Johnman, assuming that the trainee is beyond basic flying school and already has a good grip of the automatics I do the following:
Obviously brief on the exercise and give approximate pitch attitudes and thrust settings - but make the point that there is such a wide weight variation in a large transport aircraft that these can only be a rough guide. Also temperature, icing and altitude will further the approximation, so they should not fixate on learning exact numbers, simply have a fair idea of target settings.
Let them settle down in a particular configuration at the desired thrust and speed using the automatics. Wait for any pitch trimming to stop. The aircraft I am currently teaching has no auto-throttle, but if it did, I would then have them note the N1 and disconnect it.
Then simply tell them to disconnect the autopilot and make only the very slightest inputs - the idea being that nothing has changed, so no great control inputs should be necessary.
Build each configuration change from there by initially re-engaging the automatics, setting the new configuration, let it stop trimming, disconnect etc. Once they get the idea not to interfere too much or over-control, and use their support pilot to do all the donkey work with systems, switching, checklists etc, their scan seems to come good - usually within an hour or two. Possibly because they are not over loaded. Gradually their scan opens up to the extent that they can also manage PNF's activities.
I am no behavioural scientist so I dunno, but this training method seems to get good results.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 26th Oct 2014 at 21:05.