Help instructing.
 

I have been flying now for a while and enjoy it so much I want to help others do the same. My first student, a freind and coworker, has soloed as of Saturday and I'm not sure who was more excited/proud. We spent several weeks going over ground proceedures and safety also getting him properly equiped within his budjet waiting for us both to have time for a flight. Well his extensive simulator experience made my job easy. I had him on the buddy box and took off, trimmed, showed him the pattern and he took it from there. I did not have to take over until it was time to land. After I showed him how to line up for an aproach and do a slow fly by he coppied my modified pattern with a little coaching to keep from flying towards the pilot stations and remain inline with the runway. I then took over and showed him what his plane looks like landing... ONCE! The next flight he took off flew the pattern I talked him through a basic loop, aileron rolls and rudder/aileron coupled turns and after that he landed it. I just stood there holding the trainer switch. The next flight he did it all on his own without a buddy box. This is all in one day! About 5 hours of feild time. Well I do not want to short change my first student and we have discussed that we still have more work to do. I plan on showing him inverted flight, stall turns, outside loops, as well as other manouvers I don't even remember their names. So my question is what else do I need to cover before I say "he is trained".

RE: Help instructing.
 

HOLY CRAP BATMAN!

I would do some recovery from unusual attitues. You put it there and he gets it out of trouble going away comeing towards and both directions along the field.

Also some windy day flying. cross wind.

Dont get into a hurry to yank the cord!;)

RE: Help instructing.
 

Very good idea! I will do that. We had a pretty good wind Saturday but it was inline with the runway... unusual for our field. So I warned him about crosswind landings and he will have to learn the technique of rudder/counter aileron landings. I told him how to set it up on his simulator to practice it this week before we can fly again next week.

RE: Help instructing.
 

teach him how to land with a deadstick

RE: Help instructing.
 

Also reverse patterns and figure eights, landing from the opisit end of the field. It amazes me at our field we have a prevaling left to right pattern. And we have a bunch of pilots that wont fly when the wind comes from the wrong direction..........[:'(]

RE: Help instructing.
 

I have discussed this inevitability with him and due to the random nature of a deadstick your reaction varies. He is lucky to have a good running engine (TT .46 tuned by me:D) and a great airframe (Avistar 40) that is set up well and performs reliably. Once he is more comfortable with the flight characteristics of the plane we may do some dead stick training but the ones that get you are right after take off or to hot on final. I can warn him about that but practicing something that could potentialy bend his plane even with experienced thumbs on the sticks would not be a good idea.

RE: Help instructing.
 

No choice at our feild the wind is known to hit from any direction and change hourly on some days. I have started some days in one direction and found at the end of the day we were going the other way. So yes he will get that experience weather he wants it or not.

RE: Help instructing.
 

do them simulated just pull his transmitter to idel and keep yours on full throttle. so if ya need it its there quick. and its not nessasry to come all the way down to land. Just train him to think about how to get back to the feild from where it dies.

RE: Help instructing.
 

Good idea! Thanks. See I robbed myself of the experience of being instructed. I was self tought so now I want to learn to be a good instructor as my club has no active instructors but many wouldbe new members come by to spectate. I figure I will start with family and freinds get "Certified" and go from there.

RE: Help instructing.
 

G'day Mate,
As a certified instructor, our usual procedure, once the basic landing procedure is accomplished, is to allow him to take off, & land, in various conditions, wind up strip & cross, trim aircraft while in flight, you put it out of trim a bit, elevators or ailerons, not both, & allow him to figure out what has to be done to correct it's trim for straight & level flight & he must develop throttle control.
Basically he needs to be a consistant pilot, in varying conditions, then basic aerobatics, & over here in Aus he would go through what is known as the Bronze wings proficiency test.
Where the pilot must be able to explain what the control surfaces on the aircraft, actually control. Eg Question, What do the Elevators control. Answer, Elevators control the pitch axis, of the aircraft. Correct! The answer that I get, all the time, to that question is, They Make it CLIMB. WRONG.!!!
You get the idea.
He is expected to be able to reach & move every stick, when asked, Eg. Give full up elevator, Give full right rudder, & so on & also be able to find the correct trim lever, for what ever axis is asked for.
Then he/she must show proficiency with his or her field equipment.
Start the aircraft, taxi to flight line, as per local club rules, Take off, fly rectangular circuit, beginning & ending straight up the middle of the runway, in both directions, show the ability to retrim an, "out of trim" aircraft, show the ability to fly a simulated dead stick approach, from up high, cut throttle to idle, & demonstrate dead stick approach, show landing approach from both directions, fly a procedure turn, from both directions, land & taxi.
After all that is completed, he or she is given their Bronze Wings, & this signifies that they can fly solo, But that is all, It does not mean that they are Super pilots, just that they have reached the first step up the ladder.
Sorry that I rambled on, but this is what we do in Australia, & it works well.

RE: Help instructing.
 

It's one thing to be able to fly, it's another to get out of trouble.

Remind him that when you get in trouble, LEVEL THE WINGS FIRST (Maybe simultaneously with chopping the throttle) before you pull "UP"

RE: Help instructing.
 

I have a tail dragger. When I try to take off, the plane just spins in circles. Can anyone provide advice as to how to overcome this problem?

RE: Help instructing.
 

Make sure that both of you main gear wheels spin freely with out binding. You might have one of your wheels too tight and it is acting like a brake.

RE: Help instructing.
 

Hijack!

In the air or on the ground? What model? Does it roll straight if you center the rudder and push it (engine off) across a hard floor?

You might either have the trottle or elevator stick improperly connected as the rudder jack on the receiver, or your airplane is horribly out of balance, or you have the vertical stabilizer glued up out of line, or the fuselage is warped . . .

RE: Help instructing.
 

Talk about hijacking a thread! :D

RE: Help instructing.
 

Nice thread 'Stang. All good ideas. I'm supposed to be helping with these duties at our club, but aside from the fly-in we met at, I haven't flown for most of the summer. I wonder if there's a checklist somewhere?

RE: Help instructing.
 

Thanks for the input here guys, I am still checking this thread daily and compiling a curiculum for my student for this weekend. I am sure some experience instructor has a "course curiculum" for a new pilots training. It would be great if someone could post it or a link to it. Understandably it could only be used as a guide as every student/instructor is different.

RE: Help instructing.
 

Stang,
Great job so far, and I godda give you props for the commitment!!! Just my two cents, put him through a check ride. He's got the plane the whole way and you just tell him what you want. Go through the whole list. Beyond that I think you've got it boss! Finally you CAN NEVER get enough recovery time as a "Newbie". Keep er going, let us know how it turns out!