New Instructor - Teaching Landings

[glider insider]

Am a recently qualified gliding instructor.. and have a question to ask.

at what point did most of you become "happy" teaching students to land?

the reason i ask this is that currently i feel that perhaps i take control a bit too much in this rather delicate stage of flight, and hence students are not learning as quickly as they could.

i feel the problem is that i am still very concious of " breaking " the a/c. i know this is quite an exageration but when you are used to doing smooth landings every time it is difficult to let someone land it somewhat harder than you...

am i alone in this problem, is it something that most new instructors have.. any experiences.

i have now "chilled out" in the air and let my students go wrong for them to gain a useful lesson, ( obviously not endangering the aircraft) . .does this happen for landing!


any opinions or tips greatly appreciated.

[M.Mouse]

Interesting question. It is my opinion that it comes with experience and confidence in ones own judgement and ability.

I recall feeling as you did but I also recall it wasn't for very long.

The fact that you are concerned about intervening too much is probably an indication that you have the right attitude in wanting to give your best and not rob the student of necessary practice.

My bet is that after a few hours you will look back and wonder what you were worrying about.

Talk to another instructor or your CFI if he/she is approachable. We have all been there once and they should be able to reassure you that your concerns are quite normal.

[Zeke]

Glider insider,

Depends on the students you are teaching, is english their first language ?

I felt more comfortable when I learnt to shut up and just use key words that you and the studnet could easily relate to, on finals I just use three phrases, aim point centre line, airspeed, in the landing, level idle flare.

For some students also get rid of the flare words and ask them to try and fly level forever above the runway, has the same effect as flaring, but they dont tend to think its an extra action and balloon.

Z

[glider insider]

thanks for the useful words.

i have found that simplifying it has helped greatly. flew the lesson with an experienced instructor who gave me useful tips.

by changing the way i talk about the landing and demonstrating it has helped greatly in that the students seem to understand me and respond much quicker and generally tend to do a half decent approach and landing first time... ( they tend to go to pot after!)

the main point of my initial thread was.. do experienced instructors ever " chill " out when teaching this, or are even the old hands permanently on their guard.

[P-61]

I have only taught prop a/c, but one thing worth remembering is that the student can not hear you when landing, they are 200% on the job, so just keep your hand in front of the stick so you can level out before the ground does it for you, and when you do not have to any more then congratulate yourself.

[skywatcher]

Never "Chillout" no matter who you are flying with. Numerous instructors have been caught out by "experienced pilots" because they relaxed thinking bloggs is a good guy. You will relax more as you gain experience. I remember (bring up a sandbag) when I was a new ass cat. My CFI told me to gradually bring my self to teaching the lower lessons as confidence and proficiency developed. But this means that good supervision is required and that you are given the right students. It doesn't take long. Your attitude is good by virtue of the fact you asked the question. No matter how experienced you are, if you have had a lay off raise your limits 'til you are back in the groove. If you feel you blew it by taking over too soon, offer to pay for the trip. (Look after your aircraft and you will look after your student). ENJOY. :eek:

[BEagle]

ABSOLUTELY!! Never, never relax your guard when you're 'commander'! Years ago I'd just finished the Hunter course and was waiting for a posting; I had to fly with an experienced QFI who was doing an IRT practice. The daft $od dropped us into the undershoot just short of the runway threshold - fortunately onto the reciprocal stopway without damage! Never relax when someone else is driving and you've signed for it!!

[Short and Sweet]

Glider Insider

I don't think you ever chill but you become more confident in you own ability to recognise a bad situation that will turn to pot quickly that the student won't learn from and will require your input. And likewise you will recognise a situation that will turn to pot but the student will learn from and won't require you taking over.

Those three words that Zeke uses are great.

And if you are having problems with a student not getting the landing always talk to your CFI. I had a student that was doing really well but when it came to the flare would botch it up every time and I couldn't work out why. After talking to my CFI we had a potential solution and when I took the student out again for circuits and taught him this new approach he nailed it. I can still see the grin on his face. From that point on I always talked to my CFI about problems with students.

Talking about flying with experienced pilots, I find some of the scariest pilots to fly with intially are airline pilots that are coming back to fly lighties to get some hands on flying again. Flaring at 50ft and pushing the nose abruptly foward on touchdown certainly keeps you awake!! :D :eek: http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/shocker.gif

[fireflybob]

Good question, two comments:-

a) It should never be a question of who has control but "I have control" if in doubt.

b) Never be afraid of demonstrating another landing with an ab initio student - it's takes the pressure off both of you and I believe the student learns a lot from a good demonstration.

Finally, as has been said previously, never relax if it's your aircraft!!

[Dan Winterland]

The problem with the landing is that a student won't learn unless you let him/her make mistakes - landing mistakes can be expensive!

I started my instructing career on gliders, and they are the hardest aircraft on which to teach landings -not withstanding the lack of the go-around option. The technique I developed (and I didn't necessarily get taught this myself - as with a lot of gliding instruction in those days it was a case of learning by trial and error) was to ensure that they knew what the landing attitude was and to make sure that this was imprinted on their mind. With the type of glider that sits on it's nosewheel/skid, you have to physically go to the tail of the glider and pull it down with the stude sitting in the front seat to demo this on the ground. After this, it's down to him/her getting the flare height correct. For the high case, a "I have control" to prevent a hard landing is not a rush. For the late/low case, the judicious 'quick snatch' is the best method IMHO.

The next aircraft I instructed on was the Chipmunk, the techniques were similar to gliders as most gliders are essentially tail wheel types - but the Chippy was a lot stronger and you could allow the stude to make more mistakes.