Dear Rod:
I’m a chief pilot of a Part 141 flight school with about 15 instructors on staff. Our school does a lot of primary flight training. Recently, I learned one of our younger male instructors is dating one of our female primary students. We’ve never formulated a policy in this area; what do you think about instructors dating students in training?
Wayne
Greetings Wayne,
Here’s what I think: Do not allow your school’s instructors to date students in training. Period! Once the student has finished training, then your employees are free to do as they wish; it’s no longer your business whom they date. You and your instructors have a responsibility to students to provide the best flight training environment possible. A dating relationship between an instructor and student increases the chance that hormones and emotions will negatively affect the professional behavior of your employees. Human nature suggests that dating between employees and customers is never a good idea. If the instructor and student wish to make a “coupled approach,” let them do it with the auto-pilot engaged.
Dear Rod:
I’m having a very tough time dividing my attention between looking outside and inside during ground reference maneuvers, specifically turns around a point. What do you suggest?
Tina
Greetings Tina,
You’ve correctly identified one of the most important skills needed to perform ground reference maneuvers. It’s called “dividing your attention” between the outside and inside of the airplane. This skill requires behavioral development in two areas: knowing where to focus your attention and knowing how long to focus it. Let’s examine the latter first.
Anytime you look outside the cockpit, you’re performing some type of ground reference maneuver, even if it’s only looking at a distant horizon. The recommended ratio of outside to inside viewing is 14 seconds outside to three seconds inside. That works for turns around a point, too.
Knowing what to look at inside the cockpit is another issue. When performing turns around a point, you certainly don’t want to focus on the attitude indicator when looking inside the cockpit. Your wing and the ground reference tell you what you initially need to know about the bank angle. It’s your altitude that’s difficult to evaluate when looking outside.
So when you look at your panel, check the altimeter first and make a pitch change, if necessary, to maintain the desired altitude. Once you gain a little practice, you can look at any other panel instrument that pleases you, even the Hobbs meter (which seldom pleases student pilots).
Dear Rod:
During a recent flight review, my instructor was really big on flying a 45-degree entry to the downwind leg when entering a traffic pattern. I’ve always found it convenient just to fly over the runway in the landing direction at 500 feet above pattern altitude. Then, at the midfield point, I’d turn crosswind and begin a descent to pattern altitude, followed by a turn downwind. I believe this method is used in other countries with success. Why isn’t this a better method of entering a traffic pattern?
Warren
Greetings Warren,
Sure, this method might work fine in a foreign country where airborne airplanes are so rare that they’re often reported as UFOs. Try that method of entry at the typical nontowered Southern California airport on a busy Saturday morning, and you’ll most likely scatter airplanes on the downwind like frightened quail.
The primary problem with this method is that it requires you to enter downwind at a 90-degree angle instead of 45 degrees. Would you really want to argue that it’s easier to merge with traffic at a 90-degree angle rather than a 45-degree angle?
Additionally, this method has a hard metallic boundary associated with it. If you’re flying perpendicular to the downwind leg from the inside of the pattern (a direction from which no one expects an entry), you have restricted your room to maneuver if you encounter an airplane at midfield on the downwind.
Fly above the traffic and descend on the downwind? That’s one of the worst ways to make a biplane that I can think of. Descending on the downwind leg increases the chance of a midair collision. On the other hand, a 45-degree entry to the downwind at traffic pattern altitude makes it easier for you to fly a wide downwind to avoid downwind traffic when single-file operations are not immediately possible.
So do what the FAA recommends. Enter the downwind from the proper direction at a 45-degree angle and pin a “good pattern citizenship” award on your lapel.
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