Instructor Report

The whole idea of flying with a flight instructor is to gain knowledge and experience—safely. Generally this is the case, but every so often instructor inattention and distraction lead instead to misfortune.

Yes, it’s true; recent studies confirm that CFIs are often involved in training accidents—accounting for something like 10 percent overall. On top of that there are innumerable unreported or underreported incidents. Take, for example, the following excerpted text from an ASRS report: “We took off on Runway 24 instead of 30, as the tower subsequently informed us. As I reviewed the event later, with my student and in my own mind, I realized how I may have added to the uncertainty. I was busy pointing out airport markings and critiquing the flight to this point. The priority should have been communications with the tower and standard procedure.”

Flight instructors face special challenges as they strive to incorporate flight training into the hectic beehive of the airspace system while maintaining a measure of situational awareness. It’s not an easy job, tackling all levels of learners from ab initio students to ATP upgrades in multiengine aircraft—a daunting task considering that the classroom is moving at something like 100 to 200 knots. Trouble is, there is no simple solution except to say that instructing requires “good judgment” and a sixth sense that sounds an alert when we start to lose touch with our surroundings. Hmm, tricky.

Here’s the flight instructor’s conundrum: If he or she seeks to maximize situational awareness, then most instruction would stop. On the other hand, if instruction is to take place, student-teacher dialog has to coexist. So somewhere in between the instructor must decide when and where to allow class to begin.

Experienced pilots know where most of the risks lie, so let’s start at these hot spots when deciding how to make our mobile classrooms safer. After all, it helps to know in advance where distraction problems are likely to arise and how to avoid them.

Taxiing—Know the taxi route, crossing runways, and runway or parking assignments. This is not a good time to have your attention diverted by irrelevant chatter. In fact, it is a great time to instruct students in the importance of paying attention.

Traffic pattern—Get ATIS and plan pattern entry well in advance. You will want to become aware of traffic in the area and the flow around the airport, towered or nontowered. This is a routine that students need to learn early in their training. Couple this with instruction in proper checklist usage.

Instrument approaches—See and avoid. Instrument work tends to divert pilots’ attention into the cockpit. The federal aviation regulations say we still must pay attention to what’s going on outside.

Repeated takeoffs and landings—We tend to get in a groove after several trips around the pattern, feeling comfortable and confident. But along with overconfidence come complacency and forgetfulness. Here’s another great opportunity to acquaint students with checklist discipline, making it part of the landing pattern routine. Besides, it’s a good habit we hope will stay with them after training is complete.

Any upset of routine—Unusual circumstances amplify the chances of a mistake. Whether it’s engine-out training or simply a new maneuver, avoid situations where training intensity obscures your situational awareness. Don’t allow your attention to be diverted—fly the airplane.

Complacency—Don’t assume anything.

Cockpit distraction brought about by overzealous instruction—Carefully choose the best time and place for instruction by avoiding the hot spots. Use your kneeboard to take notes; use the briefing room to sort out any difficulties.

Next, expand the discussion. If your flight school does not already have a policy that specifically references distraction and situational awareness, spread the word. For an organization like yours—one whose employees spend most of their time with flight students—a standard operating procedure would be valuable. Consider the following as a blueprint:

• Acquire senior management’s buy-in on the plan.
• Select the right person to champion the project.
• Develop an enforceable department policy regarding distractions.
• Include this policy in the operations manual and/or instructor’s handbook.
• Make distraction a subject regularly discussed during instructor meetings. Be sure to invite open discussion from all parties.
• Examine your briefing and debriefing SOPs—look for opportunities to bring more of the cockpit discussion and evaluation into the briefing room, lessening reliance on cockpit chatter.
• Evaluate your program periodically, making sure it is up to date.

Interruptions are troublesome. Study after study has made the point that it takes only a few before situational awareness begins to disappear gradually and safety is compromised. It’s the instructor’s responsibility to ensure that priorities are kept in order: Safety first, then student needs later. The example you give will make a lasting impression on your students.

The whole idea of flying with a flight instructor is to gain knowledge and experience—safely. Generally this is the case, but every so often instructor inattention and distraction lead instead to misfortune.

Yes, it’s true; recent studies confirm that CFIs are often involved in training accidents—accounting for something like 10 percent overall. On top of that there are innumerable unreported or underreported incidents. Take, for example, the following excerpted text from an ASRS report: “We took off on Runway 24 instead of 30, as the tower subsequently informed us. As I reviewed the event later, with my student and in my own mind, I realized how I may have added to the uncertainty. I was busy pointing out airport markings and critiquing the flight to this point. The priority should have been communications with the tower and standard procedure.”

Flight instructors face special challenges as they strive to incorporate flight training into the hectic beehive of the airspace system while maintaining a measure of situational awareness. It’s not an easy job, tackling all levels of learners from ab initio students to ATP upgrades in multiengine aircraft—a daunting task considering that the classroom is moving at something like 100 to 200 knots. Trouble is, there is no simple solution except to say that instructing requires “good judgment” and a sixth sense that sounds an alert when we start to lose touch with our surroundings. Hmm, tricky.

Here’s the flight instructor’s conundrum: If he or she seeks to maximize situational awareness, then most instruction would stop. On the other hand, if instruction is to take place, student-teacher dialog has to coexist. So somewhere in between the instructor must decide when and where to allow class to begin.

Experienced pilots know where most of the risks lie, so let’s start at these hot spots when deciding how to make our mobile classrooms safer. After all, it helps to know in advance where distraction problems are likely to arise and how to avoid them.

Taxiing—Know the taxi route, crossing runways, and runway or parking assignments. This is not a good time to have your attention diverted by irrelevant chatter. In fact, it is a great time to instruct students in the importance of paying attention.

Traffic pattern—Get ATIS and plan pattern entry well in advance. You will want to become aware of traffic in the area and the flow around the airport, towered or nontowered. This is a routine that students need to learn early in their training. Couple this with instruction in proper checklist usage.

Instrument approaches—See and avoid. Instrument work tends to divert pilots’ attention into the cockpit. The federal aviation regulations say we still must pay attention to what’s going on outside.

Repeated takeoffs and landings—We tend to get in a groove after several trips around the pattern, feeling comfortable and confident. But along with overconfidence come complacency and forgetfulness. Here’s another great opportunity to acquaint students with checklist discipline, making it part of the landing pattern routine. Besides, it’s a good habit we hope will stay with them after training is complete.

Any upset of routine—Unusual circumstances amplify the chances of a mistake. Whether it’s engine-out training or simply a new maneuver, avoid situations where training intensity obscures your situational awareness. Don’t allow your attention to be diverted—fly the airplane.

Complacency—Don’t assume anything.

Cockpit distraction brought about by overzealous instruction—Carefully choose the best time and place for instruction by avoiding the hot spots. Use your kneeboard to take notes; use the briefing room to sort out any difficulties.

Next, expand the discussion. If your flight school does not already have a policy that specifically references distraction and situational awareness, spread the word. For an organization like yours—one whose employees spend most of their time with flight students—a standard operating procedure would be valuable. Consider the following as a blueprint:

• Acquire senior management’s buy-in on the plan.
• Select the right person to champion the project.
• Develop an enforceable department policy regarding distractions.
• Include this policy in the operations manual and/or instructor’s handbook.
• Make distraction a subject regularly discussed during instructor meetings. Be sure to invite open discussion from all parties.
• Examine your briefing and debriefing SOPs—look for opportunities to bring more of the cockpit discussion and evaluation into the briefing room, lessening reliance on cockpit chatter.
• Evaluate your program periodically, making sure it is up to date.

Interruptions are troublesome. Study after study has made the point that it takes only a few before situational awareness begins to disappear gradually and safety is compromised. It’s the instructor’s responsibility to ensure that priorities are kept in order: Safety first, then student needs later. The example you give will make a lasting impression on your students.

The whole idea of flying with a flight instructor is to gain knowledge and experience—safely. Generally this is the case, but every so often instructor inattention and distraction lead instead to misfortune.

Yes, it’s true; recent studies confirm that CFIs are often involved in training accidents—accounting for something like 10 percent overall. On top of that there are innumerable unreported or underreported incidents. Take, for example, the following excerpted text from an ASRS report: “We took off on Runway 24 instead of 30, as the tower subsequently informed us. As I reviewed the event later, with my student and in my own mind, I realized how I may have added to the uncertainty. I was busy pointing out airport markings and critiquing the flight to this point. The priority should have been communications with the tower and standard procedure.”

Flight instructors face special challenges as they strive to incorporate flight training into the hectic beehive of the airspace system while maintaining a measure of situational awareness. It’s not an easy job, tackling all levels of learners from ab initio students to ATP upgrades in multiengine aircraft—a daunting task considering that the classroom is moving at something like 100 to 200 knots. Trouble is, there is no simple solution except to say that instructing requires “good judgment” and a sixth sense that sounds an alert when we start to lose touch with our surroundings. Hmm, tricky.

Here’s the flight instructor’s conundrum: If he or she seeks to maximize situational awareness, then most instruction would stop. On the other hand, if instruction is to take place, student-teacher dialog has to coexist. So somewhere in between the instructor must decide when and where to allow class to begin.

Experienced pilots know where most of the risks lie, so let’s start at these hot spots when deciding how to make our mobile classrooms safer. After all, it helps to know in advance where distraction problems are likely to arise and how to avoid them.

Taxiing—Know the taxi route, crossing runways, and runway or parking assignments. This is not a good time to have your attention diverted by irrelevant chatter. In fact, it is a great time to instruct students in the importance of paying attention.

Traffic pattern—Get ATIS and plan pattern entry well in advance. You will want to become aware of traffic in the area and the flow around the airport, towered or nontowered. This is a routine that students need to learn early in their training. Couple this with instruction in proper checklist usage.

Instrument approaches—See and avoid. Instrument work tends to divert pilots’ attention into the cockpit. The federal aviation regulations say we still must pay attention to what’s going on outside.

Repeated takeoffs and landings—We tend to get in a groove after several trips around the pattern, feeling comfortable and confident. But along with overconfidence come complacency and forgetfulness. Here’s another great opportunity to acquaint students with checklist discipline, making it part of the landing pattern routine. Besides, it’s a good habit we hope will stay with them after training is complete.

Any upset of routine—Unusual circumstances amplify the chances of a mistake. Whether it’s engine-out training or simply a new maneuver, avoid situations where training intensity obscures your situational awareness. Don’t allow your attention to be diverted—fly the airplane.

Complacency—Don’t assume anything.

Cockpit distraction brought about by overzealous instruction—Carefully choose the best time and place for instruction by avoiding the hot spots. Use your kneeboard to take notes; use the briefing room to sort out any difficulties.

Next, expand the discussion. If your flight school does not already have a policy that specifically references distraction and situational awareness, spread the word. For an organization like yours—one whose employees spend most of their time with flight students—a standard operating procedure would be valuable. Consider the following as a blueprint:

• Acquire senior management’s buy-in on the plan.
• Select the right person to champion the project.
• Develop an enforceable department policy regarding distractions.
• Include this policy in the operations manual and/or instructor’s handbook.
• Make distraction a subject regularly discussed during instructor meetings. Be sure to invite open discussion from all parties.
• Examine your briefing and debriefing SOPs—look for opportunities to bring more of the cockpit discussion and evaluation into the briefing room, lessening reliance on cockpit chatter.
• Evaluate your program periodically, making sure it is up to date.

Interruptions are troublesome. Study after study has made the point that it takes only a few before situational awareness begins to disappear gradually and safety is compromised. It’s the instructor’s responsibility to ensure that priorities are kept in order: Safety first, then student needs later. The example you give will make a lasting impression on your students.