Insights

I'm frequently asked, "Since you have a full-time flying job, why are you so interested in flight instructing?" I answer, "Because I'll never forget when, during U.S. Army flight training, I saw the big picture, the benefit of which I'm compelled to share with all pilots."

Upon arriving at Fort Rucker, Alabama, I was placed in a class with 20 lieutenants who had never flown an airplane. I thought, "Hey, this is great. I have my commercial pilot and flight instructor certificates, so I'll spend my free time partying, not studying." Wrong! During my fourth flight in an L-19 Bird Dog-the Army's two-seat version of a Cessna 180-the back-seat instructor beat my helmet with a piece of broomstick he carried and yelled, "I don't know where you learned to fly, but you're ----."

He may have been right, but a month later, during short-field training, I saw the big picture. That moment redirected my perception of flying forever. Nuts to the instruments, fly the wing. Fly attitude and power. Army flying was bush flying and performance was king, an objective that was impossible to reach if I spent too much time looking at the instruments.

The big picture has only three parts-attitude, power, and glide path. If I kept the wingtips in a slightly nose-high attitude and maintained glide path with minor power changes, I could fly the airplane down to the designated touch-down spot with incredible precision. This was a revelation. I realized that precision is a by-product of other ob-jectives-attitude and power, in this case.

When I returned to general aviation after leaving the Army, I began to teach the big picture, and the results have been amazing. I take every opportunity to simplify, rather than complicate, the act of flying.

My favorite teaching tool is one half of a manila file folder that I use to cover the flight instruments. It forces my students to use visual references-the orientation of the wingtip, nose, and windshield to the earth's surface.

You can use a commercially available instrument cover, or construct your own. Place one half of a manila file folder over the flight instruments and mark the location of the heading indicator, attitude indicator, and altimeter knobs. Reinforce those points with masking tape, and then use a pencil or pen to punch holes so that the knobs will hold the cover in place. For student pilot reference, I write the airplane's tail number and the four basic communication sequences-taxi for takeoff, takeoff, landing, and taxi after landing-on the cover with a felt tip pen.

I use the cover during a new student's first three lessons and whenever I introduce a new maneuver. During these lessons, students are forced to use visual references and attitude/power relationships, the learning process is simplified, and instructing becomes easier. Lessons introducing steep turns, slow flight, stalls, spins, chandelles, and lazy eights are all good opportunities to use this technique.

When a student can fly a maneuver using only visual references and power, I know that he has a basic understanding of the maneuver. I can then un-cover the instruments, and the student can add instrument reference in order to fine-tune his performance.

If I don't cover the instruments, problems increase. Students develop incorrect insights because nonessential information is available and the student doesn't stay focused on what the airplane is actually doing. Trimming becomes a problem, and students, who all seem to think that an airplane can't fly without instruments, spend too much looking in the cockpit.

When students focus on outside references, they have more opportunities to watch for traffic. Properly trained pilots spend 75 percent of their time looking outside during visual flight, spending 16 seconds looking outside for every four seconds spent looking inside. Now you, too, have the big picture.