We all know the term "pilot error," the persistent cause of accidents. Pilot error is almost always preventable; the pilot makes a chain of mistakes, and pays the consequences.
The same is true for CFIs who guide their students on course to a pilot certificate. Blatant cases of instructor error exist, such as the male CFI who placed one hand of his new female student on the control yoke, while putting the other in his lap. (Yes, he was most deservedly fired.)
But most students quit for less dramatic reasons - "I wasn't getting anywhere," "My training ground to a halt," "I started strong, but got discouraged with landings," "It wasn't fun anymore."
Read between the lines and we find that students quit largely because of poor communication and lack of encouragement. Any CFI worth the certificate could correct such problems before the student quit. But these students' instructors did not, for whatever reason.
We've all had school teachers who simply showed up for class, taught their stuff, and went home. We may have learned the subject, but their teaching never touched or motivated us.
Then there were the special teachers who put their hearts into inspiring their students, who desired that every student love and understand the subject at hand.
As CFIs, that's how we need to be - mentors, cheerleaders, counselors, advisors, and consultants, motivating and encouraging our students, anticipating and addressing their needs, and offering support to keep them coming back.
The first step toward retaining students is to remember our main reason for teaching - student satisfaction. Our customers want to be pilots, not students. So one of the best ways to keep them happy is to treat them as equals.
We can counsel a fellow professional, offer suggestions, be a mentor, provide encouragement, and offer criticism in a sensitive manner. But we must avoid frustration, disgust, or irritation at all cost. We can't make fun of anybody's performance as a pilot. And expressing anger toward students is destructive under all circumstances. apply the golden rule. Treat each student as a professional, and most all will go on to complete the program.
The second step toward keeping students flying is to tell them where they are, how they're doing, and what's happening next - during every lesson!
When a CFI doesn't update his students, they start to think they're not getting anywhere. They can come to the conclusion that, because they couldn't maintain altitude after the second try at steep turns, he will never be a pilot. He concludes that something is wrong with his flying, and that the maneuver is easy for all other pilots!
Never having done it before, students are unqualified to judge the progress of their flight training. CFIs must do this by laying out the program step by step, and continually showing students where they are and where they're headed. Students must always know what objectives remain for them to accomplish, so their goal - becoming a pilot - stays in sight.
Back in college, I answered an ad for "an hour of your time for $25" psychology experiment. They sat me in a chair and had me stick my arm into a bucket of ice water. The assignment was to keep my arm submerged for as long as possible.
I quickly became uncomfortable and removed my arm from the bucket. After resting to regain feeling in my arm, I received my next assignment. This time the experimenters would brief me, then we'd see if I could keep my arm in longer. I was told what I should expect to feel, starting with cold, then tingling, then numbness.
Armed with that information, I tolerated the ice water 10 times longer. Now, you can't trust psychology researchers to say why you're doing an experiment, but I learned something all the same. When people know what's going to happen ahead of time, they can put up with a lot more difficulty than when they are going in blind.
Before each maneuver, and at the start of every lesson, tell the student what to expect. "Landings are fun, Justin, but they're challenging. Be prepared for four or five lessons in the pattern, before you start feeling comfortable with them."
After the lesson, relate the student's progress to the syllabus, letting your student know where he (or she) excels, along with the challenges he needs to meet. people tend to notice only what they did wrong, so after a lesson, point out the things your student did right. "Sure, Brenda, you made a few wrong turns on 'Pattern A,' but you nailed your altitude and headings throughout the lesson. You couldn't do that a week ago? Great job!"
How many students quit flying after a great lesson? Few, if any. We lose them after "bad" lessons. What the heck is a bad lesson, anyway? Because making mistakes is key to learning, a lesson where the student makes mistakes is not necessarily a bad one. The only really bad lessons are discouraging ones, where the student leaves frustrated, disappointed, or demoralized.
It's not always easy, but do your best to ensure that no lesson ends on a bad note. When a student leaves a lesson discouraged, you face a measurable possibility he won't be back. When a session goes badly, switch to something easy or fun to wrap things up. And be sure to suppress any frustration you may feel, so the student feels that whatever happened, it was nothing more - and nothing less - than a great learning experience. Making every lesson positive does a great deal to keep your students flying.
Sometimes it's easy to forget why students take flying lessons. For fun! For adventure! For relaxation! So when flying ceases to be enjoyable for students, losing them to wind surfing or bungee-jumping becomes a distinct possibility.
When you see students on the downslide, take a break and make a pleasure flight. Remind them why they're learning to fly. If a student doesn't have an aviation background, his experience is limited to high-intensity lessons. Other than looking for traffic, how many students get to relax and enjoy the view prior to their solo cross-country?
Although it's not on the syllabus, sometimes a casual, "pleasure-flight" lesson is the best thing you can do for your students. Fly to a nearby flight service station or radar approach control facility for a tour. Want to teach a collision avoidance lesson they'll never forget? Go to a pancake breakfast fly-in.
A pleasure lesson breaks the pattern of stressful lessons and gives you the opportunity to say, "Well, you may not have slips nailed yet, but look how far your flying has come. You just flew an airplane 100 miles, all while holding your heading and altitude within practical test tolerances, and having fun to boot. Imagine doing that a month ago!"
Here's the conversation we're shooting for when the student gets home - "Guess what, Honey! I flew all the way to Payson today. What a blast! I guess I got so worked up about the slips last week that I forgot why I was learning to fly. Can you believe I could see all the way to Flagstaff? Even stalls don't seem so intimidating now. I can't wait 'til Thursday's lesson!"
It's important to recognize when someone may be thinking of quitting, and to do something about it. When a student's name is not on next week's schedule, you might have a tendency to think, "when Jill is ready for her next lesson, she'll call me." Could be, but when students are discouraged or lack confidence, and a lapse in the training schedule happens, they may never come back.
Unless, that is, someone follows up and beckons them back to the airport. Funny as it sounds, many people quit flying because they think their instructors are unhappy with their performance - and the instructor often doesn't know about the student's inner turmoil. A call from the CFI, saying, "We miss you! Come on out for a lesson," makes students feel wanted, not pestered. Also, it demonstrates that their performance has been perfectly satisfactory. Otherwise why would you invite them back?
When a student breaks the unwritten rules by leaving the airport without scheduling the next lesson, put on your counselor's hat, make a courtesy call, and schedule one. Sometimes it takes a friendly shove to keep students flying, but if we as instructors don't do it, nobody will.
Related Articles
