Hi All

I was explaining to one of my students today how an ASI worked, with the help of nice set of coloured pens and a white board...It started off reasonably well, my explanation was fully understood by my student but when i took a step back and had a look at my drawing of the said item, it looked like a Chimpanzees tea part had arrived..I thought to my self, God thats rubbish i really do need to improve my drawing abillity.

I need easy to follow diagrams of the workings of flight instruments to enable me to practice improving my "Chimpanzees Tea Party"

Any pointers on this would be good.

P.S. Anyone else having the same problem of turning ASI/VSI into a modern art masterpiece??

Regards

JD

Keep it simple......

Just line drawings are often easier to understand than complex masterpieces!

Google The FAA Aeronautical Handook (FAA-H-8083) and download the PDF's...usually some good explinations / and all free.

If you can't find them.....PM me your eMail and I'll forward them to you.

DD

Practice.


(Really, it's that easy.)

One way is to adapt and simplify the textbook stuff so that it suits your own presentation style.

Also try and draw the diagram first, and then do the verbal explanation afterwards. It takes a lot of pressure off your brain when you're just focussing on doing one thing at a time.

It certainly works for me in my instructor briefings.

Personally, I find all my drawings look like a Chimpanzees tea party, whether on a whiteboard, piece of paper or anything else. And practice doesn't work - I've been practicing for over 30 years, since I was old enough to hold a crayon, and my drawing skills haven't got any better!

I agree with previous advice - make it a line drawing, keep it as simple as possible, and don't talk any more than you have to whilst actually drawing. Then, explain what you've drawn. And if it really doesn't look anything like the real thing, I find it helps to make a joke about my lack of drawing skills.

(As a matter of interest, I've been practicing my singing for about as long as I've been practicing my drawing, and that hasn't got any better either!)

FFF
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Ha Ha nice one FFF.

Keep it simple is the way ahead. Thanks for that Duchess Driver i will have a look later today and get in touch if needed.

Again thanks guys..

JD

Sadly it's something that a poor FIC fails to address and there's plenty out there.

I would recommend going back to your FIC instructor and askin this question.

Failing that, call Lindsay Brown at Bourn Airfield (RFC Bourn) as I know he is currently sidelined with medical probs so would probably give you some of his free time and he'll have you doing diagram after diagram until you are sick of it - seen many a budding FI doing similar down there! lol

VFE.

Well I've been to one of your tea parties and whilst Rolf Harris has nothing to fear, they were nearly as bad as my flying!

Plan how you use the board so that your drawings dont wander over the board.

Even go so far as to make little marks only visible to you to act as a guide.

Same principle applies with writing as well where the dreaded slope often spoils the appearance of the work.

It only take 10 seconds to dot things out - no time really to look good.

My drawing is like FFFs, and I've been practising for longer than he has. I tell people I became a flying instructor because I knew I'd never make it as an artist...seems to go down quite well.

(Q+S) into the capsule, S into the case; capsule thus measures the difference (Q+S)-S=Q, suitable system of levers drives the pointer.

If you really are artistically challenged, then cribbing will help to start with. I always suggest that FIs find very simple images from text books or the interweb and make nice neat copies onto A4 sheets (trace if you have to). These can then be laminated and inserted into your instructor notes. If you are repeatedly drawing the same pictures, you will get better at it.

Also a well equipped briefing room should have a few aids that will help. These need be no more than tops off coffee jars, broken rules out of lost property etc.. Neatness with accurate circles and straight lines will work wonders with presentation.

Sometimes too much writing can make a good diagram look confusing. Consider using a straight edge to put arrows on the picture, and then put all the text away from the image on the other end of the arrow.

Hope this helps.

XO

Perfect example for a good use of an Overhead Projector, if you have access to one. Get a good diagram (photocopied from a book, or drawn by someone else), project it onto the white board, and then use the pens to highlight the bits you want to talk about.

I do know some people who use Powerpoint presentations, but it seems like too much work to get them together for me.

If you have FI course notes / diagrams from a book and know your material, then take care to build the diagram up one layer/important component at a time on the whiteboard - take some care with the actual drawing but the whiteboard should be a backup to what the student has learnt in textbooks so as long as the two can be related and you clearly explain each bit I've generally not found it an issue.