What if I could show you a single technique that can be used to quickly evaluate the stick and rudder skills of an applicant for a flight review? Would that help you? It has helped me evaluate the skills of the pilots I’ve flown with over the years. I consider it the single most important tool I keep in my mental CFI flight bag.
While in straight-and-level flight, ask your student to enter slow flight at minimum controllable airspeed (MCA) while maintaining straight-and-level flight (stall horn or light on, or stall buffet barely detectable).
Your student’s ability to maintain heading, altitude, and attitude while keeping the airplane coordinated is a direct reflection of his stick-and-rudder proficiency. I have yet to find a pilot with poor stick-and-rudder proficiency who can perform this task quickly and precisely. But I’ve certainly come across more than a fair share of pilots who were frustrated by the exercise. They either failed to maintain their heading and/or altitude, failed to act assertively with the power when entering the region of reversed command, failed to actually maintain MCA, failed to prevent stalling the airplane, or failed to enter slow flight in a timely manner (meaning they take most of the day to do it). Sometimes they failed to do all these things.
A good stick-and-rudder pilot, on the other hand, can quickly enter and exit slow flight, all the while keeping the altimeter, heading, and inclinometer indications frozen in place.
Attempting to restrict an airplane’s motion is a difficult task, which makes slow flight a powerful means for evaluating stick-and-rudder skills. Years ago a friend took an evaluation flight with the late, great aerobatic legend Art Scholl. The first maneuver Art asked to see was straight-and-level flight. When my friend’s heading deviated by two degrees, Art said, “Well, we have some work to do.”
Related Articles
What if I could show you a single technique that can be used to quickly evaluate the stick and rudder skills of an applicant for a flight review? Would that help you? It has helped me evaluate the skills of the pilots I’ve flown with over the years. I consider it the single most important tool I keep in my mental CFI flight bag.
While in straight-and-level flight, ask your student to enter slow flight at minimum controllable airspeed (MCA) while maintaining straight-and-level flight (stall horn or light on, or stall buffet barely detectable).
Your student’s ability to maintain heading, altitude, and attitude while keeping the airplane coordinated is a direct reflection of his stick-and-rudder proficiency. I have yet to find a pilot with poor stick-and-rudder proficiency who can perform this task quickly and precisely. But I’ve certainly come across more than a fair share of pilots who were frustrated by the exercise. They either failed to maintain their heading and/or altitude, failed to act assertively with the power when entering the region of reversed command, failed to actually maintain MCA, failed to prevent stalling the airplane, or failed to enter slow flight in a timely manner (meaning they take most of the day to do it). Sometimes they failed to do all these things.
A good stick-and-rudder pilot, on the other hand, can quickly enter and exit slow flight, all the while keeping the altimeter, heading, and inclinometer indications frozen in place.
Attempting to restrict an airplane’s motion is a difficult task, which makes slow flight a powerful means for evaluating stick-and-rudder skills. Years ago a friend took an evaluation flight with the late, great aerobatic legend Art Scholl. The first maneuver Art asked to see was straight-and-level flight. When my friend’s heading deviated by two degrees, Art said, “Well, we have some work to do.”
Related Articles