Head inside
the cockpit
All CFIs interviewed agreed
that having your head inside
the cockpit, spending too much
time on instruments instead of
monitoring attitude by looking
out the window, is commonplace.
At Bunbury Flying School in
Western Australia, Operations
Manager Dennis Coxall called a
meeting of the instructing team,
including CFI Adam Leavey
and Grade 1 Instructor Patrick
Meier, to brainstorm their most
commonly encountered student
errors. Their top two mistakes
related to students focusing on
things in the cockpit instead of
looking outside. “During critical
phases of f light, such as landing,
students often keep moving
their focus back to the
instruments and even the
controls, instead of managing
their approach by looking outside
the window”, the Bunbury
team notes. “The same thing is
common during manoeuvres,
when ab-initio students
sometimes seem to be f lying
on instruments!”
Chris Koort, CFI at
Sydney Flight College (SFC)
in Bankstown, NSW, agrees.
He emphasises the old
school “power plus attitude
equals performance” to try to
encourage students to embraceattitude f lying. “Both RPC
and RPL students seem to be
focussed inside, perhaps because
we’re living in the digital age”,
he suggests.
Schwertner has found that
this seems to be especially
prevalent in young people: “the
xbox Generation”. Koort agrees,
and puts it nicely: “Microsoft
Flight Simulator is great, but it
happens on a computer in your
lounge room.”Preparation?
Koort believes lack of preparation
is the top mistake. “Lots of
students haven’t read the lesson
plan before they arrive,” he says.
“Instead of being able to build onwhat they should have learned,
you end up trying to hammer
in that knowledge 15 minutes
before they go f lying.” He cites
the example of asking the power
settings for straight and level and
hearing a “dunno” in response.
“When a student is prepared
and they can give you the answer
straight away, you know the
student is receptive to what you’re
about to teach.”
The Bunbury team agree
on poor preparation being a
common mistake, and one that
is perhaps the easiest for the
student to correct. They point
out that preparation includes
pre-f light planning, maps, and
theory homework.australianflying.com.au 59
July – August 2018 AUSTRALIAN FLYING