Insights

The information dilemma

"My instructor taught me his way, she does it another way, and the FAA guy has his way. A corporate pilot says this, an airline pilot says that. I'm a new pilot, and I'm confused. Will someone please tell me what's correct?"

We've all encountered this dilemma, and with the proper insights, it can be resolved. To do this you must consider the source's operating mode, and flight instructors should consider my training philosophy.

Operating mode refers to the airplane flown and the crew complement. For basic general aviation flying, it's one pilot in a single-engine, propeller-driven airplane. The procedures taught at this level are the prerequisites for advanced operating modes--multiengine airplanes, turboprops, jets, and two-pilot crews.

This evolutionary process does not work in reverse, because many advanced procedures and techniques are inappropriate for the basic operating mode. A new opinion may have merit, but only if it's based on your operating mode.

Checklist procedures are one example. Two-pilot crews use the read-and-respond technique, where one pilot reads a written checklist and the second pilot responds as each element is confirmed. In a single-pilot airplane, however, pilots should use the written checklist to confirm compliance after they have used a flow pattern and a mental checklist (such as CIGARS--controls, instruments, gas, attitude trim, runup and radios, seat belts or GUMPS--gas, undercarriage, mixture, propeller, safety items) to prepare the airplane as required. This combination of events gives that pilot checklist redundancy that differs from two-pilot crews but generates the same degree of safety. I can attest that pilots who do not use the written checklist, and pilots who use only the written checklist, do make mistakes.

My training philosophy is "maximum confidence, minimum workload." Flight instructors who use this philosophy maximize their students' ability to resolve opinions that differ.

A critical flight instructor responsibility is to maximize student self-confidence while avoiding overconfidence. A fine line separates both conditions. Self-confidence relates to complete mastery of the knowledge, procedures, and techniques that students are taught. Overconfidence relates to optimistic or erroneous assumptions that pilots make when planning or conducting a flight.

Maximum self-confidence occurs when instructors teach the minimum number of procedures required for the current task. But to qualify, each procedure must work in the worst possible situation that could exist. No one can teach experience, but a pilot with extensive experience knows the worst possible situations that one can encounter when flying. This is why a school that hires new, inexperienced flight instructors must have experienced managers who can ensure that worst-case procedures are taught.

It's impossible to teach experience, so instructors should never attempt to teach everything they know. Otherwise, critical training material becomes diluted, and training efficiency decreases.

Minimizing the procedures taught increases training quality, because learning becomes easier and repetition increases. Instructors know that repetition and the development of good habit patterns are the keys to successful learning and proper performance.

Minimum workload--my training philosophy's second factor--means that students are taught to maximize their free time so that emergencies and unusual situations can be handled without compromising basic flying priorities or flight safety. Passengers watching a properly trained pilot at work usually think flying is easy, which is not true in many situations.

A procedure or technique should not be taught until cockpit workload had been evaluated. For example, if two pilots perform the same task in 30 and 50 seconds, respectively, the second pilot should adopt the other pilot's actions. However, if both pilots perform the task in 30 seconds, each using a different procedure or technique, all is well. Individual variations are normal and should be allowed providing workload and flight safety are not compromised.

Pilots of all levels can avoid confusion by applying specific questions to whatever they read, see, or hear. What is the operating mode? Will the procedure or technique work in the worst situation? Will it minimize cockpit workload? If the answer to all three questions isn't yes, then you should modify your thinking and your performance.

Ralph Butcher, a retired United Airlines captain, is the chief flight instructor at a California flight school. He has been flying since 1959 and has 25,000 hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Visit his Web site.