Progression
Whirlybird,
I hope my post was useful as food for thought.
Just to add to it...
When we learn to be instructors (the FOIs) we learn about the 'building block' philosophy of learning. That is, that students should learn the basic things and then go onto learn the higher order skills. In otherwords progression.
I always wonder then, why it seems this philosophy is so often NOT applied to the teaching of hovering. If the ultimate skill in hovering over a spot, then why do so many instructors start with this?? What happened to the basics skills such as just getting a feel for the sensitivity and functions of the controls, and relating the view outside with the aircraft attitude? It's like teaching a child to do a handspring before they have done a headstand!
As I said in my last post, PROGRESSION is the key. Delta3 touches on this in his P.S. in the previous post.
For hovering, the 'skills progression' is something like...Straight and level / climbs / descents / turns, then approaches, then hover taxiing, then stationary hovering. I think it is quite a logical progression. So this is generally how I teach it.
It is easy to forget what the 'F' in FOI stands for. Keep to them and the quality of teaching and learning stays high. Simple as that!
Happy flying everyone!
cl12pv2s
P.S. For those who are not familiar with the FAA system and the acronym FOI, the Fundimental's of Instruction (FOIs) is a mandatory study prerequisite for the FAA Instructor rating.
Last edited by cl12pv2s; 2nd Mar 2005 at 16:18.