View Full Version : Exercise ONE!? Emergencies, Timescale, Sylabus
blobber
6th Apr 2007, 21:38
What is it with Exercise One - Emergencies.
Emergencies get far less than adequate attention in the PPL sylabus. I try to emphasise the importance of knowing what to do in any eventuality but knowing where to fit these valuable lessons into a sylabus is difficult. In order to teach PPL efficiently, an instructor should follow a structure which has been proved to be effective. I follow the pooleys guide but having Emergencies taught in Exercise OPne seems stupid. The student only just knows the front from the back (forgive the exaggeration) they cannot understand and take in how to deal with emergencies. Anyone have any explanations and tips.
A new student in my school gets 2 hours, normal lessons which are back to back are 1.5 hours giving 15 mins each side of a lesson which has to include signing out, walking to/ from the a/c, fitting in a refuelling maybe twice a day, and any problems the student is having etc. Basically giving you not much time to take a piss never mind explaining anything. Dont get me wrong, I make sure to give the student as much feedback and explanation as I can but its often not enough and the important stuff like drumming home How to deal with each Emergency GETS MISSED. Anyone you disagrees is not flying in a busy school or is lying. Every student I have 'taken over' from another instructor has a very poor understanding of Emergencies. I did too until much after my PPL. A few points here for discussion
Any suggestions, experiences?
Thanks
Most of the learning, other than the motoric skills, are learnt on the ground, not in the cockpit. You are responsible for your students progress, and if the flight cannot be done, including a good pre- and postflight briefing within the allotted time, it should be rescheduled. Either allot more block time, or schedule more time for ground sessions. Personally, I don't fly if I don't have about 1 hr between flights, depening on the situation. This does not include long briefings.
blobber
6th Apr 2007, 22:51
Exactly what I was talking about. You obviously dont understand the constraints i am talking about which is fair enough. I should have stated that I am mainly interested in comments from instructors who have a very busy schedule dictated to them and in the UK!! We (file://\\we) are all teaching under different circumstances. I personally work for a fairly small but very busy school and the boss is basically a ****! All he cares about is the money and thats it. I simply have to accept my schedule for what it is and try to make the best of it.
My other point was about how can you teach about Emergencies in Lesson One!
blobber
6th Apr 2007, 23:00
Sorry but I want to add that how much of a naive staement have you just made. Do you think I am responsible for allocating more block time?? I dont think so, I get told the schedule and have to abide by it as have instructors before me. Unfortunately the simple problem is that this school doesn't make as much money from groundschool and therefore will allocate zero time to it although its invalueable. And Long Briefs?! I have to fit them in 10 mins at a time, if I'm lucky. I have taken up nav students who havent had any brief on nav ever apart from 10 mins (pre flight brief)
its crazy
foxmoth
7th Apr 2007, 08:47
We have a special facility in the UK to deal with this, it is known as bad weather!
Rather than canceling on bad wx days, get students to come in to cover these extras.:rolleyes:
If I have a student from scratch (rare so far owing to job changes) I will specify one emergency drill I wish them to memorise ready for the next lesson, along with the airborne checks that should be commited to memory early on. No slacking!
VFE.
bfisk
15th Apr 2007, 20:04
Obviously not knowing your job situatuion I apologize if you percieved my post as ignorant.
Anyway: as a flight instructor you are the leading edge of aviation safety. What you do as a FI is maybe the greatest single safety influence a pilot will ever face. As a professional it is your responisbility to not accept to give substandard instruction -- my philosophy is that if it can't be done right, it shouldn't be done. Even if that means a lower pay check at the end of the day. That may also mean standing up to your boss.
Not teaching people to fly the proper way is a safety concern and is, IMHO, unacceptable.
With the FI shortage everyone is talking about these days, maybe there is a better place out there for you, where your skills will be more appreciated?
In an ideal world we'd all get the adequate time we need on each lesson to ensure the student has an abundance of knowledge to walk away confident that they can cope with every emergency which may occur but in reality it's very much down to their own self study and ideally, a versatile instructor with experience who can cover the bases as and when they arise in the syllabus. It is daft to expect someone to learn emergency drills prior to commencement of their training as currently appears in the JAR PPL syllabus as they will not yet know enough to appreciate the relevance in many cases.
Not many schools will take kindly to an instructor (especially a young one) requesting extra time and longer slots with students everyday. You need to hone your craft quickly in this game and understand how to get your message across quickly and clearly. Circumlocution is a sure fire way to confuse your student when time is at a premium so spend time on the ground thinking how you can avoid using 12 words when six will do and try not to appear as though you are under pressure with time in front of a student - it takes practice, maturity and time but is a basic lesson in commercial pressure which, should you decide to move onto airline flying will only help your aptitude for that particular job.
VFE.
Which brings me to something you touched on Blobber - timescales.
Yes, I do struggle to dedicate as much time for each lesson with each student as I personally would like but that's just the nature of the beast. Schools are businesses and are there to make money. Profit margins are tight as I'm sure you are aware so what I can deduce thus far is that for us newer guys the trick is to appreciate the requirement for effective time management on busy days. Instructing methods aside this is probably the biggest factor in being an effective instructor amongst a busy team of instructors at a busy school. You will soon gauge the level of ability in your ops department when you overrun a slot and will know what you can possibly get away with in terms of overrunning.
My guess is, judging from your comments, that you probably work for one of the chain of schools surrounding London and have realised that money talks alot more than safety much of the time but as you know, it is your job to make sure safety comes first. So, on a practical note: if a defect needs putting in the techlog on a sunday when maintainence are away then so be it. I actually had an ops 'manager' (in the absence of a CFI) tell me once that an aircraft was fit for a lesson when it contained no master compass (it had fallen off it's mounting). A quick call to a CFI down the road soon put that manager right but taking a stand and doing the dreaded techlog entry was tough in the face of commercial pressure from someone who didn't even know what a f*****g master compass is!! :rolleyes:
Just do what you can do in the time you get given - it's all you can do - and be safe. Aim to introduce one emergency drill on every other lesson and make them learn their checklists at home. Take the load off yourself - if they want to learn them then they'll learn them - it really is as simple as that mate and all you can do is put them under pressure to memorise them for when you pull a simulated emergency on them unexpectedly (which is jolly good fun!). :)
VFE.