Since You Asked: Take your time

Greetings K.G.:
Preflights do have an unofficial expiration time that’s based more on common sense than a timepiece. If the airplane is secured in a hangar, then it’s entirely reasonable to do a thorough preflight the night before departure with a less detailed inspection the next morning. This is based on the assumption that the hangar is completely secure. Then again, any hole in the hanger larger than a bug means your pitot-static system might have bugs in it—I mean that literally, too. It’s easy for small critters—bugs, birds, and bats—to invade your airplane without your knowledge.

On other hand, if the airplane is parked out in the open, it isn’t unreasonable to assume that something or someone could have adversely affected the airplane’s airworthiness overnight. Therefore, if the airplane is parked out in the open and someone wants to do a thorough preflight the night before departure to assess the airplane’s airworthiness, that’s fine. The next morning’s flight, however, should be preceded by an equally thorough preflight.

Dear Rod:
Can you recommend any tests or other techniques I can use to help determine the learning style of my students? I’m trying to determine how best to teach each student. If some sort of learning-style test is available, I’d like to give it to my students before they start training.
Sash

Greetings Sash:
If you’re looking for learning style tests, just type these words into Google’s search engine: learning style test. You’ll find many learning style assessment tests. However, if you’d like to make quick work in assessing how your students learn, then ask them how they learn. It’s not as if they weren’t there when they learned something, right?

Most people have a very good idea about their preferred way of learning things. Ask your students about the things they’ve learned in the past that required the acquisition of substantial physical and cognitive skills. Probe a little bit and find out how they assessed information and changed their behaviors.

Finally—and this seems to be one of the best-kept secrets in the flight training community—ask your students how they want to be taught. More talk, less talk? More explanations, fewer explanations? More demonstrations, fewer demonstrations? You’ll be surprised what you learn when you ask.

Dear Rod:
I’m about to begin training for the private pilot certificate. The flight school I’ve chosen has several Cessna airplanes in its fleet, including Cessna 150s/152s and 172s. Some of these airplanes have sophisticated electronics equipment (much more expensive) while others have what the school calls “steam gauges.” The latter are $30 per hour cheaper to rent.

Do you have any suggestions about which airplane is best for training? I do have a limited budget.
Casey

Greetings Casey:
My philosophy on this issue is simple: Train in the simplest airplane you can afford. Period. Your objective is to learn how to fly, and I can assure you that your chances of completing flight training are much greater when you fly a simple (steam gauge) airplane that falls within your budget. Once you obtain your private pilot certificate, you can easily transition to glass cockpit airplanes (those with sophisticated electronics) with relative ease.

In fact, there are several inexpensive software programs that will allow you to learn the fundamentals of glass cockpit technology in just a few hours after obtaining your certificate. If your instructor insists on teaching you in glass cockpit airplanes, then find an instructor who doesn’t.

After spending several thousand hours teaching in the Cessna 150, I can assure you that this simple airplane (accompanied by a good instructor, of course) will allow you to develop excellent airmanship skills.

Check out Rod's CFI affiliate program online.