Give a pig and a boy anything they want, and you’ll get a fat pig and a bad boy.
Recently, a newly certificated instructor whom we’ll call Bob told me about his primary student who desired to fly solo at night. While reluctant, Bob acquiesced to his student’s request. The next week, that same student managed to get lost in the traffic pattern one night after following the controller’s instructions to extend his downwind leg. Upon hearing of his student’s night debacle, Bob confessed, “I knew it wasn’t a good idea to let this guy solo at night.”
Being a good instructor occasionally means saying no to a student’s request. The question is, how do you know if a student’s request is reasonable or unreasonable? Bob clearly had second thoughts about permitting his student to fly at night, but he didn’t have a strategy for evaluating the merits of that request.
Here’s one of the great flight training lessons I learned a long time ago: Because I behaved a certain way in the past doesn’t mean that my students are now permitted to behave this way, too. If teachers, parents, or guardians didn’t learn the same lesson, they’d have no basis on which to demand good behavior from those they supervise.
After all, everyone can recollect an example of less-than-stellar behavior from their past. A grade school teacher once asked my school chum if his dog really ate his homework. He replied, “Yes, but I had to force him to eat.” That’s bad behavior and we’ve all been there. The lesson to be learned here is that we shouldn’t let our personal history override our better judgment when supervising our students.
It turns out that Bob’s instructor had let him fly solo at night. It only seemed fair to Bob to let his student do the same. There are several things wrong with this rationale.
First, we can’t assume that Bob’s instructor did the right thing with Bob. Sure, Bob may not have experienced problems soloing at night, but that doesn’t make a night solo any less risky for a student pilot.
Second, newer airplanes and modern airports demand more from student pilots today than they did in the past. Soloing students at night at Everybodygone Airport in a Cessna 150 is less risky than soloing them at Itbecrowded Airport in a Cirrus SR22. There was a time when the tower would simply yell at you if your nosecone was a foot over a runway hold line. Now, it seems as if everyone wants to get in on that action. It’s as if people from different airports line up to yell at you—to say nothing of the spanking you’re likely to receive from the FAA.
So, how should you evaluate a student’s request? Begin by listening to your gut. If you initially wonder whether or not your student’s request is reasonable, then there’s a good chance that it’s not. Let your gut reaction be the inspiration to ask the following questions:
What are the challenges your student is likely to encounter by doing the activity in question?
How is your student likely to handle these challenges based on his or her present level of training?
Finally, given your understanding of human nature, how likely is your student to behave properly when you’re not there to supervise? It’s your understanding of human nature that allows you to make grand generalizations about how students might behave when left unsupervised.
Years ago, my primary student Tommy (a junior in high school at the time) asked to fly a cross-country trip to a high-altitude airport to have lunch with his girlfriend. I let my understanding of human nature do the math for me here: young male full of testosterone + girlfriend + glamour of flying an airplane = meeting a long line of people who want to scold you and ensure that you receive an FAA spanking. So sorry. No lunch for Tommy and Betty.
Sometimes you must make decisions with little or no precedent for guidance. Begin by refusing to let your past behavior automatically justify your student’s present or anticipated behavior. Ask yourself if your student’s request is a reasonable one. Then listen to your gut and your brain. Let your understanding of human nature guide you. This is how you make better choices and avoid a long line of people who want to yell at you and arrange for you to receive an FAA spanking.
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