How to Teach Multi-Tasking Skills; Multi-Engine Airplane

Flows will help him when the workload starts getting high enough that muscle memory needs to kick in. Mainly teach him how to prioritize tasks. You necessarily don't have to do A-B-C in that order. As an example:

When I'm working as the Pilot Not Flying, my workload is very high just after takeoff. I have to deal with ATC, callouts, after takeoff flow, and sometimes weather. I put ATC on the backburner if a callout or an aircraft config change is imminent. Once I contact ATC, they might give me an altitude and heading in quick order. I'll often spin the altitude selector enough to keep the climb going and spin the heading to the general direction. This is to give the Pilot Flying enough to go on while I get enough breathing room to finish any nav programming. Once that happens I'll set the altitude and heading to the actual values and get them confirmed set. Once all that is done I normally finish the after takeoff flow and checklist.

Realize everything above took place in a minute or so. I can't do two things at once or stuff starts going sideways very quick. It seems like I'm multitasking, but I'm only rapidly prioritizing tasks as the environment changes. He will need to learn what is important to do NOW vs. 30 seconds from now.
 
denverpilot said:
Kinda true, but there’s a visual pattern to most flows that makes it more kinetic than a list... here’s an example... but I don’t have a graphic editor handy to draw it as a picture...

And inverted L works for a bunch of things in a Cessna cockpit. From the fuel selector on the floor up through the cowl flaps and wing flaps, to the mixture knob, then turn and go left across the prop, throttle, carb heat, and keep going over to the mags, and primer.

Okay you “see” that upside down L shape now, right?

Engine failure...

Fuel on both (reach to the floor, start the L shape), mixture rich, prop full forwards throttle open, carb heat on, across and check mags and that the primer is locked.

Okay it’s not the “perfect” by the book engine failure checklist, but it hit all of the items in one physical easy to remember pattern. Just start on the floor and draw the upside down L. Everything you touch on the way up and across might or might not have an involvement with engine failure, but you’ll check each.

There’s other flows that work in other cockpits for other things. This is just one example.

In the twin, a go around started at the throttles, and then went left to the gear handle, then back to the flaps, and worked its way around in a circle to the cowl flaps, and then back to the throttle quadrant to set final power on the turbos... you could do it all faster than the checklist, but also without ever missing anything because the items went in a circle to the left.

Then, of course, you’d follow up with the checklist and confirm.

Sometimes there’s no good way to flow something and you’re just practicing doing “memory items” in a particular order, even if they’re shotgunned all over the cockpit physically.

But often you can find a way to move your hand(s) in a predictable pattern that will accomplish all of the immediate “must-do” items without flinging hands everywhere in a seemingly haphazard way. (Even if you know what you’re doing, it can look haphazard or unplanned.)

A flow, when one works well or well enough, can be enough to both get all the items done in a reasonable order, as well as be a visual checklist in and of itself. I can’t start the Cessna one on the floor without noticing that the fuel selector isn’t in the Both position, and I know that’s the usual position for engine troubleshooting... you see how it works as a memory jogger under stress, probably. Make sense?

Some flows I don’t like to call flows because they’re literally all over the place. Only the ones I can actually make “flow” around the cockpit do I call, flows. Others may disagree due to how they were trained.

It’s not a big deal how you define what’s a flow and not called a flow, other than it’s a memorized series or movements you can do in the cockpit without really needing too much thought about where your next step is.
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Thanks! That helped, and I sure didn't know what flows are. Very interesting information. I was checking out a book that was more geared to instrument, but which had several suggestions (though they didn't call it that I see now it was) for flows, that I thought a good while about.

I can definitely see how that can help. One thing, does that mean Cessna and other manufacturers think a good deal about "flow" in the cockpit design?

That was a lot of help. Going to start thinking about that in conjecture.
 
MauleSkinner said:
Why are pilots so fond of calling a 7 an inverted L? ;)
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We run out of fingers on one hand before we get to 7? :)

@denverpilot I think you'd make an excellent instructor at least for us engineer types. I've driven some of my instructors crazy with digging into why things are the way they are. I appreciate your explanations...
 
One technique you can do with foreign students that are having trouble with english is get THEM to teach YOU something in THEIR language. It shows you respect them and puts you in their shoes. They will really like you and get over their self consciousness about trying to speak english. Believe me, it works! Helps them with english.
 
tlglenn said:
Are these students going from private-single to commercial-multi? If so, was the single training in a complex or non-complex aircraft?
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Great question. But I think the OP has gone AWOL on the thread.
 
denverpilot said:
Great question. But I think the OP has gone AWOL on the thread.
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Sorry guys. Just been busy. Yea, private single to comm-multi. Quite the jump IMO. Single was in a non-complex AC.
 
LongRoadBob said:
From your post I realize I don't know what a flow is. I thought or assumed it was memorizing steps, and getting them in order, same order every time.

What is a flow?
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Looks like quite a few people have responded to your question so I won't reiterate what they said. IMO, if you can't safely fly the airplane using your "flow", then it's not a flow. I'm a big believer that you can fly just about any GA aircraft without a checklist safely as long as you have a solid flow(s). That's the litmus test for me.
 
rt4388 said:
Sorry guys. Just been busy. Yea, private single to comm-multi. Quite the jump IMO. Single was in a non-complex AC.
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Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. That’s a big jump for some, and not as bad for others. The language thing makes it harder.

tlglenn said:
I wonder if training in a complex single would help the transition.
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Beat me to it, but I suspect if he’s doing foreign students, the syllabus and aircraft are set in stone, from some stories from friends who did that gig. Makes tailoring anything very difficult. Students often paid up front, too, and the time is limited.

Honestly in this case I don’t know, but have heard some horror stories from instructors who needed time building in twins who took gigs teaching foreign, mostly Chinese, students in King Airs who supposedly already had their multi ratings and needed turbine time back home.

From his stories, Chinese standards are waaaaay different. Some of these kids did about ten or twenty hours in a King Air and go straight home to be sat in the right seat of an airliner, not just a jet, but a full blown, non-regional sized, airliner... if true, it’s completely insane, but they’ll pay the big bucks for 20 hours in a King Air, and instructors and companies here are more than willing to take the Chinese kid’s money and fly a King Air fleet around burning time.

I think I’d be thankful I was teaching them in piston twins and in one of the control seats, over the King Air thing. He said he had to do it from the BACK seat, two students up front. I don’t know what insurance carrier allowed THAT stupidity, but that’s what he was doing for hours a few years ago. He left as soon as he could.

Personally I’d never be so hard up for hours to EVER do that. But to each their own.
 
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