Teaching traffic management

[MPrince]

I have a student that I sent solo a few days ago. Yesterday afternoon I sent her solo again and while she can fly OK, manage a circuit, carry out EFATO and a go-around, she lacks traffic management skills. Example; RPT aircraft gives a 25 mile inbound call and she might freeze. She can continue the circuit but doesn’t quite know how to manage herself around other traffic. Does anyone know of any exercises that might help her gain some traffic management skills? This is an uncontrolled aerodrome with RPT (Rex, RFDS).

[Big Pistons Forever]

I have a student that I sent solo a few days ago. Yesterday afternoon I sent her solo again and while she can fly OK, manage a circuit, carry out EFATO and a go-around, she lacks traffic management skills. Example; RPT aircraft gives a 25 mile inbound call and she might freeze. She can continue the circuit but doesn’t quite know how to manage herself around other traffic. Does anyone know of any exercises that might help her gain some traffic management skills? This is an uncontrolled aerodrome with RPT (Rex, RFDS).


My first reaction when reading this was "Why are you sending her solo if there is a possibilty of your student freezing when an aircraft calls 25 miles". Safe for solo IMO, means that your student can handle any reasonably likely situation competantly and will put the aircraft in a safe flight condition in a safe area while calling for help for any really weird situations.

Students who "freeze" when stressed are IMO, the hardest to teach and usually end up as unsuitable to continue training. You ultimate responsibilty as an instructor is not to train anybody who walks in the door, only those that have the potential to be safe pilots.

However I obviously have no personal knowledge of you or your student so please do not take my comments personaly as they were meant only as a general comment.

As for answering your question, I role play the various possible traffic situations on the ground using an airport diagram. This gets them familiar with the standard ways to manoever so as to conform to the rules of the air, local operating procedures, and the use of common sense.

Once they get proficent in the aircraft handling portion of the circuit I am carefull not to manage traffic problems by just telling them what to do, instead I get them to work the problem themselves. During early going I will briefly take control while they sort things out and talk on the radio so they do not get task saturated, and then gradually reducing the amount of "help" I give them as they get better.

[RTN11]

At about the second or thrid circuit session I usually go through the possible senarios in the circuit, someone joining long finals while you're still downwind, someone joining base and potentially cutting you up, or even a mayday getting prioity over you.

I then talk the the ways you can deal with this, orbit at the end of downwind (only with a tower controller), extend downwind, or fly a go around to another circuit from anytime really.

Then, when it happens for real, they don't freeze, they know what they should be doing.

[Pull what]

Does anyone know of any exercises that might help her gain some traffic management skills? Situational awareness needs to be taught in the classroom like any other exercise. It would be a good idea to spend some time discussing the circuit and possible conflictions with other traffic and find out exactly what it is that is concerning her.Students that are taught situational awareness in the circuit plan ahead and expect the very things that she is having a problem with. You may need to think about SA yourself as in my experience very few instructors include it in circuit exercises.

Nobody is unsuitable for training that can reach the controls! Some may be unsuitable to gain a licence but that doesnt mean they are unsuitable for training as long as they are made aware of that fact. I know one particular student that trained regularly but was told he would never get a licence-he ended up buying a fleet of aircraft and owning an airfield and still carried on 'training'!

[Armchairflyer]

Just spitballing for the described problem: make her translate distances into time? (25 NM inbound might sound less "freezing" when immediately perceived as "still about 5 min for me until this plane is getting really close to the airport")

[Piper.Classique]

The technique I use for teaching lookout skills may work here. I too fly at an uncontrolled airport, and my students need to be able to position themselves with gliders and non-radio microlights, so lookout skills are highly stressed in training. I have three or four students go round the campsite (easier than the runway, yes?) at first just milling around as if having a bimble, spotting the others. OK, it is only in two dimensions, but short of teaching levitation it has to be :O . Then they have to join the circuit for the aeromodellers runway, making all the radio calls aloud, listening to and looking for each other. (Oh, and I play the non-radio glider getting short of height) I suppose I could have someone running to simulate the fast aircraft, but it seems to work OK. No standing still allowed, and I expect to see the heads turning, and people looking up and at the ground as well as just on a level. It might look silly, but it's cheap and I find it helps.

[CANCEL SARTIME]

She may be just one of those people who needs to do a lot a flying continuously. She really, really needs to understand that a license does not come in a Coco Pops box. It is something she will have work for and if she’s not prepared to do that then she’s not pilot material. One exercise I’ve seen instructors use is to draw a map of the airport (on a whiteboard works best) and insert the circuit pattern. Draw her A/C on crosswind or downwind and get the student to tell you what is coming up next i.e. pre-landing checks, watch for traffic, next radio call etc. Then the instructor calls out a call sign, type, posn, intentions, time in cct etc. Let her manage it.

I did also see my CFI get in his own aeroplane and join a student in the circuit once to get him to look out the window more and aid in his SA.

Get creative, get them out of the classroom and outside in the fresh air with a cup of tea of a morning and have a relaxed chat about it. Most students tend to be more open-minded (is that the phrase?) when the pressure is off. The trick is keeping their mind open when they step in the machine.
Good luck, I’m sure you could have worse students :ok:

[Cobalt]

How about this: Sit outside with a (non-alcoholic) drink and a radio. Listen to the traffic on the ground. Discuss with Student what is happening around the circuit. Find and point out the aircraft in it and around the airfield. If your airfield is not busy enough for that, find a busy one.

I have seen something similar used with one student who would step on others on the radio all the time. An hour of listening to radio and making him understand the typical dialogues on frequencey sorted that.