Instrument fixation

[pondlife]

I've got a basic PPL student who just won't stop looking at the instruments. Any ideas how to stop it - I've tried what I can think of.
After seven hours of flying he's not responded to constant nudges, and covering up the instruments with a bit of paper. The result is, not surprisingly, that his general flying hasn't developed any feel, it's sloppy, and he's much further behind what's going than he ought to be.
At the moment, following a nudge, the guy will look out of a side window, then the other side window, and then go back to the instruments again. Occasionally he remembers to look outside himself, but as soon as the workload goes up even slightly he's solidly flying by instruments again - badly.
I've had the odd student who's needed persuasion to look outside if they've got too used to playing flight simulator - but nothing this persistent.
Anyone else come accross this? How did you resolve it?

[StudentInDebt]

My gliding instructor used to kick the back of my head if I failed to lookout properly before entering a turn.

My Fixed wing instructor charged me a bottle of beer for every 10secs my eyes weren't outside the cockpit.

Both methods worked a treat :)

[Speckled Jim]

Cover everything except the ASI, Altimeter and tacho. The rest he can work out from looking outside.

Failing that, a neck brace may be the only answer!

Think how easy it will be to get him to look inside when you teach his IFR :)

[Fokjok]

If he's been able to get into this habit, then perhaps you haven't emphasised lookout from as early as you should (ie the first thing you should have said on the first brief should have been - look out!).

This may make him simply unsafe to continue learning to fly - I certainly wouldn't care to be the one sending such a student solo.

BTW, does he use PC-based simulators a lot (even if he refuses to admit to it?)?

[StrateandLevel]

Upside down Foggles perhaps!

[Tinstaafl]

Use sheets of paper that together are large enough to cover the entire instrument panel. Once in flight sticky tape them so that they cover everything.

Then give the student some attitude holding exercises at a relatively constant IAS eg holding the cowling so it just touches the horizon / some speck on the windscreen directly in front of the guy (use a whiteboard marker to make a dot if you have to). Change power settings & have him/her continue to maintain the attitude.

Do the same with various reference positions. Once pitch/roll skill is developing then include yaw. Still use the same speck but get him to keep it aligned with a significant land mark (as far away as possible eg on the Hz is best)

Select flap combinations & continue the exercise. If manual flap then you extend them but fairly slowly to allow the guy time to perceive & react.

Select some 'typical' attitude/power combinations and have him hold them eg crz S&L, slow S&L, Vx, Vy, Vg etc. Use flap & gear to force pitch changes. Then get him to select those attitudes.

Once the aircraft is stabilised, uncover an appropriate instrument as a brief reference then cover it again. Uncover it some minutes later to show the general lack of movement.

With the instruments covered have him select those 'typical' attitudes again & once stabilised let him see how the performance has stabilised at/near the expected & pre-briefed figures.

Make sure he is trimming to 'hands off' as soon as the aircraft is stabilised. Ditto for using a forefinger & thumb style of grip.

All the above is best achieved on a very calm day with a good clear horizon. Don't take the fellow up if there isn't one - at least, not until the instrument fixation is 'fixed'. :)

Use your imagination to give the guy practice at attitude selection, maintenance & control/adjustment. Just make sure his experience progresses from very simple to more complex at a rate he is capable of.

Good luck to you (and him)

[Oleo]

I agree with Tinstaafl.

My students would be the same - trying to master steep turns with their eyes glued to the instruments. If you cover the instruments and coach them through recognising outside visual cues, then without fail they recognise that their performance improves.

Appeal to their motivation: we all want to fly well; then cover up the instruments and make them "fly the wing"!! :)

Have you told them your assessment of the situation? ;)

[pondlife]

Thanks all.

In answer to a couple of questions above:-

Yes I've explained my concern to the guy - more than once - he cheerfully acknowledges and then carries on as before.
I think that you're right about covering the instruments, I'll do that from now on and not take the covers off until the guy's got the hang of it. I did try that already, but he's persistent so I guess I should be too.

Yeah, the guy has spent far too much time on FlightSim, but claims to have given it up now. I'll be watching for the hairy palms and deteriorating eyesight though.

[27R-09L]

Pondlife,
just out of interest, your name does not stem from a little midnight excursion onto an island in Guernsey harbour does it?
Sorry but it just brings back memories :)

[Weed]

I'm with Tinstaafl, although I'm not sure that I would make it so complicated. Cover up all of the instruments and start by teaching him straight and level again. Often, the realization that their instrument fixation has held them up to the extent that they have not progressed beyond straight and level is a big enough jolt to get the ball rolling in the correct direction.

When you are happy that he can maintain the S&L attitude and return to it following a disturbance from S&L, then you can start to build up an appropriate scan starting with the altimeter. Uncover it for a second or so, enough time that he can register the altitude and assess any tend and then re-cover it. He should then apply an appropriate correction by reference to the horizon and hold it. Give it a few seconds for the performance to settle down and then let him see the altimeter again so that he can assess the effect of his contribution.

Once he seems to be doing this OK, then do the same with a climb and the ASI, and then a descent with VSI (or ASI if that's the way your school teaches descent performance). Then you can introduce turns in all of those attitudes. Take it slowly, don't move on until you are happy that he is scanning effectively between attitude and performance.

A couple of other points. One, the fact that his head is inside the aeroplane most of the time may not mean that he is using the AH. It is more likely that he is flying purely by reference to the performance instruments. This should be nipped in the bud, particularly if he hopes to go on to any type of instrument rating. Two, you should never feel that it would be a failure on your part to give up on a student. There are times when the student/instructor personalty mix just does not gel and if you feel that is the case, let somebody else go flying with him. It may be better for his progress and for your sanity. Cool idea, seeking help in this forum, though.

[Marhadeen]

StudentInDebt, that beer thing sounds like me! I didn't teach you to fly did I? Although I don't drink myself, my workmates never went without vitamin B becasue of my students many mistakes.

Answer is simple. Cover up EVERYTHING. There is a big buzz in been able to fly an aircraft acurately by your Attitude and the sound of your engine!

There is a lot to be said for PC pilots and the advantages that come from them but I wish somebody would tell Mr. Microsoft that there is more than 1 inch of window on top of our instrument panel.

I one had a student that couldn't let go of his death grip on the control column. I ended covering up the control column in Vegemite and gave him a small area to hold. Once hour later he could fly an aeroplane! The control column, however, was never the same :-(

[grade_3]

Have you tried using a work cycle with him?

Something along the lines of:

A - Attitude (5 secs)
L - Lookout (15 secs)
A - Attitude (5 secs)
P - Performance Instruments (1 sec or less)


I was taught this only recently myself but it is a great little thing to unstick a students attention from the instruments. You just have to get them scanning from the attitude to the lookout to the attitude to the performance inst etc. etc.

It's just like an IFR Instrument scan adapted for VFR use, where you concentrate on the lookout and attitude instead of the AI.

Just a thought anyhow

grade_3

[Deputy]

Many students have problems that they are just not aware of. Thus a habit breaker is required.

I have used the technique of getting the student to say aloud the scan technique.
Attitude = checking the horizon is in the required place in the windscreen, ie pitch and roll
Lookout = checking for traffic
Performance = IAS and or Alt and trim feel.

Check to see if the student has a death grip on the control column as this will reduce the feel of the trimmed condition.

I recently flew with a 15 yr PPL veteran who couldn't fly a 180 deg turn without losing significant height. After completing the attitude flying sequence a few times with the instruments covered, the performance improved greatly. The student said that attitude flying was a new thing to them.

Difficult to believe but I am sure the student thought this to be the case.

This was the worst case I had seen of non-attitude flying, but it was easily fixed once the student is made aware of how they can judge the aircraft's performance by looking out the window. They can't keep a car in the centre of the road land by looking at the speedo, yet they think they can do it first up in the aircraft.

[Sean Dell]

Simply fly to a busy beacon (eg Wescott) and tell him that if he doesn't look out then he will die. Alternatively try flying near a busy gliding site.

[Teroc]

Had the same problem myself as a student...one instructor when he noticed it would lift the right earpiece off my headset about 2 inches and let it snap back....very annoying, very painful and i hated him doing it ...but it got me looking out the window all the same...

Teroc