Flight Training - August 2020 - 46

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ADVANCED PILOT INSTRUCTOR REPORT

Building time by teaching steep turns
or ground reference maneuvers day in
and day out can be monotonous-and
what CFI hasn't been frustrated by the
student who seemed not to respond to
his or her instruction? The thrill of being
paid for flying and the joy of being aloft in
a small Cessna or Piper becomes stale all
too soon. Giving 20 or so hours of flight
instruction each week, plus the necessary
ground instruction to make time in the
aircraft productive, is hard work even for
the most ambitious aviator. Pay is poor,
and burnout is a real possibility. What was
once a dream job can become a nightmare,
particularly when students fail to respond
to instruction. For the aspiring airline or
corporate pilot interested solely in building flight hours, the slide to instructor
frustration is understandable and inevitable. Furthermore, COVID-19 has greatly
impacted the demand for airline travel,
thereby diminishing the need for new first
officers. The likelihood that today's CFI
will be hired soon after filling a logbook
with 1,500 hours is low.
Salvation, at least from frustration,
comes from focusing on the primary reason the FAA issues aviators the privilege
of being a certificated flight instructor:
namely, being a professional teacher.
FIRST, BE A TEACHER
Being a teacher is a worthy profession that
belies staleness. No two students are identical. Each student has different abilities
and shortcomings. Each presents his or her
own challenges, and every flight encompasses the stimulating and often daunting
task of communicating effectively.
CFIs know that a lack of common
experience is the greatest barrier to understanding between teacher and student, and
lack of understanding leads to frustration.
For example, as aviators, we have experience flying airplanes. Prior to beginning
flight training, the average student has
experience driving cars. Understandably,
students often assume that what they
know about driving cars transfers directly
to flying airplanes, and they view the CFI's
instructions through the lens of a person
who has operated automobiles.
But flying is not driving. Consider turns:
Aside from the obvious difference between
maneuvering in three-dimensional space
in the air and negotiating turns in two
dimensions on the ground, the control that
turns an aircraft-its ailerons-affects rate
46 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2020

of roll while a car's steering wheel positions
the auto's front wheels to achieve a turn.
Initiating a heading change of an aircraft by
establishing a banking motion and holding
that motion (i.e., roll rate) only until the
desired bank angle is achieved is different
from positioning a car's steering wheel in a
fixed position and holding the wheel there
until the turn is completed.
Consider the vocabulary differences
between flying and driving. To a driver,
stalling refers to the engine stopping. To
a pilot, stalling means the wing no longer
produces sufficient lift to sustain controlled
flight, but the engine has not stopped.
Improper analogies and aeronautical
jargon easily distort communications
between CFI and student, thereby impeding the transfer of knowledge and adding
to CFI frustration.
As teachers, CFIs accept the challenge of communicating effectively. They
identify the barriers that interfere with
student understanding. They define all
aeronautical terms. They approach teaching obstacles as a maze to be traversed-a
puzzle to be solved.
Finding the way to have your student
succeed is your path to avoiding frustration. Furthermore, the teaching and
communication skills you develop as a CFI
translate to other aspects of your professional and personnel career, outside as
well as inside the cockpit.
BE A PROFESSIONAL.
Professionals are focused on serving their
clients and their community. Being a
professional educator, which is the responsibility of the CFI, is a noble endeavor.
Aviation provides vast opportunities to
visit interesting places and meet people
with varied backgrounds. Travel by air is
essential to economic development and
quality of life. Helping your students enter
the field of aviation introduces them to
those rewarding experiences. Focusing
on the value students receive from good
instruction is an effective means for avoiding frustration and CFI burnout.
The true rewards of being a certificated flight instructor-rewards that never
become old-are helping others become
safe, successful aviators. Logging flight
time is simply a side benefit. FT
JOHN W. OLCOTT is an airline transport pilot, CFII,

and remote pilot, as well as former president of
the National Business Aviation Association.

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Flight Training - August 2020

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