Typical PPL student mistakes.
 

Standards 10 details the requirement to be able to identify typical student mistakes. (I paraphrase!)

What are your experiences of 'typical' and 'frequent' student mistakes?

In no particular order
-mixture to ICO instead of carb heat
-park brake on final, instead of flaps
-rolling wings level in the stall, before getting out of the stall
-not closing throttle completly when trying to land, then trying to pitch down to try get aircraft down before running out of runway

They keep finding new ways to challenge us instructors, just make sure you are one step ahead of them and you will be fine

Pretty sure that what they're likely asking for is not just the mistakes mentioned above, but what the FAA (or whatever your aviation authority is) calls "common errors." If you get the FAA Flying Handbook (available on their website for free in PDF format) most of the maneuvers and such have them listed!

Rhino

I have another to add to the list. Retracting flaps (PA28) instead of applying full power at 100ft agl during a go-around!! Lets just say that i needed a new pair of pants after that one!!! Oh one more. Getting low on the app then pitching the nose up without applying any power. All good fun:bored:.

Tug

Extremely common
 

Descending at idle power. Level off without adjusting power.
(The student will do it again but eventually it sinks in)

Climbing, level off by adjusting power first instead of going APT.

Forget use of carb heat with low power. At this stage it's best to fail their engine on them as it seems to bring the point across rapidly.

Recovering from a stall by going POWER then nose forward.


1/60

The kinds of mistakes will vary depending on what part of their training they are at.

Pre Solo

- failure to maintain the correct attitude for the phase of flight
- forgetting to trim or trimming too much/not enough
- not keeping the circuit square
- pumping the elevator in the flare
- looking straight over the nose in the flare

After Solo

-over priming hot engines
-poor airmanship on the ground (not on taxiway centreline, controls not positioned for wind, especially when turning, not watching where prop blast is going
- concentrating on the wrong thing (like immediately answering a radio call when they should be concentrating on flying the aircraft)
- rote patter on the checks without actually performing the action
-not monitoring the engine instruments in flight (a personnal pet peeve)
-rushing through manoevers without letting the airplane settle down first ( example: unstable entry to a steep turn = poorly done manoever)

Typical 10 Mistakes
 

Most Frequently seen on PPL's when doing their BFR

* No rudder used when power applied in the climb
* No rudder used in the turn
* ailerons used in stall recovery
* incorrect recovery from a wing drop
* doesn't keep the runway in the middle on approach
* does not kick off drift on touchdown in xwinds
* does not fly visual 'attitudes ' so cannot hold height properly
* cannot hold heading by referencing on a landmark
* does not know how to recover track when offtrack

PPL's are the most unknown factor when flying as an instructor. At least with your own students you know their habits and faults and can correct them.:ok:

Errr
 

PPL's almost never land on the centerline and almost always try to feed you b*llocks about why they didn't do so and so.

Gets tiring!

1/60

Great topic.

I'm certainly guilty of a few of these mistakes and think it will help us students to be more aware going forward.

Hopefully there will be more input to come... :ok:

Had one student who couldn't get this....suspected he was fond of the odd bit of white substance after hours so I advised him to 'Run his nose up the white line'. Sorted!

Writing as a student here, there was one time we'd been doing some stall recovery exercises, we moved on to spiral dive recovery.. So my instructor put us in a steep turn turning to a spiral dive, and handed over control.
I reached for the throttle, and instead of pulling it back as I should have, I pushed it forward because that's what I'd done in all the previous exercises.

Oops...

How Patronizing?
 

PPL's almost never land on the centerline and almost always try to feed you b*llocks about why they didn't do so and so.What a patronising yoof, bet he is still on his first logbook!

I'm betting
 

you can't land it on the centerline.

Instructional Techniques for the Flight Instructor by On-Track has a section at the back with common student faults listed for each exercise.

ONTRACK AVIATION LIMITED

If you want a freebie, try the Australian Flight Instructor Manual, which contains a list of common faults for each exercise. The syllabus is based around the old RAF syllabus.

http://www.casa.gov.au/aoc/training/guides/FIM.pdf

Regards,

ifitaint...

One of the most common, on the Nav part of the Skill Test, is for a candidate to spend appreciable time calculating a true track, adding the effect of wind after herculean efforts with the whizz wheel and then applying both variation and deviation, arriving at a Compass Heading of something like 147.69 degrees, then getting airborne and steering anything around 30 degrees either side of it without bothering to regularly reset the DI with the compass.

Predictably, disorientation and getting lost inevitably follow. :rolleyes:

Most light aircraft DIs are accurate to about plus or minus 5 degrees and if the heading is steered even accurately to plus or minus 10 degrees the waypoint will usually turn up on one or other side of the nose after the appropriate time has elapsed.

When you've worked it out as accurately as possible, steer it as accurately as possible!! Works every time! :ok:

Level 400

I'm betting
 

That with 3000+ hours over last umpteen years, virtually all of it as seat/stick interface, (unlike most instructors of my aquaint) I can land anywhere you like, not just on centre lines - Try not to judge people by your own standards.

The most common student fault that ends in damage to the aircraft is the failure to execute an early go around from a balloon, bad bounce or missed landing.

The most common instructor fault that ends in damage to the aircraft is the failure to instruct the student properly in the go around procedure after a balloon, bad bounce or missed landing. Instruction of course should include demonstation and practice

The aim is to land the aircraft safely on the landing area, the centreline is a guide not a target.

This sort of attitude is the number one pilot mistake.

Pull What?
 

What on earth are you talking about??

The ability to land a flying machine, wherever it is needed to be landed whenever it is needed to be landed is not any sort of a problem, it is a fundamental part of being an aviator, it is after all the only part of flying that is not optional, which any sort of an aviator would know.

Wannabe's being patronising on a forum is a fundamental mistake of aviators, especially with no sensible justification or explanation for comments!

Don't worry about it, your anonymous on here