1950's flight training.
 

I keep reading about how inferior the flight training was in the 1950's compared to today.

So lets try a little experiment.

We start a new flight school and use the same equipment that was available in the early 1950's and change the time requirements for the PPL that was in effect in the fifties, back to 30 hours from today's 45 hours to get the PPL.

The airplanes are one Fleet Canuck which had no brakes on the right hand side and for the bigger airplane we have one Piper Pacer with no brakes on the right hand side.

We will train only for airplane handling from zero to first solo which will get rid of all the worry about teaching modern technology and rules and regulations.

So......with the above criteria would today's schools with their advanced better trained instructors get them to solo quicker?

Does your experiment involve using a circular runway?

No we would use the runways available to the industry as they now are.

Chuck, I think we would need to put "Rub Strips" made from Teflon on the wingtips unless we want to spend every night fixing wingtip bows, this opinion is based on doing check outs on some "nose wheel" flight instructors in the past.

For sure there is a very big disconnect in the aviation group based on how long one has been a pilot Clunk.

When we ask a simple question such as the scenario I have posed in this thread it is usually difficult to get a intelligent discussion going.

There is a group here who claim that flight training today is better than in the fifties.

All I am attempting to do is find out how they arrive at that conclusion.

So back to the thread as started and lets see if we can get some believable reasons why they think that today's instructors are better.

Maybe I am being unfair using those two aircraft as the training machines because they are not modern aircraft?

Well, I've just sent an ATPL jet pilot solo in his new (to him) flying boat taildragger, after about 4 hours of dual. Aside from the tailwheel course I sent him on last year as a prerequisite, he had not flown GA for 15 years apparently. After hour two, backtracking the paved, 100 foot wide runway, I drew his attention to the "S" path black rubber skid marks crossing back and forth the centerline - and told him that he'd just made those, and the other ones we were about to get to as well....

For the four hours, I never touched the brakes on the right side, though I did floor the right pedal a few times. We kept it on the runway.... He knows the electronic stuff really well, and brought his Ipad along to navigate the circuit. I put it in the seat pocket, 'cause we did not need it to navigate. Then I promptly broke it, by leaning back in the seat against something behind. We still found our way around the circuit okay, and he got enough skill to go solo - without the Ipad.

So now he practices solo, and soon we're headed for the water part of the training.... (This Ipad will stay ashore).

But I'm proud of him, he took on an unfamiliar challenge, and is mastering it - the old fashioned way!

Almost all airline pilot struggle with small aircraft unless they fly them on a regular basis.

It takes them a few hours to get back to basics and re-learn how to use the rudder for directional control on the runway.

But once they get the picture they rapidly get good at it.

I am going to be in your area in June we are going to take the motor home on an international trip for a few months to visit three countries, Canada, Quebec and Newfoundland.