Several years ago, a student named Pamela told me about a postflight briefing in which her flight instructor flippantly remarked that all pilots should be able to handle any type of crosswind they encounter. Pam said she never forgot that statement. She went on to become a private pilot, but could never shake the idea that she was somehow less capable at crosswind landings than other pilots because there were crosswinds that challenged her.She confessed that she could easily handle an eight- to 10-knot direct crosswind, but felt uncomfortable in stronger winds. I told her that most private pilots feel challenged in an eight- to 10-knot direct crosswind, and that her instructor’s comment wasn’t entirely true—airplanes as well as pilots have their limits. But her instructor’s statement led Pam to believe that she was less capable than most pilots.
The takeaway point here is that a flight instructor’s casual remark can sometimes have a negative and indelible effect on a student’s self-image and behavior. Think about all the flippant, humorous, and exaggerated lines that we flight instructors often toss around. I recall one instructor saying, in a moment of playfulness, that wing-tip vortices aren’t really all that dangerous. Of course, that’s simply not true. Those things can be very dangerous. Yet any student within earshot might have taken the comment at face value.
The fact is that flight instructors, like most other people, enjoy talking—but we don’t always monitor who’s listening. On a practical level, we can’t always know who’s listening to our musings. What we can do is strive to be more cognizant of what comes out of our mouths when we’re at the airport. That’s what counts. If we do that, then we’ve taken a big step toward preventing impressionable students from misinterpreting our not-so-serious language.
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Several years ago, a student named Pamela told me about a postflight briefing in which her flight instructor flippantly remarked that all pilots should be able to handle any type of crosswind they encounter. Pam said she never forgot that statement. She went on to become a private pilot, but could never shake the idea that she was somehow less capable at crosswind landings than other pilots because there were crosswinds that challenged her.She confessed that she could easily handle an eight- to 10-knot direct crosswind, but felt uncomfortable in stronger winds. I told her that most private pilots feel challenged in an eight- to 10-knot direct crosswind, and that her instructor’s comment wasn’t entirely true—airplanes as well as pilots have their limits. But her instructor’s statement led Pam to believe that she was less capable than most pilots.
The takeaway point here is that a flight instructor’s casual remark can sometimes have a negative and indelible effect on a student’s self-image and behavior. Think about all the flippant, humorous, and exaggerated lines that we flight instructors often toss around. I recall one instructor saying, in a moment of playfulness, that wing-tip vortices aren’t really all that dangerous. Of course, that’s simply not true. Those things can be very dangerous. Yet any student within earshot might have taken the comment at face value.
The fact is that flight instructors, like most other people, enjoy talking—but we don’t always monitor who’s listening. On a practical level, we can’t always know who’s listening to our musings. What we can do is strive to be more cognizant of what comes out of our mouths when we’re at the airport. That’s what counts. If we do that, then we’ve taken a big step toward preventing impressionable students from misinterpreting our not-so-serious language.
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