One of the most experienced flight instructors I know recently conducted a flight training experiment with presolo students. During a summer camp for young pilots (who are given flight training up to solo), he and his fellow instructors taught with and without headsets. The training was conducted in tandem seat taildraggers at a small nontowered airport. The students who trained without using headsets typically soloed in 20 to 30 percent less time than those using headsets. If I were to posit a theory for these results, I might suggest that the ease with which headsets allow instructors to engage in unnecessary chat diminishes a student’s ability to learn efficiently.
Without the use of headsets, the instructor must expend some physical effort to communicate a point. That means either leaning forward to speak or leaning forward to point to something, poke something, or even flex and shape a hand to mimic the behavior of an airplane. As a result, instructors might be inclined to communicate more efficiently compared to how they communicate when using headsets. As a result, the student is less likely to be distracted by an instructor’s unnecessary chatter and more likely to rely on himself to solve a problem.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t use headsets during flight training, and I’m certainly not giving up mine. We should, however, consider talking only when it serves a useful purpose. Ultimately, we have to let students make mistakes in an airplane if we want them to learn efficiently. After all, sitting there in silent mode when a student has failed to reduce power on final approach is one of the hardest things an instructor must do, especially when it’s so easy to whisper a hint like, “Shall I call NASA for an orbital clearance?” So think about talking less so your students can learn more.
