Flight Training - February 2013 - 6

RIGHT SEAT

By Ian J. Twombly
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BREAK TRAINING INTO MANAGEABLE CHUNKS
earning to fly is—at least in one respect—the same as trying to lose a lot of weight. Losing 40 pounds seems downright impossible. But losing 10 pounds, and then 10 again, and so on to 40, can be done more easily. Likewise, getting a minimum of 40 hours of flight experience, completing a lot of required tasks, and taking three tests is daunting. Flying 10 or 20 hours to solo, and then taking a few trips and a checkride? Much easier.
Sporty’s Flight Academy in Batavia, Ohio, didn’t invent the idea of making the flight training course more manageable, but it has perfected it. For the past few decades, a student training at Sporty’s would most likely earn a recreational pilot certificate first, and then step up to the private pilot certificate only if and when he or she wanted to. Chief Instructor Eric Radtke says the technique has been effective. “We measure success in student retention,” which he says is well above the national average. There’s no point in pushing for a goal if you don’t then celebrate its achievement. Although Sporty’s has refined the practice of breaking flight training into digestible bites, it doesn’t take a structured flight training curriculum to put the methodology in place with your training. Have a conversation with your instructor and explain that solo is your immediate goal. Hopefully you’ll want to continue beyond that, but how and when will come later. What matters early in the training is maintaining motivation and setting an

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Publisher | Craig L. Fuller Senior VP, Media/Editor in Chief | Thomas B. Haines Editor | Ian J. Twombly Editor at Large | Thomas A. Horne Managing Editor | Julie Summers Walker Technical Editors | Mike Collins, Jill W. Tallman Senior Editors | Dave Hirschman, Alton K. Marsh Editorial and Production Assistant | Sylvia Horne Administrative Assistant | Miriam E. Stoner Contributors | Pete Bedell, Greg Brown, LeRoy Cook, Budd Davisson, Rod Machado, Walter Miller, Dan Namowitz, Wayne Phillips, Bob Schmelzer, Jack Williams, Kathy Yodice

Design Director | Michael E. Kline Art Directors | Elizabeth Z. Jones, Jill C. Benton Senior Photographer | Mike Fizer Photographer | Chris Rose

eMedia VP | Chris Ward eMedia Managing Editor | Alyssa J. Miller eMedia Editor | Sarah Brown Web Production Manager | Lezlie Ramsey

THE FIRST SOLO IS MEANT TO COME EARLY IN THE TRAINING AS A WAY TO BUILD CONFIDENCE AND PILOT-IN-COMMAND SKILLS.
Recently Radtke and his staff took the concept even further and now focus first on the solo. Whether the student is going for a sport, recreational, or private pilot certificate, he or she starts out on the same solo curriculum. The results speak for themselves. “In the past 18 months we haven’t lost a student postsolo,” he said. Why this focus on getting to solo as the first big achievement works is not a surprise. The fact that we don’t all do this in our flight training is. As Flight Training contributor Rod Machado often says, the first solo is meant to come early in the training as a way to build confidence and pilot-in-command skills. Sporty’s knows this. It’s why it celebrates when a student solos by taking photos and getting everyone at the school to personally congratulate the student. achievable goal. Then, do what you need to do to make that goal—without worrying about navigation, night flying, instrument skills, or even advanced airwork. Most pilots can speak of their first solo in great detail. They can tell you what it felt like taking off for the first time without the instructor, and how each landing went. And that’s because flying an airplane solo is a life-changing experience. One that is more than enough motivation to make it through the fairly small amount of studying required to do so. It’s also a glimpse into a future where you will fly an airplane where you want, when you want. Just ask the pilots doing that today in Batavia.
Email Editor Ian J. Twombly at ian.twombly@ aopa.org; Twitter: ijtwombly; and visit Flight Training on Facebook.

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Flight Training - February 2013

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