Climb every mountain

At some point, your students might flounder with a skill or two and see their learning plateau. This can be a discouraging experience, and without CFI guidance and a light at the end of the tunnel, these challenges can feel insurmountable. Most people who start flight training don’t finish, and plateaus in learning likely contribute to that. But we as CFIs can arm ourselves to help set up our students for success, through the good times and the bad. Here are some ways to overcome the inevitable flight training learning plateaus.

 

Try something new

Is a task not clicking? Move on to something new—either a new maneuver or the way you are teaching it. AOPA Air Safety Institute Video Producer and CFI Adam Rarey says, “If a learner is struggling with a maneuver (say, landings), shift the lesson focus to a related skill. For example, practice slow flight at altitude or along the runway centerline.”

Another issue might just be the way you deliver information. “Make sure you (the CFI) are not just saying the same thing over and over again,” says AOPA Flight Instructor Refresher Course Online (eFIRC) Program Manager and CFI Mary Kuehn. “Everyone understands and interprets differently so if it’s not clicking for the student, try to say it a different way, both in the airplane and when you are explaining it on the ground.”

AOPA ASI Manager of Aviation Safety and CFI Rob Geske views slumps as an opportunity to be a better instructor, and plateaus as inevitable. “As the old saying goes there are no bad students only bad teachers,” says Geske. “Often times instructors need to recognize that their method of instruction may be the issue at hand. If students struggle to advance, try changing your teaching style. Ask what other instructors are doing and what their approach would be.”

Beyond chatting with your fellow CFIs, using tools like YouTube can be a helpful way to find new ways to teach something. And as a CFI, you should have the discernment by now to see which content is worth sharing with your students, and which is not.

Take a break

Sometimes, you may be lucky enough to have a highly motivated student who wants to fly back-to-back-to-back lessons. This is great! But sometimes that firehose approach can turn into drowning. That can mean that lessons aren’t sticking, and maybe your student’s brain is struggling to encode these experiences into memories. Take a day or two off, or even longer if you sense the student is really struggling. Coming back to it fresh can make all the difference.

Fly with a different CFI

Sometimes we click with our instructor, but they just might not have the tools to teach us every little thing in the way we need. “Do not be afraid to send your student with another CFI for a series of lessons,” says Geske. “This change on the flight deck might be all that is needed for students to learn new skills and techniques that keep them advancing.”

In the rare case, a plateau might truly spell trouble. For CFIs, this is also a way to see if your student is really having trouble learning in a way that might influence long-term progress, or if this is just a plateau. If there’s a more serious issue, a second opinion can help, and will be important in the unlikely case that you decide to cease a student’s flight training.

Remind your student of their ‘why’

I once had a student who just couldn’t stick the landing. And it was only the very last few seconds that he couldn’t get right. His patterns were perfect, airspeed control already within the airman certification standards. But for some reason, whenever we got low above the runway, he’d get out of alignment, using the rudders in unpredictable ways, overcontrolling the airplane, and ultimately landing side-loaded and crooked. It was frustrating for both of us, because he truly was otherwise proficient and ready for his first solo.

For several lessons in a row, he wore his favorite shirt to the airport, ready to spread his little wings, excited that I’d hopefully be cutting his shirt tails an hour later. And every day, we’d go out for a few warmup laps and he’d land crooked again. He flew with another instructor and it still didn’t work. It was almost to the point where we were wondering if he’d ever get there.

So, one day, instead of pattern work, we did a cross-country and a $100 hamburger trip. This was one of his first “just for fun” flights, and I could feel him relaxing, loosening up, and focusing. We talked about his goals, and how much flying meant to him, and he agreed that he’d get there eventually. Our next patterns went perfectly, and he soloed the next day. Now he’s a commercial pilot with more hours than me. If we’d given up on him, though, or if he’d given up on himself, he never would have made it there, and it was a learning lesson for both of us.

It is very rare to get a student who simply can’t fly. You’ll be a huge factor in whether or not your student makes it to the finish line, so keep encouraging them throughout training. Even sharing a story about a time you struggled will help your learner through challenges. In the heart of a slump, remind them that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, that the peak is in sight—and with a little more time, they’ll get there just fine if they trust the process, and you!

[email protected]