Trial Instructional Flight - Fun or Boring

[Centaurus]

Depends on school policy and the imagination of the instructor. Eager first timer is given a 45 minute briefing combining effects of controls and straight and level. Lots of vectors on whiteboard with lift and drag arrows and overheads of aerofoils with lines of airflow. Angles of attack and thrust vectors. New Bloggs (old or young)looks baffled sitting behind desk while instructor waffles on and waves model aircraft.

Instructor looks at watch and says 'Christ" its late, let's go." Spends 15 minutes showing full pre-flight inspection. Starts engine, taxies like clappers - airborne then takes 10 minutes to reach training area. Works radio himself. In training area and starts approved patter on S&L. Spends 15 minutes with "Note nose attitude 4 fingers - keep wings level -watch it, you are descending - see the altimeter un-winding "etc. Instructor looks at huge Rolex says "Christ - better get back - taking over -follow me through" (thinks-The CFI will go up me for going over 30 minutes.
Hurried taxying. Mixture cut-off- VDO stops. "Hope you enjoyed the TIF Mr Bloggs - when would you like to book in for your first lesson?".

OR maybe this approach?

Eager first timer meets eager Grade 3. G3 draws picture of local runways on whiteboard - explains basic NSEW directions - gives brief example of words used to ask for take off and landing clearance. Shows Bloggs aviation type map of Sydney, Melbourne, Alice Springs or whatever and explains planned flight path. Spends five minutes max waving model aircraft around explaining in simple terms how aeroplanes fly. No Berny Oolies theories or lift vectors. Outside on tarmac G3 points to clouds on high and says that's a cumulus or whatever. Shows Bloggs north and south directions. Points at ATC tower and says that's where the controller lives -lets Bloggs look in fuel tanks. Brief explanation while sitting in cockpit of basic controls. Bloggs wiggles wheel and pushes rudder pedals. Airborne - Blogg poles it while G3 surreptiously nudges controls in direction he wants to fly - preferably scenic around city rather than all way to training area. G3 has camera and takes photo of Bloggs poling. G3 points out interesting landmarks and congrats Bloggs on nice touch on controls. 15 minutes airborne, time to return. Gives Bloggs piece of paper to read out which says "XXX - inbound-received Charlie - request clearance". Bloggs transmits content of paper. G3 gets clearance and does rest of RT except for "Clear to Land" which Bloggs says. At parking, G3 talks Bloggs through complete shut down checks. Walking back to office, G3 gives Bloggs his business card and says "Anytime you want to learn to fly call me."

Morale: Each to his own. But make the TIF interesting. As instructors, what TIF technique do you use?

[decmax]

To be honest i'm a little bit disapointed,i try to make the briefing fairly short,[twenty mins] concentrating on the basic controls, and what to expect in the lesson, i'm fairly knew to instructing, but so far, when i ask any questions?, the only two responses i have been given, have either been no, or will we be flying over my house, conclusion: ninety-nine percent of trial lessons are really joy flights, and at the end of the day, although a briefing is a bonus, i suspect it makes little difference to the average customer, BUT there is always the one in a hundred, and we owe him/her.

[foxmoth]

I agree with decmax re T.L./joyflt - anyway, for those not obviously joyflts, I usually do
a short effects of controls briefing along with "you have/i have/ follow me through" then go flying after a thorough but reasonably quick preflight (telling the punter a few bits along the way to keep him/her interested).
for flying I cover the basic effects of controls and let them pole it as much as possible - sometimes you can even get them to land it - works quite well because unlike later on they are doing what you tell them.

[A Very Civil Pilot]

The flying schools that I have worked at range from the 'full 1/2 hour briefing & walkround' to the 'get them in, fly them, kick them out'. I agree with decmax that 98% are one-off flights for birthdays etc. Now, instead of a briefing, I show them the a/c during the normal walkround, pointing out what all the controls do; get them in - point out the instruments, and at TOC, after a quick demo of effects of controls, pass it over the them for as much/little hands on as they want.

Personally I quite enjoy T/L's: I get to do the T/O & landing (the fun bits), can sit back and enjoy the view, and teaching is at a minimum.

[BlueLine]

A lesson is a lesson. What precisely is a trial lesson?

If this is a potetential candidates first flight then surely you should be aiming to set the scene for the remainder of the course. You are the salesman selling a product that is going to keep you in business.

Complex briefings before a first flight go clean over the candidates head. Get them into the air and show then that after 15 minutes they can actually fly - then they'll be back.

[chicken6]

Hear hear BlueLine!

If they don't enjoy it, there is no incentive for them to come back at all. We are surely here to sell flying - that's what I (try to) do. Even if it's not with our organisation, SELL FLYING AS AN IDEA.

"What we do in a trial flight is the first half of the first lesson, and it's basically a chance for you to (insert appropriate phrase here eg. throw the aeroplane around/have a bit of fun/see if you like it etc. - depends on the potential student's nature, which is gleaned in the first ten seconds of talking to them on their own).

You can do as much as you like, I'll do all the complex bits like the checks before takeoff, you can do everything else from taxi out, takeoff, fly around, not crash, even land it if you like" (and most of them can).

Then I tailor the rest of the briefing to suit them on the way out to the aeroplane. Preflight brief depends on whether I've already preflighted or not, their physics/maths background or area of interest, age and what they want from the flight. Are they interested in learning? If so I'll make it a bit more formal, and actually fly the first half of EoC. If not, then the next question is "Where do you live?" and the next one is "how adventurous are you feeling?" - possible chandelles (done very smoothly of course). ALWAYS SAY "you've got the nice touch you'll need" unless they try to snap roll you over the threshold, then it's "well, at least you're not intimidated by the aeroplane!" There's rarely nothing to complement them on.

I remember reading a story in Flying last year about airport kids - the ones who sit on the fence on final and watch the aeroplanes go overhead all day. We never know when we are going to get one walk in and say, "I've got enough desire to learn to fly, it's the only thing there is for me" so when they do we have a duty to the people who taught us to fly to make their work worthwhile. Maybe I'm a hopeless romantic, but I try to touch them spiritually. I did once today, and even though he's not quite 16 yet he's hooked. Well, and truly. He's coming back next week.

Safe flying

------------------
Confident, cocky, lazy, dead.

[Angle of Attack]

Yes I agree with most on this one, actually when I used to do Trial flights I never went to a briefing room, straight to the a/c and a "hands on" briefing using the a/c as your model, but it's quite right that each flight is different, they range from not wanting to touch the controls to sending you into massive aerial dogfighting routines. The key is to guage the student individually and give him/her as much control as possible, after all the more fun they have, the more likely they'll return.

[A Very Civil Pilot]

At all the places I've taught, the conversion from T/L to student is about 1-2%. The vast majority of people that have trial lessons, get it as a Birthday/Christmas present, and no matter how you try to sell it, they're not going to want to learn how to fly. It's even less likely now, when they find out that the average cost of a PPL is £5-6,000.

For the majority of people, the T/L is on par with a Balloon flight, tank driving, a day at the motor-racing circuit and everything else in the 'Acorn' and 'Red Letter Days' type catalogues. The object is to make sure they have a good time, tell their friends and spread the word. I've had some people come back on a regular basis (every year) to have the same T/L. It's an opportunity for them to go flying, take a photo of the house and enjoy themselves. If they have no intention to learn to fly, there's no need to ram it down their throats. Give the customer what they want.

Obviously, if someone shows any inkling of enthusiasm, they get as much encourage as possible to take it further. Of the people that I've come accross learning to fly, most have come in to club with the intention of doing it. Not many have been the sort that, only after the T/L did they decide to fly.

[Aussie Andy]

I am learning to fly (at BAFC, Wycombe), and I did have a trial lesson.

However, it is true to say that I had already decided to fly and that the t/l is not what made up my mind to do so...

For me, the t/l was part of the process I used to help me decide WHICH flying club I wanted to learn to fly with.

I'm very happy with my choice, by the way :-)

Andy

[DB6]

Two types of trial lesson. 1) prospective student - they do takeoff (not rudder) and after a brief demonstration of how to turn etc. fly most of the rest of the flight. Minimum interference and NO critiscism from me (unless they do a Stuka dive or something). 2) pleasure flight e.g. 100ft above the herds of seals basking on the sandbanks off the coast near Leuchars, watching others playing in the shallows, or as yesterday when a couple came in for a flight each, formating after departure with the opportunity for them to take photos of each other, then breaking off for a quick loop, roll, stall turn and flick roll (with the passenger's approval I hasten to add)before reformating for the return to base. Not only did they enjoy it hugely, so did we.

[fifthcolumns]

I would talk to person, find out their
motivation. The ones who intend to
continue usually make that clear.
The birthday boys and the joyriders
won't be convinced no matter what
you do. But a waverer may be
convinced if you don't try to teach
them the full ATPL course before
flying. You need to give the impression
that it's easy at first, they may get
disillusioned after a few lessons.
But by then you have their money.
Cynical yes, but hey that's business.
Be nice to them all, word of mouth
is very important especially if you
have rivals on the field.
Keep it gentle even for the dedicated.
Make them sick and they won't come
back.
On my very first flight the instructor took
me on a low level circuit of the
local racetrack, hopping over
steeplechase fences and
zoom climbing with a bit of
G. I loved it but landed feeling
queasy and lightheaded.
Others would not be
so enthusiastic.

[Whirlybird*]

Don't make it too gentle. A friend of mine went for a trial lesson at the age of 70, having been meaning to learn to fly for many years. I guess the instructor took her to be your traditional little old lady, which she definitely isn't. After what sounded to me like a very gentle little jaunt around the local area she told me she was disappointed; she thought it was too easy and she'd soon get bored. I finally convinced her it wasn't all like that! She's now done a good few hours and is enjoying the challenge. Appearances aren't always what they seem.