instructors, myself included, advocate for at least three gear checks: downwind, base, and final. In the faster aircraft such as a twin, the landing gear is often deployed on the 45 as a means to help slow down the aircraft.

In a fixed-gear airplane you don’t have to worry about the landing gear position, but checking the position of the gear if possible (like looking out the window in the high wing aircraft) is a good habit.

Verbalizing the checklist on each leg of the pattern is also a good habit. There may be things that are “deferred,” such as putting the propeller to full as one does on final in a complex airplane to facilitate a go-around if needed.

My U.S. Air Force Academy-trained instructor beat this into me—and recitation had to end with “check list complete” in my authoritative pilot voice.

On a straight-in approach, you miss the cues for aircraft configuration changes, such as power reduction and addition of flaps.

Here’s a teachable moment: dropping all the flaps at once can potentially bend metal if the aircraft is outside of V_FE, and will trigger a pitch change that catches many novice pilots by surprise. The natural reaction is to take all the flaps out in one movement, which makes the bad situation worse.

I demonstrate this to the learner at an appropriate altitude and at a flap-friendly speed in the practice area just so they know what it feels like and what it does to the airplane and why it is not something you want to mess with when you are close to the ground.

We then discuss how the incremental deployment of flaps prevents the pitch surprise, as does following the prelanding checklist on each leg of the pattern to achieve the published speeds for each leg as recommended by the manufacturer.

Poor Approach, Poor Landing

One of the first lessons to be taught to the novice pilot is that a poor approach results in a poor landing. If you are behind the airplane, as in slow to reduce throttle, start the descent, deploy flaps, that landing will be ugly. This can happen during straight in approaches as the legs of the pattern are a reminder to the pilot to run the checklist and reconfigure the aircraft.  Instead, the pilot relies on experience and knowledge of the aircraft performance to determine when to do configuration changes. This experience is best gained with a seasoned CFI next to you and flown in an appropriate environment, like at a towered airport when the pilot requests and ATC grants a straight-in approach.

Straight-ins at non-towered airports are especially dangerous as we learned by the Watsonville collision. When an aircraft comes bombing into a pattern already occupied by other aircraft, it is very much like running a red light. There may be someone closer than you think on a collision course. You can’t slam the brakes on an airplane in the air. Entering the pattern on the 45 at pattern altitude provides better situational awareness as it gives the pilot more of an opportunity to scan for traffic, see and avoid it.

It is for this reason many instructors discourage their learners from doing straight-in approaches. While I agree they are not a good idea at a non-controlled airport, they should be, at the very least, briefed and the scenario flown in the practice area so the learner knows when to refer to the checklist, when to reduce power, when to lower the flaps, etc.

Outside a request from a tower, there are times when a straight-in is called for, such as when a magneto fails a few miles outside the traffic pattern and the airport is the closest suitable runway.

This is the scenario I use with my learners, as I experienced it in the real world as a learner. My CFI demonstrated the proper technique, troubleshooting the issue to no avail, calling my attention to the diminished engine power available and sight picture, and ensuring that we had the runway made before applying flaps and reducing the power to idle.

Many years later, I was the CFI and had this happen. The straight-in and landing was a nonevent. The chief mechanic brought me fragments of metal that had been the left magneto to show my ground school class.

Another scenario where a straight-in is appropriate is when the weather that was VFR or MVFR drops to IFR and you, the noninstrument-rated pilot in the non-IFR-equipped aircraft need to get down quickly.

Don’t Be That Pilot

There are pilots who, when they hear another pilot on the radio state they are planning to do a straight-in approach, will scold the pilot or even threaten to call the FAA on them. This is not a discussion to have on the radio.

I have witnessed this at nontowered airports. I tell my learners not to engage that person. Focus on flying the airplane. If you are the pilot doing the straight-in for any of the above mentioned reasons—weather, a mechanical issue, or perhaps even an airsick passenger that necessitates getting on the ground quickly but not declaring an emergency—wait until you get on the ground before you get into a “discussion” with the other pilot. 

The post Why Straight-In Approaches Aren’t So Straightforward appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

This was the learner’s third flight lesson, and already he had mastered the use of the checklist. 

I stood back, silently observing—it appeared someone had not used the checklist when they shut down the aircraft. 

To shut down the engine, the mixture knob or lever is pulled full aft, with the knob or lever left out. Yet, looking at this cockpit it was obvious someone had put the knob back in.

As that was not the correct procedure, the learner took extra care with the inspection, calling my attention to several other discrepancies. He found several electrical switches left “on,” the most disconcerting of which was the avionics master switch. This aircraft had several placards warning the pilot to make sure the radio was off before activating the avionics master switch and to make sure the avionics master was off before activating the aircraft master switch.

According to the chief mechanic and owner of the Cessna 172, if these procedures were not followed, a surge of power could be sent to the radios, possibly damaging them. Apparently this had happened in the past. In addition to the placards, there was a warning written in all caps and in red on the checklist.

• READ MORE: How to Beat the Summer Heat When Flying

This wasn’t a one-time experience. The mixture knobs in other aircraft were also found in the full rich position. It was obvious someone—perhaps several someones—were not following the checklists.

The flight school was busy, as most of the instructors were flying eight hours per day, and there were multiple student pilots with solo privileges renting the aircraft. The concern of the chief CFI was that the instructors were not teaching checklist use, or worse yet, not demonstrating and modeling proper cockpit procedures. The CFIs were reminded to carefully watch their learners and remind them to use and follow the checklist during each phase of flight. 

An email was sent to all the renters and students, asking them to please use the checklists especially on aircraft shutdown. Some of the learners were confused by the email, because they thought the only problem that could arise from an improperly shutdown aircraft was the potential of a “hot prop,” the term for the magnetos being left on.

When the magnetos are shut off, the spark is grounded to the airframe. If the magnetos are left on, the spark is not grounded, and there is the possibility the prop can “kick,” as in move forcefully on its own if bumped or repositioned by hand. Approach the propeller like it is a big dog you don’t know—with caution and respect.

• READ MORE: Discovering Situational Awareness in the Instrument World

I have seen the aftermath of someone getting hit by a prop. It was at a Saturday morning fly-in pancake breakfast. It was winter and one of those cold, clear days that are so rare in the Pacific Northwest. The owner of the Cessna 172 was moving the prop by hand to a vertical position to signal that he needed fuel. 

I was two spots away when I heard the impact. I turned in time to see him on the ground. The engine hadn’t started because the mixture was out, but the prop had rotated on its own, coming down rapidly and striking his arm.

Although shaken, he said he was fine, as he was wearing a heavy winter jacket, and it prevented him from getting a serious injury. Or so he thought. A few minutes later he collapsed. We thought he was having a heart attack. He was lucky that several of the people in attendance were paramedics. When they got his jacket off, they discovered his arm was broken— there was bruising and swelling — and determined that he was in shock. 

I share this story with my learners. Oddly enough, the one who was skeptical of the damage a  live propeller could do was the one who had the ignition key break off during aircraft shutdown. It was the policy of the school to quickly switch to “off,” then back to “both” to determine the mags could be grounded to the airframe, then shut the engine off. As he switched back to both, the key sheared off. The mags were stuck on. 

We shut the aircraft down by pulling the mixture full after and depriving the engine of fuel and turned off the master switch. I ran inside to get the chief mechanic while the learner stayed with the airplane, standing behind the strut, and warning his classmates of the potentially live and therefore dangerous prop. 

We both watched as the chief mechanic used one of his specialized tools to turn the mags to the off position and removed what was left of the key. As he got out of the aircraft he looked at the student and playfully admonished him: “Go easier on the Wheaties! You’re breaking the keys!”

As for the identity of the pilot who was improperly shutting down the aircraft, he was a private candidate who thought he was helping the other pilots by putting the mixture to the “rich” position at the end of the flight because it was on the engine start checklist, and he wanted to save the pilots a step.

After he was educated about the importance of following the checklist, the behavior ceased as learning had taken place.

The post The Importance of Following Checklists appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

This is not what a CFI wants to hear when the learner is doing the preflight inspection. The learner was looking at the nosewheel of the Cessna 150, specifically, at a scalloped pattern on the side of the tire. She’d never seen this before—and frankly, in my more than 30 years of flying, neither had I. But I knew ugly when I saw it. 

One of the things I teach my learners is not to be embarrassed about asking for help, or asking a more experienced pilot or mechanic a question about something you find during a preflight. With this in mind I took a photograph of the tire with my smartphone and sent it to an A&P/IA with the text question, “OK to fly?” although I had a pretty good idea what the reply would be.

And I was right. 

The reply came back immediately: NO. A few more lines followed, mostly caveats about tires blowing at awkward moments and inquired if I needed help. I quickly explained the situation and ended with the phrase, “Decision: no-go.”

Although disappointed we could not fly, I was happy the learner had the opportunity to see a less-than-standard tire, because it allowed us to have a discussion about aircraft tires. They take a beating at a flight school, so it’s important for the learner to know what is normal and what is not. There is a reason that the checklist includes “check tires for proper inflation, damage, and flat spots.”

Negative transference—that is, applying information from something similar but different—can bite a pilot, especially with tires. One of the big mistakes made by fledgling pilots, especially those who are renting aircraft, is that they think airplane tires are the same as automobile tires, according to Randy Hedrick, customer support engineer for Michelin Tire. 

“Car tires have a wear bar. Aircraft tires don’t,” Hedrick said, noting that the flight students may not realize the aircraft tires are worn to the point of impending failure or more commonly, improperly inflated. 

“We recommend doing a pressure check before the first flight of the day. It’s normal for tires to lose pressure during the day, [so] losing up to 5 percent in two to four hours is acceptable.”

Renter pilots often don’t check the pressure of the tires as part of the preflight inspection. Improperly inflated tires can cause vibration—and that will definitely get your attention during ground operations, especially during takeoff and landing. 

Can You Change the Tire?

Most flight schools keep spare tires stocked, especially when they are also an FBO and have a visiting aircraft in need of maintenance. If they have a replacement tire, you have the tools, and it is your aircraft, so the FARs permit you to change the tire. But please don’t try to do it unless you have the proper tools and know how. 

Every mechanic contacted for this story said the same thing: It’s best to have someone with experience (like an A&P) show you how to do it at least once. There are more steps involved when changing an aircraft tire than there are when changing a tire on a bicycle or automobile, and different techniques and the right tools are a must.

For starters, you need to chock the other tires, find the jack point on your aircraft, and then have some blocks of wood to balance the jack. You have to be careful as you jack up the airplane and reposition the jack because the tire may move in.

Once the airplane is jacked up and the tire off the ground, you have to cut the safety wire. This releases the bolts that hold the brake pad in place, allowing you to take the wheel apart. That’s right—take the wheel apart.

The inner tube can take on a life of its own. Be very careful about the valve stem and be sure the tire tube is not kinked or folded. Installing the tube, whether new or used, involves talcum powder to guide in the inner tube. You have to be careful not to allow the tube to crease or fold, because that can introduce uneven wear, which you will feel when the tire rotates during ground operations.

These are just a few of the things we were warned about. There are many more steps to it, and even if you’ve done it before, you’ll probably want your A&P to check your work. You also need to log the tire change in the aircraft maintenance log.

Even putting air in the tire is not as straightforward as it is with cars. With automobile tires you find the pressure printed on the sidewall. On an airplane, that information is printed in the aircraft’s pilot’s operating handbook or airplane flying manual. Be able to find that information, noting the pressure for the nosewheel and main gear are usually different. 

Always verify those numbers before you ask someone to put air in the tires.

Flight School Tire Challenges

The flat spot is the most common issue found on flight school tires. This is caused by slamming on the brakes and locking them up.

Flat spots can be a challenge to see if the aircraft has wheel pants, so be ready to gently roll the aircraft forward by hand and check the tires all around during the preflight inspection. If the chords are showing through the tread, it’s usually a no-go situation. But there are some pilots who want to make the flight so badly that they get hit with an invulnerability stick and take the aircraft out anyway.

Please don’t be this person.

When you report an issue with a tire to the flight school you expect the maintenance crew to take a look at it. Most of them are good about this, as the aircraft doesn’t make any revenue when it is sitting on the ground.

If you are skeptical that the tire has been inspected, you can do the old chalk trick – make a line on the tire with chalk. If the tire is inspected the chalk line should disappear as the tire rolling over the ground will erase the mark. If the chalk line remains, the tire was not checked.

The post What You Need to Know About Tires When Learning to Fly appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

“I’m not paying for ground instruction,” he told me. 

This was not about doing hours of private pilot ground school. This was about any ground, including that which is done to satisfy FAR 91.103, which reads: “Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning that flight.” This means learning how to access and interpret weather, calculate aircraft performance, use a checklist, and the lesson pre- and post-briefings. 

He just wanted to fly, he said.

I told him I am from the “teach it on the ground, practice it in the air” school of instruction, so I was not the right instructor for him. I figured he would find another pilot to take him up for rides. 

If the learner would rather do ground school on their own using one of the many fine online courses available such as Rod Machado’s, Sportys, ASA, etc., I am fine with that, as long as they invest the time to learn the material. Most of the online courses allow CFIs to be notified when their learners have taken a quiz or test. This makes it easy for us to see your soft spots, and the best CFIs can tailor a flight lesson to help you learn better. 

Ground school is much more than preparing for the knowledge test. Ground school—any ground training—gives the learner the information they need to make good aviation decisions. Topics typically covered include how to fly in certain types of weather, determining aircraft performance so you don’t run out of runway and options at the same time, or  knowing what creates lift or a rough running engine so that you can troubleshoot it.

If your instructor is reluctant to do a preflight briefing or tells you it is “too early” for ground school, find someone else to fly with, as they are short-changing you on your education. It may be that the CFI never had someone model the importance of ground school for them, or they trained at an accelerated program where the ideology was to pass the knowledge tests and frankly the checkride by memorization.

When a learner says they don’t want to do ground training—as in not even learning to use a checklist—it raises a red flag. This was one of the things flight school employees and CFIs were told to watch for after the 9/11 attacks. 

CFIs were instructed to be wary of persons who wanted to take shortcuts by going straight to flying a multiengine airplane or inquiring if the flight school had a jet to train in. We were told to pay attention to intro flight clients who made inquiries about the closest tall buildings, military establishments, or made jokes about security and hijackings or simply put us on edge.

Most of the time though, the impatient learners—especially those that don’t want to do ground instruction—don’t see the value in the training. This may come from a CFI they have worked with in the past. If the CFI doesn’t value ground instruction, the learner won’t either.

My first experience with this type of impatient flight student was a pre-solo learner who had been flying at another school. A review of his logbook revealed he had logged 10 hours in the past two months. There were takeoffs and landings, towered airport operations, and straight and level flight. No ground instruction was recorded. This is not surprising. At some flight schools, CFIs are only paid when the engine is running. As they do not get paid for providing ground instruction, many are reluctant to do much, if any.

Despite his hours, the learner had no idea how to obtain a weather briefing, calculate aircraft performance, or use the checklist to do the preflight inspection. I saw this as an opportunity to educate him. And I did, for a whopping 24 minutes total. I demonstrated a few things, talking him through others. “You use these skills on every flight,” I explained.

As we were Part 61 school the learner resented the idea of using a syllabus and the checklist, saying it was “too military” He was a “both hands on the yoke guy” for takeoff and needed coaching on rudder use. He refused to make radio calls and had to be reminded to make clearing turns.

The flight, all 1.3 hours of it, was climbs, descents, turns to a heading, and slow flight. Slow flight was new to him and made him nervous. He said he preferred straight and level, which gave him more of a chance to look around. We did a lot of that. We ended with a lap in the pattern. There was coaching on the landing.

After the flight there was the obligatory debrief, and I filled out and signed his logbook. When he was presented with the bill for 1.3 flight and 0.5 ground, he became upset, saying he refused to pay for the ground portion because, according to him, all I did was talk.

Before I could reply, my next learner, a CFI candidate who was sitting on the couch waiting for me, burst out with, “That’s called teaching!”

Lucky for me the office manager overheard the exchange and said she would take care of things, and I should get on with my next client.

It wasn’t until the end of the day that I caught up with the office manager, who rather smugly told me the previous learner’s bill had been adjusted. When the learner insisted he was only paying for flying around straight and level, she changed the flight rate from instructional to scenic, which was considerably more per hour. Basically, the bill was doubled.

“We will never see him again,” I said, stunned.

“That’s the idea,” she replied.

The post Don’t Skimp on Ground Instruction in Flight Training appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Although we were not getting flight following—the request was denied because ATC was too busy—I insisted on monitoring the frequency. I was about to explain why to the learner when another pilot requested the RNAV 35 approach to the airport starting at ARWEL, an IFR fix a few miles to the east of us and about 1,000 feet above us as published. 

• READ MORE: Improving CFI Training Remains a Never-Ending Goal

“We’re about to have company out here,” I said.

The learner, who had been a private pilot for several years but did not have an instrument rating, mentioned he flew in this area often and saw a lot of airplanes, but they were never on the airport frequency.

“That’s because they are on with Seattle Approach,” I replied. 

We talked about how this is different from the air-to-air communications frequency used in the other practice areas that pilots used to announce their location and intentions. Not only do these auditory tools back up the ADS-B information, they also prepare learners for their cross-country flights and instrument training, which as any IFR pilot will tell you, is radio intensive.

• READ MORE: The Confidence Factor in Learning to Fly

The experience requirements for a private pilot certificate per CFR 61.109 include three hours of flight training in a single-engine airplane on the control. Also required is the maneuvering of an airplane solely by reference to instruments, including straight and level flight, constant airspeed climbs and descents, turns to a heading, recovery from unusual flight attitudes, radio communications, and the use of navigation systems/facilities and radar services appropriate to instrument flight.

Usually, this experience comes from the learner donning a view-limiting device and spending .2 to .5 of an hour under the device while they fly headings, altitudes, and maneuvers at the direction of their flight instructor. 

Occasionally a CFI will pick up an IFR clearance and have the learner fly an approach into an airport. But for the most part private pilot candidates don’t learn about the IFR approaches until they begin their instrument training. This can be a challenge when the learner flies out to their “favorite practice area,” blissfully unaware that they are close to IFR fixes—essentially, they are “playing on the freeway.”

Know Where the Traffic Congregates

In ground school we learn to be extra careful near VORs, over published ground visual checkpoints, and in the traffic pattern because these are places where aircraft congregate. We should be mentioning IFR fixes as well that may be well away from an airport.

Do you know where the instrument approaches begin at your airport? Ask an instrument-rated pilot, like a CFI, to show them to you. This is best done pulling up the appropriate instrument approach plate and comparing it to a VFR sectional. You may discover that your favorite place to do turns around a point is just 1,000 feet below an initial approach fix for the ILS. 

• READ MORE: The Art of Ground School

Some flight schools make photo copies of the local instrument approaches and overlay them on a VFR sectional so that their noninstrument-rated pilots will know where they are. This is accompanied by textual descriptions of what to be on the lookout for and appropriate procedures, such as listening on a particular frequency or an altitude limitation or caution.

According to the renter pilot I was flying with that day, he had no idea he was in the vicinity of the RNAV approach and what altitudes were used by the pilots flying the approach. Although the conditions were VFR, we obtained an IFR clearance and executed the RNAV 35 into the airport so he could see where the pilots flying the approach would be in relation to where he liked to fly. 

He was delighted. He had been flying for years but never knew what was going on in the instrument world. He said he had no intention of getting his instrument rating but was happy to have better situational awareness—and learning took place.

The post Discovering Situational Awareness in the Instrument World appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Development of Confidence

The learner’s confidence often comes from their trust of the instructor.

Does your instructor inspire confidence? Do they have a vested interest in your training? Do they get excited for you when you reach a milestone like your first solo? Do they come up with creative ways of teaching when you are having difficulty? Or do they become frustrated when you’re not getting it and complain that they are “too good” to “still be a CFI?” 

• READ MORE: How Do You Obtain a Student Pilot Certificate After a Break in Training?

While you don’t necessarily have to like your instructor, you do need to respect them, and they need to respect you for learning to take place. If respect is not present, the best thing to do is change instructors.

Practice and Drill

“Why are we doing this again?” the learner asked when the CFI asked for a demonstration of ground reference maneuvers. 

The answer is because practice and drill increase proficiency, and proficiency results in confidence. A good portion of your flight training will be reviewed to make sure you consistently meet the airman certification standards (ACS).

On the ground drill can mean taking practice knowledge tests—as few as 10 questions at a time —until the material is learned, or going through practice check ride oral exams until the material is understood, not just delivered by rote.

What Hurts Confidence

Confidence is shaken if the learner gets the impression the CFI is making up answers to questions or if the CFI puts the learner into dangerous situations, like flying in a thunderstorm or icing conditions.

Some CFIs make excuses, like the CFI who flew into a closed airport twice (two different airports) with a learner because he didn’t check the NOTAMs. I asked the CFI why he didn’t check the NOTAMs before the flight and was told “that’s the student’s job.” Riiiiiight. Apparently he hadn’t taught his learner how to check NOTAMs because no one taught him.

• READ MORE: When Flight Training Stalls

If a flight is going poorly, the worst thing an instructor can do is tell the learner “just sit back, I’ll take us back to the airport.” It’s much better if the CFI engages the learner, if at all possible. If they don’t physically want to fly, have them run the radios, do navigation—all the while asking them to take the controls again.

The exception to this is when the learner does something willfully dangerous, like attempting to buzz something on the ground or not listening to the CFI when they tell the learner to go around. If the CFI has to take the controls to prevent a crash because the learner cannot follow directions, remove them from training.

Disengaged CFI

If the instructor views teaching as a chore, or complains how they want to move on, the learner can start to wonder if they are truly getting an education or simply paying for someone else to pad their logbook. This erodes learner confidence.

I wish I had a dollar for all the times I have heard pilot candidates remark they weren’t sure if they learned anything from their CFI because the flights were pretty much the CFI just sitting there. There was no feedback, good or bad.

A lack of communication can make a learner doubt themselves. I tell my learners if I am quiet in the cockpit, they are doing a good job. I learned to say this because a rather anxious young man was worried I was upset with him as his father had warned him, “It’s never good when a woman is quiet.”

Identifying What Makes You Anxious

If there is something that makes you anxious about flying, let your CFI know what it is. A good CFI will help you deconstruct the issue and come up with a workable solution for improving your confidence.

For example, if you are worried about getting lost, plan a dual cross-country flight using only pilotage and dead reckoning. Cover up the magnetic compass and make the GPS and VOR off-limits for this exercise.

The CFI might even toss in a divert. On the next flight add in a VOR (if available) and have the learner triangulate their position. Once you have that down cold, add in the GPS as a backup measure during cross-country flights.

Landings

Landings can cause anxiety. The ground is rushing up at you, and if you don’t have good airspeed control or there’s a crosswind that is taxing your capability, it’s easy to scare yourself.

Break down the process to identify the items that are giving you the issue: Is it staying ahead of the airplane? Run the checklist to get a better grasp on the procedures and “chair fly” the pattern, identifying what speeds and altitudes you are at on each leg.

• READ MORE: The Art of Ground School

If you are having trouble determining when to flare, have your CFI demonstrate how to fly 6 inches over the runway in the landing attitude, then do a go-around. The learner repeats this maneuver until they get comfortable.

Crosswinds

Since we can’t control the weather, an aviation training device (ATD) is excellent for learning how to handle crosswinds.

Start with crosswinds at 30 degrees and work up to 90 degrees and increase velocity. The learner gains muscle memory in the sim that can be replicated in the aircraft. Then make it a point to fly on wind days to get real-world experience.

You will be surprised at how much more confident you feel

Check Ride Oral Exam

It is often said that check ride failures most often happen during the oral exam rather than the flying portion.

If you have test anxiety, ask your CFI to set up mock oral exams for you. These need to be more than just reading out of the oral exam guide. Have another CFI put you through your paces. 

Understand that the purpose of the mock oral exams is to find the soft spots so that they can be reinforced before the actual check ride.

Overconfidence

The opposite end of the spectrum is the overconfident pilot who resents instruction.

If the learner has flown with another CFI who didn’t do preflight and post-flight briefings, or didn’t use a syllabus or emphasize checklist use, the learner can become resentful of the replacement CFI, suggesting they are trying to undermine the learner’s confidence by showing them what they don’t know. That’s the wrong attitude for a learner to take.

Every time you fly with a different CFI, anticipate you will learn something, just as CFIs pick up something from each learner they fly with.

CFIs need to be careful not to criticize the previous instructor, or say things like, “I can’t believe you don’t know this.” That can be a challenge sometimes, like when the learner doesn’t do clearing turns or use the rudders in flight.

“My other instructor told me not to do that,” or “my other instructor never made me do that,” are red flag phrases which usually translate to “something was lost in translation.”

If a learner is successful in another aspect of life, like their career, they can be of the mind that learning to fly will be very easy for them. When it isn’t, that can be a challenge to their self esteem.

The CFI can help the learner by pointing out that learning is a process, and anything as skill and knowledge dependent as flying is going to take time and practice and patience. Both the learner and CFI need to recognize this so that learning can take place.

The post The Confidence Factor in Learning to Fly appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

This year I met several newly minted flight instructors and flight instructors in training who wish to do more than build their hours from the right seat. They want to be good teachers of flight. I really hope they meant what they said.

Training the Trainers

One of my great joys is working with CFI applicants who share the mindset that instruction is important and not just a way to build hours.

I will train teachers, not time builders. To do otherwise would be a disservice to future pilots.

The Problem With Shortcuts

We compared notes about applicants we’d encountered who had gone through accelerated training programs for CFIs.

While there are people who do very well with “quick ticket” training,  the fact is a few day courses don’t really teach you how to be a teacher. The only thing that does this is experience.

We all start out green. Time and practice is the only way to achieve seasoning.

Nearly everyone had a story to tell about the CFI applicant who wanted to take shortcuts just to pass the check ride.

They didn’t know how to organize a lesson, create a lesson plan, or offer a critique, but they had memorized the check ride. They parroted things they read off the internet. The mindset was “you’ll learn to teach after you get the ticket.”

This is unfair to the person who you are supposed to be teaching. They are paying for instruction, and you should be able to deliver. If you cannot do that, get out of the right seat.

Options to Improve CFI Training

Ideas were floated on improving the quality of flight instruction in the U.S.

The top suggestion was to increase CFI pay to entice them to stay on the job for more than one year. That’s the average time spent teaching for the pilot who is building their hours toward ATP minimums.

The theory is that spending more time as a CFI would enable these people to become better teachers. More experience doing something does tend to improve your performance. I submit, however, that unless that person really wants to be a CFI, this amounts to putting lipstick on a pig. 

If the candidate thinks flight instruction is beneath them—and there are some who do—no amount of money in the world is going to change that. Often their attitude comes across in the cockpit and the classroom.

Also, many smaller flight schools don’t have the revenue to support this business model, or they see all CFIs easily replaceable, saying their lack of experience justifies the low pay.

In many cases, working full-time as a CFI is too financially challenging. And even though they are good teachers and enjoy the job, many CFIs leave the profession for higher paying careers in other industries. 

Quality Over Quantity

Another suggestion was to create a training metric for CFIs, such as a set number of hours logged as dual instruction received post-commercial certificate to qualify for the CFI check ride, or be paired up with a CFI with more experience in a mentoring relationship before you are permitted to endorse anyone for a check ride. For example, the newly minted CFI would need 100 hours dual before they can sign off a client. 

These are intriguing ideas, but I am reasonably certain that in the U.S. with the pilot shortage and the “hurry up” mentality of so many flight students, any FAA rule changes would go over like a skunk on the dance floor at prom. Frankly, it would be too cumbersome and limiting in the training environment we have today.

CFI Responsibility 

There were also discussions about stressing the role of the CFI as a teacher and a coach.

Our job is to guide the learner in all facets of training air and ground. The learners don’t know what they don’t know, and no CFI or flight school should take advantage of their lack of experience.

There was a particularly painful story about a private pilot candidate who was at a school that provided both Part 141 and Part 61 training. The learner was flying under Part 61 and limited to flying just once a week, although they had the money and time to fly more frequently. 

According to the learner, as they compared flying lessons to music lessons, which are often just once a week, they didn’t know that flying more frequently would accelerate the learning process.

The CFIs—there were several—were fine with the once-a-week lesson, and according to the learner, never suggested an increase in lesson frequency. The learner allegedly spent thousands of dollars and several months “taking rides with multiple CFIs” but never soloed. 

If a CFI determines they cannot teach a particular client, the ethical thing to do is terminate the relationship. If you’re both frustrated, it’s in both of your best interests. It is far better if your CFI says, “I am not the right instructor for you,” than for them to keep showing up and taking your time and money. Often this breeds resentment.

Flight Training Is a Partnership

Sometimes CFIs encounter pilot applicants who have a participation trophy mindset when it comes to flight training.

Just showing up and going through the motions is not enough in aviation. We need to be clear that both the CFI and learner need to apply themselves and be accountable for their performance.

For learners who are successful in other aspects of their lives, this self-reflection can be painful at times. If you don’t meet performance standards as put forth in the ACS, it doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you need more practice or a different approach to learning.

You won’t enjoy every part of your training— there will be days it seems tedious and difficult. There will be the dreaded learning plateaus that will make you question your life choices. There will also be those days with “aha!” moments, where the stars align, and the knowledge and skill come together.

You will get a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that a relatively few in the human population achieve. This is particularly true when the designated pilot examiner (DPE) hands you your temporary certificate.

But to get there you need to work with your CFI—and they need to work with you.

The post Improving CFI Training Remains a Never-Ending Goal appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

Although it is common for learners to imprint on their instructors, the fact of the matter is that the training connection is a business relationship. There needs to be communication about goals, how to achieve them, progress made, what has been accomplished, and what needs to be done. 

When you are a novice pilot, it can be a challenge to determine if progress is being made. When it becomes clear that it isn’t, it is time to make a change.

Flying Once a Week—Or Less

To make progress you need to fly on a consistent basis. This can be a challenge given limitations on instructor availability, airplane availability, learner availability, or finances.

There is no way anyone can make progress when you fly just once a week or a few times a month. You need a minimum of two lessons per week, three would be better, for learning to take place.

If you don’t have the money or time to fly at least twice a week, now may not be the time to pursue flight training. Save up the money and carve out the time to train. 

Flight Lessons Longer Than Two Hours

Just as flying too little hampers learning, so does flying too much.

Flying is fatiguing both mentally and physically. The cognitive demands, noise, and vibration of the aircraft can wear you out. Learning will not take place if you are tired.

It is not uncommon for pre-solo novice pilots to book five-hour lessons in the aircraft thinking they can knock out huge chunks of training in one lesson. This usually doesn’t work due to the fatigue factor.

You will need to build up endurance in the cockpit just like you do when learning to play a sport. For flights out to the practice area and back, two hours of flight time might be on the ragged edge.

While the FBOs gladly take your money and the CFIs will rack up the hours, you probably won’t get much out of it after about an hour in the air. Flying is too expensive to become self-loading ballast, so consider keeping the pre-solo flights to the practice area and in the pattern no longer than 1.3 hours. When your endurance increases, lengthen the lessons.

Too Early for Ground School?

It is never too early. Most of what you do in the airplane is best taught on the ground in a classroom than practiced in the air. The rules, regulations, and airspace are best taught on the ground as aircraft make terrible classrooms. 

If the CFI doesn’t recommend ground school, insists you self-study, and/or doesn’t make time to review what you have learned, ask why they are reluctant. If you’re not sure about a concept or an aircraft system or how to use a piece of equipment like ForeFlight or the E6-B, and your CFI can’t show you, find someone else to work with.

The CFI Doesn’t Use a Syllabus

A syllabus is the best way to keep a learner on track as it lists the tasks to be performed for certification and the order the tasks are to be learned.

Flight instructors train their clients as they were trained, and sadly many CFIs don’t use a syllabus because the person who trained them didn’t. “No one here uses one,” is a tepid excuse and unprofessional.

Minimal Preflight and Post-Flight Briefings 

“Did you check the weather?” and “See you next week,” are not pre- and post-flight briefings.

The preflight briefing consists of what the planned lesson is, how it will be conducted, and completion standards. The post-flight briefing consists of how you performed on the flight, ways to improve if required, and what will be done on the next flight.

Reluctance to Teach Basic Navigation

If your CFI is all about GPS, and says that no one uses the VORs, magnetic compass, pilotage or ded reckoning anymore, know that this is not accurate.

The basic method of navigation is using outside visual references. You also need to be able to determine time, speed and distance calculations using the E6-B—either analog or electronic—rather than relying on an app to do the work. 

For your check ride, you will need to know how to perform a divert in midair, and it is likely the examiner will disable the electronic devices to test your skills.

Reluctance to Use Paper Charts

While the electronic flight bag is a marvelous tool and reduces cockpit clutter, it can overheat, run out of power, or disappear from your flight bag or airplane.

Learn to use paper as backup. Also, you may find it more expedient to use paper for certain operations, such as looking up an airport tower frequency.

Instead of tapping on multiple tabs, a quick glance at paper gives you the information you seek.

No Introduction to the FAR/AIM

The Federal Aviation Regulations/Aeronautical Information Manual (FAR/AIM) spells out the knowledge and experience required for every certificate and rating. Your CFI should tell you about this book on day one of your training and demonstrate how to use it. 

The FAR/AIM is a tool to be used to “trust but verify.” There are far too many learners going on flights that are more for the benefit of the CFI building their hours.

How many times have you heard about a low-time, pre-solo private pilot candidate doing an IFR flight or night cross counties at the insistence of their instructor? 

Remember this is your training, and it’s supposed to benefit you. If you ever feel like that has not happened, you are well within your rights to make a change.

The post When Flight Training Stalls appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

They will drop out of flight training when they run out of money or when life gets in the way. It can also happen with ground school—they miss a class here or there or don’t have time to study. More often than not, it is more of a slow goodbye when they become overwhelmed. 

It is a learning plateau of sorts, and a good CFI will be watching for this and be ready to reel the learner back in.

Instructor Attitude Sets the Tone

It starts with attitude. If the instructor doesn’t want to be there, neither will the learners.

To the CFIs: Ground school shouldn’t be treated like a chore or a necessary evil. 

To the learners: Yes, it will help you pass the knowledge test, but it is also there to prepare you for your time in the air. Put some effort into it, and with the help of your instructor, do flight lessons that help you better understand the concepts you learn about in class.

To the flight schools: Find a CFI who excels at and enjoys teaching ground school. Nothing turns off a learner quicker than a lazy CFI who reads slides off a screen or passages out of a book and tries to call that teaching. They need to be engaged in the delivery—and that needs to be memorable for learning to take place.

Some flight schools pay their CFIs to create and teach a 10-week course with the caveat that the participants who miss a class can drop in on that particular class in the next 10-week course for free. Give the participants a six-month window to do these makeup classes.

This works best when the ground schools are run several times a year, provided they have enough learners to make it economically feasible for the flight school. I have taught classes with as few as five and as many as 12 learners.

The pace of the class should be to accommodate the slowest learner. It will take the CFI about two weeks to determine who that is.

To the CFI: Be ready to give that person extra assistance (privately) if needed, as there are fewer worse feelings than being left behind academically. Understand that talking is not teaching any more than throwing food at someone is getting them to eat.

Ask questions of the learners to see if the message delivered is the one received. If it isn’t, be ready to rephrase

Train the trainers 

It can be beneficial for CFI candidates to shadow the lead CFI, and open this opportunity to the inexperienced CFIs or even a commercial soon-to-be CFI candidate.

The CFI who is leading the course assigns the student-teacher a topic—for example, weight and balance or hazardous weather. The leading CFI is still in charge and will oversee the lesson to make sure all the elements are addressed, but it is a great opportunity for an up-and-comer to gain teaching experience.

Take the Initiative to Teach Ground

If your flight school does not have an established face-to-face ground school class, perhaps you can take the initiative and create one?

You don’t have to hold a CFI certificate to do this. You can become a ground instructor by passing the advanced ground instructor (AGI) knowledge test.

There is a basic ground instructor certificate, but if you want to pursue Gold Seal certification (the FAA’s way of saying you know your stuff), you will need to have an AGI, so why not get it now? The material on these tests is similar to that required of the private pilot and commercial pilot candidates. Once you pass the AGI exam, you can begin teaching ground school.

This nugget of knowledge comes from Greg Brown’s The Savvy Flight Instructor. Brown was flight instructor of the year in 2000 and inducted into the Flight Instructor Hall of Fame in 2021.

Brown became my mentor after I heard him speak at a convention. His book is required reading for all the CFI candidates I work with, because it provides guidance on how to achieve professionalism and to market and prepare yourself to be an aviation educator. If you are on the instructor track, read this book.

Initiative: Master Level

When you don’t have a CFI certificate or experience as a teacher, it can be difficult to find a location that will hire you as a ground instructor. Don’t let that stop you.

Have some business cards made and market yourself as a tutor for those in pursuit of their flight review. The ground portion can often be very daunting if it has been a few years since they were involved in aviation.

This is how I started my instructor career. I began tutoring a friend in a Starbucks on Saturday mornings. I carried a small whiteboard, a sectional, an E6-B, etc. Another customer who recognized the tools of the trade asked if I would tutor him for his flight review.

This continued, and soon I had a small ground school going in the corner on Saturday mornings. I would tip the baristas in advance, and everyone would order coffee for the two hours we were together. It helped pay for my CFI flying lessons and develop my teaching skills.

The post The Art of Ground School appeared first on FLYING Magazine.