Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight schools

Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

Do I need to break out my old title of "the closer" to end this thing?
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

Blackhawk said:
Yes I have. And having flown 135 single pilot (with no autopilot), I can attest to the importance of briefing approaches- even to yourself. It gets you into the flow of setting things up, then running through your checklist (not your "do" list), to make sure you covered everything. Kind of like in the movie the "Dirty Dozen" when they go through the mission until they can resite it from memory. Several times when I did not do this I found that I forgot something.
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I don't disagree with this one bit..and employ the method myself.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

first off, if someone said this I apologize, I didn't wanna read all 4 pages. However here is my input.

All my initial training (until CFI) was at Delta Connection, another pilot mill. I had the same issue (death grip) was never told I couldn't let go of the yoke though. The proble with these types of schools, and dont get me wrong I enjoyed DCA, is that SMALL issues normally go unnoticed due to multiple instructors, and lack of experience among instructors who where taught the exact same way. In my latter commercial multi and into my CFI my issue was finally discovered by two great instructors.

I did not know how to PROPERLY trim. I would trim as soon as I leveled out (power, pitch, trim RIGHT?) resulting in an aicraft trimmed for slower flight. As it accelerated I had to fight forces and so the death grip. Basically the emphasis was on the PTS, as I know WAS stated before, and so the insignaficant (although VERY significant) trim was left out.

My instructor resolved this by forcing me to fly first using only trim for about an hour. Then he slowly forced me back on the yoke (so i would learn how the trim was working). Beyond that, I had to mentally force myself not to death grip. Even now, 1000 hours later, i still sometimes (not alot) need to remind myself of this, you can and I guarantee WILL be able to teach it out, it just takes time, and lots of it. It may also take some basic flying, without maneuvers (basics are KEY)
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

you'd get tired... literally, of flying rather quick if you had to keep that much forward pressure on the yoke all the time.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

Another person who doesn't want to read all 4 pages and wishes to give some input, both as an instructor and a Riddle Grad.

These bad habits you're seeing aren't practiced by everyone at Riddle. I definitely haven't gripped the yoke like that since before receiving my Private and insure that my students don't either. Try asking your students who their previous instructors were, then call Riddle up and try reporting these noted bad habits.

Also, my own instructors used (and I now in turn use) this particular method to break The Death Grip habit: only allow your student to use two fingers from each hand. It also helps prevent overcontrolling and other tendencies that you see plenty of new students practicing. Easy and effective.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

saria19 said:
Try asking your students who their previous instructors were, then call Riddle up and try reporting these noted bad habits.
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Yeah...... no. Don't do that.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

z987k said:
Yeah...... no. Don't do that.
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Wouldn't make a difference either way. A student at the school could complain, and management would just brush it off and do nothing. They'd probably get a chuckle out of someone calling them though.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

add taxiing at 30-40 kts to the bad habit list.. and leaving the master on forever
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

statusseeker1 said:
add taxiing at 30-40 kts to the bad habit list.. and leaving the master on forever
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I thought their taxi speed was supposedly "no more than a brisk walk" ... which is dumb IMHO... that and the 15 minute run ups in their 172s... and at uncontrolled places, unless the next guy to land is turning downwind, or on a 10 mile final... they won't take off.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

Hey, not to start an argument but just to argue the side of a riddle flight program grad (or harvard of the sky as you call it) I was taught by all my instructors to relax, two finger fly and constantly reset cruise and trim in flight. Likewise now I have every one of my students prove to me they have the aircraft trimmed right after every cruise check on every flight because I like to emphasize the importance of of setting up the plane. I like to relate it to the domino effect of when one small thing goes wrong more will follow and become a bigger problem.
 
Re: Primacy and bad habits at the "Harvard" of flight school

ryan1234 said:
I thought their taxi speed was supposedly "no more than a brisk walk" ... which is dumb IMHO... that and the 15 minute run ups in their 172s... and at uncontrolled places, unless the next guy to land is turning downwind, or on a 10 mile final... they won't take off.
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The irony is if they taxied at a brisk walk they would actually have time to do everything but the run up during the taxi to the run up area. Result? Not a 15 minute run up. :)

It is like the guy that races to the next red light only to come to a screeching halt. :banghead:
 
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