The most difficult thing I have to do when providing flight instruction....

My DPE told me on my PPL check ride. “ you are pilot in command, you could have just told me to shut up at any time”. “Just do what I ask and tell me to shut up if I’m distracting you ”. Lol. I used him again for my IFR check ride. I told him to shut up a couple times on that ride. And he did! Lol.
 
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PaulS said:
Don't be afraid to tell your instructor to be quiet if it's a critical phase or you are flustered, it's an important thing to be able to do and not feel bad about it.
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I'm a preschool teacher. Telling people to shut up is my specialty. ;) Just to be clear, she is quiet when I'm taking off and once we make it to short final, sometimes before if I'm having trouble getting lined up or whatever. I figure it's good practice for taking passengers who won't be quiet!
 
asicer said:
*sigh* Too bad trainers don't have them mounted on the yoke/stick...
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Reminds me.....

Need to see how my student reacts if I keep moving my mouth but slowly dial down how loud I am talking.
 
AggieMike88 said:
... Just STFU already and let the student who knows what to do and has already mastered the skill just do his thing and do it well....

I also teach GA's version of sterile cockpit. But boy am I one of the worst violators of this....

Maybe I need a placard on my side that says, "Overtalking and over teaching prohibited"

Learning to be a CFI, I had the problem of slowly going quiet as I did the maneuver. My instructor would friendly poke fun at me saying I was like the talking toys with the string you pulled, but I was out of string.

Who knew with students, I would develop the opposite habit.


Private pilot license might be "a license to learn". But with a CFI, it's a whole other universe. I feel like I'm learning what I already know all over again.

And enjoying every loving minute of it.
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When I became a motorcycle instructor we were taught ten words or less. Anytime you tell the student something, keep it to ten words or less as too much info will cause them to lose focus on what you are saying. On the motorcycle range it also prevents you from bottlenecking a student as you go into a long discussion on how to improve something when you could have just said something like- turn your head sooner next time, or look where you want to go in the curve.
 
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my primary 'beef' is kindof an overlap with instruction... I've flown with a fair number of different CFI's and CFII's getting checked out for rentals, but this also applies to progress checks, refresher training, flight reviews, etc...
It always drove me nuts when they feel compelled to teach me a "better way".
It's not that I'm not appreciative of that...and I'm certainly open to learning a better way....
BUT the way it's usually done is in a way to imply that what I'm doing is "wrong" even if that wasn't the intent....and it just sorta throws things off balance when they don't need to be.

As with most things there are many ways to accomplish the same thing....that are all correct, safe, etc... it's the "sometimes things work better for you but not better for me" things....

Sadly I can't think of a direct example at the moment but I know it's happened to me a lot when I'd prefer that the instructor just evaluate that what I'm doing is ok

Riding along with the shut up mantra...I'd often rather an instructor just let me sort things out in my own way to get the big picture, and "better ways" can be offered up later....
 
AggieMike88 said:
Reminds me.....

Need to see how my student reacts if I keep moving my mouth but slowly dial down how loud I am talking.
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Confused? Because if what you were saying wasn’t important enough to keep saying it, you shouldn’t have been talking anyway? LOL
 
denverpilot said:
Confused? Because if what you were saying wasn’t important enough to keep saying it, you shouldn’t have been talking anyway? LOL
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Was more shooting for the effect this Jeff Dunham clip talks about starting at 2:55

 
The most difficult thing I have to do when providing flight instruction is to recognize and identify when the learner understand intellectually and yet clings to a misunderstanding deep in their heart.

I feel that panic often brings the misunderstanding to the surface and may cause the learner to revert to inappropriate responses when I am not in the aircraft to correct them.

Some learners may not want to admit that they don’t understand something and I have to find ways to bring it to the surface without putting us at risk.

I may even have them teach me the maneuver and they may use the correct explanation and yet somewhere deep inside they harbor a misunderstanding.
 
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Saw a great story from an acquaintance who’s learning twins right now.

Names altered / removed to protect the innocent...

Even when you teach it and think they’ve truly internalized it... you sometimes get lucky that the world throws a wrench at the student’s head...

Identify, Verify, Feather...

———

So there I was in a left steep turn and everything seems pretty normal until we damned near rolled over [on our back] to the left.

Assumption: sim left engine failure via my instructor.

I applied opposite rudder while closing both throttles and righted the ship...still convinced that my left engine was “dead.”

Engine failure in flight checklist memory items: boom, boom, boom.

When I said, “...I’d then feather my left prop, left mixture idle cut off...”

Instructor: “Bob, hang on. What did you forget?”
Me: [completely confused ???]
Instructor: “Did you verify that the left engine was dead?”
Me: still completely confused over what had actually happened and what I had done wrong ????
Instructor: “your left engine isn’t dead .”
Me: “But during the steep turn it nearly rolled over on its back(!) You didn’t do anything?!”
Instructor: trying not to laugh “You uh...went through your starting heading by 90 degrees, flew through your own wake turbulence and that’s what rolled you over. I didn’t touch a thing.”
Me:
Also me: WOW
Also me: feeling ish
 
denverpilot said:
Smash means something different to the kiddies these days. LOL. Wouldn’t want you to be accused of sexually harassing the like button! :)
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Okay, I'll ask since nobody else has...what does it mean nowadays? I use the word 'Smash' regularly.
 
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