Fun when I was a student...
Check ride in a glider with the CFI. Having got me very low among the trees on a Chilterns ridge, the back seat gives me control and asks me what I am going to do about it. "Head back to the airfield 250 ft ago. " apparently was not the required response.
Similar thing on a very long ridge in Germany. It isn't going well, the ridge is only working marginally, suddenly we come across a quarry. As we flop in, back seat says, "I hope they don't use dynamite in here". After many beats back and forth trying to work our way out again, the back seat pipes up. "On the other hand, if they don't use dynamite, we could be here all day."
Finally we get free and scuttle back whence we came along the ridge, which now seems to only be working halfway up. I am almost past the bird strike stage and getting close to the squirrel strike stage so I am beginning to think the fields at the bottom of the ridge have a certain rustic charm. Suddenly the back seat decides to contribute once more.
" 'Ere have you seen our shadow?"
Pregnant silent pause.
" 'Tain't half big!"
They say the art of good instructing is knowing when to intervene, he had more faith in me than I did. For the record we got back with just enough for a quarter of a circuit.
Similar thing on a very long ridge in Germany. It isn't going well, the ridge is only working marginally, suddenly we come across a quarry. As we flop in, back seat says, "I hope they don't use dynamite in here". After many beats back and forth trying to work our way out again, the back seat pipes up. "On the other hand, if they don't use dynamite, we could be here all day."
Finally we get free and scuttle back whence we came along the ridge, which now seems to only be working halfway up. I am almost past the bird strike stage and getting close to the squirrel strike stage so I am beginning to think the fields at the bottom of the ridge have a certain rustic charm. Suddenly the back seat decides to contribute once more.
" 'Ere have you seen our shadow?"
Pregnant silent pause.
" 'Tain't half big!"
They say the art of good instructing is knowing when to intervene, he had more faith in me than I did. For the record we got back with just enough for a quarter of a circuit.
In my early days as a Gliding Instructor I can remember teaching cable breaks (simulated by pulling the release cable!)...after the various demos and practice, we then told the students they can expect them at any time..and obviously without warning!
So the plan was to go back to circuit bashing and leave it a few launches to settle them back into circuits before commencing the 'fun' of pulling their first simulated cable break.
..however, on this day my Student obviously thought he would help and pulled his own on the very next launch! .... now as an instructor you should always be prepared for a cable break...but that caught me completely by surprise and I must admit I was chuckling to myself as (IIRC) he made an ok job of it.
....Lesson learned to make sure the Student knows and understands the rules in future!
So the plan was to go back to circuit bashing and leave it a few launches to settle them back into circuits before commencing the 'fun' of pulling their first simulated cable break.
..however, on this day my Student obviously thought he would help and pulled his own on the very next launch! .... now as an instructor you should always be prepared for a cable break...but that caught me completely by surprise and I must admit I was chuckling to myself as (IIRC) he made an ok job of it.
....Lesson learned to make sure the Student knows and understands the rules in future!
The instructor chuckled and said ‘ okay, good.’
After we landed he explained that I had given myself the cable break, not him, and the bang was just the strop pulling straight. (Something new to me as a 80 hour glider pilot.) Anyway, he passed me on the launch failure part of the check flight!
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
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Yes, I was under the hood and flying on turn and slip meter, altimeter and ASI. I worked out afterwards that he had carried out half a gentle barrel roll, stopped rolling and given me control just as we were fully inverted and the nose dropped below the horizon. I carried out the recovery drill as taught, which was to unload to 1G (so the turn and slip didn’t overread), put the T&S needle in the middle and pull until the descent stopped. Because we were inverted it was one hell of a pull; in the early part of my recovery the more I pulled the more the altimeter unwound. By the time I twigged, the only option was to keep pulling until the nose came back above the horizon the long way round. The IRE’s chin snapped down onto his chest at about 4G and I pulled to just under 6, so he was out for quite a few seconds! He woke up and twitched for a short while, looked around the cockpit and after a while just told me to recover to base for an ILS, which went very well and we landed. I was convinced I’d failed but the UP recovery was barely mentioned and with no criticism so I just kept quiet!
