Thoughts, movement, and other human functions are the result of brain cells combining themselves in various patterns. The connections between the cells are small gaps called synaptic junctions. When cells try to arrange themselves to form a thought or create a nerve impulse, a small electrical charge bridges the gap making the cell connection.
How fast cells connect depends on cell stimulation, or information input. With no input, the cell does nothing. As input increases, the cells fire more rapidly and brain activity increases until it reaches a saturation point and cannot function faster. When input exceeds saturation, the cells stop connecting and brain activity stops.
A good way to avoid information overload is to know just how much each student can deal with. Each student has a different saturation point that will vary from day to day with factors such as ability and skill, fatigue, attitude, and stress. As an instructor, you must assess each learning session independently of any other. Know your student. You should be able to sense whether your student is tired or alert and whether he seems preoccupied or distracted.
Fear will definitely lower the saturation point. It will show up in your students in many ways, such as anxiety or nervousness. Others may develop defense mechanisms and become irritable and possibly short-tempered. In any case, students will not listen to what you?re saying when they are scared, and they won?t learn much.
Relieving anxiety and fear is a difficult task. Taking small steps is one way to build students? confidence in themselves, in the aircraft, in flight training, and in you. With trust, fear subsides. Have patience with anxious students. Some may only need one or two flights to develop a trust, while others may take almost the entire training time. To help develop trust, reassure them about their progress. If they?re having learning problems, show them that you are completely committed to helping them overcome these obstacles. If you work with them, they will respond.
Fatigue will also lower the saturation point. It can be caused by lack of sleep, hard physical or mental activity, and emotional stress. Typical symptoms of fatigue include poor motor skill performance such as over- or under-controlling the aircraft; physical or mental tenseness, such as a "death grip" on the yoke or irritation about minor inconveniences; increased reaction time dealing with in-flight events or instructor comments; skipping parts of a procedure, such as omitting an instrument on a crosscheck; instrument fixation; and extremely slow reaction to new information.
Usually, rest will remedy physical fatigue. Mental fatigue is more difficult to fix. If it?s the result of short term stress, a good night?s rest often solves the problem. But if it?s caused by chronic (continuous) stress, it may take several weeks, months, or even years to resolve. With a major chronic stress problem you may have to suggest to your student that he stop flying for a while, until he can concentrate on learning to fly. Most people will recognize the problem and quit before you have to tell them.
Short term overload may result from concentrating too much on a particular maneuver or task. Usually this shows up as progress and improvement during the early part of a lesson, then a slow degradation in performance as the pilot repeats the task. When this happens, move to a different task. Changing the task relieves some of the tension and your student may be able to concentrate better on the new task. If changing to a new task doesn?t improve performance, your student is probably exhausted. It?s time to quit the lesson.
Another typical sign of overload is a student?s tendency to withdraw. This becomes plainly evident in crew training. When the flight is under control, crew members usually talk to one another not only about the flight task, but they will add personal comments to break the routine. When this chatter stops, the crew has reached its saturation point. With an individual student this characteristic is more difficult to observe. When a student is slow to respond, he?s reached saturation. If the student stops responding, he?s overloaded. Fly the aircraft awhile. A short break may resolve the problem.
Task complexity can also cause overload. If the student isn?t prepared or able to deal with a complex task, the result will be poor performance. Divide the task into smaller parts if possible. Analyze the exact cause of the poor performance and find an exercise or two that will improve a weak point, then return to the complex task. If possible, move more slowly on the task (this is easy on the ground, not so easy in the air).
Multiple tasking (trying to do several things at once) is related to task complexity. When you teach a new skill, you should reduce student workload. For example, when you teach the first ILS approach, let the student fly while you work the radios. When the student achieves proficiency, return the radios to him. You should fly the aircraft while you explain a new concept, or critique a task. Your student needs to concentrate on what you?re saying. If he has to fly the aircraft as well as listen, he won?t hear your comments.
So far, we?ve talked about student overload. But what about you, the instructor? You can become saturated for the same reasons your students do. Your problem is that while you may recognize an overloaded student, you may not recognize task saturation in yourself. Instructors deal with challenges during every flight. It is mentally and physically fatiguing, and fatigue affects instructors just as it does students. If you become task saturated, you may shut down, and it may happen at a most inopportune time.
What clues suggest you might be saturated? Unwillingness to think when you?re confronted with a problem is an important one. If a troublesome situation arises, and your immediate reaction is not to face it or deal with it, or if you just want to forget it, you might be stressed out. It?s time for a break. Unfortunately, if you?re miles from home, you just can?t pull over and stop to stretch your legs. You have to stay alert until you?re safely on the ground. Other clues are irritability, snappy retorts to student questions, reluctance to answer student questions, and difficulty figuring an answer to a problem. Also, a strong desire to take a long nap, lack of appetite, and incessant thirst are all clues that you?re under stress or fatigue and need a rest.
One way to deal with this potential problem is your schedule. If you?re scheduling four or five students a day for five and six days a week, you?re headed toward overload. Generally, a full load is three students a day. Your fourth student often gets short changed because of your mental state.
Take a serious look at your daily routine. Schedule 15- to 30-minute breaks between students and take those breaks. Temporarily ignore immediate problems. Take your mind off training and students. Find someone to "shoot the bull" with. Drink something without caffeine, such as water. Coffee, tea, and many caffeinated soft drinks actually dehydrate the body, which defeats the purpose of drinking a liquid and adds to your fatigue.
Being task saturated is a two-way street for both you and your student. Be aware of what can happen, watch for the signs, and avoid it when you can. Stop task saturation before it gets started.
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