Becoming an Instructor & related FI questions

[Heli vision]

true words, Helinut.

I think what really gets to me is that they seem to have this inherent desire to make everthing as complicated as it can be.

As I mentioned earlier, look at the FAR's - pretty much straightforward to interpret, especially with regard to "add on" ratings, and information easily accessible.

If the JAR's are to work, then surely all authorities have to be reading from the same book. Mind boggling really.



Oh well, as the hooker once said, it's not the clients that make the job difficult, it's the stairs.

[Whirlybird]

Thanks again to everyone for the recommendations. After asking everyone everywhere, and making at least an attempt to visit and fly with two of the instructors mentioned, I'm starting the course with Mike Greene at Thruxton on January 27th. That's in just over a week, during which I have to fly for exactly four more hours between the showers and gales to get to the magic 300 - but I'll do it all at hover height if necessary!!!

Do you want a thread about my progress (or lack of it)? I won't have Internet access down there, and may not have time at weekends, but if you ask nicely....

[HeliGaz]

if you are serious, i really recommend instructing.

also i note you are from north wales , i happen to know that a large north west school not so far from you are looking for instructors right now so it would be an idea to ask about locally!

good luck!

[Robbo Jock]

As an avid reader of your exploits over the pond, I'd love to hear abut the trials and tribulations of your FI course.

(And I doubt I'm alone in that)

[Whirlybird]

HeliGaz,

Thanks for that. Any chance you could let me know which school? Send me a private message perhaps?

[Whirlybird]

The FI Course - an occasional diary

Well, it's all arranged. I'm off to Fast Helicopters at Thruxton to start the FI course with Mike Greene next Monday!!! I hadn't planned to start for a month or so, but....well, never mind all that. I've even found a cheap room - well, more like a large cupboard - in Andover; nowhere to plug in my laptop, but The Nr Fairy has very kindly offered use of his so that I won't suffer too badly from PPRuNe withdrawal symptoms. And I've finally got my 300 hours (300.1 to be precise), including a little left seat practice today with an instructor who had no students in the nasty weather. I flew him to a pub for lunch, so he was happy, and in return he threw in a practice engine failure when I was low level, flying downwind, approaching the airfield, and talking on the radio. I think he called it confidence building. I can think of some other names for it myself.

Anyway, I had vowed that I wouldn't do any more live threads. It's scary, since I don't know where they're going. If I find it really hard, do I really want to tell the whole world? So...I'm not promising anything. Especially as with 30 hours flying and 125 hours ground school - yes, really, I looked it up; I thought it was 60-70, but JAR says 125 - I can't see myself having that much time or energy.

So...we'll see... Maybe you can watch this space. But only maybe...

[DBChopper]

Whirlybird,

As someone who hopes to follow the same route in a year or two, I look forward to your new thread.

Very best of luck, I hope you enjoy the course.

DBChopper

[Heliport]

Whirly has agreed to write an 'occasional diary'.
Not too occasional I hope.


Click here for the next instalment.

[Heliport]

Thanks Whirly.
Not too 'occasional' I hope. We all enjoy your 'diary' threads.

Good Luck with the course!

Heliport

[kissmysquirrel]

Good luck Whirly and enjoy it. You'll get so much out of the instructors course and find out a lot about yourself too. Liken it to multi-tasking on a grand scale.
Might see you down at Fast in the near future.

[nonradio]

Whirly: The highs and lows of the course
Week 1: "nothing to this instructing lark.."
Week 2: "Oh dear.."
Week 3: " OK, Ive paid for this - I might as well attend.."
Week 4: " I might, if I'm lucky and everything goes well, scrape through.."

[Whirlybird]

Well, the course started yesterday. Over the weekend I worked out how to get from my bedsit to the airfield without a complete tour of Hampshire and Wiltshire, and found Tesco and stocked up on loads of microwave meals. I considered reminding myself of the basics of how a helicopter flies etc, and gave up on the idea; we have 125 hours of ground school for that.

Yesterday morning I finally met Mike Greene; then Mark and I had a WHOLE DAY of ground school with him; sods law it had to be when there was good flying weather. Well, Mark got to fly as he had to do the pre-entry flight test; I'd already done mine with Mike Smith when I went to visit Heliair. So far it's been all theories of learning and teaching - feels a bit like my Psych degree course all over again, not that I remember any of it. But it's at last getting vaguely helicopter orientated, with talk of us giving briefings - lull while Whirly panics in anticipation.

This is lunch break, and I've asked for somewhere to plug in my laptop and check my emails, but I guess I can't do this every day. So this is just to say I hadn't forgotten, and I'll report more at the weekend when I get home - might even have flown by then; miracles do happen.

Oh, one bit of good news; I may well have an instructing job when this is finished - thanks Heligaz.

[RW-1]

Good going Whirly!

I wait to hear how it goes for you.

I'm wrapping up CFI myself over the pond, tests done, flying, lecturing, and studying. Expect to go for my checkride within the next 90 days.

This is OUR Year babe !

[Whirlybird]

Right, this is a diary, so let's do it properly...

Wednesday 29th Jan.
We finally get on to something flying related!!! Mammoth briefings on exercise 4 - Effects of Controls, then Exercise 5 - Changing Speed and Power (or something like that). It's a kind of combination of briefings being given to students with asides as to how we do it, and sometimes it's hard to tell which is which. But there seems to be an awful lot of it, and I'm getting scared already of the idea of doing it myself. I ask Mike if we're expected to give it back to him tomorrow; he says he's not quite such a b@stard as that, and we won't be giving briefings till next week. Phew, so I don't have to panic yet. Howling gales, so no flying yet. We then do a bit of P of F, and I realise how much I've forgotten. I spend the evening trying to revise, and getting panicky about all I don't know. Genghis the Engineer phones to find out how things are going, then The Nr Fairy and N Genfire both phone. Fellow PPRuNers, it's great that you care, but please go away; I need to work!!!!

Thursday 30th Jan
Still howling gales. Will I ever fly again? I can't cope with all these hours of ground school, and Mark has an engineering background and has done his CPL ground exams much more recently than I have, and is really showing me up. We get given Exercise 6 - Climbing, Descending etc, then Ex 7 - Hovering, then a bit about takeoffs and landings. In a break I take a deep breath and ask Mark if I can practice a briefing on him. I decide to try and explain Inflow Roll, and in the middle Mike walks in. He says to carry on, and I do, but from that point on get in a complete mess, getting it all backwards. Having proved to myself that (a) I can sort of speak in front of an audience, and (b) even if I cock it all up the world doesn't come to an end, I feel lots better.

Friday 31st Jan
WE GET TO FLY!!!!!! The wind has dropped at last. I take the first slot, being taught to fly again, but from the left seat. Mike does Exercise 4 with me; next week I get to give it to him. I'm glad I did that bit of left seat practice, as I feel fairly comfortable, and it goes quite well, and I really enjoy it. Then Mark flies, then we both decide to practise gving each other briefings on Ex 4. I think he gives too much detail; he thinks I don't explain enough, but basically we both agree that if we can do that much after a week, we should both be OK. So we mentally pat ourselves and each other on the back, and feel lots better. In the afternoon I get given Exercise 5 in the air, and again, it goes OK. Well, I guess this is the easy bit, but on balance it's been a good week. We finish early, as Mike is a nice guy and knows we both have a long drive home for the weekend. We miss the traffic, and I get home early evening.

On the whole it's going well. I'm extremely impressed with Mike Green; I wish I'd had an instructor that good for my PPL. They say you don't remember what you were taught; well I do, and a lot of what we're getting - and he teaches his students - I never did at all. They get governor off training from the beginning; I never did any. They get an extremely thorough grounding in how the helicopter flies; I got told how good I was since as an ex-f/w pilot I had a rough idea how to fly it anyway. I think I was somewhat shortchanged. I have a certain amount of sympathy for my low hours instructor, but only a certain amount. Anyway, since I'm now learning to fly all over again, it hardly matters.

One more thing...
Mike gave us a problem - You're flying at 1000 ft, close to the circuit, 20" MAP, 70 kts; your collective sticks and can't be moved at all; how do you land? He said we could ask people as well as think about it. I have some idea...I think? What do the rest of you think?

[HeliGaz]

Ah, the question that never seems to die!

i remember that one fro Brian Balman when i did my FI test @ EGLD its good to see it is still going strong!

good to see that you got to fly - it always seems to make things easier , until the 'give backs' ,which always seemed to be after the weekend so you just forgot enough!

[Helibloke]

A stab at that jammed collective question

Ok, I,m not an instructor but this is what i would be doing in the situation.

Governor Off, Bring rotor rpm to the bottom of the green, gently slow down to 20kts or so using aft cyclic. This will firstly increase height until the speed washes off then you should start to decend. When nearing the ground say 50 ish feet, forward cyclic to gain speed and reduce rate of descent and roll a bit more power on fly straight and level and 40/50 agl ish. Now you should be flying parallel to the ground. Start reducing speed and rolling off throttle to get some descent going again, play with that until you can run it on, when on the ground very gently roll the rest of the throttle off keeping straight with pedals and forward cyclic, Wait for the thing to stop, get out. throw up and shake like a leaf until help turns up and then say "Nothing to it mate, lets grab a few beers tonight eh?"
Oh yead dont forget the Mayday on realising the damn thing has stuck in the first place.
Ready to be shot down in flames by the more experienced! But thats my answer

[Helinut]

Keep up the posts Whirly, if you have the time. I found my FI course very, very intense - expect brain fade!

The BB/MG puzzle is meant to make us think of all the possible ways ways of losing height with a stuck collective. Part of it can be done by losing height by doing steepish turns, which is fairly controlled; changing air speed can work too. You still have to sort out the bottom end though.

You raise some interesting thoughts about learning to instruct and level of detail in briefs.

It is only when you start to think about instructing that you begin to realise what sort of instructor you had for your initial training. I was very lucky in having an experienced instructor for my PPL(H)who also taught instructors. I am/was an engineer, so he tended to go into lots of detail, which was good for me. Don't be too hard on junior instructors though - we all have to start somewhere and lots of PPL students want or can only cope with the basics!

Once you are instructing you will find that one of the skills you develop is to change your brief to suit the student. There is a certain basic level of knowledge that any PPL needs. The student/customer may just want or need the bare minimum or be a full-blown aerodynamic nutcase and you need to be able to cope with both.

You will be in the commercial instruction world, not the military one. The depth a brief should be determined firstly by the minimum required by the syllabus, but also by WHAT THE CUSTOMER WANTS/NEEDS.

When I did my FI training (and during subsequent FI re-testing) I always found it difficult to "play the game" that was required. Real briefing of a real student is much easier and more enjoyable. You need to remember that you are playing a game and act accordingly during your FI training. It is a false situation to try to tell some n-zillion hour helicopter guru about the basics of P of F. Try to act; try to play the game of getting the student "involved" by making them answer questions (even though you know they know the answers better then you do). Pretend that you briefed them about the previous exercise last week and get them to recap on some of those aspects.

The question of level of detail and depth of briefing is always a matter of judgment. Leaving the "real world" alone for now, in your current world you may care to consider 2 things:

i) Mike G (and whoever will test you) are inevitably P of F "nuts" so they will like to talk about P of F and all that stuff.

ii) You are required to cover what the syllabus says you should cover.

I would make sure that you do the minimum required in your initial brief, but not a lot more than that. Then be prepared to talk in more detail, when your "student" comes back with all sorts of other questions and issues.

Don't despair ! Think of all that flying you will be paid for, once you are an FI, and all the things you will learn from your future students!

P.S. Thinking about this, I am quite jealous because my current flight duty commitments prevent me from doing instruction

[Whirlybird]

Thanks people. I ought to do some studying; I'm going to work today (especially the dreaded P of F ) and take tomorrow off completely before driving back to Andover in the late afternoon. This evening I'm going to try out an Ex 4 briefing on Aerbabe , who's cat/house sitting for me, and her friend Neil; she has a PPL(A) and has had a trial helicopter lesson, and he's had a few f/w lessons, so they're almost typical students. I've told them to act like real students...so we'll see.

The stuck collective problem...I pretty much agree with Helibloke . As you flare to slow down that'll raise your RPM, so you'll need to keep bringing it back to the bottom of the green. I think you'd want to keep above translational lift speed to prevent any sudden sink, but you might want to do that to prevent vortex ring anyway. As you approach what would be hover height the ground cushion will hold you up, so very gradually bring back the speed and roll off throttle till you come to rest on the ground with a very gentle run-on landing - how's that for sheer optimism? Well, what do you think? Shoot me down in flames gently please.

Helinut,

I can see that you do indeed need to adjust the briefing to suit the student. But...I think (though I can't be certain) that what happened to me was that my instructor made some incorrect assumptions about what I'd want.

I went for a trial lesson, a f/w PPL who had no plans to take it any further. I loved it, and went back for a whole day. I said then that I was considering doing a PPL(H), but wasn't sure. Fairly soon afterwards I said that I was going to. But I always felt I wasn't taken seriously. I was treated as though the most I'd ever do would be take out a helicopter occasionally in my local area, as though the finer points of the 'A' check and not being able to reach the rotors because I'm so short wouldn't matter...
"Don't worry; someone can always do it for you"
"Get me a ladder; I do my own 'A' checks!"

Perhaps it was because I was female. It made no sense really, because as a f/w pilot I knew a fair bit about the theory and nav and met and so on anyway, so more information would hardly have overloaded me. Perhaps it was purely because I hadn't made it clear that my feelings about what I wanted were changing as time went on. Fairly early on I thought about instructing. I'd never enjoyed anything in my whole life as much as flying helicopters, and I didn't want to be one of these PPLs who never flew enough to be confident, or to improve - I wanted more. But I didn't tell anyone that; I saw no reason to at the time. Then one day my instructor said jokingly: "You enjoy this so much; maybe you should become an instructor". I then told him I was considering doing just that. Well, he wasn't just surprised; he was utterly gobsmacked!

So, any instructors reading this...what would you have done if I'd been your student from the start?

[Old Man Rotor]

The other side of the same coin.......

Amazing that my initial Instructor had nearly 11,000 hours Total when he taught me to hover........and what a huge field that was indeed!!!
And I reached nearly 8500 hours on a wide variety of helio's including 6500 on IFR twins before I was trying to Check other pilots to do a Rig Radar or ILS approach..........

There are still guys that are teaching folk who are yet to climb that steep slope to an Industry Job.........????

Times don't change............

I sincerely wish you the best of luck for your future in our Industry........it just smacks me as to the wrong way of doing things............

[overpitched]

Jammed collective

One thing I think is worth considering. With a jammed collective I see it was mentioned that you should lower rpm to the bottom of the green?? That seems to me to be a big risk if you actually had a jammed collective as you are not able to lower collective to recover rotor rpm if things go badly and the engine doesn't have sufficient power to recover the situation. From my experience opening the throttle may not produce an increase in rotor rpm. Sometimes the only way to do that is to lower the collective. Jammed collective is bad, jammed collective and low rpm.. no thanks