One thing that always disappointed me as a younger flight instructor was returning from a flight lesson without producing a significant change in my student’s skill level. Of course, there was the learning plateau and a student’s personal issues (to name a few) that often explained a lesson’s limited forward progress. On occasion, however, I’d depart on a lesson convinced that my student was primed for a large jump in skill, only to return after achieving much less than I knew was possible.
One day it dawned on me that when my teenage behavior disappointed my father, it was sometimes the result of not having a clear idea of the behavior he expected. Granted, willful ignorance of our parents’ expectations can be a useful strategy when invoking the “I didn’t know you wanted me to do that” defense. Most of the time my father prevented me from using that ruse by sitting me down, looking me in the eye, and invoking his Jedi-like “Let me make this perfectly clear” countermeasure.
If a person has even a scintilla of communication skill, there’s very little chance of a communications misfire when he or she looks at you and says, “Let me make this perfectly clear.” And that’s precisely how my epiphany helped me get the most out of my students during each lesson when I began instructing. I realized that I was explaining the maneuver properly but wasn’t conveying the importance of certain specific actions that were essential to the maneuver.
Let’s assume your preflight explanation consists of all the steps necessary to enter and exit slow flight in the clean configuration. After the explanation, your student can echo all the details of performing the maneuver in precise order. Clearly, you’ve made things perfectly clear, right? Not necessarily. In your student’s mind, it’s likely that every step necessary to enter slow flight is seen as being created equal. Unfortunately, this isn’t true for slow flight, or most other flight maneuvers.
Most students can quickly learn to reduce power and apply sufficient aft elevator pressure to maintain altitude while transitioning to a slower speed. What’s not so easy to learn is the need to be assertive with the power to maintain altitude as the target airspeed is approached. This is a critical element during transition to slow flight. The increased induced drag at higher angles of attack easily can result in a loss of altitude and even a stall if power is not applied quickly and in sufficient quantity.
So how do you convey the importance of this element during training? I’ll do it by becoming my dad. No, not by putting on plaid pants and a golf shirt. Instead, I’ll look directly at my student, smile, and say, “Bob (or Bobette), let me make this perfectly clear.” What follows is an emphatic explanation as to why Bob needs to be assertive with the throttle as he approaches the target slow flight airspeed. I’m doing this in a friendly but very serious manner (and I make sure the student understands that I’m using this statement for emphasis and not to scold). The importance of this statement is that it cues the student to listen for, memorize, and prioritize something significant.
Of course, I’m going to be judicious in how often I invoke these “Let me make this perfectly clear” moments. Use them too often and they lose their significance. Fail to use them enough and you diminish your potential to teach effectively.
You might choose a different phrase. I prefer “perfectly clear” because it comes with the pedigree of authority. It’s a dynamite phrase that comes with its own blasting cap.
Over the years I’ve made good use of this phrase, but only because I took the time to know when to use it. For instance, one of the critical elements of learning to land an airplane is keeping the airplane flying straight and tracking the runway centerline on final approach. During the preflight briefing on the landing lesson I’ll say, “Bobette, let me make this perfectly clear. When you’re on short final I want you to keep those wings level with the ailerons and the airplane pointed straight with the rudders.” Nothing is important unless we make it so. This is how you make it so.
Then again, if you say, “Let me make this perfectly clear,” and your student says, “Oh my gosh, you sound just like my dad,” you’re on your way to being a more effective teacher.
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