Flight Training - May 2014 - 59

INSTRUCTOR REPORT

Suburi training

Practicing the fundamentals to perfection
» By Rod Machado

THE 1984 MOVIE The Karate Kid
revealed a rare pedagogical truth of
immense value to flight instructors.
The movie centers around Daniel,
who volunteers to polish the car
and sand the deck of his neighbor,
Mr. Miyagi (a martial arts master).
Miyagi insists that Daniel use a
"wax on, wax off" hand motion to
do the job. Daniel eventually tires
of the mundane repetitive action
and prepares to show Miyagi his
"buzz off" technique. Miyagi feels
the time is right for a lesson and
throws a punch toward Daniel.
Daniel effortlessly blocks the punch
with an unconscious, reflexive
"wax on, wax off" hand movement.
It turns out that most repetitive
and mundane acts of training are
sometimes the most useful ones to
learn.
Martial arts training relies heavily on building habits and reflexes
through repetition. The Japanese
even have a word for these repetitive individual exercises: suburi.
The good news here is that you can
use suburi training to accelerate
your student's development of any
flight skill. Doing so requires that
you identify the fundamental building blocks on which those skills
are based, then guide your student
in practicing those fundamentals
repetitively to perfection. Given
the ubiquity and sophistication of
today's flight simulator (desktop
or full motion with rudder pedals),
these devices lend themselves
exceptionally well to these repetitive individual exercises.
Learning to land requires
mastery of several fundamental
skills, two of which are rudder and
aileron coordination and attitude
control. Without these skills, the
student can't keep the runway pic-

ture stabilized in the windscreen.
What all students need is the precision to hold that tiny black strip
of asphalt steady as it ominously
expands in the windscreen. Here is
where isolating the precise motor
behaviors required for coordination and attitude control leads to an
accelerated rate of learning.
Begin with the (simulated)
airplane on a one-mile final at an
altitude where a power-off descent
can be made to the runway at
approach speed. Set the program
for calm winds and mild turbulence. Save these settings.
The moment a wing rises
because of turbulence (and it will),
instruct your student to immediately apply aileron to lower the
wing and rudder pressure to cancel
the effects of adverse yaw. Don't
let that nose yaw even a tiny bit
from the direction it points! The
moment the nose pitches away
from the attitude necessary to
maintain approach speed, immediately apply elevator pressure to
return and maintain the desired
attitude. As the airplane crosses the
threshold, repeat the exercise from
the previous starting point. These
two fundamental behaviors are the
equivalent of Miyagi's fundamental
"wax on, wax off" defensive hand
movements.
The objective of this suburi exercise is not to land the airplane. It's
to become skilled enough to hold
the expanding runway steady in the
windscreen through precise heading, bank, and attitude control. If
your student can observe a steadily
(and steady) expanding runway
long enough during the approach,
he or she is better able to judge
where to begin the flare for landing. This is why it's easier to swat

a fly at Chuck's Chicken eBowla
restaurant after it lands instead of
while it's flying. Aside from killing
Chuck's customer of the month,
swatting a landed fly proves that
it's easier to hit something once it
stops moving. It's also easier to land
on a runway once it stops moving
all over your windscreen.
As our instructor friends from
south of the border might say,
"Let's take the training up a nacho"
by increasing the turbulence level,
followed by adding a crosswind to
the mix. Repeat this exercise from
the original starting point. How
many times? As many as it takes for
the student to master these fundamental behaviors.
By isolating the fundamental
behaviors of this (or any) skill and
practicing them repetitively, your
student will increase the speed
at which he or she learns to land.
The side benefit here is that this
training can be done at home-
inexpensively-on the student's
desktop flight simulator.
Suburi training is an effective
way to master any higher-order
skill. This includes slow flight,
steep turns, stall recoveries, chandelles, lazy eights, and so on. Your
job as an instructor is to isolate the
fundamental building blocks of that
skill, then have your student practice them repeatedly until they are
mastered. Your students are sure
to appreciate their accelerated rate
of learning and the reduced cost of
flight training. You might say they
will get a kick out of it, but not that
kind of kick. Heeyaw!
Rod Machado is a flight instructor, author,
educator, and speaker. He has been a pilot
since 1970 and a CFI since 1973.
Visit his blog (www.rodmachado.com).

MAY 2014 FLIGHT TRAINING

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http://www.rodmachado.com
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