I jumped back into RC after a a 15 year sabbatical because my 13 year old son got interested. (That's the story I'm tellin my wife, so don't blow it for me.) My wings came back so quickly, that I really did not progress through the learning process thanks to RealFlight and a couple of old birds. Now I fly just fine, but teaching...

So now I am teaching my son on his trainer with a buddy box and he has gotten good enough that when I take it up high, he can fly out the tank with out my having to save him. So what do I teach him next? I was thinking:

1 - get lower and gain more confidence
2 - lining up on the runway 30' high or so and transitioning to down wind and turn to final (still too high to land)
3 - First take off
4 - Landing

Any other recommendations?

Thanks!

If there's no other traffic at the field, I like to get my students to fly Figure 8's, turning towards the field at both ends. Gives 'em practice turning each way, and each circuit involves two approaches to the landing strip.


It's good practice to have them find the trim tabs, when up high, slid them out of trim, then retrim.

I would probably recommend that 1) You get him to do Figure 8's /do counter clockwise & clockwise circuits 2) Let him get gradually lower if feeling confident enough 3) Mock landings just like you said 4) Take-Offs 5) If progressing well enough, let land. This is how I was taught, and I guess different people learn at different rates so it may be a bit different for your son. Like Scar said, the Trim tabs thing is not a bad idea. Just keep supporting him & teach him what you know and he'll do find. Good Luck !

TF96

I kind of like your idea with #1, #2, #3, and #4 in even that order. If he is doing well at altitude, that's good. I suggest horsing around with the sticks be discouraged. The more you can get him to fly at altitude, the better. Transition down to lower altitudes. If he gets a lot of time flying like that, he'll be getting down to lower altitudes. Also what I think helps is when you or he is flying, think out loud so he can hear the thought process of flying. But the more time he's flying, the better. And if he cracks up, no big deal. That's how we learn, right? Fix or get to the next trainer. Good luck to both of you.

I like the idea of the figure 8's too maybe as step 1.5

As for cracking up, I have told him no big deal as I do not want to stress him about that. We bought a Tower ARF .40 sized trainer and the darn thing flies outstanding and went together in hours. All for $60!

Good advice above!

I would like to add a couple more suggestions that I teach my students. Once advanced enough and before solo I would include practicing dead stick landings and some basic aerobatics including unusual attitudes. That way if a problem occurs he will be more likely to handle the situation.

Enjoy all the time together with your son you can time passes too quickly!

I agree with the above, and I'll expand a bit.

My method is: The first thing I teach is to "Fly the box", but the close leg should be directly over the runway

 As soon as the student can "Fly the box" I have him lowering the throttle on the base leg and make the pass over the runway low and slow - as low (or high) as you are both comfortable with.

This excersize makes up most of each day's lesson. Tell them, "You're not going to land, just pretend you're landing". Teach them how to flair and why you flair before touchdown. Once they are over the runway, have them power up and go around.

Avoid saying, "Next time around, you're going to land" because it can make them nervous. Just keep having him shoot landing approaches.

THEN... When one of the approaches is perfect, tell him, "Don't power up, just let it settle in" and the next thing you know, He made his first landing!

This is just my opinion here.......I would recommend another instructor.......I taught my daughter to fly, and she is a good pilot......but it seems that parents expect more from their kids than they do of other people....as this is a hobby it is supposed to be fun.......something to watch out for.....
the way I teach:
1 level turns
2 figure eights all level turn
3 taxi
4 take offs
5 approaches getting lower and lower until the student lands
6 rudder

All good suggestions here, but I want to second what Steve suggested. I like to teach competent students (new pilots who have mastered basic turns and level flight) how to do basic rolls and loops. It's fun for them to practice and it helps them acclimate to having the plane being not-right-side-up all of the time and getting comfortable with various orientations.

Figure eights, square turns, slow flight, shooting approaches, take off, and landing practice will all be important steps on the way to solo flying. Mixing in a bit of fundamental aerobatics will make flying more fun and better equip the student for everything they'll want to do once they solo.

Thanks, guys!

I like the idea of adding in dead stick landings after powered ones.

When I first learned to fly, it was with gliders. When I was learning powered flight, I was approaching the field and the motor quit. My instructor reached for the box (no buddy cord) and said: "I'll take it!" I told him no, I had it, a glider was the one plane I knew how to fly!

I do exactly the same thing though I may pull the throttle down for them on their controller if they are lined up and in a good attitude.

I've also killed the engine at times if they were holding a good approach and attitude, then once it is dead I tell them not to move the sticks much.

This eliminates the fear of deadsticks as well.

All of this works well because they are not expecting it, so they are not overly nervous.

Of course afterwards they find the whole experience dramatic. "Intense" is the word I most often hear.

We always follow this up with a round of applause, resulting in a mile wide grin on the student's face!

Typically when the first student has been put throught this, all of the others waiting their turn also want to try!

I am sorry I disagree with an intentional dead stick....a dead stick is the only time in RC aviation where the the dead aircraft has the right of way...in other words a true RC aviation emergency.......most of the time it is no big deal.....but the trouble with a dead stick is you are commited to land.....and with a novice........there is no going around when the idiot at the other end of the flight line walks on the runway unannounced........to me it much better to pull power back to a low idle, and talk the student through a couple of don't add powers, land it from heres........you will probably have a dead stick or 2 during your trainning cycle......use those as your real dead sticks

That is why the student is on a buddy box.

If he is unable to land the plane dead stick, or something happens I just take over.

There is no problem doing this.

This builds a lot of confidence when the student does it.

Jetmech,

I think you are reading into the deadstick practice a bit too deep.

There is no way that I would allow a student to do an actual deadstick for practice! My deadstick practice is accomplished with the throttle retarded to idle so a go around can be made if the student misjudges.

With that said I teach the student to turn and fly the deadstick bird immediately at themselves. That technique eliminates the mistake of wasting precious airspeed and altitude setting up a pattern too soon and not possibly making the field by being short. The goal is find a suitable landing spot to set the airplane down without damage if possible. Wind and runway directions are secondary considerations should a deadstick occur.

Make it fun. It is the hardest part I have with my son. I take it too serious sometimes.
My first landing was an imposed dead stick with no buddy box. My instructor wanted precise manuvers so a traffic pattern was a traffic pattern, not a pass close to the runway. He knew I was ready and took the go around option out of my hands. Instead of saying" go around" he reached over and killed the engine and walked off. It was not the best landing but the first. It was the right thing to do with me; it is not the best for anyone; you have to understand the student. A lot of instructors are pretty sloppy in making the students be precise. If the guy is not just flopping around the sky it would be ok.

perfectly said ..... one thing to add , have him do as much inverted circuits of the "field" on G4.5 as he can stand .... when that gets boring give him a 20 mph wind and have him fly a pt -40 into the wind with no throttle until he can do it all day ...when he has that down he will be good to go .

best of luck ... sounds like he is already there !~

All great advice. The only thing I would add again would be to get someone else to train your son. I taught both my son and daughter, sometimes with it being dad on the end of the buddy cord the kids would not take some things seriously. Completely normal I think with Dad/child training relationships. Dad's also can be more demanding then they would be for a stranger. If there is someone you trust at the field to train your son and will do it in a fun way then I would give that idea some thought. If there isn't then train him yourself with all the great advice already given. Good luck

Patience. Start with that. Then see what he tries to do next. Is he getting set up to take off without help does he realise when hes at the end of the battery? is he afraid of the plane at start up. Let him show what to teach him next. Start with the patience.

whatever you do, get someone else to teach him, dont do it yourself. He will be alot more comfortable ith a friend of yours that with DAD looking over his shoulder

Mikecam,

I hear you and your logic is sound, however, this is also my bonding time with my son. I am making a concerted effort to be "neutral", but if need be I will hand him off to a friend if our father/son relationship gets in the way of instructor/student. Plus, my attitude is that we are going out there to have fun. Fun takes priority over learning. We'll come back another day, but laugh about what we did on the way home.

We're not a club, but a loose association of flyers using a large open area of land, so we really don't have any "instructors" as clubs do. That said, I do have a couple of guys that would be willing to lend a hand if need be.

You can teach someone how to back up a trailer in a few minutes with the easy to remember rule about turning the wheel into the mirror that the trailer shows up in. You will never lose control of a trailer as long as you remember this rule.
Same goes for teaching basic flight control. You will never cork screw a model into the ground if you know how to keep the wings level. The LHS owner had me soloed on a 6 foot span glider within a 1/2 hour, thanks in part to teaching me this simple rule about moving the stick to whichever wing panel is low as the plane heads back to you. He trimmed the plane so that it had a slight amount of down trim [your throttle with a glider] and had me fly big laps around the entire field while I rehearsed every upcoming turn out loud to him. He gave random advice about pitch control, etc. It was our goal to see how long each flight could last and to not force any issues for where I landed the plane, just as long as the landings were into the wind all was AOK with him.
I used this same approach to teach both my sisters and my son how to fly.
Before any hands on training is done, the basics of what makes a plane fly and of what makes a plane stall and crash need to be explained.

No one has mentioned stall recovery.
Practice it! And stall avoidance. Beginners get overly worried about stalling near the ground and seeing just how slow things can get without falling out of the air is a confidence booster.

I would recommend that you give over a flight or two to slow flying practice. You'll probably find that you'll need to teach coordinating the turns with rudder, but once that's down pat, an approach is just the same thing with a bit less throttle.

Best Wishes,
Carole Sherrington

I agree with the advice that getting a third party to help with his instruction is a good idea. That lets you be his cheerleader- you can stand back and congratulate him and encourage him as an equal. If something goes wrong, then the relationship is hurt between him and his instructor, not him and his dad.

I understand completely Sushiseeker. In the end I think you should do what you feel is right for your situation. One added bonus for my son is he is now one of the guys in our club. He doesn't even help me unpack anymore, he's off making the rounds with all the other flyers and even the older gentleman in our club get a kick out of him. All at the age of 11. Enjoy the sport with your son , I cherish the time I spend with my son and daughter (9) at the field. I know it won't be long before friends and boys (help me) will push Dad into the next room. LOL

One of the things I like to do with my students after they can get around the sky a little on their own is to have them go up fairly high and just do what ever they want. I normally do this after a couple of flights that day, it's their play time.

Of course before you do this you better be sure YOU can recover what they do. Also let them know that if you get scared that you will take over.

You will be surprised how much they will learn on their own doing this. Just don't let them do it anytime THEY want, keep the training schedule.
I LOVE controled dead sticks !!!!!! ENJOY !!! RED