How to deal with students who lock up/freeze?

Fearless Tower

Fearless Tower

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Fearless Tower
While this is not an aviation-specific related question, it has some definite application to flight training and I figured I'd ask the POA CFI brain trust for any insight on how to deal with students who lock up.

About 18 months ago, I left full time professional flying to take a job teaching ship handling for the Navy. I've been pretty successful so far getting students from a wide variety of backgrounds from very basic understanding to a functional level of proficiency and decision making in a short period of time……except for one particular type of student - the type that literally will stare death in the face and take no action.

I'm at a loss (and so are my fellow instructors) at how to get these students over the hurdle. I have a hard time even relating to what it going on in their heads. I am the kind of pilot who would still be trying to work the controls if a wing came off the plane in flight.

But these students will literally stare at an oncoming ship, knowing that they are going to collide and be so paralyzed by indecision that they take no action to avoid the collision or if they do it is way too late and so small of an action to be worthless.

It would be like a student faced with an engine out on takeoff and doing nothing….just holding onto the yoke and stalling/spinning it in.

How do you CFIs deal with those students?
 
Recommend another vocation.

Would it possibly be a situation similar to rope breaks in gliders? Below 200 feet, straight ahead. At or above 200-400 feet, land downwind. 400-600 feet, well, let’s see...do a 540 and land downwind, enter an abbreviated pattern, fly a full pattern but delay spoiler application...so many choices, they can’t decide, and so do little or nothing.
 
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As a person who has experienced that freeze... and it surprised even me... I can tell you what caused it for me...

I have a strange personality trait (or maybe not so strange.. I don't know) that really, TRULY hates to be viewed as anything other than a perfect, exemplary student. So far that makes no sense in this scenario, right? yeah..I know.. .but stay with me...

Years ago I was in the process of botching a landing... veering way, way left of the center line, yet still unsure of the relationship between correctively "steering" to the right with the rudder pedals versus correctively "drifting" to the right with the ailerons. Wanting SOOoo much to make the correct choice in my instructor's eyes rather than try one choice and see what happens, I froze up and did nothing. My CFI, a fabulous instructor, is a very able pilot and typically lets students veer a bit farther into mistake land than most others. I knew that no matter what he'd save our collective bacons and this security blanket allowed me the opportunity to do something that I would NEVER do if I had been alone... freeze. By myself or with a passenger (I already had my PPL.. this was during a biannual flight review, believe it or not.. yeah, I'm still embarassed by it), I never would have let things get that far gone, and would have just gone around or, even more likely, landed fine because I WASN'T worried about pleasing my CFI.

If you have a student who freezes in the face of danger, it may because he's more worried about pleasing YOU than the actual danger. Stupid, but real.
 
There are also people that panic, hit the gas and drive themselves right into a brick wall. I call that natural selection.

Those people should not be pilots.

This is not a participation trophy industry.
 
MuseChaser said:
As a person who has experienced that freeze... and it surprised even me... I can tell you what caused it for me...

I have a strange personality trait (or maybe not so strange.. I don't know) that really, TRULY hates to be viewed as anything other than a perfect, exemplary student. So far that makes no sense in this scenario, right? yeah..I know.. .but stay with me...

Years ago I was in the process of botching a landing... veering way, way left of the center line, yet still unsure of the relationship between correctively "steering" to the right with the rudder pedals versus correctively "drifting" to the right with the ailerons. Wanting SOOoo much to make the correct choice in my instructor's eyes rather than try one choice and see what happens, I froze up and did nothing. My CFI, a fabulous instructor, is a very able pilot and typically lets students veer a bit farther into mistake land than most others. I knew that no matter what he'd save our collective bacons and this security blanket allowed me the opportunity to do something that I would NEVER do if I had been alone... freeze. By myself or with a passenger (I already had my PPL.. this was during a biannual flight review, believe it or not.. yeah, I'm still embarassed by it), I never would have let things get that far gone, and would have just gone around or, even more likely, landed fine because I WASN'T worried about pleasing my CFI.

If you have a student who freezes in the face of danger, it may because he's more worried about pleasing YOU than the actual danger. Stupid, but real.
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I definitely relate to this sentiment. In my PPL training, nailing my landings were a huge hurdle to overcome and some got pretty hairy. I found that I tended to "take advantage of" having a skilled CFI in the right seat to keep us safe, but also being torn up by wanting to do everything absolutely correctly. I was also once of those students that CFIs love/hate simultaneously, in that I was a quick learner and generally flew pretty well, but I was also a chronic overthinker. This often lead me to push myself out of my comfort zone but not fully commit, and hesitate far too long waiting on SuperCFI to save the day.

Far before my first solo, there was one botched landing that was particularly ugly. I had been making progress; some great touchdowns and some ehhh ones. On this one, I rounded out and flared super early but still kept trying to "save" it to keep up the improvement trend, all but ignoring the airspeed tanking and stall horn screaming while still ~20ft off the runway. Of course I knew it was all wrong but still wanted to do a good job and was waiting for a nudge in the right direction, which eventually came as "GET THE ******N NOSE DOWN" as he shoved the yoke forward and throttled up for go-around.

Even now in instrument training, i find that once I have a CFI back in the right seat, I tend to second-guess myself a lot more than I ever would when flying solo. Especially in training vs real-world scenarios. I'm way more on my game when filing IFR and doing it for real, as opposed to overthinking what to simulate when "ATC" is sitting right next to me and watching every move. Everything just flows better for some reason. .
 
Shawn said:
There are also people that panic, hit the gas and drive themselves right into a brick wall. I call that natural selection.

Those people should not be pilots.

This is not a participation trophy industry.
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Re-read the OP's post. His students are not trying to become pilots.


I have never frozen up, but being in a fearful, but not fast paced situation before, I wanted someone else to take over. Except there wasn't anyone else to take over so I kept doing my thing... Maybe it's early onset resignation. I suppose resignation is the thing you have to teach your students out of.
 
A few suggestions - 1) introduce it as smaller incidences and build up to a bigger one. 2) pause the simulation and ask questions. Give them time to learn how to think through it quickly. 3) if they cannot, you are not doing them, the Navy, or their future shipmates a favor by passing them. As above, not all baby turtles reach the ocean. Perhaps LDO status is in their future.
 
drummer4468 said:
I definitely relate to this sentiment. In my PPL training, nailing my landings were a huge hurdle to overcome and some got pretty hairy. I found that I tended to "take advantage of" having a skilled CFI in the right seat to keep us safe, but also being torn up by wanting to do everything absolutely correctly. I was also once of those students that CFIs love/hate simultaneously, in that I was a quick learner and generally flew pretty well, but I was also a chronic overthinker. This often lead me to push myself out of my comfort zone but not fully commit, and hesitate far too long waiting on SuperCFI to save the day.

Far before my first solo, there was one botched landing that was particularly ugly. I had been making progress; some great touchdowns and some ehhh ones. On this one, I rounded out and flared super early but still kept trying to "save" it to keep up the improvement trend, all but ignoring the airspeed tanking and stall horn screaming while still ~20ft off the runway. Of course I knew it was all wrong but still wanted to do a good job and was waiting for a nudge in the right direction, which eventually came as "GET THE ******N NOSE DOWN" as he shoved the yoke forward and throttled up for go-around.

Even now in instrument training, i find that once I have a CFI back in the right seat, I tend to second-guess myself a lot more than I ever would when flying solo. Especially in training vs real-world scenarios. I'm way more on my game when filing IFR and doing it for real, as opposed to overthinking what to simulate when "ATC" is sitting right next to me and watching every move. Everything just flows better for some reason. .
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You and I must be related...and have the same CFI!
 
Sometimes it takes having a frank come to Jesus discussion with the student outside of the airplane/ship, etc. I had one student that honestly knew what they were doing, were a decent stick, but because of a former instructor had no confidence in their decision making. They wouldn't make a move without asking the instructor what to do, things like how to enter the pattern, when to make a radio call, when to turn base, etc. I finally sat them down and discussed it, and explained the "In Command" part of the Pilot-In-Command. Next flight was night and day different and they soloed.
 
Ahh psychology is an amazing subject. I ask questions, make them start thinking again. "What is your plan?" or "What comes next?" or "What are you thinking?"

1) What is your task?
2) Will your current approach work?
3) What do you need to change to make it work?
4) Is there any reason you cannot do that?

or

Sometimes I just say "What are you doing?"

High stress is called high stress for a reason. I tell my children, who I had late in life, that I used to talk to myself when flying (primarily if it was a confidence situation). In dangerous situations I would review accident reports in my mind knowing that this had happened before. It may not tell me what to do but will tell me what not to do. Most other situations are just "identify the problem and work the problem."


The key question in my mind though, the turtle to the sea question (this is a great analogy) is this: Do they recognize the danger or not. If not it might be time to cut them loose since presumably you went over this in the classroom.

Best of luck.
 
Fear of incorrect action, i.e., fear of doing something wrong, i.e., fear of making a mistake.
Luckily, I never suffered from this condition. If I had, I'd still be totally ignorant as the most important lessons in my life came from being wrong, inappropriate action, and mistakes.

Google fear of incorrect action. Then try to work through the pseudoscience.
 
Mostly it’s about training out the confusion / indecisiveness. We hit EPs in the sim over and over so it becomes instinctive. I imagine in the sim you all put them thru the paces as well. Even simulating war game scenarios that deal with life and death decisions should help desensitizing the decision making process.

Now, I’d say the while the vast majority rise the occasion and the slow learners eventually get it, there are some who just can’t react well under pressure. They need to realize that vocations that require rapid life or death decision making just isn’t for them.

I’d also say you never truly know how someone will react under extreme stress. Old Army friend of mine completely froze up in combat once. He witnessed a traumatic event and essentially shutdown mentally for several minutes. They sent him back to the states and he never flew in combat again. Fight or flight. Everyone reacts differently.
 
My LSRM is a CFI and had a student who froze during stall practice and put the plane into a spin. As my LSRM recanted, after multiple "My Plane!!" yells into the microphone, the student refused to release his death grip on the stick or make any movements, so my LSRM had to punch the student in the shoulder as hard as he could to get him to release the stick so the LSRM could recover the plane.

I'm not sure what causes this (I'm not a CFI), but in my training, I had a near miss with my CFI in the right seat when a 172 turned WAY early base let (and without authorization from the tower) while I was on final and crossed right into my path. This was in a Remos and the high wing obscured the 172 until the last moment when I caught sight of it and froze for a moment. (My CFI's view was even more obscured by the high wing in the right seat.) But that moment could have gotten me a few more feet below the 172 if I reacted that split second sooner. Obviously no contact mid-air, but it was extremely close and my CFI estimated that we were within 50 feet of each other. And one other reason I fly a low wing now. :p
 
It's not just students. I've flown shotgun with pilots that freeze up. One of those tried to kill us both on a completely botched landing at the end of a trip. I choose my shotgun rides more carefully now.
 
chemgeek said:
It's not just students. I've flown shotgun with pilots that freeze up. One of those tried to kill us both on a completely botched landing at the end of a trip. I choose my shotgun rides more carefully now.
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I was guessing that this is what happened to the pilot in a video I posted earlier: https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/pull-up-a-chair-watch.126644/

Some said the pilot was having a medical issue & others said the plane had a problem.

I posted earlier about "comeuppance" which is the deserved aftermath of a decision (or lack of) that results in reward or punishment. My instructor used to tell of his instructor in the rear of a J-3 Cub that would nearly rip his left ear off (before headsets were in vogue) when trying to get his attention and make him realize that if you don't do something NOW we might both get killed. My instructor wasn't that cruel to me but he did have a way to make you understand that you can't just sit there and watch a situation develop and not do something.

I learned that if a person has training they will usually resort to that training even though they may not, at the moment, fully understand how it will help them i.e. "muscle memory" if you will. But if they have no training and do not know what to do they will panic and either do what they think is right (like pulling back on the stick as the plane spins into the earth) or they will just freeze waiting for the problem to fix itself. Sometimes a little adjustment to the side of the head just might be what it takes to awaken someone to the fact that something is required to be done right now ... figure it out. If they can't or won't then perhaps a different and less attentive recreation should be considered.
 
Velocity173 said:
Mostly it’s about training out the confusion / indecisiveness. We hit EPs in the sim over and over so it becomes instinctive. I imagine in the sim you all put them thru the paces as well. Even simulating war game scenarios that deal with life and death decisions should help desensitizing the decision making process.
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My other question would be, are the scenarios used things that have been trained/discussed/have a checklist, or are they things that the trainee has to correlate with previous training on his own?

To use a direct aviation example, let’s look at the 737 Max accidents. With no MCAS training and no checklist for the malfunction, correlating other systems malfunction knowledge and skills has to happen. Obviously it can be done, since at least one crew survived the malfunction. On the other hand, two crews couldn’t make the correlation.

One of the decisions that has to be made in a training environment is whether it’s acceptable to let the trainee graduate (for lack of a better term) either knowing they’ll probably die if something happens with no checklist, or at least without a reasonable expectation that they could adapt to a new situation.
 
MuseChaser said:
As a person who has experienced that freeze... and it surprised even me... I can tell you what caused it for me...

I have a strange personality trait (or maybe not so strange.. I don't know) that really, TRULY hates to be viewed as anything other than a perfect, exemplary student. So far that makes no sense in this scenario, right? yeah..I know.. .but stay with me...

Years ago I was in the process of botching a landing... veering way, way left of the center line, yet still unsure of the relationship between correctively "steering" to the right with the rudder pedals versus correctively "drifting" to the right with the ailerons. Wanting SOOoo much to make the correct choice in my instructor's eyes rather than try one choice and see what happens, I froze up and did nothing. My CFI, a fabulous instructor, is a very able pilot and typically lets students veer a bit farther into mistake land than most others. I knew that no matter what he'd save our collective bacons and this security blanket allowed me the opportunity to do something that I would NEVER do if I had been alone... freeze. By myself or with a passenger (I already had my PPL.. this was during a biannual flight review, believe it or not.. yeah, I'm still embarassed by it), I never would have let things get that far gone, and would have just gone around or, even more likely, landed fine because I WASN'T worried about pleasing my CFI.

If you have a student who freezes in the face of danger, it may because he's more worried about pleasing YOU than the actual danger. Stupid, but real.
Click to expand...

I too suffer from paralysis by analysis. Not in this atmosphere where it can be life and death, but perhaps that's why it happens. Tend to overanalyze things to make sure it's the best possible way to do whatever. I'll eventually figure it out, just give me a few days.
 
I’ve seen this in my own training as a student pilot as well as with students I’ve taught how to ride motorcycles. Personal opinion is it’s a combination of wanting to perform well mixed with task saturation.

what has helped me as a student is to visualize prior to an action what the expected result is and to play a what if game mentally. I’ve shared this with motorcycle students and it seems to help but sometimes they need to be reminded to do something to reset. About a month ago I was practicing maneuvers while flying solo and on a steep turn I attempted to trim for the turn. Except I trimmed down instead of up my standard number of turns and immediately knew I screwed up. For a brief second I considered fixing the trim and salvaging the maneuver but I was flustered. I decided to bring wings back to level, trim for level and reset.

Let the students know when they think things are moving fast to mentally slow down, think of how to solve the problem or reset and execute.
 
Velocity173 said:
...I’d also say you never truly know how someone will react under extreme stress. Old Army friend of mine completely froze up in combat once. He witnessed a traumatic event and essentially shutdown mentally for several minutes. They sent him back to the states and he never flew in combat again. Fight or flight. Everyone reacts differently.
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Freezing up is NEITHER fight or flight. It's a denial of reality. That's why so many people say, "This is not happening."
 
Some people are cut out to be pilots (ship or air) and some people are cut out to be poets.
 
Interesting points. With students, whether flying or boating, or whatever I think experience helps and debriefing. Experienced pilots, anything, seems would have more ingrained optional “things to do” at their instant response.

I’ve experienced emergencies where one just had to react, such as driving (something I have more experience with and is easier than flying since wheels are on the ground) in Spain around a hairpin turn, where suddenly a bus appeared in the opposite lane but was way into my small lane as well.
I tend to overthinking, but there was no time to think at all. I made it with no damage.
Later on I realized I had parsed a lot of thoughts, mainly “****!” Followed by an instant assessment “can’t stop, hell hit us” then “THERE!” Where i immediately aimed at the center point of the bus, it’s “fulcrum” turning point. I managed to get the car just barely past the first half of the bus, slow slightly as the last half made the turn and missed its back by inches. No time for thought, or freezing up, it was all timing.

Have had other instances where somehow I took an action, and avoided a bad thing.
As a young man, on snow and ice, heading straight for a telephone pole at pretty high speed, I and committed to BRAKES and was able to understand that that was stopping me from steering, so against instinct, let up on the brakes, managed to swerve enough to sideswipe instead of head on the pole. Funny thing, when I hit all I heard was breaking glass. Came to a stop and looked around expecting all windows on that side to be broken, was my right hand little mirror I heard!

BUT...two things (that are unsettlingly like flying, in that there are no brakes, you can’t just stop) cross country skiing, and sailing. Amateur at both. Cross country skiing I “learned” at around 38 years old. In Norway it is a bit of a misleading term, as it isn’t usually just walk-skiing on flat ground. Get some speed up, turn a corner in the forest and you are on a long, steep, downhill run, in virtual train tracks. At my level, slowing down was chancy, stopping impossible. I became dangerous to myself not at the beginning, where I would do equivalent of a go around...lower myself on my haunches and set my butt down, but rather when I had basic techniques a little and had gained confidence. Put a turn at the bottom of a hill, it was quite a crash! Didn’t freeze exactly, but wasn’t thinking “ahead of the skis”.

Sailing too. No lessons. Read up on it. My son and I tried it out. Was real fun, and is. But (as most do) one day alone sailing the wind caught me and again, didn’t freeze, but took too long to react and when I did, made the wrong call and capsized. Should have moved my body, and let out the sail to dump some wind, OR moved and turned the other way. Felt like I froze a bit.

in the airplane, in lessons so far, I have come up against things I wasn’t taught in at that point, like a good cross wind on takeoff, still not sure I did all right, but CFI said “good!” And I adjusted to crab. Not sure I was doing right by rudder, suspect I may have cross controlled a little.

The sailing thing spooked me a little. It’s kind of closer to flying, what with the sail (wings) and wind, and reacting, and no brakes... Even though I “feel” like I too would fly and be active in a bad situation all the way, I don’t know for sure. Some times I have, other times less well.

I’d be interested to hear if any pilots here had no history of “freezing” but then one day did?

For students, again I think debriefing, letting them know what they should have done, and why. Go over the situation, let them think of options, talk about it and why not doing anything was not a good option.
 
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When I was a skydiving instructor, I had several students do that on early jumps. Looking straight at the altimeter, blowing past deployment altitude, ignoring signals to 'pull', ignoring slaps to the helmet, and finally getting pulled by one of the instructors. A thorough debrief on the ground followed by an immediate re-launch if possible, cured a bunch of them. Those that it didnt cure, got the bowling ball speech (as in 'the world needs bowlers too...')
 
On my first windshear go-around in a jet, I froze up. Or semi froze up. After the windshear warning went off, I pushed the throttles up, followed the command bars and that was about it. Didn't do one call out or clean up act - the captain did everything. I was so embarrassed. I think it was because I was in sensory overload while trying to retrieve old memorized procedures.

Years earlier, I took off in my 65hp L-3 with a retired C-5 pilot in the back on a hot day. Short grass strip with a cliff at the end. About 15' high, the engine lost power. I immediately without thinking pulled the throttle, put us in a full slip, kicked it out and landed. Got it stopped about 40' from the end of the cliff. My passenger raved at my response.

I compete in Advanced aerobatics so I'm not one to freeze up. I've also landed out in gliders in some pretty sketchy fields.

My point is that just because a pilot freezes once, doesn't mean he's a bad pilot and needs to take up bowling.

My second point: chair flying with my eyes closed and visualizing the situation in slow motion has helped.
 
Ace66 said:
My point is that just because a pilot freezes once, doesn't mean he's a bad pilot and needs to take up bowling.
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I got the impression from the OP that this wasn’t a one-off, but I could be wrong.
 
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