Originally Posted by
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).
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.