Student's First Lesson

[Bob Meder]

Bob, If one of the very first things the CFI and the student focus on is the nav lights on a sunny very day for a noon flight then what does the student concentrate on? What does he learn first? That flight safety if mostly a matter of a small light that you don't use anyway in the daytime? Seems to me that when you walk up to a plane, especially one flown in a flight school, there are 3 real things you want to see. First and foremost, how much fuel is in the plane? On every flight you use and need fuel and that is the one item that changes with every flight. Nav lights, static ports, even tire pressure and oil level are not likely to change much after the previous hour flight. Maybe it is because I have flown across the U S and Canada, and to the Carib, some of it in planes with limited range; that I want the student to be concious of fuel, and oil. Item 2 is to drain the fuel sumps, and 3 is the normal walk around that includes all the hinges pitot cover, control locks and surfaces etc, in other words the things you see on a normal visual inspection.Now some CFIs may say that spending I 1/2 hours on preflight is good, affter all the student needs to know how to do it, and soon he will be doing it solo. But he also needs to know how to do weight and balance, would you spend the majority of the first lesson having him learn and calculate that also?There has to be some common sense, some sense of proportion.What are the risks of a first flight? There is not really much danger of crashing, the record with the CFI discovevery flight is very good. Young Eagles has done over I 1/2 million and I think there has been only one fatality last time I heard.The other risk is that the student get some bad habits. To me, being casual about the fuel on board is one of these, and giving equal importance to a light you are not going to use with fuel is silly.But really THE BIG RISK of a first flight, Discovery or lesson is that the student is bored and won't come back or tell his friends how much fun and how easy it is.A lot of flight school have closed over the years, a lot of CFIs out of a job or at best a subsistence living. Used to be most every airport and most FBOs had a flight school. Not anymore. Why did they fail? Sure wasn't because a nav light was not given enough attention on a CAVU day. The real risk is the CFI and school going out of business because their marketing and people skills are bad. Of course the economy and cost of flying are part of it , maybe the biggest part. By the way, I think your brief exposure of the student to the weather is good. I am not sure how much he learns from that , but at least he gets the idea there is one. Before solo and final test is the time to go deeper into this subject which for me is most of what I need for a safe outlook. Finally, you and I and I and CFI s know the student CAN LEARN, CAN become a pilot. BUT THE FIRST TIME STUDENT DOES NOT KNOW THAT. In fact he may have some big doubts,and if the first lesson does not leave him with some positive feeling he may not continue. I think I have read 40% of students drop out, is that about the facts?

I've read your post, really thought about it and...

[Shatner voice]I'm not changing a thing.[/Shatner voice]

OK, I need to clarify a bit, obviously. I'm not talking about a 90 minute preflight. That's just crazy. Last night, I gave a CFI candidate his first CFI lesson. Part of his lesson was to "teach" me how to preflight an Arrow. Even with me interrupting to coach or play "dumb student", it only took 25 minutes. That included checking the lights, BTW.

As I stated before, it's all about how it's "sold". Read Greg Brown's The Savvy Flight Instructor: most CFI's don't realize the importance of allowing their enthusiasm to shine through. Done correctly, this stuff is all way cool, not a drag. So, why introduce it early? Well, to counter your argument, to show them that, y'know, this flying stuff ain't really that hard, while showing the importance of doing it right the first time every time. They can be pilots!

To pick on what is clearly a sore point with you: Sure, you can't see the lights during the day, and I get mad at people that burn them unnecessarily during the day. However, as I said, it's actually a consideration for other renters to check them so they can be addressed if there is a dead bulb. Besides, it is an airworthiness issue - if the lights don't work correctly, why don't they work correctly? Could be a dead bulb. I've also had to deal with a dead short in the nav lights.

The fact is that as someone that has been a 141 check airman and does a lot of flight reviews, there are a lot of pilots out there that don't understand airworthiness issues, only check the ATIS or AWOS before flying, don't understand the AD's for their own airplanes, etc. I lay this squarely on the shoulders of CFI's that don't teach good habits from the start.

I'm not perfect by a long shot, and I'm still learning every day, but we can and should do better. The first lesson, which is supposed to be a learning experience, by it's very nature, is a darned good place to start.

[Bill Greenwood]

Bob, I was just using the nav lights as an example; that instead of focusing the first time student on what is really important, starting with fuel, the checklist and that CFI begin with nav lights.
It can be any other item. When you have checklist that are probably written by a lawyer or law clerk or someone who is so liability conscious that common sense goes out the door and they are going to try to cya on every small point

Today was a great example. My Bonanza is in for annual, and I needed to get back home. I got a flght in a Diamond D40. The checklist covers all the small points, tells you when to put the key in the ignition, etc. At least 3 o4 times it has us checking pitot heat, despite it being 75 degrees out, not a cloud in the sky, and we are flying both VFR and VMC. But boy did we check that pitot heat, over and over and in big print. So we get through our runup and as I get ready to takeoff, there are no figures for best angle or best rate on climb. So I ask the CFI. He shows me another page in the checklist with a small diagram at a climb angle and VERY SMALL PRINT there is the 66K and 77k figures. I have 20-20 vision, recently passed my medical exam as such, no glasses needed for normal vision, and I can barely makeout the fine print clearly. But hey, what's best angle or best rate? Not nearly as important as pitot heat on a August day in vmc, eh?

I recently flew with a student pilot, now private pilot, who just passed his checkride that morning. We were in a Gobosh, an LSA with a glass cockpit. He could work the gadgets just fine, he could look on the panel and tell me what the wind aloft was. But he had a hard time landing the plane. After we did a go around, and were on downwind, I asked him what the wind was. He looked on the panel and found a figure. I explained to him that I was talking about the wind on the ground, at the runway that he was trying to land on . The idea of looking at the windsock had never occurred to him, even though we flew right by it on the first time. As we came around the 2nd time he did a little better job after I
pointed out to him that there was about a 12 knot crosswind. He didn't get the centerline, but you could see it nearby.
I'll bet he was really good at checking nav lights and pitot heat. And I hope he gets better at finding the center of the runway. By the way he learned at APA where the runway is 10,000 by 100 so doesn't require much.

[Joe Delene]

I moved my 15 y/o Son to the left seat of the Warrior. My CFII has been expired for a while, but I thought he could get a little headstart. His take-offs are fine, still working up to landings. Most of his flying is at altitude, maneuvers & the straight & level stuff. We usually go over an item or 2 on each event/flight. I was surprised with his 'pushback' with my instructing him to taxi on centerline. Of course it takes a bit to get the feel for steering & all. Besides the safety & clearance aspect of centerline taxi I think it shows you have your head in the game. Am I asking to much? We've only had a handful of flights with him left seat though, just setting the bar.

[shadow738]

My first lesson was similar to the "Good Guy" CFI's description. I meet my first CFI at a company golf league--he was nervous because I'm real clutzy at athletic things. We were both engineers at an electronics company. He spent 20--30 min teaching me how to preflight and I kindof expected that. He did the initial taxi and takeoff and handed me the airplane at a safe altitude. I put my left hand on the yoke and my right hand on the throttle--he said "Oh, you have been in a small plane before" and sort of moved on to lesson two since he saw that I know what each control did.

I have a lot of friends and college classmates who fly and I have been an aeromodeler. I am also a ham radio operator so I didn't have any problem with the radios. But the basic thing is that I was already a technical hobbiest and therefore "Had a clue..."

[escapepilot]

I have to agree w/ Bill. A potential student's first experience should be one that leave him/her wanting to come back. In fact, the whole learning to fly experience should leave a student/pilot wanting to continue to fly. While it is important to teach students to be safe, it is also important to demonstrate that flying is enjoyable.

[Bob Meder]

Hmmm. Somewhere, something I wrote got missed.

First and foremost, if we're going to teach people to fly, we really do need to instill good habits from the start. Some, including the FAA, call this "primacy". Others call it "first learned is best learned". If you've ever had to "untrain" a bad habit, you know how powerful this can be. That's why I do what I do from the start.

However, this is what I think got missed: it's all in the "sale" by the CFI. Done properly, this can be part of the engagement that draws the new student in and makes them feel part of the process. Giving them ownership of the process is one of the most powerful motivators I know. This is not to say that a preflight should take 90 minutes - that's crazy, as I said before. But taking 15 minutes to do it and explain it is not onerous at all.

To expand, being a CFI is far less about the mechanics of flying than it is about interpersonal dynamics. You can be the greatest stick and rudder pilot on the planet and not be a good CFI if you can't pass the lessons on. Taking each element and breaking it down into simple, logical components is crucial, along with finding ways of keeping the student engaged and interested. My CFI candidates are always encouraged to keep me interested, and to show their enjoyment in flying as they "teach" me to fly. In fact, my CFI students know when they've gone into "Ben Stein mode" I just flat out lose interest in what they're saying.

BTW, Bill, I know the DA40 well. Yep, that checklist lists the pitot heat several times. However, what an opportunity to teach a student about certification and approved checklists (not at the runway, but in the classroom, before or after the flight). Right or wrong, Diamond thinks that having the pitot heat on prior to takeoff is important. That does not obviate, one bit, the need for flying the aircraft properly, including ensuring that you're on centerline, crosswind correction, and all the other fundamentals.

Also, I see your complaint as yet another opportunity to teach: explaining why it's important to dig into the performance section of the manual before going out to fly a new make and model.

[Bill Greenwood]

Bob, I have a feeling that your lessons for any student are enjoyable and informative.

However, let me state again that there are 3 main things that can happen when a student (prospective customer about to spend $8000 or so) comes for his intro flight or first lesson.
And two of these things are bad. I didn't make that up, I got it from 2 time nat champion football coach Darrel Royal when the media used to ask him why they didn't modernize the offense and pass more. I E, when you pass 3 things can happen and two of them are bad.

Ok, the student might crash, but not very likely, even the lowest CFI can usually make it around the pattern.

The student may get bored or find the CFI stuck up or just not able to connect with the student, or find that the whole learning to fly thing seems to center on minutia and is not really much fun. AND THE STUDENT MAY NOT COME BACK. He can take that 8Gs over to the motorcycle store and find a lot of fun really quickly. ( My Son was an ace motorcycle road racer). And you can bet that the salesman at the cycle shop is not going to bore the heck out of the guy with some nonsense just because some lawyer wanted to CYA in case the guy rode it into bad weather and crashed.

Of course the student may have a good flight and love it and come back. Am I correct that 42% of students drop out and don't finish? And if they don't get the private, then they aren't going to bring their checkbook or credit card back for any advanced lessons or airplane purchase or service.

How many FBOs and flight schools have closed over the last 30 years? How many CFI s are not working or not making a good living? But hey on the day that the flight schools closed, I'll be that the nav lights and pitot heat were working fine.

As for "dig into the performance section of the manual"; why not have a manual that is written with common sense, and the important speeds are primarily and prominentaly displayed, not hidden in fine print after the big emphasis on num numb stuff like pitot heat. If not, the CFI should cover the checklist, but he should interpret it for the student and emphasize what is important,and it ain't pitot heat on a cavu vmc day.

I was at the airport yesterday and heard a CFI talking to a new prospect after an intro flight. There was virtually no encouragement, nothing that made flying seem fun. The CFI is one of the ones that just came over from the big airport nearby, where the flight school just went out of business. He told the prospective student that when it came time to do his first landing they would fly down to the big airport, Metro BJC, where the runway was 9000 by 100 because it was a little tight here at Boulder. Our runway is 4100, with clear approaches, and even used by a few jets. They were flying a Piper Archer, which should need about half the runway. I am not sure what the young man thought, but he was not smiling when he left the FBO and did not look like he was having a lot of fun. Nobody asked my opinion and it was not up to me to interfere, but if so I would have sure told him to get another CFI who had a little more spark.

[Bob Meder]

Bill, I think we're violently agreeing here. The salient points are these:

1) Flying needs to be taught properly from the start
2) A good CFI needs to make the whole process meaningful and enjoyable
3) Too many CFI's don't do 1 or 2 or both. Too many new CFI's think that it's all about learning to fly from the right seat while talking. That's not it at all - it's about relating to the person in the other seat.

Really, it's a combination of marketing and teaching, which too many CFI's don't learn. I'm just one person, but it's something that I want to affect in this industry.

I can't really argue the merits of the Diamond (or any other) AFM. It is what it is (although there are some LSA handbooks that are, um, interesting, IMHO). My point about the digging into the manual for the check out was really geared towards transition training, not initial*. For the first flight, I'd tell someone, "we'll discover that down the road as we dig into the importance of limitations and such. For now, we have to honor what it says here" or some such.

Edit: Thank you for the compliment. I don't handle those well, so I blew by it, which is rather ungracious of me.

=======
*My comeuppance came during the oral portion of my commercial ride a long time ago. We were using a 172RG. The conditions given to me by the DPE (a very good one that is very senior in an airline) were "Soft field and max gross. Describe how you'd take off."

Me: "Well, I'd add 10 degrees of flaps, pull back the yoke to the stop, make sure the nose gear doesn't touch, etc..."
DPE: "Really...?"
Me: [alarm bells] "Um, lemme check on something..." [flip, flap, paw through AFM]
Me: "Oh - Um, there's a restriction under section two about no flaps with a gross weight over xxxx pounds, so I'd do everything the same except the flaps." (I don't remember what the weight is and I don't have the book in front of me right now)
DPE: "Very good"
Me: "That was my one gimme, wasn't it?"
DPE: "Yep. Of course, I know in a marginal operation like that you'd double the check the manual before attempting it, so we can move on."
Me: [stylus makes deep grove in cerebellum]