Hi Spider,
As you've had no other response, I'll try to assist with some examples of 'bad habits learned through previous flying experience'.
Flight Screening aims to assess your ability to learn in the airborne environment, it's not technically an assessment of what you already know. But, if you've been unfortunate to have experienced some well intentioned but wayward instruction, then your ability to put aside what you've learnt previously and take on board what you are being asked to do now, is of paramount importance.
The basics of military flying training revolve around the following, some of which you may already be familiar with:
A-viate - fly the aircraft accurately in the manner you want it flown (climbing/descending/straight and level/turning/whatever)
N-avigate - make the aircraft go where you want it to go to avoid hills/boundaries/CTA/clouds/whatever or to get from A to B as required.
C-ommunicate - talk to ATC/your wingman/duty instructor on the ground/whoever to achieve what you want
A-dministrate - fill in navigation logs, manage fuel balance, etc.
The above is known as ANCA - generally the priority is as above, sometimes you may come up with a reason, for example, to Communicate prior to completing all of your Navigating, but Aviate ALWAYS comes first.
Often whilst Aviating and Navigating, you may find the following bare basics handy:
Am I currently at a:
SAFE HEIGHT? (I'm not going to fly into a mountain)
SAFE HEADING? (I'm not going to fly outside of my airspace or into a mountain)
SAFE AIRSPEED? (I'm not going to overspeed or stall)
Note - I still go through a quick check of the above whenever I am presented with something during flight that is out of the ordinary...
To ensure we Aviate as per the above, we use the following:
A-ttitude (where the nose of the aircraft is pointing - in visual flight this is set by setting cockpit references (like the top of the instrument combing) against the outside horizon)
L-ookout - making sure I'm not going to hit anything/anyone
A-ttitude - we check it again, cause it's very important!
P-erformance - is the power and attitude I have set giving me the performance I want?
This is called the ALAP workcycle and it works when flying visually or when in cloud (well, the Lookout portion, not so much...)
It requires knowledge of the golden formula, which is:
POWER + ATTITUDE = PERFORMACE
An example for the PC9 is, for straight and level flight:
POWER (32 PSI) + ATTITUDE (zero degrees pitch) = PERFORMANCE (Straight and Level at 200 KIAS).
If we determine that we need to adjust our attitude to give us the performance we want, we do the following:
S-elect - a new attitude that should give us the performance we want.
H-old - that attitude and confirm it does what we want it to do.
T-rim - the forces from the control column/yoke/whatever to ensure there a NO forces left on the controls and continue with the ALAP workcycle.
The whole process above is ongoing.
Anyway, what does this have to do with "bad habits learned through previous flying experience"?
Well, it's possible a student becomes used to PERFORMANCE FLYING - an example of performance flying is reacting by pushing and pulling the stick to "fly the altimeter" in an attempt maintain level. Believe it or not, a military flying instructor would prefer to see an ab initio student attempting to set an attitude correctly and possibly deviating from their desired PERFORMANCE (eg altitude or airspeed), than someone nailing the altitude on the altimeter and not looking at the attitude.
Other bad habits are poor or non existent lookout, not trimming, not following the priorities of ANCA. For some, it can be difficult to change, hence why people talk about these "bad habits".
Personally, I think a small amount of experience is a good thing prior to Flight Screening. Being comfortable upside down in an aircraft can be of benefit - very hard to perform well if you feel sick, which most people do the first time they really throw an aircraft around!
Best job you can have, if you can initially manage the basics and grow from there - all the best!
Last edited by josephfeatherweight; 5th Apr 2015 at 15:29.