Instructor report: Risky business

Advocates for the maneuver say that slow flight just above the runway in the landing configuration helps students develop a feel for the airplane and better control it in landings. Experienced instructors replied to the suggestion with, “I’ve done that for 30 years.” But to some pilots it came as news. “An accident waiting to happen,” said one commenter. Another agreed, claiming that an accident occurred while a student was apparently flying with an instructor just above the runway in a crosswind. While the controversy has died down (the MzeroA.com posting got more than 180 comments on Facebook), it served to point to an overall issue in flight training. Are there maneuvers that could be dangerous? And how can instructors explore the envelope with students while mitigating the potential risks?

“I do support the concept of flying down the runway, not at minimum controllable airspeed, but at 70 knots in a [Cessna] Skyhawk, and practice using your ailerons to move left and right across the runway and practice using your rudder to gain alignment with the centerline,” said Jack Vandeventer, an instructor for Montgomery Aviation Flight Training at Indianapolis Executive Airport. He has given 4,500 hours of instruction and flew 500 of those hours in 2016. “Even if the wind is right down the runway, work on that, because those concepts are valuable.”

Maneuvers of concern

What about other maneuvers, such as the power-on aerodynamic stall? The danger there, mitigated somewhat by schools using partial rather than full power to simulate takeoff at a safe altitude, is an inadvertent spin. Instructors are required only to have a spin-training signoff, Schappert noted. Even the training for the signoff can be dangerous. “You have one pilot who has never spun, and one who has spun maybe once, and here she has to teach it to you now. Scary proposition when you look at it that way,” he said.

“It’s possible for a new pilot or a pilot in training to come close to the edge of the spin entry,” Vandeventer said. “We say when you do a power-on stall, do you keep the wings level, and if you do keep the wings level, do you keep the ball in the center at the same time? You’re holding your heading with your feet and you’re holding your wings level with your ailerons. The steps in that maneuver can create a potential spin entry and that’s happened a couple of times.”

Why not just return spins to the primary flight training curriculum?

“I don’t think spins should be taught because people aren’t proficient in the teaching of spins,” Vandeventer said. “When I went up I took a flight instructor with me in the Super Cub. He said [during preflight briefing], ‘Have you ever spun an airplane before?’ I said. ‘No, I never have. I understand this one can be spun.’ He spent a couple of hours talking about the spin and the spin entry and what the plane was going to feel like before we ever left the ground.” The instructor demonstrated spins, according to Vandeventer, and said, “‘Feel the airplane. [Learn] where the edge of this maneuver is, where you are going straight and level and all of a sudden you’re not.’ When that happens in a surprise environment, recovery takes longer than the textbook [says]. By the end of three or four lessons, he said, ‘OK, now I think you can go do this by yourself.’”

Telling a student pilot to practice stalls alone can be a bad idea, both Vandeventer and Schappert said. They also said they do not allow night solo student flight (nor is it required).

Landing issues include learning how high to raise the nose in the flare, while not raising it so high the pilot loses sight of the runway—especially its edges and lights.

At this point in this article the multiengine instructors are itching for attention. AOPA accident statistics include accidents involving the demonstration by an instructor—with the student flying—of loss of an engine during takeoff. There have also been accidents involving the demonstration of the minimum controllable airspeed in a multiengine aircraft with one engine at idle power.

How can flight instruction safety information be shared, especially to those new instructors who haven’t developed proficiency and experience in teaching? Vandeventer has a suggestion.

“One of the things we do is listen to each other and make sure we don’t do those things. A couple of years ago there was a flight instructor seminar in Atlanta where we talked about safety and training. I think we need more of those kinds of events where flight instructors get a chance to talk among themselves about what works and what doesn’t work,” he said.

Alton K. Marsh is a freelance writer and an airline transport pilot with 2,900 hours.