Just where do you start?

[fireflybob]

Having had a bit of a sabbatical after enforced redundancy from my last job I decided to take up the offer of instructing at the local club which I know well.

One of my first "students" is a PPL with 130 hours who wishes to qualify for an IMC rating.

Just done the first trip to establish rapport and see the "lay of the land". Basically this man can fly an aircraft safely and his early attempts at instrument flying quite sound. However, everything else was pretty poor - a lack of any enroute checks, fuel pump goes off at 500 ft agl, incorrect level off technique from the climb, etc etc!!

Just where do you start with someong like this? I don't want to nitpick but I feel that I have to do something to improve his standard. The trouble is he has flown with a number of different organisations and a multitude of instructors and he has all sorts of reaasons for doing what he does!!

Any ideas??

[A and C]

First take a look at your own flying it may be that some of the things he is doing are not a problem to flight safety but just different to your SOP,s remember just how meny ways are there to skin a cat ? !.

Having looked at the above i suspect that his flying is a mixture bad habits and mental overload i found the IMC the hardest thing that i ever did in my flying training it was far harder than the IR because it was all new and the IR was just a lot of practice so the first thing is to get his basic IF to a very high standard so it becomes second nature to him.

Then start increasing the workload to cover the airmanship and flight management im sure he will respond if he has a solid foundation of basic IF and fully understands and uses the selective radial scan.

[GayTangle]

Hi Fireflybob,
How did your student feel about the flight when you de-briefed him ?

Also, I'm wondering about his motives for the IMC ? When I started my IMC training earlier this year one of my main reasons was to raise the standard of my flying. I had never flown a plane with a fuel pump before, for example, nor used an ADF, VOR, etc etc. In fact, the weakest part of my piloting skills was lousy radio technique. The IMC has helped with all that.

So I'm wondering, is your student anxious to get flying, solo, in rubbish weather, in 15 hours time - or is he perhaps embarking on a longer term relationship with his club, to be nurtured into a competant and careful pilot from his possibly rather poor current level ?

In the former case, to answer your question of where to start?, then imho, start with some honest straight talking about where you think he is right now, and how you can help. In the latter, well again imho, I think you both already have made a start.

Regards, GT.