Briefings for Trial Lessons
I don't think we've discussed this here before, have we?
No-one ever tells you how to brief for trial lessons, do they? Or they didn't on my FI course. Maybe helicopters are different.
When I got my FI rating, a very experienced instructor, knowing of this problem, sent me a copy of his rotary TL briefing. It ran to 4 pages!!! It was Ex 4...and then some. I tried it, and the CFI complained it took too long, TL students went to sleep, and the schedule got way behind. So I asked a few people what they did, and then sorted out my own, which has got refined over the last three years.
So I thought I'd tell you all what I do, and I'd be interested in hearing what others do. Of necessity this will have a helicopter bias, but the basic principles are probably the same.....
1) I sit them down, and find out a bit about them. Ask if they've ever been in a light aircraft before, or ANY aircraft...some people haven't. Find out if they've ever taken the controls. Ask what they want to do - look at the view and experience things, take control, a bit of both? Are they thinking about a PPL, or is it a one-off? Don't assume because they're 90 they won't want to take control; some old people have wanted to fly all their lives, and this TL is the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition. All this doesn't take long, and lets you plan what to do. You also find out if they're over-confident...and these types are liable to try very hard to kill you!!!
2) Unless there's no helicopter available right then, I've abandoned classroom briefings. Nobody could ever understand my diagrams anyway, it took lots of time, and I still had to show them all of it in the helicopter anyway. So I take them out to the helicopter, get in if it's cold, stand outside in this sort of weather. I show them all the controls, and demonstrate what they do. I concentrate on the cyclic, and just mention the others, because unless it's an hour TL and/or they're very good, they won't manage more than one control anyway. I keep it brief and to the essentials. If they ask detailed questions, I normally say we'll go into that afterwards. That way, they might remember the basics. They don't need to know about dissymmetry of lift at this stage; they do need to know not to shove the cyclic forward and unload the rotors!
3) I do a safety briefing last thing, so that hopefully they'll remember it.
And that's about it.
What do you all do? Any thoughts?