As the letter's writer said, his biggest obstacle to overcome when he inadvertently flew into a cloud was the "startle factor" of the world suddenly turning all white. He stated that once he had recovered the airplane from the initial unusual attitude, he flew it just fine back out of the cloud. It is this initial scare when a pilot sees something unusual for the first time that I always tried to make sure my students never encountered alone.
Many of my students took care of the first situation, spins, on their own. Invariably, even the best student who can recite the spin recovery technique in his sleep panics on his very first inadvertent spin during stall training. Don't let a student's very first spin be on the day after the checkride with his whole family in the airplane on that base-to-final turn. Make sure he's seen what it's like in training.
The first time new pilots usually ever get a look at the inside of a cloud is also out on their own after passing the checkride; not my students. Many instructors with private students spend IFR days either doing ground work or having their entire schedules canceled. On a good 800-foot overcast day, take your private students up so they can experience what it's really like to fly into IMC. Just take a short little hop, and show them what services are available to them from air traffic control if they should ever get into this situation-specifically, an airport surveillance radar approach. Show them that air traffic control can talk them all the way down to the runway if they ever need to. Some instructors would say that this is wasting a private student's time and money, but every one of mine thanked me for the experience, shocked at how different it was than flying under the hood.
After the flight, we'd sit down and I'd take the time to explain why we did what we just did, and to reinforce that they should never use this experience as a crutch to attempt to do this intentionally. It is simply meant so that if- through a bad go/no-go decision, poor judgment, or whatever-they do inadvertently end up in that type of situation, the little voice in their head will not be saying, "Oh, god, I don't know if I can do this," but rather, "Thank god I've done this once before with my instructor."
The bottom line? Give your students the real thing whenever you can. They'll thank you for it. And someday, perhaps, indirectly, so will their passengers.
Mike Simon
Via the Internet
Avoiding IFR, Not Preparing For It
This in response to a letter ("Escaping IMC," November 1999) in which the young pilot from Clinton, Tennessee, describes his experience with accidental cloud penetration on a VFR flight, and how he was able to maneuver the aircraft back to VFR conditions. It is commendable that he was able to keep his composure, maintain control of the aircraft, and escape to write his letter. However, there are a couple of very important errors in both attitude and judgment that need to be addressed.
First, we instructors don't attempt to expose primary students to the "startle factor" during instrument hood work because that's not what it's for. We provide the required three hours of instrument training for primary students to provide them with the most basic rudiments of instrument flight, not to prepare them for it. We put far more effort into helping our students develop good judgment and decision-making skills so, hopefully, they won't need to use the meager instrument training provided during primary instruction.
Second, this person obviously didn't understand the peril he was in; otherwise he wouldn't have overconfidently stated, "The flight training I received from my instructor well prepared me for executing the necessary maneuvers to get back to VFR conditions." The truth is that instrument students on average spend six to nine hours learning to control the aircraft using instruments before they even begin to add navigation and communication into the picture. This person wasn't well prepared for flight in instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). He, like all other VFR pilots, was just barely prepared!
Third, his comment, "I think that faced with a similar situation in the future, I will react more calmly" should have been, "In the future I'll do my best to use wise judgment so as to avoid an-other encounter with IMC, at least until I get formal, structured IFR training."
The bottom line is this: If you are not instrument-rated, avoid IMC like the plague! There is absolutely no substitute for good judgment and wise decision making where a VFR-rated pilot and IMC are concerned.
Steve Denton, CFII
Hillsboro, Oregon
Respect Makes The Best Teacher
I read with interest Ralph Hood's article in the November 1999 AOPA Flight Training magazine titled "Memorable Teachers." As you hold the profiled flight instructor in high regard, I feel compelled to comment on one of his attributes that I find to be most objectionable.
Hood was overjoyed when he caught the instructor making even a little mistake, throwing back at him all of the esteem-shattering comments that he'd made in the past: "Are you trying to kill us? Do you need help reading the checklist? Do you think you know more about engine operation than both Piper and Lycoming?"
These are hardly the comments I expect from an exceptional instructor. Such flight instructors have no doubt shattered the will of a number of excellent students. I had such an instructor once-only once.
Learning to fly is one of the most demanding and difficult skills in the world. It takes great courage to even attempt it, and no one should ever claim to be its master-especially if they enjoy living. Errors are a part of every flight; we can always do better. This is why, above all else, I demand respect, compassion, and humility from anyone I fly with, especially a flight instructor. Flying is demanding enough without a tormentor for a teacher. No one learns well if their ego and confidence are under attack. More often than not, such attacks undermine our judgment processes, leading to even more serious mistakes.
While it's important to point out errors and to recommend better ways of doing things, it must always be done with respect and compassion-never in a demeaning manner. It is vital that flight instructors remember that they are teaching people how to fly, and people are very sensitive, especially when addressed by an authority figure they are supposed to respect. Teachers must always strive to be worthy of that authority and respect.
Professor Dale Coleman
California
There Is No Straight In S-Turns
I was enjoying Robert Rossier's "How To Fly S-Turns" in your October 1999 issue. I agreed with his suggestion that the maneuver is like a series of turns about a point cut in half and linked end to end. A turn about a point is very much about drift correction and so are S turns. Unfortunately, he recommends up to two seconds of straight-and-level flight between rolling out of one bank and into the next one.
First of all, it takes little knowledge or timing to fly across the ground reference, turn around out there somewhere and then fly back with your wings parallel to the ground reference. The whole point of rolling from one bank into the next bank with no hesitation, and at the same time crossing the reference line with wings parallel, is to learn the timing and changing angles of bank required to keep each loop the same size in a wind.
Secondly, flying straight and level blows any similarity to turns about a point, which stress changing angles of bank to achieve an equidistant circle around a point while correcting for wind.
Finally, the pitch control to avoid altitude excursions when banking without hesitation from one direction to another is different than when flying straight and level. Flying straight and level during this exercise turns it into an entirely different art.
Johnny Moore, Pilot Examiner
Quincy, California
Checkrides Should Work In Any Airplane
I was deeply disturbed by Richard Hiner's suggestion that a student's checkride be postponed until his or her favorite airplane was available ("Checkride Success," September 1999).
The checkride is the last "check" before a pilot is authorized to exercise the privileges of a given certificate or rating. After that, he's on his own. Suppose his "favorite" instrument approach is out of service? The essence of sound flight instruction is preparing the student to cope with the unexpected, even as he learns to use flow patterns, checklists, and standard operating procedures to ensure that most calamities don't have the chance to develop. If a student needs a particular airplane to pass a checkride, he's not ready to take the ride.
Solution? Have the student fly every aircraft at the flight school during training. Take the student out of his comfort zone so that minor changes at checkride time are meaningless. After all, what we're really doing is teaching life lessons, not how to pass a checkride. Whatever aircraft the student rents after he gets his ticket, he'll have to fly it to at least checkride standards when it counts the most. It's not about luck.
Michael Leyva, CFI
Via the Internet
