It’s time to teach landings, so you demonstrate a few perfect ones and then invite the student to try a few on his own.
Slam! Ouch! Kaboom!
Bad landings? In your eyes, not so bad for the first few attempts. In fact, they may be pretty darn good, relatively speaking. But the student is using the wrong scale to measure against, because he or she has only one scale—what you did. Measured with that ruler, the landings all come up short, and the student is most likely frustrated.
The problem is that the student has no idea of the minimum skill you require for solo. He certainly knows, or at least suspects, the skill level required to be a flight instructor after you demonstrate how landings should be done. While that may be a noble long-term goal, it’s not a short-term target that’s likely to keep the student motivated.
That’s why I prefer to demonstrate the ideal behavior (the long-term target), followed by the intermediate behavior that’s necessary for the student to achieve his short-term goal (solo, in this instance). So, I’ll show the student a private-pilot-quality landing, followed by the type of landing he needs to perform to obtain solo privileges. This means demonstrating how the touchdown is always made on the main gear in lieu of the nosegear, how to keep the airplane on the runway and not letting it develop any lateral movement, and so on.
Am I advocating any lessening of standards for pre-solo students? Of course not. What I am advocating is offering your student a more realistic assessment of what his or her behavior should be to achieve the short-term goal of soloing, while keeping the long-term objective in view. Of course, this strategy applies to every required private pilot maneuver, not just landings.
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It’s time to teach landings, so you demonstrate a few perfect ones and then invite the student to try a few on his own.
Slam! Ouch! Kaboom!
Bad landings? In your eyes, not so bad for the first few attempts. In fact, they may be pretty darn good, relatively speaking. But the student is using the wrong scale to measure against, because he or she has only one scale—what you did. Measured with that ruler, the landings all come up short, and the student is most likely frustrated.
The problem is that the student has no idea of the minimum skill you require for solo. He certainly knows, or at least suspects, the skill level required to be a flight instructor after you demonstrate how landings should be done. While that may be a noble long-term goal, it’s not a short-term target that’s likely to keep the student motivated.
That’s why I prefer to demonstrate the ideal behavior (the long-term target), followed by the intermediate behavior that’s necessary for the student to achieve his short-term goal (solo, in this instance). So, I’ll show the student a private-pilot-quality landing, followed by the type of landing he needs to perform to obtain solo privileges. This means demonstrating how the touchdown is always made on the main gear in lieu of the nosegear, how to keep the airplane on the runway and not letting it develop any lateral movement, and so on.
Am I advocating any lessening of standards for pre-solo students? Of course not. What I am advocating is offering your student a more realistic assessment of what his or her behavior should be to achieve the short-term goal of soloing, while keeping the long-term objective in view. Of course, this strategy applies to every required private pilot maneuver, not just landings.
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