Einstein, Superman, Dear Abby

Few learning or teaching environments possess the dynamics, restrictions, and intensity of the cockpit. Learning to fly is not learning to crochet, and the student has a right to expect more from his or her flight instructor than he would from a crochet teacher.

The student should expect certain levels of personal behavior in addition to quality instruction from her CFI. At the same time, the instructor has a right to expect certain things from the student. If you look at many of the characteristics you expect in your instructor, you'll realize that you should be expected to toe the same line.

The Instructor As Educator

A flight instructor has to be many things, but at his very core he has to be an educator. This means he should see his mission as more than simply teaching a skill. He wants his students to understand each skill, not just be able to perform it. This isn't easy, and the CFI often has to reevaluate his or her approach because every student learns through a different combination of stimuli.

If you were to pick a single characteristic that makes one CFI better than the next, it would be a willingness (an eagerness, actually) to recognize the unique nature of each student and structure the approach to match. Flight training isn't the place for one-size-fits-all instruction.

An Instructor Is Empathetic

At the same time that an instructor is striving to be an educator, he has to recognize that his student is human and has certain fears and anxieties. For that reason, besides the anxieties endemic to any intense learning situation, the instructor has to deal with any fear brought out by introducing a third dimension to a brain that has spent its entire life in a two-dimensional world. It's easy for an instructor to forget what it's like to step into this new, fast-moving environment.

Every time an instructor straps in with a new student, he should try to remember how it felt to sit at the controls for the first time. He should remember those instructors whom he liked and those he didn't like, and try to model himself after the good guys.

As a student, you can tell when an instructor is making no effort to understand what you're going through. If you feel that and it contributes to your frustration level, tell him, as a student once told me when I was just starting to instruct: "Hey, when you're a new student pilot, all you see is sky and dirt. This is all new to me, so give me a break."

The Instructor As Psychiatrist

It's not unusual for a new student to be awestruck by the apparent complexity and seriousness of the endeavor. A few are apprehensive. No matter what the reaction, this gets in the way of learning. It's up to the instructor to try to bring the student to an emotional state that will let learning proceed.

If the CFI is doing the job, he's trying to evaluate his student's mental state, constantly monitoring it for warning flags that indicate all is not well. On those bad days, it's up to the instructor to pat him or her on the back, expounding on all the good things that happened that hour and playing down what didn't go so well, while explaining how to fix the problems. In this area and so many others, the instructor must get inside the student's head. This is where it helps if the instructor is also a mind reader.

A few instructors don't have the patience to play confessor, social worker, and psychiatrist all at the same time, and their impatience shows through. If this becomes a pattern, either find another instructor or sit this one down and talk to him about it. Otherwise it'll make your entire learning experience more difficult.

The Student Pilot Bill Of Rights

OK, now that we know a flight instructor is supposed to be a brilliant combination of Einstein, Dear Abby, and Superman, what do we realistically have a right to expect of him or her?

As a student you have the right to expect the following:

• Punctuality. No instructor has the right to keep you waiting. Even though it is nearly impossible to keep a tight schedule in a flight-training environment, the operative words are nearly impossible. Not absolutely impossible. Just as an instructor asks his students to plan ahead, a good instructor plans his schedule and keeps one eye on his watch. Besides, that's what cell phones are for. If one of you is running late, call the other one and let her know.
• Personal hygiene. We seldom talk about it, but being trapped in a claustrophobic cockpit doesn't leave room for bad breath or body odor. Yes, flight instructors are underpaid, but there's no excuse for not smelling civilized. If you get stuck with an instructor who makes you want to fly with your head out the window, send him a gift-wrapped bar of soap or bottle of mouthwash. Or, if that fails, show up wearing your gas mask.
• Professional appearance. It doesn't do much for your confidence if the guy who is supposed to be imparting death-defying skills to you looks like an unmade bed. He doesn't need to be wearing a suit and tie, but clean jeans, a shirt without mustard stains, and a shave in the past 24 hours would be nice.
• Being prepared. It's really discouraging to greet your instructor and have him say, "Now, what was it we worked on last time?" In the instructor's defense, most CFIs are working with several students at one time. That's why some instructors keep journals in which they jot notes about each student ("...has habit of pulling nose up too high in turns...drags bottom rudder..."). This eliminates that awkward period at the beginning of a lesson where the student is struggling to remember what he did last time - and the instructor is doing the same thing.
• Calm instructional manner. Loosely translated, a calm instructional manner means no yelling. None. Aviation is full of legends about "character" flight instructors who can be heard from the ground yelling at their students as they orbit the pattern. Regardless of a CFI's frustration at a student who can't get something, there is no reason to show impatience. If a student isn't getting it, it's for one of two reasons. First, the student has a learning problem in that area which the instructor hasn't yet diagnosed or developed the correct approach to treat. Second, if the student isn't getting it, the instructor obviously isn't doing a very good job presenting the concept. Whatever the reason, when something isn't going well in the cockpit, the only person the instructor should be yelling at is himself. In these cases, it is the instructor who is making the mistakes - not the student. Yelling or an obvious show of impatience builds apprehension and resentment in the student at a time when that's the last thing he needs. If an instructor is loud and abusive to you, first have a calm discussion with him about how he is treating you. If that doesn't work, go look for a new instructor. If your school has several instructors, ask the chief instructor or manager to assign you a new one more compatible with your instructional needs. "Character" flight instructor or not, there's simply no excuse for that kind of behavior.
• The CFI should know the material, concept to application. CFIs are not expected to be geniuses, but they should know the subject they are teaching well enough to be capable of teaching more than just the basic skills. They should be able to make the underlying concepts understandable. This means having a command of both the academics (the federal aviation regulations, aerodynamics, etc.) and the practical application. In the area of practical application, it's nice if he can fly well, but it is far more important that he can instruct well, and the two skills don't necessarily come in the same package. In fact, it's normally easier to find a good pilot than a good instructor. Being able to demonstrate something correctly is not the same thing as teaching it. Teaching by demonstration alone is a hit-or-miss endeavor in which the instructor hopes that the student is astute enough to see what is happening and can develop the ability to mimic it. But that's all the student will get out of that kind of instruction - a shallow facsimile of what he saw his instructor do. The student may not understand why it is being done. It's important a student know the whys as well as the hows. A solid understanding of the concepts of flight gives students something to build on as they move forward in their flying. Otherwise, once they master the demonstration method by rote, everything else they do will be self-taught and often without solid reasoning behind it because the concepts aren't understood. On the flip side, it is important that an instructor be able to fly well enough that he can correctly put the concepts into action. A student remembers what he or she sees, and words alone can't offset the impact of seeing a maneuver repeatedly done wrong. Images remain in the mind long after the words disappear. You have the right to be taught to fly, not pass a test. If an instructor ever says, "That's good enough to pass the flight test," pack up your bags and split. An instructor who is overreliant on the Practical Test Standards guide is not the person you want teaching you to fly. Passing the flight test should be nothing more than the happy byproduct of good flight instruction. If a student is trained correctly from day one, passing the flight test is a foregone conclusion. Most examiners aren't the ogres that they're painted to be, and they recognize a well-trained student even as they are strapping in. They can spot the poorly trained ones just as quickly, and those are the ones who are likely to get worked over during the flight test.
• Pre-flight/post-flight. It is the right of each student to expect both a preflight and a postflight briefing. They may only be 10 minutes long, but for the learning to flow smoothly, it is much easier to set goals and directions for the lesson while on the ground than in the subdued confusion of the cockpit. Words said in the cockpit are meant to reinforce the words spoken during the preflight briefing. Basic concepts are hard to get across in the cockpit, when they are still in their raw form. There is simply too much going on for you, the student, to realize that you don't understand a concept that the instructor has just tried to explain. The concept should be covered on the ground, and once you're in the cockpit, the instructor should explain how to put the concept into action. The postflight brief is critical because it acts as the bridge between this lesson and the next one. It clarifies things that happened during the flight, and it opens the door for you to ask questions. As you get out of the cockpit, you are likely to say, "Oh, yeah, I just remembered. Why do you use elevator to...." A few hours or days later, your comment will be, "There was something I wanted to ask you, but I can't remember what it is."
• He lets you make the mistakes. You don't want an instructor who is always on the controls. The learning game is always one of making mistakes, being given the time to make the correction, and only then having the instructor step in. To understand airplanes, you have to see their dark side as well as their lighter side, otherwise you won't know a mistake when you make it - and you won't know how to correct it. When learning to fly, too many times the maneuvers taught are separated from the context in which they must be applied. Rectangular patterns and turns around a point, for instance, are meant to help us fly the traffic pattern more precisely. When we start flying that pattern, however, how often are the principles discovered in those maneuvers mentioned? Not often enough. How often do we say, "Remember back in turns around a point? See how our groundspeed is picking up on downwind because of the wind behind us and how it is affecting the turn to base?" Stalls are usually nose-high training exercises that you'd have to be blind to get yourself into in real life. Accidental stalls happen in the pattern, usually during an overshoot of the base-to-final turn, when the nose is allowed to drift up to - not over - the horizon. Although the nose is lower than you commonly see when practicing stalls, you must understand angle of attack so that you can recognize a critical situation when the context is slightly different. Some uncoordinated inside rudder being used to yaw the airplane around the turn may aggravate the situation. Accidental stalls are subtle events, not the dramatic maneuvers that we see out in the practice area. The instructor should show you flight as it happens in reality, not as it is explained in the test guides. Your instructor should strike a balance between saying too much and too little. You want an instructor who knows when it's necessary to tell you what to do but also knows when it's time to let you do it. At the same time, you don't want a bump-on-a-log instructor who says nothing, grunts once in a while, then takes over the controls to show you something. A pleasant, fun instructor makes learning easier. As a student, you may have a certain amount of apprehension about flying. A pleasant instructor who appears to be enjoying your time together makes it much easier for you to relax. An instructor who is gruff, judgmental, and generally unpleasant raises your apprehension considerably, which makes learning much more difficult. The right instructor makes safety an ingrained part of every lesson. Safety in aviation isn't something that you learn - it's something that's part of you, and the proper attitude comes from an instructor who uses safety as the bedrock for every statement that he or she makes. If you hear safety woven into every single word of wisdom that's passed along, you can't help but make safety the core thought of your aviation career. Safety is not supposed to be an instructional afterthought. There are other attributes you want to see in an instructor and which reflect the rights you have as a student pilot, but these will do for starters. However, we have one more list you should know, most of which should feel familiar.

The Instructor's Bill Of Rights

Here's what the instructor has the right to expect of you, the student:

• Punctuality. He's trying to make a living, so give him or her a break
• A shower and fresh breath. Instructors aren't the only ones who smell, and they're not sitting in that cozy cockpit by themselves.
• Be prepared. Flying isn't a replacement for golf. Come ready to learn.
• Be willing to come early and leave late. Pre- and postflight briefings don't work if you're in a hurry to get somewhere.
• Be willing to make mistakes. You don't have to be aggressive, but don't be afraid to try what your instructor is telling you.
• Ask questions. The CFI isn't a mind-reader. If you don't understand something completely, ask about it. Carry a pocket card to write down questions when off the airport.
• Don't be a sourpuss, and respect your instructor. First of all, flying is supposed to be fun, so enjoy it. Second, there is no doubt that you're making more money than your instructor is (everyone does); just don't act like it. He's doing something that not many people do, and he's not doing it for the money. How many of us can say that about ourselves? Consider investing a little extra in the relationship every now and then - offer to buy your instructor a cup of coffee, or even lunch.
• Don't pooh-pooh safety. This is serious stuff.

Budd Davisson is an aviation writer/photographer and magazine editor who has written approximately 2,200 articles and has flown more than 300 different types of aircraft. A CFI for 36 years, he teaches about 30 hours a month in his Pitts S-2A Special. Visit his Web site ( www.airbum.com ).