What is most 'dangerous' to teach in a lesson?
 

I would like to hear your comments on what you as a FI think is the most 'dangerous' part to teach when you are giving a lesson to a student? Maybe you should read it more like: Where do you concentrate most on the left seat (i know, you all are always aware of what might happen next, but that's not the point):

Do you think it is more 'challenging' for you in the left seat when in a hover at 5ft with a student who just began, or when you tell your student to lift the chopper in the beginning (i.e. he did not do that before) or more when setting the helicopter to the ground. Or are you more 'on alert' when your student does an autorotation for the first time himself, etc.?

KISS: In what kind of situations are you concentrated most (saying it all depends on the student does not count ;) ).

Regards,
Ready2Fly

For different reasons, the following spring to mind

Trial Lesson students taking control

Entry into Auto

The bottom end of the EOL

Hover EOLs

Demo of Incipient VR

First Dual X/C where student is trying to do everything and getting overloaded

Limited Power Exercises

AND just when I start to relax

:(

Any maneouvres close to the ground, especially flare height on an EOL. Hover EOL's because of the tendency to "drop the collective" . Very tight confined areas. Sloping ground. All these exercises need special care by the instructor. The scariest is sending the student off on his/her first solo!!!!

Where do I concentrate most intently on the left seat....errrrr...that bit upon which my wallet rests....and what sits on it. I keep the wallet safe....and everything else falls into place. Kind of a hearts and minds thing in reverse.:E

The maneuver/exercise matters not... Watch out for your best students. They're the ones who'll get you because you let your guard down.

And never chop the throttle on a student if you've been doing hover autos earlier in the lesson. Negative transfer of learning and all that...

Termination phase of Insufficient T/R Thrust in FWD flight with a M/R that rotates to the left at 22,000 lbs MAUW with the fixed pitch corresponding to just inside 20 deg right yaw lined up on finals.

Veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy Interesting Indeed

:\

P.S. We do this in the sim however the yaw rates generated still make me puke.


:{

Slopes
Dolly (cart) landings

Thanks for your answers so far, i really appreciate it.
I guessed so. From my point of view, even when the student is 'nervous' when being told to solo, he might be looking forward to it anyway. The instructor on the other hand knows what kind of things might happen and what could go wrong whereas the student does not even realize all this in detail because he does not have the experience.

Maybe not too bad because if he/she knew, they would probably not want to solo.

Btw (without getting too much off-topic): Did you ever have a student who gave up flying when it came to solo or who said: Well, fine but i do not feel up to it and want to do it at a later stage?


@Flingwing207
Blame it either to my language or to my knowledge: I don\'t have the slightest idea what that means?!

Regards,
Ready2Fly

When I was doing my PPL, I activated the throttle mounted starter button whilst in the cruise, thinking it was the mic tx - getting all of that co-ordination into place was the hardest for me ! The ship sprang to the right by a good 45 degs before I realised my error ! The FI grabbed the controls, went white and shouted " what the **** was that?" My first lesson in why switches are guarded !! ( Or should be ! )

Dolly (cart) landings: Landing on a smallish wood or metal platform raised on wheels that can be towed in and out of a hangar. Requires that the pilot is able to precisely position the helicopter for landing. Most dollies are only a few feet wider than the skids.

Like this:
http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/avenuedentistry/Cart.JPG

The dynamic rollover demo is a bit of a cheek clincher. I don't do it but a lot of R22 instructors seem to.:}



This one is a few inches wider.

Gaseous, your photo reminds me of a friend of mine who once was unable to prevent a student from sliding an R44 backwards off the dolly on a botched setdown attempt. It also illustrates the point that on most dollies, to position the helicopter properly, one must actually hang the nose over the front of the platform and find a reference point somewhere on the pavement. As tricky a maneuver to teach as any...

That looks nearly as bad as where Gaseous parks his Enstrom!

I have a artificial surface consisting of a piece of 5 ply hardboard about 8 feet square to land on, and that gets a bit tricky when the wind is gusting off the hangar. Concentrates the mind wonderfully.

muffin

Best way of landing on a trolley is to do a zero zero landing. That is fly the ac down on to it, do not hover above it.

Most scared is teaching vortex ring recovery. One student pulled max pitch on the collective. All I can say it took 2000ft to pull it out - very uncomfortable when the ac appears to be totally uncontrollable and you can see the ground coming up very very very fast.

I'd have to say that instructing on an Enstrom would be pretty dangerous.

Just kidding. I had an offer to do freelance instructing to a few chaps with on of these nightmares. On the intro flight for me (I was not yet rated), the engine started coughing and sputtering. I didn't take the job, needless to say.

Like the others have said, sloping ground, logpad landings; anything near the ground.

Revolutionary

Just a note on the position on the cart in the pic. The aircraft was parked at the end of the cart because if it was parked in the middle, the bounce that developed the next time the clutch was engaged was horrendous. Theres more to landing on these things than meets the eye. This was the previous owners dolly and was a particularly nasty one. (look at the bend)

As Muffin says I do park in a comparatively confined area and I find the best way to get in is not to dither in the hover because it can all get very untidy. Hughes is right. Fly to the point and land.

Has to be teaching student instructors (military) to teach EOLs. In the CFS(H) system, on the various exercises the staff instructor plays the part of the student, and injects deliberate errors for the student instructor to identify and correct.

So there you are, deliberately getting an EOL wrong, so your student can correct it! And if he doesn't ....... 'cos you're still captain/PIC!

More comfortable in the Squirrel with the throttle in yer left hand rather than in the Gazelle with it in the roof!

It wasn't called "Lemmings' Day" for nothing..........

Gaseous,

I've never flown an Enstrom but I imagine that they are tail heavy when empty, like many other helicopters. It really sits rather precariously on the back end of that dolly. And you only have a few inches of skid clearance on either side of the skids? Time to invest in another dolly, methinks. It's an accident waiting to happen. By the way, is that you smoking a ciggie in the ditch?

Could it be a Robbie following an engine cut drill?

Revolutionary,

You are preaching to the converted mate. The C of G empty is about an inch in front of the rear oleos!! I only flew from this trolly when test flying the aircraft before I bought it. I am not guilty of the landing pictured, although this is the way he always did it. The position of the oil stains on the dolly confirm that.

To be fair He really did make it look easy.
I left the dolly with the guy when I bought the aircraft. He was welcome to it. My LZ is concrete.

The smoke? That wasn't a good landing either.