Would You Do Anything Differently?

[llanfairpg]

I would imagine that most of you on here work for a flying school or club. In your instructional work is there anything that you would do differently or feel that should be changed. or modified A checklist, a briefing, a procedure, a technique, anything that you think, If I was CFI/Owner I would change this to this etc.

So from a trial lesson to the skills check to the qualifying cross country what would you change or modify and why?

[llanfairpg]

Wow 69 of you have looked at this and nobody has any ideas of doing anything differently? In all the schools i worked at most of the instructors seemed to have their own ideas on how to do everything differently--perhaps there is much more satisfaction and standardisation these days

[TheOddOne]

Wow 69 of you have looked at this and nobody has any ideas of doing anything differently?

Well, yes, but not to post here, necessarily!

There's an old phrase about 'when in Rome, do as the Romans do'. Unless you feel that a practice is unsafe or a hinderance to learning, then you do what you're paid to do until you achieve some seniority and have earned the right to make changes.

That's not to say that if you have a good idea that you shouldn't share it with your colleagues. Remember, though, that most ideas have already been thought of.

TheOddOne

[lady in red]

I would insist on all PPL students doing a minimum ground school package that had to be signed off by the CFI before first solo, then all the instructors would not be sitting around moaning when the weather is wet and windy... Of course they would have to pay for it but they would pass their exams first time instead of third...

[llanfairpg]

That's not to say that if you have a good idea that you shouldn't share it with your colleagues. Remember, though, that most ideas have already been thought of.

Does that mean you think there will never be any progress in flying training. I would have siad that there are many many ideas to come as Lady in Red has just shown.

Lady in Red

What type of things are you suggesting in your package.

I used to do a pre solo exam--RT--Emergencies-- relative Aviation Law.

[TheOddOne]

Does that mean you think there will never be any progress in flying training. I would have siad that there are many many ideas to come as Lady in Red has just shown.


No, no sorry to give that impression. Lady in Red's idea is very good, especially this morning when I'm sitting doing this instead of getting something done at the airfield.

The problem with Good Ideas is that they involve Change, to which everyone is resistant to a certain extent. Often ideas that have been rejected in the past can achieve acceptance when their time comes around, or the right people put across the message in the right way. The biggest single change in flying training I recall was the removal of spinning from the syllabus, just around the time I did my PPL. The nay-sayers said that post-PPL spinning accidents would sky-rocket but the opposite was the case an of course no more instructors were killed in spinning training accidents (pre-PPL training I hasten to add).

I think that the biggest change we do need to see now is how navigation is taught. On my recent FI course, it was emphasised that it isn't well taught at the moment; we did the 'keep the map tucked away and concentrate on flying the heading to your first check point' deal, as opposed to anything with a whiff of 'track-crawling' about it. See the other thread on this subject currently running. Of course, after your gross error check at the start of each leg, you don't actually have any idea of your actual whereabouts until you whip your map out at your 10 min point or whatever.

I guess the above is a partial answer to your question, or maybe it just poses another!

Cheers,
TheOddOne

[llanfairpg]

I love change but not for changes sake!

I brought about a big change in 1980 when I refused to allow any more of Birch and Bramsons Flight Briefing for Pilots to be sold in the school. Problem was Neville Birch was a member so he came in one day and said, " Where are all my books?

The bigeest change was when I read a manual from a UAS Bulldog squadron on how the RAF taught flying thats when I realised that our Lancaster syllabus & systym was way out of date.

Have to say not very impressed with this slow flight/stalling exercise that Capmbell & co introduced.

By the way I was doing FIC training in 1982 and we did minimum map max head outside and flying navigation then, its nothing new.

[TheOddOne]

I brought about a big change in 1980 when I refused to allow any more of Birch and Bramsons Flight Briefing for Pilots to be sold in the school. Problem was Neville Birch was a member so he came in one day and said, " Where are all my books?


I've still got my B & B books somewhere, got me through my PPL. Bunny Bramson, funny nickname, where did that come from? Also, Bunny Austin, who used to be General Manager ATC at Heathrow?


Have to say not very impressed with this slow flight/stalling exercise that Capmbell & co introduced.

Well, I have to say that flying S&L at 55kt at all 4 flap settings in a PA28, then making a 15 deg bank turn to get the stall warner on is a good intro to stalling, rather than 'wham bam, thank you ma'am' of just going straight into full stalls. It gets the student used to the high nose attitude and being delicate on the controls. It's also much better at demonstrating sloppy controls than just slowing down to 80kt in the initial effects of controls lesson. But hey, I'm just starting at this lark so I've only done a couple of these sessions so far.

Cheers,
TheOddOne

[llanfairpg]

But in the time you have done all that I could have let the stude have a go at two stall recoveries.

Would appreciate more input as I am not convinced my approach to this exercise is correct--perhaps another thread?