G'day

I have seen a bit of discussion recently on "instructors" , "teachers" and "mentors". In Australia we have official trained Instructors but anyone can teach so long as both parties are happy. I am not an official instructor; I just fell into teaching because no one else wanted to do it and I happened to have a good trainer and was prepared to have a go.

I came late to radio control and my original teacher was not all that good and as a result it took me quite a long time to become reasonably proficient. As a result I ended up teaching my self with a bit of help from a couple of different instructors.

What eventually did make me more confident was finding myself thrust into teaching someone.

So this is what I do.

1. I triage my prospective students into three groups.
(i)These will learn on anything and no matter how they are taught. They are usually fairly young. If they crash a model it will be because they are too confident.
(ii) This group will need quite a lot of initial help but will then be solo within about six months. They need a good stable trainer initially but will quickly move to more aerobatic models. They will probably have some "incidents" when learning to land.
(iii) This group is the older learners. They need a lot of help, lots of sessions often and good large slow trainers especially initially. They learn slowly but with enough practice and positive reinforcement, they will get there. They may take a couple of years to go solo and will have more accidents once they do. They will need mentoring after they solo for a while.

2. I use my own trainers to do most of the initial training and I suggest they not buy anything initially. I use a Kadet Senior (no ailerons) initially. It is set up with the rudder on the aileron channel so the move to ailerons is not too difficult. Once they can fly a reasonably tidy circuit, I move groups (i) and (ii) on to Kadet LT-40 or LT-25s. At this point they think about buying their own models. Group (iii) may stay on the Kadet longer and if it looks like being a long haul, I suggest they get a Kadet or something similar. At the moment here in Australia, there is a model called a Tri 60 which is pretty suitable but not very strong and another called the Boomerang 60 which is stronger but also heavier which makes it fly faster. A kit built Kadet Senior is my preference for older learners. That or an electric glider like the Parkzone Radian.

3. I always use a buddy cord system. It has saved many models and possibly a few injuries too.

4. Initially we try to fly circuits and it takes a while for most people to do reasonable ones AND to be able to line up with the strip. Later we progress to some mild aerobatics and then to lower and lower passes. Take offs come next and finally, when the student can do accurate circuits and keep the model in control when turning on to the final (and this is probably where most problems occur) we attempt some really low passes which become landings. Eventually. I try to get them to use the rudder quite early when landing to keep the model on line. Some get it quickly, others never do. I also use both tail dragger and trike setups so that they can learn to correct the "left swing" in tail draggers.

5. I try to continue to mentor my students once they solo so they don't unlearn things I have taught them. If I see one having problems I will intervene.

There is much more to the process like teaching about engines and radios but it won't fit here.

The main thing that I have learned in all this is that when you want to teach something, you really need to understand it and it really helps you in your flying. That and BE PATIENT and pleasant with your students. It is meant to be fun. Don't frighten them off.

So this is what I do - what do you do?

Mike in Oz