Flight Training - August 2020 - 8

UNUSUAL ATTITUDE BY DAVE HIRSCHMAN

Editor at Large DAVE HIRSCHMAN says lots of
cringeworthy things in person, on the intercom,
and over the aircraft radio. Zoom calls with
the mute button on have reduced-but not
eliminated-his regrettable statements.
dave.hirschman@aopa.org

DID I REALLY SAY THAT?
Tiny point-of-view video cameras have tremendous utility in flight
training-and they can benefit instructors as well as our students.

I've mostly placed them outside the airplane during takeoff and landing practice so students can see exactly how their airplane returns to Earth. Is the flare
at the right height? Does the airplane touch down at the proper attitude? On the
centerline? Does it track straight ahead on rollout? Students can know exactly what
happened, and they can slow things down and spot subtle trends that are easily
overlooked in the heat of battle. But videos-and particularly the audio recordings
that accompany them-have some valuable lessons for instructors, too.
I put together an AOPA video about tailwheel training and placed several Garmin
VIRB cameras on the Piper PA-18 Super Cub in which I was giving a trainee a "final
exam" flight. The video included cockpit audio, so I had the camera record all that
was said on both the radio and intercom during the 90-minute flight. In reviewing
the material later, I was mostly pleased with my performance as a flight instructor-
right up to the 72-minute mark.
Until then, my spoken words had been on point, succinct, calm, and supportive, and they contained a few timely and useful observations. This final
exam flight is purposely stressful, and it had included one bounced landing with
a go-around and a too-fast approach to a short runway. But the student had
responded quickly and correctly to each bit of adversity, and after one hour and
10 minutes, he was setting up for a full-stop landing at his home airport where a
light breeze was well aligned with the landing runway. We had flown together in
the Super Cub about a dozen hours during his training, and he had shown a strong
aptitude and interest in tailwheel flying.
8 FLIGHT TRAINING AUGUST 2020

So, when he rounded out too high, I
was a bit surprised and got ready to spring
into action. My feet were resting on the
rear rudder pedals, and my left hand was
on the throttle lever ready to advance it
if we got too slow. Then we got too slow.
The airplane was at idle power, the stick
was moving aft, and the bottom was about
to drop out from underneath us.
My customary reaction in this situation is to simply push the throttle lever
forward. That slows the rate of decent and
cushions the touchdown. There's no need
to even speak. But as hard as I pushed on
the throttle in the back seat, my student
pulled even harder on his throttle in the
front seat. It was a standoff. The airplane
plunked down firmly-and I completely
lost my temper.
The first thing out of my mouth was
an expletive, closely followed by a series
of rapid-fire non-question questions: Why
are you fighting me on the controls? Why
the King Kong grip on the throttle? Why
the high roundout? Haven't we seen this
movie too many times already?
Instead of a full-stop landing, I told
the student to power up and go around.
There was no way this flight was going
to end with such an atrocious landing. By
the time we made it to the downwind leg
of the traffic pattern, I'd recovered my
frayed composure.
The next landing was a thing of beauty,
and that helped banish the memory of the
crappy landing from my mind. I removed
my video cameras from the airframe and
took them home to download the data.
It wasn't until I started assembling
the video a few days later that I was confronted with my own bad behavior. My
harsh tone and unprofessional language
were far worse than I remembered, and
I was embarrassed and ashamed of the
way I had behaved.
First, I owed my student an apology.
Beyond that, however, hearing the
audio made me wonder how many times
I'd subjected others to similar outbursts.
After all, this one only stood out because
it had been recorded. If not for that, I
wouldn't have given my actions on that
flight any more thought.
I frankly don't know how many times
I've acted so thoughtlessly before. But if
not for the offensive audio recording, I
wouldn't have known at all. It's given me
the chance to correct a major flaw, and for
that, I'm grateful. FT

Flight Training - August 2020

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