Allowing students to crash (in a simulator)

[justanotherflyer]

moggiee,

Our FTO has no specific policy about this.

Part of me, it may surprise you, is sympathetic to your colleague's viewpoint. While I don't think the practice 'teaches them to crash', I'm not convinced of the training value of hearing/feeling the actual crunch. His argument could plausibly be interpreted that it conditions them subconsciously to think 'well, I survived that'.

My own practice is, if impact with (simulated!) terrain is inevitable through inadequate decision-making, to switch out of IMC once they've lost the plot, and allow the final LOC situation to ensue for a bit. Then I freeze the scenario before impact, often with a horrendous imminent situation on the screen, and with that picture visible, discuss the chain of events and decisions leading to the fatal predicament, and all the implications of what is about to occur.

I suspect that the fruitless struggle with the controls while the horizon perhaps swings violently or terrain looms, generates more resolve to avoid similar results. The trainee experiences the agonising feeling of actually losing control, rather than the artificial and paradoxical experience of somehow surviving the crash.

As in the best horror movies, the imagination can have a far more powerful effect than explicit (but harmless) depictions.

Thanks for posting this very interesting question. Looking forward to other opinions, my views are not writ in stone.

Best,

justanotherflyer

p.s. great to read you are instilling those attitudes towards commercial expediency - music to my ears

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edited for clarity of thought - I hope!