A little anxiety

troopernflight

troopernflight

Well-Known Member
Hey Everyone,
I'll be starting with my first primary student on Friday and I'm experiencing some worry about teaching them to land. The main worry I'm having is whether I'll be able to recognize a hazardous condition and be able to intervene in time to avoid damage to the airplane, if needed. What do you guys look for with new students that are common situations where you need to add input to the controls to avoid nasty situations, and how do you do you correct for each of these common errors? I know I'm probably overthinking this, but I want to be sure I don't screw up as the instructor and let a student do something dangerous. How far do you let them go? It may just come natural to me, but I can't stop thinking about what I might run into. Also, do you keep your hands on the yoke while a student is landing so you can react in time? I know this probably depends on how much you know about the student's ability, or whether or not you have flown with them before. The main things I've been covering in my mind is making sure airspeed is good, timing of the landing flare, adding too much/or too little input in flare, porpoising/ballooning corrections....etc. I've been instructing a few commercial students to start out and they are all proficient with landing, so I've had to luxury of not needing to be as on edge as I will be with primary students. I'm sure I'll become comfortable as I gain experience, but I'd like to know a little of what to expect before I get started. Thanks everyone.
 
Probably the most nerve-wracking thing to do as a CFI.

You should have a good idea of their abilities and demeanor in the airplane before you start working on landings - are you filling in on Friday or starting your first lesson with the student? If it's the person's first lesson, you've got a ways to go before you start teaching landings.

Get through the first few lessons and you'll be amazed at how much of your anxiety has dissolved.

Specifically with teaching landings, start with demos, including a go-arounds. Have them try a go around or two and pre-brief and remind them that if they hear you call "go around" it's a no-questions-asked deal, same with "My controls".

Eliminate the possible ways you can get yourself into trouble and it becomes a much more comfortable environment. Having read your post, I can tell you'll start out overly cautious, which is exactly what you should be doing.

Regarding hands on the controls - I never physically touched the controls unless I was flying OR if the student was clear that we were "flying together" so they could see how the controls move during a maneuver. So, specifically for landings, I had me feet hovering over the rudder pedals and rested my right hand on my knee up behind the yoke, "covering" the controls. Don't flinch and twitch your hand, when you think they're going to screw up, it's distracting for the student. Just rest it there.

Make sure you see them demonstrate proper foot position during touchdown - in other words make sure they aren't standing on the brakes during touchdown.

Have fun and let us know how it goes. If you teach for a while, you'll develop a colossal appreciation for how tough the landing gear and tires are built on training aircraft.
 
Ok, thanks, very informative. This is actually a student that I'm filling in on, but was notified that their skills at not good, and that I would need to be on guard with the landings. So that is probably why I'm apprehensive about it to begin with. I'm sure it will be fine, but just wanted to be ready for anything...
 
You should be able to see some problems developing ahead of time. While you don't necessarily want to correct them, so the student can learn from their on mistakes, you should have an idea when to intervene. That intervention may be verbally prompting a few times to correct an action or trend. If that doesn't work, guided instruction, then of course, complete intervention. It's all scenario based, but you'll be fine. Dont worry too much
 
At our school, we don't teach landings until like 6 or 7 lessons in. By then the students have about 10 hours flying so they'll have an ability to fly the airplane..just not well.

During every landing, I'll have my feet just a hair off the rudder pedals and my hand near the wheel ready to grab instantly. The first half dozen or so I'll rest my hand on the wheel and intervene if necessary while I talk them through it and give pointers, good and bad. At some point they'll be able to do the while thing themselves, you'll congratulate them and it'll give them confidence.

That doesn't mean anything though. Always keep your hands and feet a hair from the control in case you need it FAST. It's amazing how quickly a student can manage to mess up a landing without even trying. Sometimes I wonder if I can even do what they do if I tried.

Anyways, hope that helps. Students are idiots, period. This that have been instructing long enough can say that without much thought. Always be able to take the airplane in control yourself. At the end of the day, if you did well, you'll be able to sit down and crack open a cold one at home and try and do the same next time. Good luck!
 
JFlighttt said:
At our school, we don't teach landings until like 6 or 7 lessons in. By then the students have about 10 hours flying so they'll have an ability to fly the airplane..just not well.
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This may be a bit extreme but the concept is sound.

Those first sets of practice area maneuvers especially slow flight, power off stall recognition and the simpler ground reference maneuvers, are all about learning to control the airplane in the landing. Isn't that, after all, what a landing is, slow flight descent keeping a specific ground track? Don't teach those lessons so you can check some boxes on a syllabus or progress form; use them for what they really are.
 
Thanks everyone for the advice. The lesson went fine this morning and had perfect conditions for a new student to practice pattern work. I deteremined that he had 8 hours total so far and I thought he did pretty well for this stage. His approaches were very good and stable once he had the power setting and airspeed nailed. He is still having difficulty with the flare. We were either staring at pavement or overflaring/ballooning. But I think with some more practice he will start to become more consistant on decent landings. I had to stay with him on the controls for every landing today and I don't believe I was being overly cautious by doing this. I'm sure in a few more hours of practice I'll be able to maintain "standby mode" and allow him to put it down by himself. Overall, it was a great experience and I look forward to getting up again with some more primary students!
 
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